Publishing Talk has undergone two major re-launches during the lifetime of this blog. The first, in February 2008, took it off the Reed Media website, where it had started as its business blog a year earlier. Now on its own domain name, it started to become an online resource in its own right, read by authors as well as publishers.

Much social media followed, including a Facebook Page and a Twitter account.

Publishing Talk in 2008

Two years on, and we’d long outgrown the site design again. Publishing Talk re-launched with its latest design in January 2010, with new sections for Jobs and Events, and multiple contributors. We also included our Tweets – and mentions of @publishingtalk on Twitter – since this has become such an important part of the community.

Publishing Talk in 2010

And who could have imagined how Twitter would take off in those two years? We currently have over 32,000 followers, making us one of the most followed Twitter accounts in the publishing world, and the most influential according to the Twitter directory WeFollow.

A huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has made this community what it is. In the future, we’re hoping to provide more support and resources to publishers and authors interested in social media, including e-books, a podcast, and real-life events – starting with London Book Tweet – the official London Book Fair Tweetup on 20th April 2010. I hope to see some of you there – either in real life or vicariously via the #lbtweet hashtag!