Martin Taylor

You have to get technical, but you can do it, says Martin Taylor.

New Zealand’s go-to man for all things digital to do with books is Addenda’s Martin Taylor who is responsible for much of our awareness about digital developments.

Our Australian counterparts noted his achievements, and he was invited to do a major presentation at their ABA Annual Conference in Brisbane recently. This translated into a double page feature in their News on Bookselling publication, which is a ‘how-to-do’ primer in building an e-book store.

Couldn’t get to conference? Here's a quick and easy summary.

Booksellers are suffering in the current recovery-from-recession phase, but speakers at Booksellers Conference last weekend projected a confident future. Yes, e-books will impact on trade – but ABA’s Len Vlahos showed how they can work for independent booksellers.

The Read will cover the key speakers in detail over following issues, but right now here’s the conference in a capsule:

Martin Taylor's video review of the new Kobo ereader for bookTV.nz:

For those who want to see the new Kobo eReader in action, take a look at the video review I’ve just done for bookTV.nz. Kobo eReader is the ebook reader that Whitcoulls is now selling through its stores and website to accompany the opening of its ebook store.

With Whitcoulls launching an e-reader and online bookstore this week, publishers, writers, librarians and booksellers are preparing for a digital future. But when will it come and what will it look like? PHILIP MATTHEWS of The Press in Christchurch reports.

There must be a word for it - feeling nostalgic for things that have not even gone yet. Newspapers, CDs, movies that aren't in 3D. They're all still here but are talked about as though they have already disappeared or are close to extinction. Books are just the latest cultural artefact to go on the endangered species list.

From his blog, Martin Taylor tells us about BookTV.nz

I’ve been working on a project called BookTV.nz, a book video channel on YouTube with reviews and author interviews done in a web-friendly style, easy to share to spread the word about good books. It’s ready to go live and we’re starting with some great video clips of New Zealand and international authors from last week’s Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.

The first one, Australian Thomas Keneally, is online now. I’ve embeded it [below].

eReport is written by publisher and Digital Publishing Forum director Martin Taylor (pictured) who has been involved in the publishing, technology and internet fields for more than 20 years. He is director of the New Zealand Digital Publishing Forum and publisher and managing director of Addenda Publishing.

eReport: Posted: 12 Apr 2010 03:30 PM PDT

Technology writer and retail analyst, Ross Middleton (pictured below), takes a look at the current state of the digital debate and connects us to some of the online discussion swirling around the biggest development in books since the Gutenberg Press.

An e-warehouse of hundreds of New Zealand books as a single point of purchase by Booksellers may be only months away.

Martin Taylor of the Digital Forum told The Read last night that: “while this work in progress, we are tantalising close to pulling off a common e-book distribution/ aggregation warehouse that would allow publishers to combine their e-resources.

from Martin Taylor; February 11, 2010

End the speculation – Apple has finally whipped the covers off its newest development: a tablet PC that looks like a giant iPhone and is called an iPad.

Announcing the device, Steve Jobs said the iPad will be ideal for watching video, reading newspapers and browsing photos. “It is so much more intimate than a laptop.” The large screen is used as an input device with Jobs describing it as "a dream to type on".