Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Beth Webb, writing on the Guardian Book blog, had an entry this week entitled “The joys of NOT being published,” which dismisses the idea that all writers are striving for a publishing contract which will lead to them holding a published book in their hands. As Webb says, “there are lots of other equally satisfying ways to get your writing into the world.” Webb sets the stage by describing her early wilderness years on a houseboat in Amsterdam living off of cabbage soup. During this time, and for years after, Webb wrote simply as a way to express herself, and never tried to get published. Why? Because “the world is already stuffed with books that no one will read.” But Webb’s not being pessimistic. What she’s saying is that playing the publishing game has little if anything to do with art or self-expression. It shouldn’t be just about physical objects sitting inert on shelves. Instead, she encourages authors to use the Internet to spread their work, or else eschew big publishers by using online tools and sites like Blurb to create their own books:

Why bother to go through all the heartache and hassle of fighting to get your precious memories or thoughts into mainstream publication? Your own PC, printer and digital camera are waiting to make someone’s day. If you really want to go big and produce a novel, there’s the internet or print on demand (no surplus stock there!). Getting published by a mainstream company is great, but in all honesty, how many of us can really afford to give up the day job, even when we’ve signed that contract? Such a long, heartbreaking haul for what?

So while a lot of people in the “print is dead” debate can’t stand to think of a world without books, it’s refreshing to see a writer who declares that “the joy of writing should be just that — the writing.”

Yesterday, the San Francisco Weekly’s Nathaniel Eaton had an interview with neo-beat writer Alan Kaufman. Entitled “The Beat Goes On,” the interview was mainly about how Kaufman and others are trying to keep the beat spirit of the ‘50s and ‘60s alive in modern day San Francisco. And while I’m always glad to see the criminally underrated Richard Brautigan’s name in print (I hunted for his books all over Southern California as a teenager), Kaufman makes a few comments regarding the future of books which I think are pretty silly. A few weeks ago, in D.T. Max’s profile of Tom Staley (the curator of the Ransom literary archives at the University of Texas), Staley defended his decision to not digitize the library’s collection by saying that to do so would sacrifice some of the aesthetics of the physical item, namely the smell. Well, Kaufman goes even further than this. After saying that he doesn’t “believe writers are going to be content having their works published on the Internet,” Kaufman expands this idea by explaining that “I was looking through a book of mine from years ago and it had little pieces of food on it and I remembered the meal that I had eaten.” So I guess that, in addition to curling up in the bath with a book, if there’s enough food in the margin you can also treat yourself to a little snack (try doing that with an eBook).

All of this is in answer to the interviewer’s question, “Do you think writing’s in collapse?” Kaufman answers, “No. Writing will never be in collapse.” He then follows this up with a prediction: “What’s going to happen, I believe, and I’m very excited by this prospect, is that writers will form their own collectives, as was done in the Sixties [and publish their own books]. I don’t think I’m a dinosaur in thinking this way.”

Kaufman’s completely correct that writers will create their own collectives. But what will make these collectives different from what happened in the ‘60s is that — because of the global interconnectedness of the Web — these scenes will no longer have to be centered around one geographic location (or, in the case of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene, a couple of city blocks). Instead, writers from all over the globe will be able to meet and interact with other writers, trading ideas and swatches of prose and verse. What’s also different, I think, is that books will be the least interesting aspect of this; it will be about the exchange of ideas and the feeling of community (and, as Second Life has shown, virtual communities can feel — for many people — just as authentic as the real thing). As I wrote earlier in the week, blogs have now replaced zines. But the zine movement itself, at the time, was simply a new version of the mimeographed chapbook scene of the ‘70s. Technology always plays a part in edging forward artists, and the Internet is simply the latest iteration of this. The same way that San Francisco’s iconic City Lights bookstore was, as Kaufman reminds us, “the first all-paperback bookstore in the United States,” new websites and Internet communities will shatter the literary boundaries and rules that the beats similarly exploded fifty years ago.

There are now only two days until the debut of Apple’s much-anticipated iPhone. Writing in an article entitled “Hollywood Seeks Ways to Fit Its Content Into the Realm of the iPhone,” that appeared on Monday in The New York Times, Laura Holson describes how “Many in Hollywood and Silicon Valley hope the iPhone’s multimedia features will make it easier for any mobile-crazed consumer to do the same things they do on the Web: watch their favorite television shows, download maps, send e-mail messages to friends and swap videos.” This is all taking place due to the fact that modern day “consumers demand more and better access to media and care less about how they get it.”

