A survey made public at the Bookseller’s Reading the Future conference probably held few big surprises, noting that young adults age 18-24 don’t think books as we know them now have a big future. However, some liked the concept of e-readers. About half the young demographic believes bookstores will not exist as we know them now.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, those surveyed who were 65 or older prefer the “old” technology, with only 9 percent of them liking a downloadable books.
No doubt the industry is changing. Some elements will survive, others will not. Just as in nature, adapt or die.
At the conference The Book People CEO Seni Glaister was positive about the future of the book. “Content is king - always. As an industry I hope we don’t spend too much time worrying about technology and let’s protect our copyright, make sure downloads are available - but as content providers we shouldn’t worry too much about technology.”

To read more about the survey, CLICK HERE.

One of the most challenging aspects of being in a startup is finding money. Being in a startup doing something that hasn’t quite been done before makes it even tougher. “What exactly does your company do?” Um, well, uh, we generate content for Web sites. We run a Web site about books. We do RSS feeds on book news, blogs, etc. We’re kind of a newsroom for hire. Then you get that sideways look. Then we mention MSN and Random House as clients and they say, “Oh.” But landing that startup money, that’s not easy. You need to articulate your vision for the company, then find the right match for an investor. It’s like finding a kidney donor. Matching blood type alone won’t do it.

Wearing more than one hat in a small operation has its own challenges: balancing the sales end of things with making the widgets — in our case developing content for our site and for clients. And sales requires two oars in the water: One oar is prospecting, the other is servicing clients/building the widgets. If you don’t have both oars working, pretty soon you’re just spinning in place.

Diane Evans, “the boss,” was just in a meeting with a prospective angel investor. We should know by tomorrow when we can eat again (I exaggerate, but not much).

By the way, the rest of our mighty crew is Rick Rubright as the skipper and evil sales dude, yours Truly as Gilligan, Mike Needs as the Professor.