How Can I Innovate, How Can you?

Friday posts are generally supposed to discuss concepts and theories behind whatever effort I’m working on.   It’s sort of an inside baseball, or behind the book type of post.  I’m doing it to both chronicle exactly what i’m trying to do, or thinking about and i’m also doing it to share my experiences for anyone who comes behind me to do similar things.

what can I do to innovate?

I came across this article about the lack of ‘innovation in publishing’.  I would think the biggest innovation is happening all around us.  Audio books with sound effects.  The growth of Audible. The fact that every single website on the face of the earth seems to have an eBook for free if they are trying to sell you something, or an ebook for sale. Social media for promoting your book, Ted Talks.

Innovation isn’t necessarily a new wiz bang product like the web browser, the iPhone or the Kindle.  It’s true that new technologies tend to be the enabler to innovation, but it’s a solid foundation  combined with the right tech and the right time plus an old concept that can be improved that equals innovation.   Some examples: There were eReaders well before there were Kindles.  It was the idea of a big publisher (foundation) + eInk technology (new tech) + eReader (old concept that could be improved) = mass adoption and perception of innovation.   In the same way Microsoft had smart phones and tablets a decade before the iPhone and iPad, but apple was innovate because they brought together consumer expertise and solid operations in IT (foundation) + RISC low power CPU’s for fanless products (new tech) + user friendly touch based interface (old concept that could be improved) +  turned the iPad into an ‘innovative product’.

So the next question is what can I do to innovate?  I have ideas, but here is the crux of the situation.. I’m not ready.  I’m struggling to keep the blog going with quality content and continue to work on the long form writing project.  I haven’t had time to really research publishers, or new formats for the blog, or mixing up my resources in such a way that they combine to offer something compelling.  As the old saying goes I don’t even known what I don’t know.

So to me, the best effort I can make to innovate with my aspirations of being a published writer, is to simply not innovate.

For a guy like me, that concept alone is rather innovative.

via Whatever happened to innovation in the publishing industry? – Joe Wikert’s Digital Content Strategies.