There’s this looming idea, or fear rather, in the publishing industry and writing community that electronic media will one day eliminate the buying and selling of books in the traditional form. Similar to Douglas Rushkoff in his essay “A Computer Ate my Book,” I just don’t understand what all the panic is about. He writes, “Media don’t actually steal from each other. They feed each other.” And I think he’s right.
There have always been places and mediums where people can go to get books for free, ranging anywhere from the library to the internet. Yet, people still continue to buy books. They cart them around from location to location. They create entire rooms of shelves just to display and house them. There are some people who are even willing to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a rare first edition. So there must be something about books that causes us not only to want them, but to keep going back to them.
Industries change over time. It’s absolutely essential. So why does this particular industry seem to want to be the exception to the rule? If anything, now more than ever, I think that publishers have a great opportunity to change the way they do business. Rushkoff explains, “Computers have reminded us of the special ability of books to provide a kind of experience you can’t get anywhere else.” This statement really speaks to the importance of creativity to the book making process. Publishers now have the chance to really differentiate the book experience from the internet experience. They just have to seize it.
When I first heard about electronic books (Kindles, Sony Book Reader, etc), I think I was one of the few writers to become excited about the concept. It sounded like a great way to make novels more accessible to a generation that rarely goes anywhere without an i-pod. Let's face it: None of us are in it for the money. It's about connecting with readers, which is what this new world of publishing and the internet allows us to do on a much larger scale. Whether we like it or not, we live in a technology-based society, and I think we need to find ways to both embrace and add to it. The fact that people are reading, whether it’s on a computer screen or in a book, is what should matter the most, because without readers, then we're really lost.
There have always been places and mediums where people can go to get books for free, ranging anywhere from the library to the internet. Yet, people still continue to buy books. They cart them around from location to location. They create entire rooms of shelves just to display and house them. There are some people who are even willing to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a rare first edition. So there must be something about books that causes us not only to want them, but to keep going back to them.
Industries change over time. It’s absolutely essential. So why does this particular industry seem to want to be the exception to the rule? If anything, now more than ever, I think that publishers have a great opportunity to change the way they do business. Rushkoff explains, “Computers have reminded us of the special ability of books to provide a kind of experience you can’t get anywhere else.” This statement really speaks to the importance of creativity to the book making process. Publishers now have the chance to really differentiate the book experience from the internet experience. They just have to seize it.
When I first heard about electronic books (Kindles, Sony Book Reader, etc), I think I was one of the few writers to become excited about the concept. It sounded like a great way to make novels more accessible to a generation that rarely goes anywhere without an i-pod. Let's face it: None of us are in it for the money. It's about connecting with readers, which is what this new world of publishing and the internet allows us to do on a much larger scale. Whether we like it or not, we live in a technology-based society, and I think we need to find ways to both embrace and add to it. The fact that people are reading, whether it’s on a computer screen or in a book, is what should matter the most, because without readers, then we're really lost.
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