Re: Re: What is a book in 2008?

Apologies for the unstarted reply that just got away!

From: "Daniel P. B. Smith"
>
>>     Posted by: "dtpollard947"
>> If digital formats took hold and began to dominate, it would 
>> destroy
>> traditional book retailing, how authors interact with 
>> customers and
>> somewhat change what it meant to be an author.
>
> Nothing new about technology impacting media, and nothing 
> special
> about "digital" that makes it different from other disruptive
> technology transitions.
>
> Vaudeville was damaged by cinema and completely destroyed by 
> television.
>
> Live theatre, however, survives, as of this date only slightly 
> the
> worse for wear.
>
> As amusingly dramatized in "Singin' in the Rain," the coming of 
> sound
> to motion pictures utterly destroyed the careers of some movie
> megastars and launched the careers of completely new ones.
>
> Magazines were transformed in the late 1890s, suddenly becoming 
> a
> cheap mass medium and a market for short-story fiction. Jack 
> London
> was one of the first, if not the first American writer to make 
> a
> major commercial success from writing, and he did it mostly 
> through
> magazines. Then a few decades ago this market all but vanished.
>
> And of course non-technology events can also utterly transform 
> media.
> If ASCAP hadn't overplayed its hand in 1940, broadcasters might 
> never
> have formed BMI, and rock 'n' roll might never have eclipsed 
> Tin Pan
> Alley.
>
> In 1982 Jack Valenti testified to Congress that home video, if
> allowed, would become the "Boston strangler" of the movies. Now 
> the
> studios make more from home video than they do from theatrical 
> releases.
>
> An awful lot of news stories now include the reporter's email 
> address
> and it's become second nature to me to respond, almost as I 
> would to
> a forum posting. Conversely, I have now been contacted by 
> reporters
> from the Wall Street Journal three separate times (!) in 
> response to
> postings I've made in a financial forum. Journalism is become 
> less
> and less one-way and more and more like an actual dialog. 
> Perhaps the
> same will somehow become true for authorship in general

The discussion on the the future of the book is hot in publishing 
circles also. Theoretically most of the advances Daniel describes 
should have paid put to the book itself, let alone the printed 
one.

However print sales  continued to grow in sales as the economy 
rose - and now no doubt will fall again as the economy 
'corrects'. Digital formats on screens are fine and very useful. 
Some use them 100%, others as little as they possibly can. And 
discussions argue this is not a generational matter, as some 
suppose.

Some authors do indeed, as Daniel hints, encourage a two-way 
flow; indeed it appears to be part of their marketing model. Some 
niches encourage reader involvement more than others - mostly 
online. Sales of books in digital formats [not just free 
downloads] are rising at a fast rate. This is healthy and in 
keeping with a useful technological advance.

Assuming we include all facets of printed books, and count number 
of titles, rather than copy count of total print runs, I 
anticipate a continuing high-level presence of printed books. 
Many will be published by authors and small publishers. But time 
will tell.

Joseph Harris 


------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/