Hacker 2/HACKER2.mdf/cud/cud515d.txt

Text File | 1995-01-03 | 9KB | 178 lines

Date: 28 Dec 92 15:12:35 EST
From: Gordon Meyer <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 4--Technology and Populist Publishing (GEnie Reprint)

GE Mail
From--P.SHAPIRO1                      Phil Shapiro
Sub--Something's Not Quite Right

Something's Not Quite Right in the Publishing World Today

Something's not quite right in the publishing world today.  You'd
think that in this Information Age more people would be writing more
books than ever before, that small new publishing companies would be
springing up to bring promising new authors to market, that a new
Renaissance would be blooming in the world of books, the arts, and
culture in general.  Not so.

It's as difficult as ever, today, to bring a new book to market.  No
established publishing company will consider a manuscript that is
delivered "over the transom" (unsolicited).  The only way to approach
a publishing company is through a book agent, and finding the right
book agent is enough to discourage all but the most intrepid new
authors.

Furthermore, even if the larger publishing houses did take time to
consider a book by a previously unpublished author, and even if they
found the ideas or story fresh and original, they'd decline to market
it unless they could sell sufficiently large quantities of the book to
make a substantial profit.

The publishing of books has become big business.  Books are no longer
treated as precious vessels of ideas, but rather as any other common
commodity.  Wheat.  Pork.  Books.  Shampoo.  Deodorant.

Book lovers cringe at the thought that the business of books has been
reduced to the buying and selling of a crass commodity.  Books are no
mere commodity.  They're one of the most precious things we own.  A
well-written book is the essence of human spirit, captured in tangible
form for all the world to enjoy.

The commercialization of the book, and the sorry state of today's
publishing industry, is well-chronicled in a 1989 book titled, "Beyond
the Bestseller: A Literary Agent Takes You Inside the Book Business,"
by Richard Curtis.  Written by a successful literary agent with over
25 years experience in the business, the book speaks with some candor
about the flawed process which modern publishing houses use to publish
books.

In the final chapter, "Toward Reform," Curtis crystallizes his
comments:

     "The publishing industry is critically ailing, and no one, from
     the creator of the written word to the consumer, is untouched.
     The signs are everywhere, some statistically demonstrable, others
     less tangible but manifest to anyone who has been in the business
     long enough to watch it evolve.  Some of the more commonly voiced
     ones are:
          of publishers on big-name authors.
          selling of publishing companies.
          current best-sellers.
          royalties with authors.
          their influence on editorial policies.
          cheating them out of royalties.

     Obviously, there is no single comprehensive explanation of what
     has gone wrong, nor any all-embracing solution.  Still, it is
     surprising that authors, agents, publishers, booksellers, and
     other book people, highly intelligent individuals all, should
     continue applying patches and poultices to the symptoms when it
     is clear that the dimensions of the problem call for a thorough
     reevaluation of the way things are done in the publishing
     industry."


But while the publishing world looks more dismal than ever, there is
hope on the horizon.  It's entirely possible that new technologies
will arise that will undermine the monopoly the big New York City
publishing houses have on the distribution of books.  Such
technologies could take one of two forms: print and non-print.

If you're talking non-print publishing, you're talking about the
electronic book.  A device the size and shape of a regular book, with
a sharp monochrome screen.  Reading material would be distributed on
some sort of magnetic or optical medium.  Cartridges, it would seem,
would be the favored distribution form.

You plug the cartridge into the device, choose the font size you'd
like to read in (and perhaps the typeface as well).  The device would
then display the text at a user-controllable rate of display,
automatically clearing the screen once the text reached the bottom of
the display.  The rate of display would be controlled by a rotatable
dial that would serve as a sort of "gas pedal" for the device.

Some devices might have hypertext capability built in.  Other devices
might have audio capability built in, where word pronunciation would
be available at the touch of keystroke.  Such extra features would be
available at a premium cost, though.  The basic electronic book would
be manufactured at the lowest possible cost for the largest possible
distribution.

New print publishing technologies are likely to continue along the
lines of the desktop publishing revolution.  What's needed is a
dedicated "bookmaker" device that would accept a high density 3.5 inch
floppy, and churn out a bound book in the output tray.  Using text
compression routines, over two megabtyes of text can be squeezed onto
a high density 3.5 inch floppy.  Two megabytes worth of text is
equivalent to about 250,000 words.  (One page of typed text, 250
words, is equivalent to about 2K of memory.)

So most normal length books could quite comfortably fit onto one high
density 3.5 inch floppy (using the text compression routines.) The
dedicated bookmaker device could then churn out a book on demand.

The advantages offered by a dedicated bookmaker are enormous.
Out-of-print books could be easily retrieved and distributed to those
interested in reading them.  Books could be sent inexpensively across
country by air mail.  (Or, a book could be transferred via modem to
anyone interested in reading it.) A large part of publishing costs is
the printing and physical distribution of the book.  With the
bookmaker device, the cost of distributing the book would plummet
ten-fold.

The consumer could then decide whether to print the book out in hard
copy, or to read the book on the electronic book device.  Those
without a personal bookmaker device in their homes would have access
to such a device at a public library.  (Such a device would be
coin-operated, much like a photocopying machine.)

But most exciting would be the rise of energetic new book publishers
who could take advantage of the economies of the new technology to
distribute works by promising new authors, non-mainstream thinkers,
and others who are currently excluded from the publishing enterprise.

Anyone with access to a disk drive could open up a publishing company.
The resulting flood of new books would most certainly contain a lot of
low quality material.  But the advantages of the bookmaker and
electronic book far outweigh the disadvantages of having to put up
with reams of lower quality prose.  The lower quality prose can simply
be sifted through by book reviewers, who'd erect signposts pointing
towards the truly worthy reading.

In terms of the bookmaker device, it would be best to have the device
be constructed from the lowest cost electronic components that could
still yield high quality print.  So a low-cost printer along the lines
of the Apple StyleWriter, with 360 dots per inch output, and very slow
printing, would serve the purpose of a bookmaker device very well.
The actual bookmaker would be a dedicated device, about the size of a
current 3.5 inch drive, that would plug into a printer like the Apple
StyleWriter.  For the printing of longer books, you would just leave
the device on overnight.

Eventually newspaper and magazines would offer "bookmaker
subscriptions" at a reduced rate than their regular "hard copy"
subscriptions.  These monthly or daily publications would be delivered
either on disk, or via modem.  After all, it doesn't make sense to
print a newspaper across town, and physically deliver it to your front
doorstep, when for the same trouble they could deliver the information
across town, and you could print it (or read it on screen) in your own
home.

In some sense, the sorry state of today's publishing industry is a
welcome impetus for the rise of a new industry based on the
magneto-optic distribution of text.  The primary beneficiary of such a
new industry will be the book consumer, who'll have a far greater
selection of books to read, at a far lower cost.  A populist
revolution in publishing is just around the corner.  And just as
surely as in Gutenberg's day, a new Renaissance will flourish amid all
the creative and expressive arts.


Phil Shapiro
[The author takes an interest in the social dimensions of communications
technology.  He can be reached by electronic mail on GEnie at: P.Shapiro1;
America Online at: pshapiro; Internet:  [e-mail]]
This text is in the public domain.

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