“Publishing House”

This was originally meant as a comment to Norbert Haupt, but it became much longer than anticipated.

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With everything becoming digital I am surprised to see that Barnes and Noble treat their Nook as a novelty rather than an essential. Very few stores have a hands on version to try.

What I expected in getting my eReader is this: browsing through Borders, and finding a book, but preferring to have it on your eReader/Kindle/Nook/iPad, being able to then turn around and download it on one of their terminals. Or when not finding the book on the shelf, consoling yourself with the digital version by going to the terminal and getting it.

The problem is the fact that publishing houses are  still separating the two versions of the book, instead of trying to reconcile them and bring them together.

I got my eReader and was 100% enthusiastic. But, I still find myself preferring physical books. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am on dial-up, and my laptop conflicts with Sony’s eLibrary.

When the format of ebooks switched from what Sony first used, it meant my eReader would need to be updated.  But I still haven’t sent it in. Further isolating me from my eReader.

I have dreams of being a published author, I don’t know publishing, or how it works at all. But if I were to be published, I want to be able to tangibly hold my accomplishment. It is visceral.

Now with the advent of the eBooks, it seems really, you just need the agent and the editor.

But ‘Publishing House’ is a very clever statement. You think of warmth and acceptance: a support net, shield and champion. And writing requires a lot of that. Just from writing classes, empathetic/sympathetic writers can rip into each other, so when theres nothing between the author and public, I imagine something very scary and very intimidating.

A Publishing House stands by the writer and take flack for them, or comfort them even if the only motivator is that their own credibility is at stake, or just from the investment in that author.

But not having experienced it, I simply don’t know the truth from the ideal. But I’d still like to believe in the ideal. From what I know of writers, we want to write and not have to deal with everything else, thats what the agents and publishing houses are for.

Personally, if anything I wrote was picked up by a publishing house, I wouldn’t care if I signed my soul away, I would just want it out there. And while publishing houses are a company, as the New Yorker Article states, the houses bank on popular and backlist books to make money. They give advances on the books they publish completely gambling on whether or not they make it back.

In the book I’ve been plugging lately, Publish This Book, Markley got a $5000 from SourceBooks, an independant publisher. I bought it from Borders, retail price is $15. Pretending that SB gets every cent of it, and thats the price it sells everywhere, its would 334 books to make back that advance. 334 doesn’t seem like a lot, but Steve Jobs even says in the interview, “Forty percent of the people in the US read one book or less last year.” (My mom as far as I know, doesn’t own a book, my dad hasn’t finished the two he has) Consider the number of books to choose from.  Consider the lack of press for the book.

Amazon and most companies are not going to do that. They are selling at a loss, but believe in gaining the profit shares first. Without someone intercepting, I probably would end up signing my soul to Amazon.

At the very least, every english major I’ve ever met wants to be published.

Amazon is a company, more product equals more money.

I am not saying they would, but it’s possible, that by wanting the most books available, to boast the biggest library, they could pad it with so many young/new writers, it becomes even harder to find the good books and good authors. They’re about helping people find whatever they’re looking for for the cheapest price, I have no idea how much they think about product quality.

While it is comforting knowing that Apple and Steve Jobs are there to save the day, it’s unclear how long they’ll keep that cape.

The Publishing Houses need to evolve to accomodate eBooks and solve the problem on their own to continue to be an establishment, because they are a service to and work for their writers. But they’re just trying to stay afloat. And really hurting the authors it seems.

I don’t have a solution, but I don’t think they should go away. They know books, they have the experience, and without them it will all just disappear. A book is a book is a book, doesn’t matter how it get to the people, on paper, stone or computers. Without them, authors could flounder, and companies like Amazon won’t know how to interact with authors.

The End is Near, Strike that, Far

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Note: This was an essay I wrote in college, just after I bought my eReader, within the year they came out. So, it’s rather dated.
It is probably inaccurate as I didn’t do too much research. It was a weird atmosphere, people either loved or hated them, more people hated it. Mine is one of the first generation devices that Sony made. In fact, these ones need to be sent to Sony to be upgraded since the format of the ebooks is actually different from then.
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I have a Sony eReader. Some people think that it’s a ridiculous and absurd gadget. Some people think it’s blasphemous. Some people see it as the downfall of the written word. Others think downfall is too harsh, but that instead books have just sold out.