Viewed in this context, the triumph of the iPhone will be a triumph not only for Apple, but will ultimately be a triumph for content itself. Because the iPhone is obviously more than just a phone. In fact, if it succeeds the way that’s being predicted, the “phone” part of the equation will be the least interesting part (since most people already have a cell phone; that’s not why they’re buying an iPhone). Instead, why people are lusting after the iPhone (apart from the usual Apple scruffs who have to own everything Jobsian) is because they’re dying for a gadget that will do multiple things. Yes, they want a cell phone and iPod combo, but they also want something that can send and receive e-mail, watch videos, surf the Web, etc. They want all of these things in one device, and the iPhone will soon arrive to make this a reality.

This has ramifications for the book industry for two reasons: 1. It shows that consumers prefer integrated devices that can perform multiple functions, rather than separate devices that only do one thing; which helps explain why dedicated eBook devices — that only read books — have not yet taken off. 2. It shows that, after changing the face of music, Steve Jobs is now poised to change the world of cell phones. As The Times states, “This will not be Mr. Jobs’s first experience in redefining an industry.” Of course, whether or not Apple plans on taking on the world of books any time soon is anyone’s guess, but the recent activity, and new thinking, surrounding the iPhone shows that even the most entrenched business models have the capacity for change (which means that even publishing could one day similarly change).

As has been previously reported here and here (with Galleycat’s Ron Hogan intelligently explaining that spam is hardly the answer), it looks like the San Diego Union Tribune is going to cut back/streamline its book review section. To exactly what extent the section will be reduced or redefined has not yet been announced, but San Diego literary agent Sandy Dijkstra isn’t letting the lack of details slow her down. Instead of waiting to hear about the Union Tribune’s plans for its book review, Dijkstra has already started forwarding around an e-mail asking people to take, uh, action:

Some of you may recall that some years ago, we faced a similar crisis of losing our Book Review. At that time, we circulated a “chain letter with a civic purpose”, describing the San Diego reading community via stats and then, presenting a threat: IF the Book Review were not restored, we, the readers, writers, booksellers and publishers of San Diego, would evoke the spirit of Fahrenheit 451 and descend upon the offices of the San Diego Union-Tribune, bearing a coffin filled with the books of the many authors whose works would no longer be reviewed. We would then stage a READ-IN until we got news that our needs would be addressed. This threat, together with a deluge of chain letters hitting Mrs. Copley, forced the paper to restore the Review.

This is all incredibly silly, and will likely hurt the book review more than help. Because to portray books that don’t get reviewed as “dead” is not only lame (and wrong) in terms of a book’s worth, but it’s also terribly disrespectful to things which actually are actually, sadly dead. Dijkstra’s campaign, along with the pitchfork-wielding efforts of others (key words in above are “threat” and “force”), has really nothing to do with the true nature of books or the discovery of reading. Instead, what Dijkstra is really mourning is a literary status quo that she seems desperate to not let slip away.

When I first attempted to write novels almost twenty years ago, I did so in a vacuum. Neither parents, roommates or girlfriends knew what I was writing. All they knew, as I locked myself behind closed doors, was that I was furiously typing away on my Mac Classic. I worked in secrecy, never showing my work to anyone. When I felt my stories were ready to be seen by eyes other than my own, and after scrapping several attempts, I started a zine in 1993 named Our Noise. It was sold for $2 via mail order, and I placed ads for it in the back of tiny magazines that had some national exposure (Maximum Rock and Roll, etc.). I also sent a dozen or so copies to other zines to get mine reviewed. The big review I was waiting for was from Factsheet 5, which back then was the bible of zines, as well as sort of a lo-fi Google (in terms of indexing and exposing zines). According to the NecroKonicon site, “Even though each issue of [Factsheet 5] was very out of date by the time you got it … getting your zine reviewed and listed was a mark of honor. It also meant you’d get a ton of mail from people all over the place trying to order your zine, send you their crappy poetry, or sell you a book on high colonics or how to legally evade taxes.”

My zine finally got reviewed in Factsheet 5, and for the next couple of months I had a great time trading zines and mail with people all over the world. Of course, this took weeks and weeks to happen, forcing me to make daily visits to my post office box (not to mention numerous trips to Kinkos to Xerox new copies, and to the post office to buy mailing supplies). And while the zine heyday of the early ‘90s was fun, all of this activity has since been replaced by websites in terms cataloging all of the new content that’s out there, in addition to redefining the way that people create content in the first place. So while it may be incredibly banal to say that blogs are the new zines, that doesn’t make it any less true. And in terms of fiction, an emerging set of online tools has led to new ways for young writers to create their works and shape their incubatory talent. Websites such as Glypho, Ficlets and Portrayl use the interconnectedness of the Internet, as well as the interactive tools of Web 2.0, to create global communities where new authors can create, collaborate and comment on stories. So while the rise of the Internet is leading to the death of books, it’s also giving birth to a new generation of writers.

