In a stirring example of the reporters becoming the reported, or something, BookMachine’s very own Glorious Fearless Leader Laura Austin has found herself on the shortlist for this year’s Kim Scott Walwyn prize. Glorious Fearless Leader Laura Austin – seen here in this file photo lovingly framed by her BookMachine colleagues/loyal subjects -  is nominated for her work on the BookMachine events that have taken place across the country over the past two years and are now spreading out internationally too, like so many troops marching in perfect synchronisation across the motherland at her command.

Last week O’Reilly’s Tools of Change announced their 10 Publishing Startup Showcase Finalists and I am thrilled to announce, on behalf of Laura, Gavin and Titash, that Bookmachine.me has been selected as one of the 10 finalists. They will get to go to TOC in New York later in the year to strut their stuff and really show everyone how brilliant BookMachine.me is. Huge thanks to everyone who voted!

The top 10 are an impressive mixture of Startups offering some of the most exciting new ideas for the Publishing industry including another brilliant UK Startup ValoBox - congratulations to you guys too!

• BiblioBoard
• BookMachine.me
• Borne Digital
• CartoDB
• Glossi.com
• The Holocene
• Media Cooler
• Paperight
• Speakaboos
• ValoBox

If you want your very own BookMachine.me page, so you can connect with those important folks from within the Publishing industry, drop an email to hello@bookmachine.me and ask for an invite.

Andrew Buck is a Graphic Design teacher at Hastingsbury Upper School in Bedfordshire. He and his design students have created an app that is hopefully going to transform the way students can prepare and succeed when it comes to the dreaded exam season. Whilst the app isn’t necessarily linked to Publishers, it’s an interesting app and has come from identifying a real need in the market. I asked him more about ExamPal, how they’ve priced the app, how he got the attention of Apple and what he thinks about technology in the classroom.

Robert Weisser has been in the publishing business since 1976. He’s witnessed huge changes in the industry, from the first DTP computers to where we are today. He’s also based in New York – so we caught up with him before the first NYC BookMachine event on 12/12/12.

In the run up to the launch of BookMachine.me I’ve picked out some of the top publishing partnerships and collaborations around. I hope it gives you some inspiration to get out there and start collaborating! … and also to come to the launch of BookMachine.me at BookMachine Unplugged on 7th November.

It’s been said, that it’s the most fun you can have in publishing with your clothes on.*

It’s been said, that if you can talk books, digital publishing, politics, haircuts, music or… anything, then this is the place to be.**

You can sign up here:

BookMachine @ Porter’s Bar (The Green Man), 383 Euston Rd, London, NW1 3AU

23rd February 2012, 6.30pm

How do we organize our bi-monthly BookMachine tweetups alongside full time jobs? Well, doing this has only become possible in the last few years, and all thanks to social media. We spend just two to three hours a week on promoting our events. Here are the top five free tools that help us out: (this post was originally published on www.publishingtalk.eu on August 10, 2011)

Helen Stevens, Marketing and PR Director for the Society for Editors and proofreaders (SfEP), talks about communication.

Despite many of us being able to work from home, nothing beats face-to-face interaction, and one of the aims of the SfEP is to facilitate that.

As if you needed further convincing to drop by the BookMachine party on the 10th, here’s a review of December’s event from  employment guru, Sam Coleman.

On Thursday 9th December I had the festive inclination for warmth, drinks and merriment – in exactly that order. To attend to those said needs I skidded, slipped (due, in part, to the snow) and eventually arrived at the Albany pub in Great Portland Street where BookMachine were holding their most social of evenings geared towards publishing folks.