The Future of the Book ... is Here

Books in the future will be an experience in cross-media. We need to look to the gaming industry to see a space where people are not constrained by the old forms. Fiction authors will become creators of worlds that readers populate like World of Warcraft.

Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn blog attends attends a talk given by Bob Stein, founder and co-director of the Institute for the Future of the Book. She makes a good case for saying that the future that Stein predicts is actually already here.

She lists some of Stein's other thoughts : just ponder the implications :

• Don’t confuse an object with its purpose. The physical book is not its content
• Books are the vehicles that humans use to move ideas around in time and space
• A book is a place where readers (and sometimes authors) congregate
• In non-fiction authors become leaders of communities of enquiry
• Old school authors’ commitment is to engage with subject matter for the benefit of future readers. New school authors engage with readers in the context of subject matter.
• Authors will need to engage with the community around the work they create
• The anxiety about saving a ‘version’ of the content as a printed book will go away. The content will have more of a timeline, a snapshot approach, developing all the time.
• The author will become more like a professor in a class of students. S/he will lead the conversation and point out what may be relevant but the ideas will be in collaboration with the audience/readers.
• Traditional booksellers may be safe in this lifetime, but “your children should go into another career”
• Traditional publishing acts as an intermediary between an author and a reader. Their role in the future will be to build and nurture the community that exists around the author and their work
• E-readers will soon be good enough that they will take off in mainstream. Bob will simultaneously publish his next book in print and ebook formats.
• Print-on-demand is fantastic and will play more of a part as bookstores and publishers go bust

Steven Lee Goes P.O.D.

Steven V.L. Lee who produced the portrait collection entitled Malaysians with Haliza Hashim-Doyle, now has another book of his photography out, but this time he has decided to take the print-on-demand route using blurb.com.

He says that he is happy with the outcome and on his blog he talks about the experience :

The entire process is rather straightforward, with little or no experience needed in layout and design. There are many templates available in the design programme which is downloaded onto your computer. One thing to bear in mind, is that you will need a fairly fast computer with plenty of working memory as it tends to get sluggish as you add on the images to the pages.

Steven says he has been working on the series for the past 7-8 years. The book comprises 94 photographs in black and white of museum artefacts and architectural detail, and is simply stunning. (He showed me the photographs when he was last back in Malaysia.)

You can preview Museo here. And if you so wish, order it.

Talking about print-on-demand, one UK bookshop has now decided to embrace the new technology :

Blackwell's is to become the first high-street bookseller in the UK to offer print-on-demand books while customers wait. The innovation will be delivered by an "Espresso Book Machine" (EBM), which can print and bind any one of a million titles.

Coming to a bookshop near you soon, I really hope.

P-O-D Classics!

The new technology meets the classic!

Faber have announced a new imprint, Faber Finds, which aims to restore to print some of the classics of the past which have gone out of print and for which mainstream offset printing wouldn't be a viable option because the demand just wouldn't be great enough ... and they're using print-on-demand technology and selling online rather than through bookshops.

Guy Dammann in the Guardian examines the far-reaching implications of Faber's move.

The biggest one of course, that no book need ever go out of print again.

Faber Firsts kicks off with an initial list of 100 titles assembled an impressive line up of authors and editors, and includes :

Jacob Bronowski, one of the greatest polymaths of the twentieth century, the centenary of whose birth is being celebrated this year; Adrian Bell, writer of the classic account of an Englishman's conversion to rural life; F. R. Leavis, the most impressive literary critic of the last century; P. H. Newby, winner of the very first Booker Prize; A. J. P. Taylor, without doubt the most stimulating historian of the twentieth century; and many more - the likes of Peter Anson, Imogen Holst, Richard Cobb, R. C. Hutchinson, George Ewart Evans, John Cowper Powys and A. S. J. Tessimond.

The series will grow and include works in other genres:

... fiction, thrillers, sci-fi, memoirs, biographies, history, poetry, travel books, popular science and books for younger readers.

and through the Lost and Found feature, readers can suggest the titles of books they would like to see brought back into print, and in the Guardian, some authors suggest titles they think should be made available in this way.

Perhaps you'd care to drop them a line too?

Postscript (31/5/08) :

Faber & Faber chief executive Stephen Page talks about Faber Finds in The Telegraph.

Collective Graphomania

Rachel Donadio in the New York Times finds that while readership is shrinking alarmingly, the US is suffering from a "collective graphomania".

Everyone wants to write! :

In 2007, a whopping 400,000 books were published or distributed in the United States, up from 300,000 in 2006, according to the industry tracker Bowker, which attributed the sharp rise to the number of print-on-demand books and reprints of out-of-print titles. University writing programs are thriving, while writers’ conferences abound, offering aspiring authors a chance to network and “workshop” their work. The blog tracker Technorati estimates that 175,000 new blogs are created worldwide each day (with a lucky few bloggers getting book deals). And the same N.E.A. study found that 7 percent of adults polled, or 15 million people, did creative writing, mostly “for personal fulfillment.”

