Comments on: How to Publish Without Perishing http://scrollmagazine.com/blog/how-to-publish-without-perishing Founded by long time web industry figures Maxine Sherrin and John Allsopp in 2008, Scroll is a print, PDF and online magazine for web professionals. Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:10:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Steven Clark http://scrollmagazine.com/blog/how-to-publish-without-perishing/comment-page-1#comment-67 Steven Clark Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:46:47 +0000 http://scrollmagazine.com/?p=323#comment-67 Mmm I'm going to have to mull over this one... Clay Shirky in his first guest blog to Boing Boing reads it from the other persepective and disagrees with the idea. He sees publishers as having to work with the digital medium rather than concentrating on making beautiful objects, the argument being that book collectors are much fewer than readers. http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/02/to-publish-without-p.html IMO Google indexing all those books is a good and bad thing, kind of like file sharing is for indy bands - smaller gets more attention but the bigger fish might squeal a bit. From an interface perspective there is as yet nothing to equal the technology of the paper + text technology. Swat a fly, read it on the toilet, lay on the couch and read it in front of the television. Yes Kindles and computer screens are improving but they're still inconvenient, you can't fold them up and put them in your back pocket like a good paperback pulp fiction. So while I see this digitisation as a threat to the book publishing industry it should be no more threatening than file sharing (really) is to the music industry. A real threat to books and papers and magazines is global warming and moving public opinion. Particularly to mass media. In several years it will be unimaginable to the average person that someone would by 2 kilos of paper for Saturday's news! That will move towards digital. Another thing about reading a book - well a novel anyway. Reading on a screen has nowhere near the captivating suspension of reality required from a good story as can be achieved by paper and ink. Publishers need both analog and digital avenues of income. Apologies for the ranting... Mmm I’m going to have to mull over this one… Clay Shirky in his first guest blog to Boing Boing reads it from the other persepective and disagrees with the idea. He sees publishers as having to work with the digital medium rather than concentrating on making beautiful objects, the argument being that book collectors are much fewer than readers.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/02/to-publish-without-p.html

IMO Google indexing all those books is a good and bad thing, kind of like file sharing is for indy bands — smaller gets more attention but the bigger fish might squeal a bit.

From an interface perspective there is as yet nothing to equal the technology of the paper + text technology. Swat a fly, read it on the toilet, lay on the couch and read it in front of the television. Yes Kindles and computer screens are improving but they’re still inconvenient, you can’t fold them up and put them in your back pocket like a good paperback pulp fiction.

So while I see this digitisation as a threat to the book publishing industry it should be no more threatening than file sharing (really) is to the music industry.

A real threat to books and papers and magazines is global warming and moving public opinion. Particularly to mass media. In several years it will be unimaginable to the average person that someone would by 2 kilos of paper for Saturday’s news! That will move towards digital.

Another thing about reading a book — well a novel anyway. Reading on a screen has nowhere near the captivating suspension of reality required from a good story as can be achieved by paper and ink. Publishers need both analog and digital avenues of income. Apologies for the ranting…

]]>