We keep hearing that America is a few years ahead of us in terms of technology. If this is the case then UK Publishers, Schools and Educators take note.

A recent report from the The Consortium for School Networking in America has highlighted that schools should be allowing their students to bring their own technology to the classroom, rather than just for use at break times. Whilst this is economically viable for schools it does pose a few problems, not only for the parents who will need to be buying this technology for their kids, but for educational Publishers. It essentially means that every title will need to work seamlessly across all devices. This is a big headache for educational publishers, who are creating digital components for their courses.

Last week there was a bit of a furore in the publishing world after a Guardian journalist Ewan Morrison slated social media promotion by self published authors, basically saying that as a promotional tool Twitter and Facebook etc were overrated and authors should focus on writing books, probably. I know that was a rabid paraphrase, but do go read the article if you want specifics because it’s interesting and incendiary, which are two of the best things an article can be.

The changing nature of publishing is forcing Publishing houses, writers, authors – content creators – to think differently, experiment and look at working with new people in new ways.

Award winning ELT authors Lindsay Clandfield and Luke Meddings are doing just this. They have set up The Round, which aims to bring together creative people in English Language Teaching. It aims to bridge “the gap between blogs and books – and about the difficulty of placing innovative, niche or critical materials with the big ELT publishers.” And has so far released two books for public consumption. Their mission is to provide material for educators, give a fair deal to authors and share expertise and ideas.

Since starting The Round in spring 2011 they have released two new titles 52, which is an activity book for language teachers, and Webinars: A Cookbook for educators, a how-to guide for doing web seminars or lessons.

They release the new titles through a section on their website called Labs, whereby The Round team let you see new projects which are being developed and sample content can be downloaded. And feedback can be given to the authors via the comment boxes.

I asked Lindsay and Luke some more questions:

This week on the site, our Monday column argued that sometimes Your Innovation Ain’t All That. We then saw The elderly get techy with iPads, and Thomas Pynchon’s back catalogue digitised at last, while dreaming up puns as Publishing goes to the dogs in early Christmas slate announcements (barking up the wrong tree?).

Our big news was the announcement of BookMachine Oxford (hosted by Osprey Group). We hope to see all you Oxford folks there on 28th June.

Elsewhere on the web, there’s lots going on for you self-publishing types out there: are you Not writing? There’s an app for that: Write or Die. There’s More on the economics of the self-published book, some reading on Booktango and the Future of DIY E-book Publishing and there’s the suggestion that Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%.

Are you an editor? This week The Guardian has been big on The importance of good editing, and what do you think, Should Editors Get Credited in Books?

Meanwhile, here’s Jane Friedman on marketing and building an author platform and the Anatomy of Book Discovery: A Case Study.

These posts look at How ‘Fifty Shades’ Is Changing the Face of Publishing and Why the ebook you want isn’t for sale in your country.

And, to wrap up this week, here’s a Summer Reading List 2012: 10 Essential Books for Cognitive Sunshine.

This is a guest post from Anna Lewis, who co-founded the book technology company CompletelyNovel with Oli Brooks in 2008. Since then, they have created CompletelyNovel.com, a community powered book-publishing platform bringing modern publishing tools to an online network of readers, writers and publishers. You can follow Anna on Twitter via @anna_cn and @completelynovel.

There is endless advice that goes out to self-published authors about building their brand, identifying their audience and how to promote their work. This is all vital in the success of a book, but writers shouldn’t let it detract from other parts of the self-publishing process – namely, the technical and project management (let’s be honest, slightly more boring) side of things.

Working with self-publishers on CompletelyNovel has been massively inspiring. Every day we see new writers produce something that they have often been waiting many years to see in print. The advent of new tools on the internet has opened up so many doors. But, like anything, it throws up new challenges as well. So here are some dos and don’ts for aspiring self-publishers and their mentors to mull over, learned through watching the experiences of others.

On the digital front this week, there were Nine truths about e-book publishing, 5 Career Tips to Survive Publishing’s Digital Shift?, and there was good news for comic fans as Aquafadas Offers Self-Publishers Digital Publishing Tools for graphic novels.

But with the cascade of new epublishing tools, it’s best to remember the  Tortured Language – Discerning Ebook Rights in Ancient Publishing Contracts.

Meanwhile, could editors become brands in themselves, acting as a recommendation engine for readers?

There was also talk of Books, Reading, and Pinterest, The Value of Making Reading Hard, and the role of  The Publisher as Curator.

This week’s big bout was Amazon vs. Big Publishing: 800 lbs vs. 798 lbs.?

And if all that wasn’t enough reading for you, here’s some more of the Best Links for Writers and Publishers, and Your Guide to Literary Tumblrs.

This week, there was a look at How e-reading changes reading habits, but  it was heartening to hear that Humans are hardwired to read books. From a publishers point of view, let’s hope they are also hardwired to pay for them: here’s one man not Not Worried by Ebook Piracy.

The Hyperion CEO considers Book Publishing’s Broken Business Model, and are Publishing and social media a match made in heaven?

Meanwhile, with Apple poised to bring important changes to its iBook platform, Barnes & Noble Mulls Splitting Nook Business, Sells “Dead Tree” Publishing Company. Interesting moves are afoot.

Elsewhere, here’s what What James Franco’s “127 Hours” Has in Common with Publishing.

And finally, have you ever considered Borrowing from REM’s Songbook When Publishers, Authors and Agents Can’t Agree on a Book Title?