BookRiff

In light of the fact that we are still in private beta and we haven’t let everyone in to wander the halls of BookRiff, scratch at the paint and sniff the trash bins, it’s only natural that all kinds of definitions about what BookRiff is, who it is for, and what its intentions are would be flying around.  In light of the ever-increasing dominance of online superstores as booksellers and price-setters (read floor-ers), coupled with the need for country-wide coalitions to defend the purpose of copyright, I can’t imagine a world in which an innovative new publishing platform would not be met with some degree of skepticism and a certain amount of Who’s side are you on?, nor would I want to.

Even after watching the video, taking the Learn to Riff tour, and perusing the FAQ, until you can see it in action, it is difficult to pin down the concept of BookRiff. This is a factor of the nature of the site, and in some ways it is intended. BookRiff is an open platform. It is moldable by-design, and the hope is that it will take on the shape of the people who use it (…and the creative works they upload and the Riffs they build).

Given that the above is all true, it’s no surprise that BookRiff has been labeled everything from a self-publishing application to most recently by author Michael Turner in a Globe and Mail interview and then again in the Quillblog, “a print-on-demand content broker.” There’s nothing wrong with boiling something down to its essential elements. As someone who is generally in favor of cutting the crap, I must admit there’s nothing false about that definition, and I appreciate the critical thinking behind it. But to be fair, in a world where BookRiff is simply a content broker, authors are peddlers, publishers traders, and booksellers merely cash registers. As someone who is also a bit of a romantic, I can’t accept any of the above. The problem is that in an industry where creativity is the fundamental value, you can’t get rid of the fluff to find the truth. With BookRiff, just as with publishing, it is the fluff: the innovation behind the machine, that makes a difference.

Right now, even behind closed doors, BookRiff is a bare-bones framework of powerful made-from-scratch tools. We think it will evolve to become a way not only for individuals to create something unique, but for publishers, authors, and other content curators to reach new audiences, engage their readers, and branch out into new sales models that they control.

We absolutely can’t wait for that to happen, and more. But first, we have to build the tools, tinker with them, and invite a few people in to tinker some more. Want to be one of those people?