At O'Reilly, the way we think about our business is that we're not a publisher; we're not a conference producer; we're a company that helps change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
One of O'Reilly's advantages is that we have a network of thousands of user groups to whom we give free books, to whom we advertise our products, and they spread the word. If you don't have that database, it's hard to get the attention of the market.
No agent/publisher is in a position to create across a spectrum of media and distribution what major publishers can accomplish for authors.
There's been a growing dissatisfaction and distrust with the conventional publishing industry, in that you tend to have a lot of formerly reputable imprints now owned by big conglomerates.
At times, some journalists see nothing in the people apart from an opportunity to make material gain. They see them as consumers to whom we sell commodities at huge profits that keep our bank accounts growing.
As communicators and marketers, people are so accustomed to thinking from the 'top down.' Finding the great analyst or the famous journalist who will endorse what you do and tell the rest of the world to go and buy your product.
Our business is all about helping someone - a founder, a CEO - building a great business. It's not about seeing our names in the press.
No, my publisher has always done the marketing.
Authors can get an attitude of us-against-them when it comes to publishers, but learning how authors and editors can work together taught me to look at my work in a different way and to make that work as solid as possible before it ever goes to the publisher.
A company like DreamWorks, all we do is make product. That's all we do. We don't own distribution. We are purely in the creation of content.
The professionals are going to be joined by the average Joe. Everybody's a publisher.