Print-on demand has really exploded :

IUniverse, a self-publishing company founded in 1999, has grown 30 percent a year in recent years; it now produces 500 titles a month and has 36,000 titles in print ... Other self-publishing outfits report similar growth. Xlibris, a print-on-demand operation, has 20,000 titles in print, by more than 18,000 authors ...

Then there's also the exponential growth of creative writing courses :

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs represented 13 programs when it was founded in 1967. Now it includes 465 full-fledged courses of study, and creative writing classes are offered at most of the 2,400 college English departments in North America.

It's never been easier to be an author, in the US, it seems. As long as you're not too bothered about readers!

200, 000 Books and Counting

Quick quiz question: who is the most published author in the history of the planet?

The New York Times reports that it's actually ... one Philip M. Parker, who has ... wait for it ... 200,000 books to his credit, all selling on Amazon.

A couple of examples of his titles : The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea, and The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India. True, these aren't going to be best-sellers, but we're talking long tail here.

Parker who is a professor of management science couldn't of course have done it without a little help. In this case from his computers. 60-70 of them.

He has in fact developed algorithms that collect publicly available information on a subject and then turns the results into books which are available to customers via print-on-demand publishing.

He has has also extended his technique to crossword puzzles, scripts for animated game shows ... and get this, rudimentary poetry :

“Do you think one of them is Shakespeare?” he was asked.

“No,” he said. “Only because I haven’t done sonnets yet.”

and :

... he is laying the groundwork for romance novels generated by new algorithms. “I’ve already set it up,” he said. “There are only so many body parts.”

How does he do it? Mr Parker has been kind enough to put together a video to show us :

Amazon Monopoly

Here's a pernicious piece of protectionism if I've ever met one.

Just as we are getting excited about the possibility of print-on-demand publication which will make sure our books are available as, and wherever, needed (and hopefully in the not too distant future this might mean Malaysian books having easy access to overseas markets), Amazon has announced that it will only sell POD titles published by its own Booksurge.

As Petrona says, it seems that the company is moving away from its previous business model. :

Whatever one might think of the business decision, it seems to signal the end of Amazon as a collaborative network of partners (buyers as well as sellers), and the start of Amazon as a traditional business, competing with publishers and competing for readers.

More about how the whole deal is supposed to work and the implications on it on O'Reilly Radar, which in turn links to commentary on other sites, including :

Booksquare which sees Amazon as amassing :

... essentially a secret army ...

and Virtualbookworm Blog which urges everyone with a blog or loud voice to spread the word about this unfair situation or contact Amazon’s Investor Relations via email at ir@amazon.com. There's also an online petition.

There is in the end as well the power of the wallet - if you care about this issue (and you should because POD may well be the future of publishing) buy elsewhere for now.

Saradha Published in UK

Hard work pays off for yet another Malaysian author. Just heard the great news from Eric Forbes that Saradha Narayanan, one third of the trio who wrote the collection of stories called Snapshots now has a novel out in the UK.

The Freedom of Choice is published by Melrose Books and came out on March 1st. It is described as :

A fantastically emotional tale of interwoven troubled lives that addresses the social issues of adoption and organ transplant.

And here's the synopsis :

On a wet, gloomy Monday morning in March 2004, Rachel Thomas receives a letter from a private investigator that throws her comfortable, middle-class lifestyle into chaos. She is confronted with a deeply guarded secret from her past. Traumatic events that she has kept buried for fourteen years come back to haunt her and she must now find the courage to make a choice that may disrupt and destroy her marriage. Will she make the right choice?

Set against the backdrop of modern day Kuala Lumpur, the novel moves seamlessly between the past and the present.

The story is told in parallel through the eyes of Rachel Thomas, the young mother, and Rohan Mahendran, the private investigator assigned to find her. It describes how the different races interact with one another and underscores how racial and religious differences influence the choices people make in life.

Our biggest congrats, Saradha!

While we're in celebratory mode, let's also pat young writer Mag Tan (aka Maggie Tan) on the back. Her short story The Gardener appears in the current edition of the Asian literary journal Cha.

Postscript:

A friend pointed out that Melrose books does what's called "commissioned publishing" in which the author bears the cost of having their book published after it has been accepted, while the publisher bears overheads. (So not print-on- demand or "vanity" publishing as the manuscript must pass editorial controls.) This is a very interesting path for Malaysian authors to take, and I'm sure all of us will want to know about Saradha's experiences. I have also invited her to read at Seksan's on April 19th.

