Laugh Today, Die Tomorrow, Print Dinosaurs!
The death of the book, yet again
So is this, finally, the death of the book? If so, it may be a death that heralds a rebirth of reading – most people will be tempted at least to dip into those 100 free classics. It’s more likely, though, that these devices will mean a substantial shift in the way books are published. Conventional publishers of treeware will be under pressure to create every title in e-book format at the same time as on paper; they’d be crazy not to. Soon the e-book market may overtake the other. And in that case, who really needs the publisher?
Writer’s agents are the principal quality-filter these days, as well as increasingly responsible for the editing that most British publishers no longer bother with – so what is to stop writers and their agents doing deals directly with (say) Sony/Waterstone’s? And if a few libraries and Luddites and the author’s mum want a paper version, that can be easily arranged in small-run special editions.
Treeware!
Previously here:
eBooks And Pricing
Books 1.0: Where The Money Goes
Mike Cane 2008 
September 7, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Interesting- I wasn’t aware that the Sony reader came with 100 free classics. Then again, for a little work it is likely possible to get all those same classics for free on computer or Kindle via manybooks.net or projectgutenberg.org.
September 9, 2008 at 5:26 pm
The thing about the 100 classics is a sad gimmick. At least when originally offered in the U.S., they were infested with DRM. That’s right, PUBLIC DOMAIN BOOKS were COPY-PROTECTED! I hope Sony removed the DRM for the U.K..