Maybe they haven’t said that. Maybe it’s just me.

But still, I am a happy and proud owner of a Sony Electronic Reader. Yes, I said proud.

Why are people surprised about the idea of a compact and easily portable book? There was no outcry over the iPod, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Video. Indeed people salivate over the next generation iPod.

Words take up even less room than music, but why is it only now that an eReader has been created? Amazon, too, is selling a portable reader, the Kindle. Who said irony was dead?

My eReader is much simpler than any music player, and the screen is only black and white, meaning it’s all shades of gray. In comparison to the iPod, an eReader is old technology. Well, save for the eInk (1).

Buttons numbering 0-9 line the right hand side. Each menu only lists up to nine things allowing for easy access, instead of using the arrow pad and select button in the center of said arrow pad. There are two sets of page turning buttons, and a magnifier button that increases text size, no more reaching for those reading glasses. There’s even bookmark button that dogears the pages of the book, by creating a dark gray triangle at the top right hand side. When reading the book there are options to read from the very beginning, where you last stopped reading (2), or you can go to the bookmark menu and read from pages that have been bookmarked.

But perhaps people needed the iPod to cushion the blow of losing their pages. True, music has never been a tangible thing. Even if one can read sheet music, which is universal, not everyone can hear it in their head exactly the same as it is supposed to sound. Each note has a set frequency, sound of a B flat is a B flat no matter what instrument its played on, or country the player is from.

Language, however, is a slippery messy business. Example: bed can mean a piece of furniture, a pallet, just some blankets, it can mean sleep, relaxation, privacy, sex, definitions go on and on. Not to mention the language barrier, “bed” means nothing to someone who doesn’t speak English. The meaning behind a book isn’t in the pages, it’s in the interpretation of the reader.

Sure, I love the smell of secondhand bookstores, dry, a little oily, and that darker muskier smell of leather. The crisp feel of new pages, or the softness found in well used pages of old books. And I smile a little when I finally break in the spine of a new book. The scratchy sound of rustling pages is, in a way, soothing.

But my arms don’t miss the soreness of holding up a book in front of me for hours. My fingers don’t need to stretch from losing circulation after curling over the top of the book when holding it from the back.

While there is no backlight on the eReader, I don’t have to readjust at every page to get the best light at night. Reading when on my side is comfortable now since there is no left hand page to turn my head to look at.

I may sound like a crotchety old fool in how I read, but when there’s an opportunity to read, and I read seriously, I’m lost for whole days, sometimes missing a meal…or three(3).

Books are pretentious. Some people have them just to look smart, without having read much more than the back cover. Some people read the classics in public to convey: “Look at me being better than you because I’m reading Moby Dick.”

Books can be heavy, and can take up a lot of room. Instead of carrying the collected works of one author in an ungainly tome, a person can carry a library in their pocket via memory card. Sharing is easier than ever, and there’s no worrying about never seeing it again. I’ve bought the same book three times(4). The first copy was never given back by a friend who moved, the second by a friend who lost it. The third, sitting on my shelf, may never leave my house.

eBooks should be getting cheaper. There’s no paper, printing, binding, shipping, or bookstore employees to pay for. There won’t be giant textbooks for students anymore, or the worry about gradeschoolers getting sclerosis.

There won’t be waiting for books at the library because someone else already checked it out.

Text is text no matter how the conveyance. If the apocalypse doesn’t come first, text is going to end up downloaded straight into the supercomputer of the brain. So, on the subway I’ll have to ask a person what they’re reading as opposed to just looking at the cover. God forbid people actually talking to eachother.

The eReader, Kindle, and whatever comes next isn’t the end of the world. Get over it.

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1. Electronic Ink is a physical reflective substance, instead of the ever refreshing computer screen. eInk lets me to read for hours without a headache, or splotchy vision.
2. The eReader remembers where you stopped without needing to bookmark it. And if it’s shut off on a page, when turned back on, that page loads automatically.
3. I have an obsessive personality.
4. The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman.