if:book

sea change

bob stein — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:52:21 PST

There was a book sale outside the library at UCLA today. lots of wonderful paperbacks for 50 cents each. a year ago i would have bought a bag full. today zero. why? i do almost all my novel reading now on my iPhone which is always with me and which makes it easy to read at the gym, as opposed to print books which never lie flat.

the android OS

bob stein — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:48:28 PDT

two interesting pieces about the importance of the Android OS to "the future of the book"

http://ireaderreview.com/2009/10/27/androids-impact-on-ereading/
http://ebooktest.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/the-coming-android-mini-tablet-flood/

there's no such thing as an amorphous "public"

bob stein — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:43:35 PDT

Cody Brown, an NYU undergrad, just announced Kommons, an ambitious effort to build a new model of news gathering and presentation. I just read his blog post announcing the new venture, "A Public Can Talk To Itself" and find myself deeply disturbed. Although its no longer fashionable to say so, we live in a class society and our news organizations serve the needs of the classes they represent. Brown may very well go on to build the most successful news gathering operation of this new era, but whose interests will it serve? Brown's idea of "the public" is clearly limited to those people who have access to technology, to the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to express themselves with that technology and the time to be a "citizen journalist." Brown's use of his mentor Clay Shirky's automobile analogy confirms this when he writes: "A hundred years ago, back when cars were first being sold, you didn?t just buy one and drive it off the lot, the car itself was so complicated and difficult to manage that you hired a professional chauffeur who also served as a kind of mechanic." I"m not sure how wealthy you had to be to buy the pre-Model T cars but I'm assuming it was a very small percentage of "the public."

A last point, i find it fascinating and not insignificant that Brown has named his new venture, Kommons. I'm sure he just thinks it's cute, but if he checks the Wikipedia, he'll find there is a specific historical meaning often attached to the switch from K to C. I'm sure he didn't set out consciously to trash the concept of the Commons but then i'm also sure he doesnt' see any problems with his definition of public either.

From Wikipedia

"K" replacing "C" (article here)

Replacing the letter ?c? with ?k? in the first letter of a word came into use by the Ku Klux Klan during its early years in the mid to late 1800s. The concept is continued today within the ranks of the Klan. They call themselves "konservative KKK."

In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States.[1] It is still used as a political statement today.[2] It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

In broader usage, the replacement of the letter "C" with "K" denotes general political skepticism about the topic at hand and is intended to discredit or debase the term in which the replacement occurs. [9] Detractors sometimes spell former president Bill Clinton's name as "Klinton" or "Klintoon". [emphasis mine]

A similar usage in Spanish (and Portuguese too) is to write okupa rather than "ocupa" (often on a building or area occupied by squatters [10], referring to the name adopted by okupación activist groups), which is particularly remarkable because the letter "k" is rarely found in either Spanish or Portuguese words. It stems from Spanish anarchist and punk movements which used "k" to signal rebellion [3].

The letter "C" is also commonly changed to a "K" in a non-pejorative way in KDE, a desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems.

independent booksellers fight for their existence

bob stein — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:27:28 PDT

October 22, 2009

The Board of Directors of the American Booksellers Association today sent the following letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that it investigate practices by Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target that it believes constitute illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers.

October 22, 2009

The Honorable Christine Varney
Assistant Attorney General
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 3109
Washington, DC 20530

Molly Boast, Esquire
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Matters
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3210
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Ms. Varney and Ms. Boast,

We are writing on behalf of the American Booksellers Association, a 109-year-old trade organization representing the nation's locally owned, independent booksellers. A core part of our mission is devoted to making books as widely available to American consumers as possible. We ask that the Department of Justice investigate practices by Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target that we believe constitute illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers. We are requesting a meeting with you to discuss this urgent issue at your earliest possible opportunity.

As reported in the consumer and trade press this past week, Amazon.com, WalMart.com, and Target.com have engaged in a price war in the pre-sale of new hardcover bestsellers, including books from John Grisham, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Sarah Palin, and James Patterson. These books typically retail for between $25 and $35. As of writing of this letter, all three competitors are selling these and other titles for between $8.98 and $9.00.

