Welcome to the Future

It’s hard to make assumptions about the future of the book industry because of the way that things are already changing. Twenty years ago, who could have foreseen that people would be reading on book sized electric screens instead of on paper. If you told me 10 years ago that 2009 would be the year of the ebook, I would have told you to go back to the Brave New World.

There has long since been an obsession with futurism in literature. As time goes by, some proposed futures begin to look comical. The attendees of the world’s fair saw countless inventions that were going to revolutionize this and streamline that. We have always been a little obsessed with what we think might save us some time. So, perhaps a lot of people wrote e-readers off as blue ribbon ideas and nothing more. But it seems that this particular idea of the future is going to stick around the present for a little while.

While I don’t have any idea what we will be reading on, I do have to say that we seem to be on the crux of a reading revolution. Since the popularity of Kindle and the like are on the rise, book sales for those particular devices have sky rocketed. Statistics so far say that people are buying more books on their Kindles than they ever bought in analog form. If we presuppose that this means they are actually reading them, then e-reading devices are great for literacy.

For people like me though, the physical book object is a big part of the reading experience. Since we are also on the threshold of what is shaping up to be a green revolution, I think that there is going to be a change in the way we perceive paper. Analog readers like the tactile quality of the book at hand, but with the way our planet seems to be rejecting our old ways, I think there is going to have to be some sort of new paper. The book Cradle to Cradle is a study in the cradle-to-cradle method of design. It is completely recycled and recyclable. It is made of a plasticized “paper” that just might be the next big thing in books.

To be honest, I don’t know what the future of the book looks like, but I am sure as hell going to stick around for the adventure.

Written on the Bed Sheets of Paper

Written on the Body, by Jeanette Winterson, is the book that opened me up as a reader and as a writer. It is also the book that helped me come out of the closet.

It was assigned in a class my first year of college, and it found me at the perfect moment in my life. Written on the Body is a beautifully composed novel that is written from outside of the confines of gender lines. The narrator is a genderless voice that ushers the reader though the treacherous terrain of a highly passionate extramarital affair.

The beginning of the book is an extended poetic musing on love and loss and the intense passion that is doomed to die because it burns so hot. Every time I read it, I remember the way I felt when I first creased the back of the spine and read the opening pages. The words seemed to express everything the angsty, lovelorn, and confused 18-year-old version of me was feeling. Each sentence seemed to cut so deep into my chest I thought my heart might fall out. And, in a way, it did.

I remember the sense of agony and satisfaction that I felt reading those words. It was as if this person had ripped open the pages of my journals, read between the lines, and wrote them back to me in an anonymous letter that smelled of distant perfume. It was as if this voice on the page had seen my face and showed it to me in a beautifully ornate two-way mirror. I thought I had been looking only at myself, but it turns out there was someone else there all along.

Up until that point I had been writing short stories that I did not fully understand. I did not know where they came from, or why some of the characters seemed like strangers to me. I remember one particular story that I kept rewriting. Over and over I would go through and change all of the “he”s to “she”s and then back again. It wasn’t until after I read Written on the Body that I was able to make sense of the things I was writing and the emotions I was feeling. I was able to take the “he”s and “she”s out of my writing all together and recognize that sometimes the distinction of one over the other is a matter of little consequence.

Who needs an editor?

(Um…everyone.)

I just read a fascinating blog from Carole Baron about the need for book editors (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-baron/do-you-really-need-an-edi_b_476612.html). She writes very astutely, if you ignore the handful of grammatical errors, about this rising misconception that digital books mean the end of publishers, and more specifically, the end of editors. This idea that editing is on its way towards obsolescence is something that has been plaguing me for a long time, and it was nice to read about it from the perspective of a working big-house editor.

I mean, what better example of the importance of editors than a blog post written by an editor that has mistakes? If she can’t produce flawless writing, what makes anyone think that an author is suddenly capable of producing error-free writing? Digital format did not suddenly make us better writers, did it? I think not.

As publishers, we are more than just the human version of spell check. We decide what to publish, and then become accountable for its success. We act as the filtration system for the over abundance of work that is produced. In the grand publishing scheme, editors are the fine mesh that ultimately sifts the good out of the heaps and heaps of mediocre.

Or, at least, that is how it is supposed to work. With so many books produced every year, the market is already saturated with a whole lot of nonsense. Some work bypasses the filtration system already, due to the relative ease of self-publishing (for those with the finances to support the endeavor).

