Something new

A while ago, the idea came up to do something a little different with the SF Signal podcast.  Lots of people were making favorable comparisons between our weekly panel discussions and the panels you might see at a World Con.  Flattering. 🙂

We talked about it and decided that it might be fin to expand on that a little bit, maybe invite people you’d see at one of those World Con Panels to come on the show and talk about bigger topics.

The first of those shows is now up over at sfsignal.com.

It took a bit more finagling than our weekly panels as I was trying to get famous people with busy schedules to come together online, but once we worked that out, everything else just fell into place.

The topic that I knew I wanted to tackle for this show was ebooks.  Some people believe they will save a sluggish publishing industry while others think they simply increase piracy and cause problems for authors who don’t understand how digital rights work.  I figured it would be a really good place to start.

…and I was right.

I knew I wanted a publisher’s point of view, so I contacted Lou Anders, editorial director of PYR.  After meeting Mike Resnick at World Fantasy, I was truly impressed with his grasp of ebooks and digital publishing from an author’s perspective, and I’ve been wanting to get him on the show for a while now, so that also felt like a natural fit.  Sue Lange was suggested by Vonda N. McIntyre as someone who would offer a unique perspective given her association with bookviewcafe.com.  Last, Lou had suggested artist John Picacio.  I’d talked with John before and knew that he was very passionate on the subject and concerned about how this new medium would affect the artists who create book covers illustrations and other artwork for the publishing industry, so that seemed a natural fit as well.

Rounding out the panel would be John DeNardo and myself acting as moderators.

We recorded last Thursday (the 27th of January) for a little over an hour.  I edited it sparingly as the conversation flowed so well.  The end result is a fascinating conversation where one panelist feeds off the others, bouncing ideas and thoughts back and forth and building on the foundation that I set forth with a simple question.

This was a fantastic experience for me, loads of fun and I highly recommend that you take a listen.  The post is over at SF Signal.com:

The SF Signal Podcast #26: Lou Anders, Sue Lange, Mike Resnick and John Picacio Talk About the Impact of eBook Publishing

In episode 26 of the SF Signal Podcast, we have something very special for you. We’ve given our regular panelists the night off so they can recharge and refresh and have asked some very special guests to convene and discuss the future and impact of eBook Publishing:

• Is the quickly rising eBook market going to save the publishing industry or further erode an already dwindling market?
• Is the printed book dead?
• Is eBook publishing good for authors in the long run?
• What about piracy?
• How will the (impending?) death of Borders affect publishing?

Our virtual convention panel includes:

• Mike Resnick
• Sue Lange
• Lou Anders
• John Picacio
• John DeNardo (Moderator)
• Patrick Hester (Moderator)

~P