Author To Audience: Disintermediation in the Publishing industry

In 2001, Apple disrupted the power balance in the music industry and empowered the musician with the release of its ubiquitous iPod. Nearly a decade later, the same is about to happen in book publishing, as electronic books and portable reading explodes. The Kindle has become Amazon's #1 selling product and very recently for the first time Amazon is now claiming that their sales of Kindle titles exceeded sales of hardback books.

In this August 25th Bunker Session, we assemble key thinkers from various parts of the ecosystem to discuss whether or not the changes spell trouble for publishers, and going forward, what business models will support this ecosystem.

Questions we will ask include:

• How have the barriers to entry changed in book publishing with the arrival of the digital book?
• Can existing publishers adapt their legacy cost structures to survive in a digital publishing world?
• Are platform owners the new kingmakers for authors?
• How will the experience of reading change in coming years as books go from text to multimedia experience?

While a few speakers will lead the debate, the discussion is meant to include participation by all those invited. 

The panels our conversation leaders will participate in include:

Book as a Platform - As books become apps and rely on platforms, how will this impact the book market, publishing, the end user?

• Bradley Inman - CEO, Vook
• Rob Macdonald, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Scribd
• Zeke Koch - Director of Product Management, Digital Publishing, Adobe

The New Publishers - Who will win in the end in the age of eBooks? Is there a race?

• Mark Coker - CEO, Smashwords
• Nathan Bransford - Agent, Curtis Brown
• Simon Wood - Anthony Award winning mystery author
• John Warren - Member of Board of Directors, Media & Policy Center Foundation, Marketing Director, Publications at RAND Corporation
  
  

The sessions will be moderated by Michael Wolf, VP of Research at GigaOM Pro. The event will also be live-streamed at GigaOM Pro and blogged about on www.gigaom.com. 

Doors open at 9:00 a.m. The program will start at 9:30 a.m. and conclude at noon. Breakfast will be provided, and time will be set aside for networking among the attendees.

Thanks to Orange and Accenture for their generosity in sponsoring the event and making it possible.