A few examples of the coming shift in publishing can be seen swirling around two Ne(i)(a)ls. Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson are at the forefront of what I envision as the next step for authors in the ebook industry. Authors will take more control and profit from their own work, […]
ereaders
[Note: I just published this yesterday and now I have to revise it! Apple has now made their play for a publishing platform. However a significant difference with Apple’s platform is that they have chosen to slant the platform to established published works by requiring a 13 digit ISBN number. […]
The Elements of Typographic Style is a masterpiece of a dying art. Robert Bringhurst is a man of content and form. He is both a poet and a typographer. And his is a seminal work on Typography. In my lifetime I have watched the desktop publishing revolution supplant 5 centuries […]
The looming problem in ebook copyright may curtail the growth and longevity of this burgeoning industry. The problem seems to be developing in three areas that will only compound over the coming months as different e-readers and ebook retailers enter the market. The three main issues are copyright protection, proprietary […]
ETEXTBOOK DREAM The glossy ads of e-reader device makers would have you believe that they will usher in a new era of reading. They claim their devices will revitalize newspapers, magazines, and textbooks by transforming them into multimedia formats of Potter-esque perfection. That vision may someday be realized, but only […]
Nicholas Carr refers to the great unbundling in his book The Big Switch. Carr claims that the internet is unbundling content from newspapers and other media forms and creating large value for commercially driven content that can be easily “added” or linked to click-thru ads. What I’d like to examine […]
Soon large media conglomerates will scramble to address an inversion of their current publication model. Amazon’s straight-to-device self-publishing platform (Digital Text Platform) is sure to spawn competitors and these services may very well threaten the long and arduous print process that has existed for hundreds of years. In this post, […]
Ironically Amazon’s Kindle may eventually cannibalize one of their most profitable areas- used books. No ebook seller has yet created a used ebook market. The obvious obstacle is that these ebooks will remain forever and thus they would pose a serious threat to the first sales market. But what if […]