Publishers sell these books to retailers at 45% - 50% off the suggested list price. For example, a $35 book, such as Mr. King's Under the Dome, costs a retailer $17.50 or more. News reports suggest that publishers are not offering special terms to these big box retailers, and that the retailers are, in fact, taking orders for these books at prices far below cost. (In the case of Mr. King's book, these retailers are losing as much as $8.50 on each unit sold.) We believe that Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are using these predatory pricing practices to attempt to win control of the market for hardcover bestsellers.

It's important to note that the book industry is unlike other retail sectors. Clothing, jewelry, appliances, and other commercial goods are typically sold at a net price, leaving the seller free to determine the retail price and the margin these products will earn. Because publishers print list prices indelibly on jacket covers, and because books are sold at a discount off that retail price, there is a ceiling on the amount of margin a book retailer can earn.

The suggested list price set by the publisher reflects manufacturing costs -- acquisition, editing, marketing, printing, binding, shipping, etc. -- which vary significantly from book to book. By selling each of these titles below the cost these retailers pay to the publishers, and at the same price as each other, and at the same price as all other titles in these pricing schemes, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are devaluing the very concept of the book. Authors and publishers, and ultimately consumers, stand to lose a great deal if this practice continues and/or grows.

What's so troubling in the current situation is that none of the companies involved are engaged primarily in the sale of books. They're using our most important products -- mega bestsellers, which, ironically, are the most expensive books for publishers to bring to market -- as a loss leader to attract customers to buy other, more profitable merchandise. The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war.

It's also important to note that this episode was precipitated by below-cost pricing of digital editions of new hardcover books by Amazon.com, many of those titles retailing for $9.99, and released simultaneously with the much higher-priced print editions. We believe the loss-leader pricing of digital content also bears scrutiny.

While on the surface it may seem that these lower prices will encourage more reading and a greater sharing of ideas in the culture, the reality is quite the opposite. Consider this quote from Mr. Grisham's agent, David Gernert, that appeared in the New York Times:

"If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over. If you can buy Stephen King's new novel or John Grisham's 'Ford County' for $10, why would you buy a brilliant first novel for $25? I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted best sellers take the consumer's attention away from emerging writers."

For our members -- locally owned, independent bookstores -- the effect will be devastating. There is simply no way for ABA members to compete. The net result will be the closing of many independent bookstores, and a concentration of power in the book industry in very few hands. Bill Petrocelli, owner of Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, an ABA member, was also quoted in the New York Times:

"You have a choke point where millions of writers are trying to reach millions of readers. But if it all has to go through a narrow funnel where there are only four or five buyers deciding what's going to get published, the business is in trouble."

We would find these practices questionable were they taking place in the market for widgets. That they are taking place in the market for books is catastrophic. If left unchecked, these predatory pricing policies will devastate not only the book industry, but our collective ability to maintain a society where the widest range of ideas are always made available to the public, and will allow the few remaining mega booksellers to raise prices to consumers unchecked.

We urge that the DOJ investigate and request an opportunity to come to Washington to discuss this at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

ABA Board of Directors:

Michael Tucker, President (Books Inc.--San Francisco, CA)
Becky Anderson, Vice President (Anderson's Bookshops--Naperville, IL)
Steve Bercu (BookPeople--Austin, TX)
Betsy Burton (The King's English Bookshop--Salt Lake City, UT)
Tom Campbell (The Regulator Bookshop--Durham, NC)
Dan Chartrand (Water Street Bookstore--Exeter, NH)
Cathy Langer (Tattered Cover Book Store--Denver, CO)
Beth Puffer (Bank Street Bookstore--New York, NY)
Ken White (SFSU Bookstore--San Francisco, CA)
CC: Oren Teicher, CEO, American Booksellers Association
Len Vlahos, COO, American Booksellers Association
Owen M. Kendler, Esquire, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice

The internet Archive (and friends) announce Bookserver

bob stein — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:04 PDT

Congratulations to Brewster Kahle and Peter Brantley of the Internet Archive for the very exciting, maybe sea-changing debut of the BookServer initiative. Possibly some real competition to Google, Amazon and Apple.

Here is a re-post of Fran Toolan's detailed account of yesterday's event.

The Day It All Changed

October 20, 2009 by ftoolan

OK, sounds dramatic, but trust me, mark down October 19, 2009 as a day to remember.

Rarely, in my career have I been "blown away" by a demonstration. Tonight, "blown away" doesn't even begin to describe it. I should have seen it coming, but, I didn't. I was completely blindsided. I was blindsided by the vision of Brewster Kahle, the raw brilliance of his team, and the entire group of individuals and companies who played a role in Brewster's "convocation".

What I saw, was many of the dreams and visions of e-book aficionados everywhere becoming a demonstrable reality tonight. I say 'demonstrable', because by Brewster's own admission, it's not ready for prime time, but the demonstration was enough to make my head spin with the possibilities. But you don't really want to know that, so let me do my best to just report what I saw.

Let's start from the beginning...

Tonight, Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive Founder and Chief Librarian, introduced what he calls his "BookServer" project. BookServer is a framework of tools and activities. It is an open-architectured set of tools that allow for the discoverability, distribution, and delivery of electronic books by retailers, librarians, and aggregators, all in a way that makes for a very easy and satisfying experience for the reader, on whatever device they want.

Now that may sound fairly innocuous, but let me try to walk through what was announced, and demonstrated (Please forgive me if some names or sequences are wrong, I'm trying to do this all from memory):

* Brewster announced that the number of books scanned at libraries all over the world has increased over the past year from 1 million books to 1.6 million books.

* He then announced that all of these 1.6 million books were available in the ePub format, making them accessible via Stanza on the iPhone, on Sony Readers, and many other reading devices in a way that allows the text to re-flow if the font has been changed.

* Next he announced that not only were these files available in ePub form, but that they were available in the "Daisy" format as well. Daisy is the format used to create Braille and Text to Speech software interpretations of the work.

* There were other statistics he cited related to other mediums such as 100,000 hours of TV recordings, 400,000 music recordings, and 15 billion (yes it's a 'b') web pages that have been archived.

* He then choreographed a series of demonstrations. Raj Kumar from Internet Archive demonstrated how the BookServer technology can deliver books to the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) XO laptop, wirelessly. There are 1 million of these machines in the hands of underprivileged children around the world, and today they just got access to 1.6 million new books.

* Michael Ang of IA then demonstrated how a title in the Internet Archive which was available in the MOBI format could be downloaded to a Kindle - from outside the Kindle store - and then read on the Kindle. Because many of these titles were in the Mobi format as well, Kindle readers everywhere also have access to IA's vast database.

* Next up, Mike McCabe of IA, came up and demonstrated how files in the Daisy format could be downloaded to a PC then downloaded to a device from Humana, specifically designed for the reading impaired. The device used Text-to-speech technology to deliver the content, but what was most amazing about this device was the unprecedented ease at which a sight impaired person could navigate around a book, moving from chapter to chapter, or to specific pages in the text.

* Brewster took a break from the demonstrations to elaborate a couple of facts, the most significant of which was the fact the books in the worlds libraries fall into 3 categories. The first category is public domain, which accounts for 20% of the total titles out there - these are the titles being scanned by IA. The second category is books that are in print and still commercially viable, these account for 10% of the volumes in the world's libraries. The last category are books that are "out of print" but still in copyright. These account for 70% of the titles, and Brewster called this massive amount of information the "dead zone" of publishing. Many of these are the orphan titles that we've heard so much about related to the Google Book Settlement - where no one even knows how to contact the copyright holder. (To all of my friends in publishing, if you let these statistics sink in for a minute, your head will start to spin).

* Brewster went on to talk about how for any digital ecosystem to thrive, it must support not just the free availability of information, but also the ability for a consumer to purchase, or borrow books as well.

* At this point, Michael came back out and demonstrated - using the bookserver technology - the purchase of a title from O'Reilly on the Stanza reader on the iPhone - direct from O'Reilly - not from Stanza. If you are a reader, you may think that there is nothing too staggering about that, but if you are a publisher, this is pretty amazing stuff. Stanza is supporting the bookserver technology, and supporting the purchase of products direct from publishers or any other retailer using their technology as a delivery platform. (Again, friends in publishing, give that one a minute to sink in.)

* The last demonstration was not a new one to me, but Raj came back on and he and Brewster demonstrated how using the Adobe ACS4 server technology, digital books can be borrowed, and protected from being over borrowed from libraries everywhere. First Brewster demonstrated the borrowing process, and then Raj tried to borrow the same book but found he couldn't because it was already checked out. In a tip of the hat to Sony, Brewster then downloaded his borrowed text to his Sony Reader. This model protects the practice of libraries buying copies of books from publishers, and only loaning out what they have to loan. (Contrary to many publishers fears that it's too easy to "loan" unlimited copies of e-Books from libraries).

* In the last piece of the night's presentation, Brewster asked many of the people involved in this project to come up and say a few words about why they were here, and what motivated them to be part of the project. The sheer number of folks that came out were as impressive as the different constituencies they represented. By the end of this the stage was full of people, including some I know, like Liza Daly (Three Press), Mike Tamblyn (Shortcovers), and Andrew Savikas (O'Reilly). Others, I didn't know included Hadrien Gradeur (Feedbooks), the woman who invented the original screen for the OLPC, a published author, a librarian from the University of Toronto, Cartwright Reed from Ingram, and a representative from Adobe.

After the night was over, I walked all the way back to the Marina district where I was staying. The opportunities and implications of the night just absolutely made my head spin. I am completely humbled to be asked to be here and to witness this event.

In one fell swoop, the Internet Archive expanded the availability of books to millions of people who never had access before, bringing knowledge to places that had never had it. Who knows what new markets that will create, or more importantly what new minds will contribute to our collective wisdom as a result of that access. In the same motion, Brewster demonstrated a world where free can coexist with the library borrowing model, and with the commercial marketplace. Protecting the interests of both of those important constituencies in this ecosystem. He also, in the smoothest of ways, portrayed every 'closed system' including our big retail friends and search engine giants, as small potatoes.

I will have to post again about the implications of all this, but people smarter than me - many of whom I was able to meet today, will be far more articulate about what just happened. I'm still too blown away. I know this, it was a 'game changer' day. It may take a couple of years to come to full fruition, but we will be able to pinpoint the spot in history when it was all shown to be possible. I need to thank Peter Brantley for inviting (or should I say tempting) me to be there. Wow.

transliteracy research group launched

bob stein — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:08:19 PDT

Sue Thomas and Kate Pullinger today announced the formation of The Transliteracy Research Group, a research-focused think-tank and creative laboratory. They define transliteracy as the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The public face of the group resides on a new blog.

visualizing changes in The Origin of the Species

bob stein — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:05:46 PDT

Ben Fry has made a wonderful visualization showing how Darwin changed the text of Origin of the Species over the course of six editions. It's more of a conceptual art piece at this point but an exciting indicator of the powerful tools to come. Here's Ben Fry's own description:

We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished. In fact, Darwin's On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas -- whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself.
The second edition, for instance, adds a notable "by the Creator" to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another example, the phrase "survival of the fittest" -- usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin -- instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn't appear until the fifth edition of the text. Using the six editions as a guide, we can see the unfolding and clarification of Darwin's ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime.
This project is made possible by the hard work of Dr. John van Wyhe, et al. who run The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. The text for each edition was sourced from their careful transcription of Darwin's books, and Dr. van Wyhe generously granted permission to use the text. This piece is a simpler version of a larger effort that looks at the changes between editions, and is intended as the first in a series looking at how the book evolved over time. Built with Processing.

first vook -- utter failure, hbo Cube -- very interesting experiment

bob stein — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:18:16 PDT

The first Vooks (combination text and video) were published yesterday by Simon & Schuster imprint, Atria. I bought the iPhone app version of Jude Deveraux's Promises. Basically it's an ordinary romance novel with video clips interspersed in the pages. In terms of form the result is ho-hum in the extreme, particularly as there doesn't seem to be much attempt to integrate the text and the banal video, which seems to exist simply to pretty-up the pages. (Note: two of the other Vooks, released yesterday are self-help titles, 90 Second Fitness Solution and Return to Beauty: Old World Recipes For Great Radiant Skin, which probably make a much better case for integrating video into the page.)

If you want to see something innovative however, check out HBO's Cube experiment which breaks the film into more than 35 scenes each presented from four angles. As the viewer, you choose how you move through the time and space of the movie. Putting it all together is not unlike solving a jigsaw puzzle with a narrative.

24 hour novel

bob stein — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:01:21 PDT

Another innovative project from our colleagues at the London branch of the institute; this time in collaboration with the folks at CompletelyNovel.com. cross-posted from if:book London's blog, BookFutures.

Something is growing in South London ... Spread the Word challenges writers to write and publish a book about London in just 24 hours

In collaboration with if:book, The Society of Young Publishers and CompletelyNovel.com, Spread the Word has commissioned The 24 Hour Book, a groundbreaking project to challenge a group of writers to write a new story about London in just 24 hours.

The book will be written by a group of experienced writers working together using online collaboration tools around the clock between 10am on Saturday 3 October and 10am on Sunday 4 October. On the Sunday, a group of volunteer editors and publishers will move in to make the story ready for publication.

As well as making the book available to read online, CompletelyNovel.com will link directly to Print-onDemand printers to enable hard copies of the book to be available for its launch at 6pm on Monday 5 October.

Using digital technology, the public will also be able to follow and to contribute their ideas to the story online as it develops. Based around a group of city centre allotments, the story will explore ideas of shared and private space and the real and imaginary barriers between a range of different city characters

The lead writer for The 24 Hour Book will be Kate Pullinger and writers participating will include Sarah Butler, Aoife Mannix, Dean Atta, Cath Drake, Ben Payne, Chris Meade, Toni Le Busque, Saradha Soobrayen and Shamim Azad. The final book will be published under a Creative Commons license and available to buy on CompletelyNovel.com.

For more information please visit http://www.24hrbook.com or contact Ben Payne on 07974 155312, ben@spreadtheword.org.uk.

the kindle gets poor grades at Princeton

bob stein — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:12:08 PDT

The following is an article by Hyung Lee in yesterday's Daily Princetonian

When the University announced its Kindle e-reader pilot program last May, administrators seemed cautiously optimistic that the e-readers would both be sustainable and serve as a valuable academic tool. But less than two weeks after 50 students received the free Kindle DX e-readers, many of them said they were dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the devices.

On Wednesday, the University revealed that students in three courses -- WWS 325: Civil Society and Public Policy, WWS 555A: U.S. Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East, and CLA 546: Religion and Magic in Ancient Rome -- were given a new Kindle DX containing their course readings for the semester. The University had announced last May it was partnering with Amazon.com, founded by Jeff Bezos '86, to provide students and faculty members with the e-readers as part of a sustainability initiative to conserve paper.

But though they acknowledged some benefits of the new technology, many students and faculty in the three courses said they found the Kindles disappointing and difficult to use.

"I hate to sound like a Luddite, but this technology is a poor excuse of an academic tool," said Aaron Horvath '10, a student in Civil Society and Public Policy. "It's clunky, slow and a real pain to operate."

Horvath said that using the Kindle has required completely changing the way he completes his coursework.

"Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages -- not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs," he explained. "All these things have been lost, and if not lost they're too slow to keep up with my thinking, and the 'features' have been rendered useless."

Wilson School professor Stan Katz, who teaches Horvath's class, said he is interested in whether he "can teach as effectively in using this as in using books and E-Reserve material and in whether students can use this effectively," adding that "the only way to find out is to try it."

One of Katz' main concerns is whether students can do close reading of the texts with the new device, he said.

"I require a very close reading of texts. I encourage students to mark up texts, and ... I expect them to underline and to highlight texts," Katz explained. "The question is whether you can do them as effectively with a Kindle as with paper."

Katz added that had to confront the issue early when he transitioned from using familiar texts for teaching.

"I have all of my books marked up," Katz said. "Either I use my own annotations, or I take the time, an immense amount of time" to annotate with the Kindle.

Katz also said he has little incentive to move his annotations to the Kindle, explaining that he heard the University won't use the Kindle next year and adding that he finds the device "hard to use."

Katz also added that the absence of page numbers in the Kindle makes it more difficult for students to cite sources consistently.

"The Kindle doesn't give you page numbers; it gives you location numbers. They have to do that because the material is reformatted," Katz said. He noted that while the location numbers are "convenient for reading," they are "meaningless for anyone working from analog books."

Though using a Kindle is voluntary, no one has opted out of using a Kindle in Katz' class, so he has permitted his students to use location numbers in their written work for the course.

Should students from any of the courses choose to not take part in the pilot program -- called "Toward Print-Less and Paper-Less Courses: Pilot Amazon Kindle Program" -- they will be allowed to print their readings.

While the Kindle may hinder the reading experience of some, others may benefit from the device's unique electronic display.

Classics professor Harriet Flower, who teaches Religion and Magic in Ancient Rome, said in an e-mail that the Kindle "is very easy on the eye," adding that she could "read for longer without [her] eyes feeling tired."

But Rachel George '10, a student in Katz' class, said in an e-mail that she has found it "a little difficult to adjust to the e-reader."

"A huge benefit to the Kindle is having large quantities of reading available at your fingertips and not having to print and lug around books and articles," she said. "Some disadvantages are the necessity to charge the Kindle and the impossibility of 'flipping through' a book."

George also said the annotation software was "useful but not as easy or 'organic' feeling as taking notes on paper."

"For some people," she explained, "electronic reading can never replace the functionality and 'feel' of reading off paper."

the launch of MediaCommons Press

bob stein — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:21:57 PDT

Cross-posted from Kathleen Fitzpatrick's blog at MediaCommons

Today I have the pleasure of unveiling MediaCommons Press, a project we've been working toward for several months now. MediaCommons Press is the second major project hosted by MediaCommons, and it is dedicated, as the header has it, to open scholarship in open formats. MediaCommons Press hopes to promote the digital publication and discussion of texts ranging from article- to monograph-length, in forms ranging from the traditional to the experimental, serving all areas of scholarship in media studies.

Today's also the day that I put my money where my mouth is, in more senses than one: I'm serving as the test case for MediaCommons Press by releasing, as our first major publication, the book that I've been working on for the last year and a half. Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy will, if all goes according to plan, come out in print sometime next year from NYU Press, but it's available online right now, for open review.

And that's the second way I'm putting my money where my mouth is. One of the key arguments that I make in the book is that the peer review of digital texts must be an open, conversational process, one that draws on the wisdom of a far greater number of readers than the usual two or three anonymous reviewers, one that focuses on discussion among the reviewers, and between the reviewers and the author, and one that allows the multiplicity of responses to a text to become part of the text itself.

I hope you'll come by and join the discussion. And I also hope you'll consider joining in by publishing with us. MediaCommons has developed into a thriving community network in media studies; we're excited to take the first steps today in transforming that network into a viable, community-based scholarly publishing system.

from if:book London

bob stein — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:40:44 PDT

This note is from Chris Meade, director of if:book London

IF:BOOK'S FIRST FICTIONAL STIMULUS - a digital boost to the book

Apologies for any cross posting, but it's the end of week one in if:book's FICTIONAL STIMULUS and already visible on the site is new work by Kate Pullinger, Naomi Alderman, Cory Doctorow, Jacob Polley.. and more. Next weekend readers will be invited to contribute to the 24 HOUR BOOK being written, edited, printed and published by if:book, Spread the Word, The Society of Young Publishers and Completelynovel.com, and before that there are more batches of great new writing.

We've so far attracted a fascinating group of 120 readers from around the world, just through Twitter, Facebook and emailing contacts. It's not too late to join and we would love to find out what you think.
If you're ready to log on, go to www.fictional-stimulus.ning.com. where you'll find 4 short batches of digital literature with more added every few days for the next three weeks.
If you want to read more about it first, go HERE,

All the best

Chris

Branding: The Future of Publishing?

bob stein — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:30:12 PDT

Patrick Brown who writes a blog for Vroman's, LA's great independent bookstore, did a lovely riff off of yesterday's post, A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books.

a clean well-lighted place for books

bob stein — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:29:49 PDT

The following started out as a set of notes to various colleagues suggesting that successful digital publishing involves much much more than coming up with a viable form for networked books. rather unexpectedly this led to the question of how bookstores might evolve to give publishers a way to reassert their brands and strengthen their position vis a vis Amazon (as well as Google and Apple). This is very much a work in progress but i thought i'd post it and bring others into the discussion along the way.

The idea that "a book is a place (where readers, sometimes with authors, congregate)" arose out of a series of experiments investigating what happens when the act of reading moves from the printed page to an online space designed for social interaction. as we expanded the notion of a work to include the activity in the margin, in effect we re-defined "content" to include the conversation that a text engenders. Put another way, locating a text in a dynamic network brings the social aspects of reading to the fore. (see Without Gods, Gamer Theory, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Golden Notebook projects)

In an earlier set of notes ("A Unified Field Theory of Publishing in the Networked Era") I suggested that as discourse moves off the page onto networked screens, the roles of authors, readers, editors, publishers will shift in significant ways. For example, the author's traditional commitment to engage with a subject matter on behalf of future readers will shift to a commitment to engage with readers in the context of a subject. Successful publishers, i posited, will distinguish themselves by their ability to build and nurture vibrant communities of interest, often with authors at the center, but not necessarily always.

