Internet publishing requires more than a strategy, Cader says

The Internet changes so rapidly, publishers can't stick with a single strategy, but must experiment constantly, says digital publishing guru Michael Cader.

Cader recently urged all publishers to participate in Internet marketing programs such as Google Book Search and Microsoft Live Book Search. The comments came during a conference call hosted by the Copyright Clearance Center, archived as a recording and a transcript.

An excerpt:

[T]here’s a notion, whether it’s with the Internet or e-books or any other digital element, that you [must] have a strategy. That you do some research, you come up with an idea, and you stick with it. That’s not the way the electronic Internet culture works now.

The only operating rule of doing something electronically is that you change all the time. You can't come up with one strategy and stay fixed, because the nature of the medium and the nature of those using the medium changes all the time. The technologies change all the time. It’s designed for experimentation.

And the other good thing it’s designed for is tracking. You get more statistics, and more measurable, observable real-time information than you can get anywhere else. So I also feel strongly that to take most advantage of a proper digital/Web strategy is to be open to experimentation and to watch carefully, to use it as a way of trying different things, and understanding that you need to be flexible and you need to keep changing.