The Future of Publishing

Susan Gable is worked up and wanted us to know in no uncertain terms. We’d paraphrase what she said, but, ever lazy, figure a direct quote will work just as well: “ACK! It’s a travesty! Text on cell phones is one thing, translating “literature” into text messaging-speak is just WRONG!” She is correct. It is wrong. We realize that we long ago lost the battle against “thru”. We cannot lose to “2b”. It would be disheartening. Also, what if text mores change? Do they have to retranslate? Won’t this get confusing for the masses? Now, pretending we like to offer […]

Be still our beating heart: someone out there thought it would be fun to talk about. . .wait for it. . .you’re right the suspense is killing us, too. Metadata. Digitizing books isn’t just about digitizing words, it’s about digitizing information about the works that contain the words. Too much fun. Also a boon for those who think statistics can be relaxing. You know who you are and you promised to get help. We’ve been managing book metadata basically the same way since Callimachus cataloged the 400,000 scrolls in the Alexandrian Library at the turn of the third century BC.

Normally, we eschew such behavior as jumping to conclusions*, but, really, what can one do when the news fails so miserably? Google has (apparently) approached a publisher (unnamed) about the possibility of renting books (in an unspecified format) for 10% of the list price. Tell us, does that final bit seem a bit too specific for you? It’s sitting in the article like it’s an actual fact. Very suspicious. Our mind reels with possibilities: a NetFlix sort of arrangement where books arrive by mail and are return in prepaid envelopes. Inter-library loan programs on steroids (or, rather, more libraries, better