What do publishers think of blogs?

Librarians should give a lot of thought to publishers so we can understand what makes them produce the books they do, rather than the books we would like them to publish. One good insight into how publishers think comes from this interview with a John Wiley rep at the recent BlogWorld conference. Although she is focusing on aspiring writers rather than on librarians, she gives good advice about what publishers are thinking about. Publishing a printed book is only one of many outlets for producing information these days, so writers, publishers, and purchasers of materials have to think about which platforms are going to be of interest to their potential readers. Although this interview focuses on publishing for adults, children's publishers are also following this trail, especially for nonfiction material. They ask questions like--Will children want to read this in a picture book, would it work better in a graphic format? Should be plan to release a version for the iPad or other ebook format? Those decisions are going to affect the way the writers and illustrators design the information and present it to children. Some librarians may want to cling to the old idea that all good information comes in print, but that's just not true any more. We have to listen to voices from the tech field and the publishing industry to find out where the best information for the future will be found. It's a challenging task, but let's admit it's also fun to be cool and tech savvy.