In the exhibit hall at this week’s O’Reilly “Tools of Change” conference, I had a rep for iRex give me a demo of the iLiad eBook device (clip is above). It’s a nice looking device, although at $699 I think it’s too expensive. Also, it’s not yet found in any major stores, but iRex is working with retailers to make it more widely available. The video was shot with my new Flip Video camera.

As one of this morning’s keynote sessions at the second day of O’Reilly’s TOC conference, Dale Dougherty delivered a presentation entitled “The Beauty of Print in a Digital Age.” Dougherty is the editor of O’Reilly’s Craft and Make magazines, which he classifies as a “book/magazine hybrid.” The magazines are both quarterlies, and each sells for $15. Dougherty’s stated aim, with these publications, is to create “something you keep, not throw away.” In terms of the encroaching tidal wave of online experiences and digital products (what Chris Anderson yesterday called a “relentless march”), Dougherty talked about print and digital co-existing. Or, as he put it, “The old and the new are interwoven, and the art of our day is to figure out how these two pieces fit together.” However, Dougherty also acknowledged that print today looks like a “poor country cousin” next to new and flashy gadgets like the iPhone. Despite this, he believes that “print layouts can be more sophisticated” than what you can do on the screen.

In terms of an overall reading experience, Dougherty was dismissive of an online or digital interface, saying that “the Internet today is largely a collection of snippets,” characterizing the experience as being one of “small bits of information scattered everywhere.” He continued, saying that this is “very much different than reading a book…it’s more like reading street signs when you’re driving a car.” Because of this, Dougherty said “print can still offer a great experience, [it is] more like a movie than a soundbite.” In fact, Dougherty feels that the print experience is enhanced by the comparison to the Internet because he feels that print is “personal, it belongs to you; it’s something you can share with others.” He also declared print a “terrific interface people already know how to use and enjoy.”

So while Dougherty speaks of some sort of combination of print and digital, saying that we should be “weaving the old and the new together,” it’s clear that he leans toward paper and is dismissive toward digital (even though most of his subscriptions occur through the website). Steve Jobs may be declaring the upcoming iPhone to be “the God machine,” but it’s clear that Dougherty believes that print has already been sent from heaven.

Chris Anderson spoke this morning as part of the opening keynote sessions during the first day of the inaugural O’Reilly “Tools of Change” conference, taking place this week in San Jose. His talk was entitled “FREE: The Economics of Abundance and the Price of Zero,” which is also the subject of his next book. The session was just a speech, with Anderson announcing somewhat nervously at the beginning that he was not going to have an accompanying PowerPoint presentation. This was quickly greeted by laughter and applause. Anderson began by saying that there’s really nothing new about the idea of giving things away for free, and went on to cite many different kinds of economies where things — goods or effort or ideas — are given away for free. The one that really struck me was what Anderson called the “gift economy,” citing Wikipedia as the best example. These are social networking and user-generated content sites where people spend a lot of time and effort creating content, receiving for this not necessarily money but instead they get reputation and the ability to express themselves. In these situations economics as we know it (people paying for a good or service) do not apply. And then, placing his speech in context when talking about what’s happening to other media (including music and film), Anderson stated that “books are the last media not approaching free.”

In terms of ways that he’s going to use “free” to electronically promote his upcoming book (which will come out around the end of 2008), Anderson cited the following examples that he and his publisher are considering:

1. Make the audio book free with the purchase of the printed book. The buyer of the printed book would receive a code that would allow them to download an MP3 of the audio book (for free). However, the audio book would also be sold as a standalone item.

2. Book would included in all search programs, including Google.

3. eBook would be given way for free, but locked to a specific device/reader. This would allow it to be spread to early adopters and “influentials,” treating them as a “marketing channel.”

4. An unlocked eBook edition that features ads alongside the text (which is much like how magazines look, where content is next to advertising).

5. Page-view model, where users would read it online, with ads that make sense.

6. Sample chapters distributed on websites.

In terms of the analog version of his “free” idea, Anderson mentioned the following methods that could be used in terms of making print books available.

1. Sponsored books.

2. Advertising in books.

3. Rebate model; offer rebates to people who buy the book.

4. Give away books to “influentials.” (This worked incredibly well for The Long Tail, where Anderson convinced his publisher to print 1,000 ARCs — many more than publishers usually print — and they ended up getting about 800 copies into the hands of interested bloggers. From this, more than 600 online reviews appeared, which then linked to Amazon. Anderson said that his Amazon sales outweighed his bookstore sales, leading him and his publishes to believe that all of that online-linking led to more Internet/Amazon sales.)

