Microblogging, Microfinancing – does everything have to be small and does it have to move fast? Because there is no time anymore for “real” business?
Micropublishing is sometimes used as a synonym for microblogging. I look at it differently. Blogging is Blogging – that’s a way to quickly sketch some thought, spread information, start a discussion.
Publishing is on the one hand more onedirectional (to me), on the other hand, I think of it as a more structured and targeted process: Publishing is not dealing with ideas and sketches, it’s not using media as tools, publishing to me means to create products that cover a full process, an idea and it’s conclusions from beginning to end.

That’s why I think of books, when I think of publishing.

When I think of micropublishing, I think of books from the fringes (and for the fringes).
I don’t think that everything get’s better when it is commercialised and turned capable of winning a majority.
Some contents don’t need to be made to fit a broader public, they don’t improve if they are forced to be generally understandable and easier to sell – sometimes that just makes them loose meaning.
Producing meaningful contents anyway (and ignoring the rules of pr and marketing) is a tightrope walk between stupid hubris, anchorless blather and hard work.
There are established media types, rules of the business, and tons of successstories.
Being so versatile that you can’t be grasped, and more present and talkative than be hardly listening audience can take – the idea of micropublishing is full of contradictions.
Why, after all, would you publish if you don’t want to adress or fit to a public?

Micropublishing, in another perspective, is also looked at as a highly commercial, marketing-optimised feature. Wikipedia describes it as: “a microtrend that would not play much of a role in the publishing world. The internet has changed this by providing authors and micropublishers with an affordable medium through which to publish and distribute their works” and refers to Chris Andersons Long Tail.

That’s one legitimate way.
I’m thinking of another approach.

Why publishing, and why micropublishing

• Some cOntents need shape. Rules of traditional media force to a minimum of consistency.
• Paper has some advantages – it can be touched, it can be written on, it’s not so sensitive to dust, sand, being dropped. But it should be used only on demand.
• Books are simply beautiful.
• Publishing means more than putting a book on the table. If the world and the media we need are not here yet, we need to create them.
• We don’t fill niches. We extend and stretch discussions and markets. Mobility on the edges keeps innovation goin on.
• If it’s not a business – turn it into one, if you want. But business is not always the biggest fun…
• You don’t need to care about or dissociate yourselves from mainstream discussions. Ignoring is healthy; simply doing someting else even more.
• We don’t do this for fun. Respect, Satisfaction, the feeling to control things is one part; commercial success – as a living and as true means of subversion – is another part. But if it’s not about money, it could be about life.
• Micropublishing creates products and business models that can deal with Google Books, copyright, online distribution and collaboration and creative commons.Publishing is not writing; it’s not about talking only, but about doing business. That’s why I started kbex micropublishing, well, it’s still about to be started…