The purpose of this new set of notes is to expand the thinking beyond how a specific text is presented or interacted with. Reading (and writing) do not happen only at the level of the individual work. There is a broad ecology of behaviors, activities and micro-environments that surround each work and our relationship to it -- how things come to be written, how we choose what to read, how we make the purchase, how we share our experience with others. Currently (i.e. toward the end of age of print), that ecology is defined by agent/editor mechanisms of acquisition, sharp delineation between authors and readers, top-down marketing, heavy reliance on big mainstream media to get the word out, the bookshelves that make our books part of our daily life, bookstores and -- yes -- Amazon. Much more than not, Amazon is a product of the same DNA that underlies the still-dominant mode of the print-book read by the solitary reader. Everything about the Kindle, from its interaction design to its draconian DRM provisions, underlines its conservative role in preserving the ecologies of print.

The current e-book business (the buying/selling bits) was designed (or at least evolved) to minimize friction with the legacy business; pricing, release schedules and DRM all structured so as not to challenge print, which is still the predominant source of revenues.

To succeed at publishing in the networked era, it won't be enough just to re-conceive the work as a "networked book." If we accept that social interaction will be paramount, not just at the level of the individual work but throughout the ecology of networked reading and writing, then it's important also to ask the question "if a book is a place, what is the place for books? (or, more accurately but less forceful, "what are the places for books?")

Currently the predominant place(s) for books are bookstores, libraries, classrooms, cafes (as a stand-in for the general category of informal brick-and-mortar gathering places), living-room reading groups, and the infoweb (mainstream media + internet) where books are reviewed, promoted, and on sites like LibraryThing and Shelfari, discussed. Each of these places has its own culture, its own social fabric that determines how people relate to each other, what their transactions are like, how you meet "new" people, how you come to trust them or not, and how you manage ongoing connections/relationships.

The bookstore, The Library and The Cafe
Brick and mortar bookstores are much better for (un-directed) browsing than online stores. This is probably mostly a function of bandwidth, i.e. I can see so much more in a bookstore than I can on my 2D screen. This will change as the web and its attendant hardware/software develops over time, but my guess is that a satisfying browsing experience of the order i can get in a great bookstore is many, many years away from practical. On the other hand if you know what you're looking for, online shopping excels at simplifying the process of making the transaction. In fact, in every sense except immediate transfer to the buyer of the object they've purchased, online buying is vastly more efficient. When the bulk of our book purchases are in electronic form, and therefore delivered instantly, the significant advantages left to the bookstore will be the superior browsing experience, the help desk and the cafe.

[And before you say "oh, it will be years before the bulk of what we're buying is in electronic form," think about how many iPhone apps or iTunes purchases you or your friends have made in the past few months (including the books you've been reading on your phone or Kindle) compared to how many print books you/they bought. This part of the future seems to be near-now.]

[Although many/most stores have an online presence, presently online and physical experiences tend to be relatively cut off from each other. However, that will change as online and physical experiences increasingly encroach on each other. At first this will happen in obvious ways: having access to the detail on the web when shopping in a physical store, being "joined" by a reading group buddy from Buenos Aires while talking with friends in a cafe. Eventually, as wearables become more powerful and ubiquitous, so much of our behavior will be sufficiently mediated by online access that the distinction will begin to disappear. So . . . whether you start with online or start with bricks and mortar, success will depend on making decisions which take into account the whole range of potential interactions.]

Intersecting Problems and Questions:

In terms of ebooks, as long as formats are hardware-bound and the hardware vendor controls the store, it will be next to impossible for publishers/creators to have much influence on the broader ecology (including the purchasing experience) as described above.

Sadly, publishers put themselves in this situation by believing in the necessity of powerful DRM schemes which made them susceptible to Amazon's Kindle pitch (and presumably whatever Apple is telling them now about the soon-to-come iTablet).

Amazon, by doing its best to disconnect works from their publishers has nearly completed the deterioration of the value/meaning of publisher brands, a process that started with the rise of the big aggregator bookshops. In order to survive in the networked era, publishers will need to reverse this trend and forge much closer connections to their customers. this could call for a variety of solutions, including newly conceived publisher-owned, online-meatspace bookstores, or a re-imagining of the Foyles arrangement (now since abandoned) of shelving books according to publisher. [in high-end department stores, this is already the norm, with each maker having its own real estate on the shop floor.