Your Personal Romance

How about a romance novel in which you and your beloved are the main characters? One Canadian publisher Book By You has made it possible. According to an article in the Age:

Customers answer 20 to 30 questions about themselves and their beloved, ranging from body type to pet names. Then the details are woven into one of the company's eight pre-formatted novels. Clients can even have their photos added to the book jacket. ... One customer had a marriage proposal included at the end ...

How sweet!

Instant Books - or Nearly

The future just got a little closer. Rowan Walker in Sunday's Observer announced the arrival of a machine that electronically stores 2.5 million books that can then be printed and bound in less than seven minutes which:

... is to be launched early next year. It prints in any language and has an upper limit of 550 pages. The 'Espresso' will be launched first in several US libraries. The company behind the project - On Demand Books - predicts that, within five years, it will be able to reproduce every book ever published. ... It is estimated that the books will cost less than 1p per page - but a machine of your own costs about £25,000.

I don't think a machine like this will ever replace the traditional bookshop - browsing is a life-enhancing, feel-good experience. But I can see all kinds of advantages of this kind of technology - not least that a book written by a Malaysian author could be easily available world-wide and instantly - without having to go through Amazon, and without having to ship and warehouse copies.

You can watch a video of the machine in action here.

E-publishing for Writer's Circle

The MPH Writer's circle meeting this month will focus on trends in e-publishing on demand. The guest speaker is Mr Paul McLean , Epicenter Manager, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd who will talk about the role of print-on-demand in e-publishing.

I will be there because 1) it's good to know everything about publishing if you're a writer ... and even if the knowledge doesn't seem relevant now, a little light bulb in your head may go on further down the line 2) I have no choice 'cos am the moderator.

So come along and join us:

Date : 18 Nov (Sat)

Time : 11am - 1pm

Venue: The Booker Room, MPH Megastore 1 Utama, 1 Utama Shopping Centre

To register, please call Customer Service at 03-7726 9003 or email csoneutama@mph.com.my

Yesterday an MPH catalogue Tokens of Love with a picture of Christmassy baubles on the front fell into my letterbox, and I expected to be beguiled and tempted by bookchoice. But the fiction pages (all two of them out of 27) featured only popular stuff - thrillers and chic lit and the like (fine in its place, but not my cup of tea).

More literary (more quality? more prize-winning) fiction was nowhere at all to be seen (she says wagging an accusing finger in the direction of the marketing department).

Bibliobibuli's heartfelt message? Please don't dumb down the choices or underestimate your readers.

That said, I will be enjoying a little bookspree after the meeting on Saturday and I hope the books I've coveted will be there. (I haven't bought a book in days and have delirium tremens.)

Authors for Tea and Rumours of E

(E-publishing that is!)

Went along to MPH's annual Hi-Tea with Local Authors yesterday, part of the book chain's Support Local Authors Month. (Turned up a bit late because I had to take a cat to the vet first, in case anyone was wondering why the grand entrance half an hour into the session!) There turned out to be a discussion about e-books in progress with writers Shoba Mano (below left) and Lydia Teh (centre, chairing the discussion), and editor Eric Forbes. And the Booker room was absolutely packed.

I'd already missed Shoba's talk which should have been interesting because she uses e-books (as well as print copies) to distribute her work and is clearly passionate about the possibilities. Eric and Lydia had clearly done their reseach but had less personal experience to draw on. The drift of discussion seemed to be, this possibility is out there, but it doesn't seem to be influencing our buying choices in Malaysia just yet. (Indeed, the biggest battle is to get anyone to read anything - e or non-e!)

Sad. Because I reckon that many local authors could sell their work (non-fiction especially) to an overseas market in this format. How many of them, though, have even established an online presence?

After that the session seemed to lose focus somewhat. (Shoba sent round an e-mail later which expressed her dissatisfaction on a number of counts. I can sympathise, though perhaps she could have been more diplomatic.) I think it wasn't really a topic that local authors and audience couldn't really relate to, and perhaps better kept for a writer's circle meeting.

Feng-Shui diva, Lillian Too (whose books have transformed me into an expert in balancing yin and yang, and the redeeming powers of nine goldfish in a pond) added words of wisdom about writing and getting published, before having to make an early exit:

Make sure you have a damned good book and it's properly edited

she exorted. (What charisma! I want to hear this lady speak again!)

Dato' Ng, CEO of the MPH publishing group, putting discussion back on track, highlighted the Ministry of Education's failed e-book project and predicted that e-books will come, but never take over from the printed word.

(My personal prediction is that print-on-demand books, where you go into a bookshop to get a physical book made from a digitally stored source, will become an increasingly important part of the book trade. And yes, the demand for e-books will grow as the technology becomes cheaper and the idea catches on.)

