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Google is working on a range of projects seeking to extend the role of its search engine beyond PCs and mobile phones, in an indication as to how digital media use may evolve. This will probably have implications for book publishers, as well.

Google is currently assessing the possibility of creating screens that could be built into kitchen walls, dining tables, and equivalent surfaces, offering features like voice- or touch-activated interaction.

Google Glass, the eyewear frames hosting a small screen, have been displayed in prototype form and mark another step in this direction. The firm is considering similar ideas for items such as watches.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogsposts,

·         “Behind the Google Goggles, Virtual Reality”

·         “A Day Made of Glass”

·         “The Future of Screen Technology”

·         “The Internet of Things”

·         “NY Times Builds Interactive Wall Mirror”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial, our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

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trendwatching.com (@trendwatching) is predicting 10 consumer trends for the coming year. How will the following affect your publishing agenda?

1. PRESUMERS & CUSTOWNERS: As consumers will embrace even more ways to participate in the funding, launch, and growth of (new) products and brands they love, expect pre-ordering, crowdfunding, and consumer equity to compete with traditional consumption in 2013...

2. EMERGING²: While the last two decades were about developed markets catering to emerging ones, and emerging markets increasingly catering to developed ones, it's now time to get ready for an explosion in products and services from emerging markets for emerging markets...

3. MOBILE MOMENTS: For those wondering where ‘mobile’ will head next, one behavioral insight should give you plenty to run with: in 2013, consumers will look to their mobile devices to maximize absolutely every moment, multi-if-not-hypertasking their experiences, purchases, and communications...

4. NEW LIFE INSIDE: One sign-of-the-times eco-trend for 2013: the phenomenon of products and services that quite literally contain new life inside. Rather than being discarded or even recycled (by someone else), these products can be given back to nature to grow something new, with all the eco-status and eco-stories that come with that...

5. APPSCRIPTIONS: Digital technologies are the new medicines. In 2013, expect consumers to turn to the medical profession and medical institutions to certify and curate health apps and technologies, or to “prescribe” them, much as they prescribe medicines as part of a course of treatment...

6. CELEBRATION NATION: Emerging markets will proudly export and even flaunt their national and cultural heritage in the next 12 months. Symbols, lifestyles, and traditions that were previously downplayed, if not denied, will be a source of pride for domestic consumers, and objects of interest to global consumers...

7. DATA MYNING: To date, the ‘big data’ discussion has focused on the value of customer data to businesses. In 2013 expect savvy shoppers to start reversing the flow, as consumers seek to own and make the most of their lifestyle data, and turn to brands that use this data to proactively offer customers help and advice on how to improve their behavior and/ or save money...

8. AGAIN MADE HERE: The perfect storm of consumers’ ever-greater lust for NEWISM and niches, the expectation of (instantly!) getting just the right product, ongoing eco-concerns, and the desire for more interesting stories will all combine with the spread of new local manufacturing technologies such as 3D-printing and make-on-demand, to trigger a resurgence in domestic manufacturing in established markets in 2013...

9. FULL FRONTAL: So what’s next for the mega-trend of transparency in 2013? Brands must move from ‘having nothing to hide’, to pro-actively showing and proving they have nothing to hide...

10. DEMANDING BRANDS: 2013 will see switched-on brands (i.e., brands that are embarking on the much-needed journey toward a more sustainable and socially-responsible future) demanding that their customers also contribute...

Read these in full.

See Infographic.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your ebooks and pbooks.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Legal and media reporter for paidContent (@paidContent), Jeff John Roberts (@jeffjohnroberts), writes, “The book publishing industry, already facing disruption from Amazon and ebooks, will confront a new form of turbulence in 2013. Starting in January, publishers face the loss of their backlists as authors begin using the Copyright Act to reclaim works they assigned years ago.”

These so-called “termination rights”...let authors break contracts after 35 years....

The law in question is Section 203 of the 1978 Copyright Act which allows authors to cut away any contract after 35 years. Congress put it in place to protect young artists who signed away future best sellers for a pittance.

...[W]hat has been a drip-drip of old copyright cases could turn into a flood as nearly every book published after 1978 becomes eligible for termination.

The 1978 law also means a threat to the backlist of titles that are a cash cow for many publishers. The threat is amplified as a result of new digital distribution options for authors that were never conceived when the law was passed — these new options mean authors have more leverage to walk away from their publishers altogether.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Business Insider (@businessinsider) and Business Insider SAI’s (@SAI) Henry Blodget (@hblodget) and Alex Cocotas (@acocotas) assembled the above presentation on the State Of The Internet: 2012. Notice the predicted continued rise in mobile content consumption, such as ebooks on smartphones and tablets. How should this affect your publishing strategy?

Also see our previous blogposts, “Study: Evangelicals Use Technology in Their Faith Practice,” “The Social Habit 2012 Study,” and “2012 American Media Mom.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you think through your mobile content effectiveness.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

We held an open house this week and invited friends to come see our office in downtown Grand Rapids (@ExperienceGR), MI (@PureMichigan). Also going on downtown (until Oct. 7) is Art Prize (@ArtPrize) (#ArtPrize), where 1,517 pieces of art are scattered throughout the city for people to vote on; the top award is $200,000.

We were thrilled so many came to help us celebrate the beginning of fall in the Midwest. Our general manager, John Topliff, and his wife Debby even joined us via Skype from St. Andrews, Scotland, our international office. (Thanks to Bill Oechsler (@billoechsler) for his photos!)

We asked some of our guests if they’d like to answer the question, “What are major challenges facing Christian publishing today?”. Here are their answers:

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you navigate the turbulent waters of today’s publishing world.

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Recently Somersault (@smrsault) had the privilege of helping sponsor the American Christian Fiction Writers (@ACFWTweets) (#ACFW) annual conference (@ACFWConference) held this year in Dallas (see our previous blogpost).

Michael Hyatt (@MichaelHyatt), former CEO and Chairman of Thomas Nelson (@ThomasNelson) and author of Platform (#PlatformBook), spoke in two plenary sessions about the necessity for authors to learn social media marketing and build a targeted fan base (see our previous blogpost, "The Importance of Building Your Platform"). His message exactly supports our new SomersaultSocial program.

During the conference, we asked authors, agents, and publishers to give us their opinions in response to one question: “What major challenges are facing Christian publishing today?”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you embrace and surmount publishing and marketing challenges in this new digital age.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

For Creativity (@creativitymag), Rupal Parekh (@rupalparekh) compares the 1962 television cartoon show The Jetsons with today’s technological reality.

In honor of The Jetsons' 50th anniversary, we decided to take a look to see how far we've come. And based on where we are so far, by 2062, the year the show is set in, we may just achieve all that the show's writers envisioned and then some. One thing that's massively important to us today and wasn't reflected that way on the show is our powerful mobile phone technology and the importance to us of how small those devices have become, as well as what they permit – constant access to the Internet (not conceived back then) and a variety of useful apps.

The article highlights the following elements from the show: robots, short workdays, trips to the moon, flying cars, video chat, pop stars, floating cities, Jane’s electric dress, human cloning, and vacuum tube transport.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you take advantage of 21st century digital publishing and marketing strategies for your brand.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Here’s a new page in the print-on-demand saga and its growing impact on book publishing (see our previous blogpost, “Mardel Acquires Espresso Book Machine"): 3D printing. There may be innovative applications for publishers to consider for print books, especially in light of the current capability to 3D print a functional human jaw and a working gun made out of resin.

Jonathan Zittrain (@zittrain), author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (book) (blog), professor of law at Harvard Law School (@Harvard_Law), and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (@berkmancenter), says

Resin is the toner of the modern 3D printer. No doubt 3D printers will come to be able to commonly use other raw ingredients. There's no reason they couldn't be someday in the mainstream metals and all sorts of forms of porcelain, but in this case we're talking plastic.

Read this in full at Marketplace Tech (@MarketplaceAPM).

Another foray into the future is the possibility that smartphones will be fashioned into glasses, and the opportunities this may bring to publishers.

"This idea of wearing glasses and being able to see data as we walk around is where I think things are heading," says Brian Chen (@bxchen), columnist for The New York Times Bits blog (@nytimesbits) and author of Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future—and Locked Us In. And once the interface for glasses is less intrusive, he noted, the potential use cases are wide open. “Say you were giving a speech," he said. "Glasses could serve as a teleprompter."

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you sort out the fast-changing world of publishing.

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Futurist news tab.

Image: Book Genome Project

On Mashable (@mashable), technology journalist Peter Pachal (@petepachal) writes, “In a scientific first, Harvard University researches successfully transformed a 53,426-word book into DNA, the same substance that provides the genetic template for all living things. The achievement could eventually lead to the mass adoption of DNA as a long-term storage medium.”

Published Thursday in the journal Science, the experiment aimed to demonstrate the viability of storing large amounts of data on DNA molecules. Since the data is recorded on individual nucleobase pairs in the DNA strand (those adenine-guanine/cytosine-thymine pairs you may be straining to remember from high school biology), DNA can actually store more information per cubic millimeter than flash memory or even some experimental storage techs, IEEE Spectrum reports.

Read this in full.

Also see TechNewsWorld's (@technewsworld) "DNA Could Become the Next Big Data Warehouse."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you take advantage of right-now technology in the communication of your brand message and content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

This article by USA TODAY (@USATODAYtech)  tech reporter Jon Swartz (@jswartz) has implications for the future of bookstore retailers. Swartz writes, “The convergence of smartphone technology, social-media data, and futuristic technology such as 3-D printers is changing the face of retail in a way that experts across the industry say will upend the bricks-and-mortar model in a matter of a few years.”

"The next five years will bring more change to retail than the last 100 years," says Cyriac Roeding, CEO of Shopkick, a location-based shopping app available at Macy's, Target, and other top retailers.

Within 10 years, retail as we know it will be unrecognizable, says Kevin Sterneckert, a Gartner analyst who follows retail technology. Big-box stores such as Office Depot, Old Navy, and Best Buy will shrink to become test centers for online purchases. Retail stores will be there for a "touch and feel" experience only, with no actual sales. Stores won't stock any merchandise; it'll be shipped to you. This will help them stay competitive with online-only retailers, Sterneckert says.

Read this in full.

Below is a slide deck summary of psfk’s (@PSFK) report, The Future of Retail.

Also read about the possibility of Google providing same-day delivery and what IKEA is doing with Augmented Reality.

See our other blogposts tagged “Retail.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you navigate the revolutionary changes occurring in the world of books.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.