The first publishers were printers and booksellers. There was a long tradition of publisher bookshops in in NY. Could a publisher open up a bookshop/cafe of an entirely new type?
• great cafe/bar/restaurant with lots of comfortable/flexible seating arrangements that encourage interaction.
• POD for out-of-print works AND for chapters
• part of store set-up for optimum browsing of in-print books, both front- and back-list
• concept of "staff picks" vastly extended to include recommendations by readers and represented both on screens and in sections set aside for browsing of actual books.
• immediate download of ebooks in whatever formats are not proscribed by hardware vendors
• knowledgeable personnel
• robust and free wi-fi
• easy access to large monitors for group discussions of various sizes.
• flexible spaces that can accommodate author appearances, saturday morning children's activities, and group discussions
• very active user/customer (electronic) bulletin board for recommendations and ad-hoc social group formation (of an endless variety).

a friend who read an earlier draft of these notes send a note expressing doubt about the viability of physical stores to which i sent the following reply:

The point i was trying to make in raising the question of physical stores was that the broader ecology of reading and writing encompasses both online and physical components. While of course it's cheaper to go 100% online, i'm doubtful that it's the route to success at this time. By example, wasn't Bezos' genius in figuring out how to move one crucial part of the reading experience -- the purchase of the book -- online; the physical object was still delivered to your door. [The early success (a single as opposed to a home run) of the Kindle is interesting. I think it works because the Kindle's display is just barely good enough to read on, and again Bezos made the purchase experience relatively painless. But as long as we're still occupying our corporeal bodies, i don't think the Kindle/whispernet combo is sufficient yet to make up for the desire for in-store browsing plus all the social components of the store including knowledgeable personnel and the opportunity to be out and about in a lively retail environment. Shopping isn't just about the purchase. Would Apple be where it is today if it hadn't opened its stores?]

The crux of the matter, i think, is branding. Over time publishers yielded the primacy of publishing house brands to the aggregators (Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon). and having lost the power of their brands, publishers relied more on the star power of individual authors which made it much more difficult to launch new writers etc., making the publishers even weaker over time.

Clearly anything as important a game-changer as the shift from page to screen is/was an opportunity to re-set the terms of the competition. Amazon recognized this much earlier than any of the publishers and in launching the Kindle launch put publishers into an even more defensive position.

One aspect of what i'm working on here is the question of how do publishers (established ones and/or new ones) change the current model so that they are in a better position to compete. And the answer in part is, in the case of established publishers to take back their brands and for new publishers to build their brands.

[Interestingly, GiantChair understood this and built a business model which used google-based discovery to send consumers directly to a publisher's website rather than Amazon or another aggregator. GC's embrace of Commentpress and Sophie included the recognition that succeeding with these new formats which allow (nearly require) publishers to sell directly to consumers, will help publishers regain some of the ground lost to Amazon and others.]

I find myself thinking a lot about what i call the "Foyles" model. in the not too recent past Foyles in London shelved books, not alphabetically by subject or genre, but by publisher such that there was the Penguin section and the Bloomsbury section. For a more recent example, video stores usually shelve Criterion titles on their own -- precisely because of the power of the brand. From this perspective I see two sorts of physical store plays -- one could open a completely new sort of superstore . . . . where publishers, like perfume companies, effectively rent space to show their wares (fulfilling in some cases with actual books but also via POD and online). The second is a publisher branded cafe/store -- McSweeney's, Lonely Planet, Canongate, maybe Knopf/Vintage but certainly not it's parent brand Random House which is much too diffuse at this point). As i wrote in the draft i sent you the success of such stores would depend on doing many things right.

however, just to keep things in perspective, the main point i'm trying to make in "a clean well-lighted place for books" is not about the potential of physical stores to build brands per se, but about the need to re-think the whole shebang of which the retail venues are only one part.

transmedia storytelling -- interesting exchange between Bordwell and Jenkins

bob stein — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:54:49 PDT

Henry Jenkins wrote an interesting three-part response to a post by his mentor, film scholar David Bordwell on the subject of transmedia storytelling. In addition to being thought-provoking it's a lovely example of how discourse can be thoughtful and meaningful without becoming antagonistic -- two minds working together to understand a complex problem.