Who but a Luddite would create a board game in the “digital” age?

Didn’t you hear? Everything is digital these days. If it’s not on a smart phone, it’s just not … not …. It’s just not! It’s wrong. It’s “old thinking.”

At least that’s what some would say.

While it’s true that video games have eclipsed board and paper games, sales of tabletop games “rose 15 to 20 percent in each of the last three years.” See High-Tech Push Has Board Games Rolling Again.

Those same kids who walk into telephone poles while texting their up-to-the-minute (empty) thoughts still play “Cards Against Humanity,” beer pong, poker, and maybe even Dungeons and Dragons.

“Digital only” and “digital first” is the stuff of keynote speeches, not business reality.

“Print under glass” is a good thing!

In his What to Expect in 2015 (and Beyond) article, Joe Wikerts seems to sniff at the idea of “print under glass” — that is, simply duplicating a print book in a digital format.

… the Kindle is now more than 7 years old and the majority of digital content revenue still comes from “print under glass” format. We’re still basically consuming dumb content on smart devices, regardless of whether it’s a book, a newspaper or a magazine.

Yes, I know, the Kindle was supposed to change everything. Or was that the iPad? Or the Segway? I can never remember.

Tuesday night I came in from the snow and sat down with a warm drink and Conan Doyle’s The Valley of Fear. I have The Complete Sherlock Holmes, so I hefted the large volume and dug right in. The cat appreciates when I read a hardback because he likes to rub his face on the sharp corner of the book.

I also read books on the Kindle app on my iPad, and if I didn’t have the story in print I would’ve gladly purchased the ebook. If I had done that, I would have expected and wanted “print under glass.” I didn’t want games, or trivia questions about Sherlock Holmes, or anything else that “takes advantage of the device.” I simply wanted to read the text.

There are situations where it makes sense to change format, but sometimes it seems that people believe we should change format just because.

‘BYOD’ in education needs a new device

The second prediction on Digital Publishing predictions for 2015 is that education publishers will need to format content for any device — including smart phones — because it’s not reasonable to expect budget-strapped schools to buy iPads for every kid.

I agree that the country is probably not going to spring for an iPad for every kid, but I don’t think the solution is to get kids to work on their smart phones. As I understand it, smart phones are the enemy at schools.

Rather, there might be a market for a new “in school” tablet — with limited functionality and some very strict controls.

When everybody wants to be a rock star, sell guitars

You can either kid yourself and think that you’ll break through the pack and become the hot new rock star, or you can note that everybody in town is a wannabe rock star and provide them with the equipment and services that they need. Guitars. Guitar lessons. Silly outfits. Etc.

Nowadays everybody wants to be an author. You can be silly, like me, and give it a try yourself, or you can provide services to wannabe authors.

A whole lot of new services have taken the smart route and are helping the millions of wannabes. There’s editing services, cover design, help with formatting, help with marketing, etc. It’s probably a good business to be in right now.