Now more than ever, editors are necessary to uphold the integrity of published work. Imagine what the bookstore shelves would look like without someone standing by to say “no” to the crap.

Light...Camera...Publish?

Now is the time for innovative thinking in the book publishing industry. We’re all creative thinkers here right? It certainly seems like the big guys (read: Big 6) are running out of old business models to fall back on, and the little guys (read: small independent publishers) have a chance to pick up some real ground in the industry. Because they are not set in their ways, small publishers will be much more agile as they attempt to re-rout for the changing road ahead.

One new model is loosely based on the movie industry. While Hollywood seems like a questionable role model, this could be a promising step for publishers. Next month, Five Stones Press will release The Fall, the newest book from David Fulmer, a notable mystery author. When his book did not get picked up, Fulmer decided to take matters into his own hands. Some writers would see this as the time to self publish (or find a new “life’s calling”), but Fulmer’s not ready to give up yet.

Because he already has a loyal following, Fulmer (along with two business minded friends) started a publishing house that will fund their publications by selling shares of the book to investors. This is a potentially brilliant breakthrough. If people are willing to contribute money so that investigative journalist can keep writing, surely that will help keep their favorite authors on the new release shelves.

In this particular model, though, the success is contingent on an author’s previous reputation, because let’s face it, people are willing to pay more if they know they are going to like what they get. This is new territory, but perhaps Five Stones Press will be the next publishing star.

What is it? I want it!

Usually I am not a big fan of receiving email marketing. I don’t like being solicited for money. My email inbox is already flooded, and I’m not always eager to give out my email for new marketing materials. However, when there is something that actually appeals to me, I do sometimes respond to email marketing by sending my hard earned money through the series of interconnected tubes that is the internet.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I am a big fan of groupon. Groupon is a magical website that saves me money on things I may or may not have otherwise bought. This, you see, is the sheer genius of it all.

Groupon emails me every day or so to tell me about some fabulous deal (be it food, drink, goods, or services) that is relevant to my geographical location. Each deal is essentially a gift certificate to the respective business on sale for upwards of 50% off. Similarly, about 50% of the deals themselves appeal to me.

(Upon deciding if the deal is interesting enough to possibly buy, I investigate the business. This didn’t even occur to me until I bought a super cheap deal for an oil change, but had to drive all the way down to Milwaukee to redeem it. After that groupon was cashed in, I decided to make a habit of checking the location and driving direction to any business I wasn’t familiar with. Though, I might drive all the way back down there for a good deal on gas.)

I have to say, I have never been more responsive to any other email campaign.
• I think what is so wonderful about it is that it offers me such good deals on things that I might, potentially, buy anyway. This targets the convenience shopper.
• I am a sucker for a good deal. In this way, groupon targets the deal seeking, dollar stretching, bargain shopper.
• But groupon’s success also boils down to the urgency of the thing. Because each deal is only available for one or two days, the groupon shopper must act fast. Here, they are targeting the impulse shopper, the kind of shopper who will buy it because it is here now.

One of their other main strategies is that they make it extremely easy to buy their product. The first time you buy a groupon you create an account with a credit card number that they keep on file (securely) and save for later. That way, anything you want to buy is just one click away.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that the website copy is quirky and fun to read, even if it seems a bit irrelevant at times.

Rethinking Keywords

Rethinking Paper and Ink: The Sustainable Publishing Revolution is a sustainably published book about sustainable publishing. What better way to examine green publishing choices than to publish an eco-friendly book?

For the first publication in the Open Book Series, Ooligan Press students teamed up with the Green Press Initiative and sustainable publishing professionals. The book explores the process of producing an eco-friendly publication, and describes the choices they made in order to produce the book as sustainably as possible.

Not only does Rethinking Paper and Ink: The Sustainable Publishing Revolution aim to reveal the process of producing greener publications, but it also aims to teach others about the small choices that make a big difference in the home and workplace.

Rethinking Paper and Ink: The Sustainable Publishing Revolution is printed on 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper. The Open Book Series, so named for its goal to remain as transparent as possible about the sustainable publishing process, continues to produce eco-conscious publications.


Keywords:
Sustainable Publishing
Sustainability
Green
Greener
Recycled paper
PCW (post-consumer waste)
Eco-friendly
Eco-conscious
Open Book