The tea afterwards was an excellent opportunity to meet up with writing friends and make new contacts. (Pictured above, the local authors.) Afterwards, I bought books (how could I not?) and then had a lovely long bookchat with Eric over frosty lemon tea at Delicious.

Postscript:

Do read Lydia's account of the event.

You might like to check out the account on Ted's blog of the previous week's fun and games and intrigues at Sembang-Sembang Bersama Penulis Melayu: MPH's event for Malay writers. Nisah Haron's account of the same event is here.

Conclusion: interesting things happen when you stick a whole lot of writers of very different genres in a room together! (And it isn't always pretty.)

Free-Falling Fiction

Singaporean writer O Thiam Chim wrote to me a few days back to tell me about the publication of his first collection of short fiction, Free-Falling Man.

Ever interested in the path to publication for local* writers I asked him to tell me something about the background to the book. He told me that he got the idea for the collection whilst doing his B.A. In English language and Literature, but:

... the stories had been germinating in my mind for a while before that, bits and pieces of different stories coming together, gelling and expanding, certain story plots growing clearer and clearer.

He believed in his book so much that he quit his job and spent seven months writing:

... it was a very tough time for me, emotionally and financially. Emotionally, as I was debating inwardly whether I could actually write these stories, and I had to wrestle constantly with negative thoughts about my writer identity and my ability to put down in words the ideas and thoughts in my head. Financially as my savings started to peter out four months after I began this project. I was living day by day on the essentials, stuck in my room, drafting and writing frantically, willing my stories to be completed before I was totally broke.

After completing his first draft, he then went back to full-time work and freelance writing. Then:

Fast forward. In early 06, I took up the manuscript and began to work on these stories again. I think with the passage of time, I began to read my stories anew and see them with different eyes. I knew I had to be brutal with my stories and I did major surgery on them. It was a painful experience, as any writer can testify.

He approached a writer friend for advice on how to get his work into print.

He recommended some local publishers and I sent my manuscript to these publishers. Out of the four or five publishers ... only two responded. One rejected my manuscript based on the taboo subjects I touched on in some of the stories, and the other had stopped publishing local titles and advised me to seek other avenues. ... I was not discouraged but continued to seek for help and advice. The same writer friend, who had published his second book with a small print press in the US, iUniverse, told me about his experience with self-publishing and its advantages and benefits.

The "tipping point" for O was the fact that "iUniverse has already an on-going relationship with major online booksellers like Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Booksamillion" which meant that selling his work would be easier.

The company has several packages to choose from:

... each with its own terms and conditions. I chose the Premier package which comes with initial editing, and a book cover design among other things. It cost about US$699.

But his feelings about the service are mixed. The initial design for the cover was so dreadful, O decided to hire his own designer. And then he found that there were some hidden costs and he actually needed to pay about US$200 more for his proofreading and editing.

His twenty free author copies were sent out to overseas and local reviewers, and when he purchased another batch for sale he discovered it an expensive business, what with shipping costs and the Singaporean taxes.

O says he is now peddling his books from bookshop to bookshop "and it is really hard work".

I think what this story underlines is that local writers who want to self-publish need an awful lot of stamina to get their books out there.

I do hope that after all his struggles, the book does well for O.

*Perleeease do not give me anymore of that "Singapore is not local" crap. Basically, we share the same publishing and distribution fishtank, so let's be nice to each other.

Thumbs Up for Self-Publishing

Judging by the number of self-publishing websites, it may not be long before we reach the tipping point of mass adoption.

Victor Keegan road-tests self-publishing websites in the Guardian and declares that the mainstream publishing companies could be "in line for a much needed shock". He is impressed with Lulu, and Publish and Be Damned. He also mentions the all-inclusive package offered by Grosvenor House.

Closer to home, we have Gary Gan and his G&L Solutions, of course.

Related posts:

MPH Writer's Circle (16/1/05)
Self-Publishing (31/3/05)
The Underground Route to Self-Publishing (14/6/05)
The Blooker Prize (4/12/05)
The Power to Publish (21/12/05)

The Power to Publish

Was so busy tending to the sick on Monday that I missed the very useful article in the Star about self-publishing in the local context by Lee Tse Ling.

She also does a good job of weighing up the pros and cons and asks whether self-publishing is "faux publishing".

Surprised though that she did not talk about print-on-demand as this makes self-publishing much more affordable and accessible for those who need a smaller print run.



And talking about author photos as we were the other day, Lydia Teh's should be the one that launches a thousand copies!

Gary Gets It Together!

Great! Gary Gan has finally got his website up and running, so if you have a book project you want to get off the ground, head over there.