Acknowledge and Move On: The Book Publishing Version

On Minding the Gate | 15 July 2008 with no comments

The TOC blog points to Mindy McAdams’ 10 simple facts about the state of journalism. In the comments I took a stab at the equivalent for book publishing. I am cross-posting here…

It is different this time — just because the Rocket ereader didn’t take off doesn’t mean you can keep your head in the sand
Print is not dead — the book won’t change, but the industry sure will
The price of the printed book can’t be the same as the ebook
The current industry supply chain cannot be sustained — future combined print/digital revenues won’t support it
Pirates and filesharers are not the same people. Don’t sue the readers.
Give up hope re: DRM — Copy protection didn’t work in music, tv, and movies — it is not going to save us.
Change is geometric — when the crisis comes it comes suddenly. We can’t control how/when the industry will flip, but we can prepare for it.
Open standards pay off. Closed ecosystems stunt growth. Proprietary formats strangle it.
Non-traditional filters and gatekeepers are allies not enemies.
The internet isn’t a printing press. You can’t publish to the net and forget.

INDEX // mb Ideas on Publishing Books in Canada (and other attempts to write good)