The other day, I wrote about giving away free chapter samples online. The publishing industry is currently scrambling to make sure it’s part of the coming digital content revolution. Which is certainly understandable. It’s downright ticklish trying to foresee what the publishing industry will look like in 10 years. Did I say 10 years? How about 5?
But, free chapter samples and as-yet clumsy e-readers are just the beginning. We’re heading into some uncharted territory, and I, for one, find it pretty damn exciting. I mean, 10 years ago, who would have thought that the Internet would take down the music industry? And now it’s turned its gaze on the publishing industry, too. I predict that in the not too distant future, books will go the way of vinyl (records). They’ll always be around, but mainly as a nostalgia-niche market.
In fact, this technological revolution has already begun to change the very essence of both reading and writing. For example, I’m not even sure what the word “book” means anymore. What exactly is a “book” these days? Is it the physical object made of bound paper? Is it the words contained within? The other day, I was writing about an e-book versus a…well, this is the point. I was stumped. Do I call it a “regular book?” A “book book?” A “brick-and-mortar book?” Once e-readers (or, perhaps iReaders, if Steve Jobs turns his gaze in that direction) take over in a few years, the very word “book” may lose all meaning. Like “album.” Are we referring to the physical object, or the amorphous material contained within?
I suppose I just think it’s interesting that one of the results of this digital revolution is that we are being forced to question what something is, exactly.
And that’s some deep metaphysical shit, my friends.
Great title for this post. :)
I’ve been thinking about the “What IS a book?” question, too. There’s a common-sense, everyday-usage meaning, in which the medium (paper, ink, cardboad) and contents are the same thing, merged in a sort of blurry cloud. (Which is why, for example, a writer doesn’t often speak of his work in progress as a “book.” It feels almost presumptuous: it’s not a real honest-to-God book YET. Instead, he calls it a manuscript, a draft, or just a WIP.)
The e-pub/e-reading trend is de-coupling the content and the medium.
There’s a term commonly used in tech circles to describe what can be done with XML documents — indeed, it describes one of the virtues of XML over, say, Word or other proprietary formats. The term is “repurposing.” You start with a simple XML document, which looks kinda like HTML (only, I guess you could say, more so [cough]). You feed it through one software meatgrinder or another and, depending on the software and its settings, what comes out is (say) an HTML document, or a PDF, or some other flavor of XML, or… or… or…
I think that’s where verbal content is headed, too: the easier it is to repurpose a story, essay, or “book”-length anything, the less fearful the content’s creator needs to be of new media.
Which is why I, like you, am both scared and excited by all this new stuff… and all the deep shit!
I don’t believe that the bound book will be completely eliminated due to the inherent feel of a book in the hand. They will have stiff competition to be sure, but I believe that the industry will survive.
The internet did not destroy the music industry; it has expanded it. Record sales are still at the same or close to same levels then they were 5 or 6 years ago. In fact the internet has expanded the reach of the music industry to allow “smaller” bands to have a chance to shine.
I think that the publishing world will adopt a two fold process where books will still be bound, but perhaps will be offered on a more “pay for it then we print it” type of system with only a few stores holding out (like barnes and noble).
The industry will then also go electronic since it is at a laughable cost to do so once the technology is initially set up.