5. Libraries, where books have always been free.

But why do all of this? Anderson said that, in this model, the “free book is the marketing for the non-book thing.” In his case, what he’s really selling is himself. He also acknowledged that, for his publisher, this is a difficult and different proposition. But Anderson believes that “you give away what you can give away, and you charge what you can charge for,” and that all of the iterations of the eBook or the printed book with ads — that any way you offer the “free” version — will be inferior to the real book.

So the real reason for all of this is to generate and maximize exposure. Anderson cited that 200,000 books are published a year, but only 20,000 make money. Because of this, Anderson believes that authors write to be read. So then writers can create audiences by making their material free. Of course, the question then becomes, How does this make money? Because these ideas don’t work for all books, and in the case of most authors, they make their money from royalties (the same way publishers make their money from sales). Anderson mentioned the inevitable publisher opposition to some of his ideas. However, he also stressed that, in an increasingly digital world, traditional publishers need to find a way to play a part in the growing community aspects that are currently growing around books.

In terms of the “print is dead” debate, Anderson was not as forward thinking. He said that the printed book is still “the optimal way to read the book,” stating flatly that the “physical product is better than the digital book.” As I mentioned in the blog post about Edward Tenner’s article a few months ago, this reminds me of the paraphrased chant at the end of Animal Farm: “Digital books good, printed books better!” Anderson also said, tongue somewhat in check, that “the only thing that comes close to the book is a glossy magazine.” (He is, after all the editor of Wired.) In the face of digital music, and the online streaming or outright downloading of movies and TV shows, he also said “books are the last physical commodity that makes sense.” He also said that books were the last item opposing the “relentless march” towards digitization. The way he said this made it sound as if he approves of the book’s continued resistance in the face of digital challenges. He expounded on this during the Q&A session following the keynotes, when an audience member asked Anderson if he felt he had been “too harsh” in his dismissal of eBooks. Anderson hesitated a bit, but then answered that his views on eBooks versus printed books are based mainly on the emotional aspect of books and not necessarily their utility.

Finally, in terms of his admittedly radical idea of giving things away for “free,” Anderson stated that “there are a lot of risks, but eventually things work themselves out.”

Recently I saw two great articles about the Bob Stein and his Institute for the Future of the Book. One of the articles was written by Buzz Poole, and appeared on the blog The Millions. Entitled “Ride the Shuffle: The Institute for the Future of the Book,” the article takes a long look at the work of the Institute, as well as summarizing its general philosophy and attitude towards book.

Initially, however, here’s how Poole describes the organization: “The Institute for the Future of the Book is on the bleeding edge of [the book’s] evolution. Headquartered in Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Institute is redefining the act of reading, with the ultimate goal of democratizing how information is created, conveyed, maintained and understood. The Institute is not the first on the block to try to make the best of technology for such a purpose, but it is making its ideas reality.”

Poole then gets into a few of the Institute’s specific projects, such as Sophie and GAM3R 7H3ORY (which, in fact, is not the sequel to THX 1138). Poole’s article is a great place for people to start if they’re interested in what Bob Stein and the others are up to. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting most of the guys at the Institute, and can say that they’re all really smart and are doing great work. I’m glad to see them get this kind of coverage.

In addition to this, I was pleased to see that Bob had been featured in last week’s New York Magazine as part of their “Look Book” feature, wherein they find interesting and well-dressed people, and write about what they’re wearing. It’s a little surreal to see fashion and electronic reading written about on the same page, but I think it just goes to show that you can be digital, but also be stylish.

On Sunday I’m flying to California to attend the O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference, which is taking place in San Jose from Monday to Wednesday. This is a new conference, which has been established in order to “provide critically important analysis, hands-on workshops, and thought-provoking sessions for publishers looking to recognize and help shape the future of publishing.”

There are a number of great speakers, including Tim O’Reilly himself, as well as Wired editor and Long Tail author Chris Anderson. I’ll be chairing a panel on Wednesday entitled “Back to the Future: Major Publishers Revisit Digital Publishing. Joining me will be Matt Shatz from Random House, Claire Israel from Simon & Schuster, and Theresa Horner from Harper Collins. Here’s a description of our session:

“Six years ago every major New York publisher became involved with eBooks on some level, only to see them fizzle in a cloud of overheated expectations and foolhardy predictions. But now, more than half a decade later (after the rise of the iPod has shown that consumers are indeed interested in digital delivery and consumption of entertainment), publishers are getting back into digital publishing in a big way. Granted, the industry is still dealing with some of the same issues that felled eBooks last time around, such as price, DRM, and format/reader confusion, but we’ve also learned the harsh lessons of 1999-2000, which means that the publishers who apply those lessons to 2007 (and beyond) are the ones who are going to successfully segue into a profitable digital future.”

Should be a great session, so if you’re attending the conference, stop by a say hi.

O’Reilly Tools of Change website