Publishing News
This week has been an eventful one in the digital publishing industry. I think we all know that print publishing is a dying breed. With access to eReader platforms and self-publishing tools like Calibre, Sigil, and Apple, more and more writers are choosing to publish their own works, and more and more traditional publishers are turning away from print and concentrating their resources on electronic delivery of products.
In response to this shift in priorities, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the governing body of all things web, announced this week it is working to bridge the gap between publishing and the web with their Digital Publishing Interest Group. EBook readers, including Kindle, Nook, Apple, Sony, etc., already use W3C technologies, such as XHTML, HTML, CSS, SVG, SMIL, XML, and various web APIs, and having these technologies standardized across the board will make getting material to the masses that much easier. What this means for the writer who self-publishes is that converting files to ePub should become smoother. Naturally, like all things web-related, it will take awhile for all the players to get onboard.
In reading through the W3C announcement, I was surprised to learn that the publishing industry, in all its forms (including self-publishing) has become one the largest consumers of W3C technology. In addition to coding digital formats, the commercial publishing industry relies on W3C technology in their back-end processing from authoring to delivering both printed and electronic products.
Other publishing news:
Barnes & Noble is discontinuing their Pubit! platform and migrating to Nook Press effective July 10th. I suspect this is a direct attempt to compete with Amazon's ever-expanding stable of publishing tools for both digital and print media, including Kindle and CreateSpace. Nook Press will offer expanded tools to help authors create and publish their works, though they've yet to explain what exactly that entails. I logged into my Pubit account this week and switched it over to Nook Press just to see what had changed, but other than a cleaner interface, I really didn't see much difference. Apparently you can add a cover image right into your manuscript, and they claim there are multiple changes under the hood to make publishing easier, but I personally don't see anything groundbreaking. Most authors who self-pub usually prepare their ePub files in applications such as Calibre or Sigil, or dump them into the Smashwords grinder and upload to B&N, so unless they're offering to do the conversion themselves, it looks more like a rebranding move.
Google won its appeal against the Author's Guild class action status this week concerning Google's library scanning project. This centers around the determination of fair use policies in classifying author's works, granting Google the right to scan in books and sell them for a profit without the author's permission, in essence making them legal pirates. To be fair, the project centers mainly around out-of-print titles and authors, the works of which are already available for free on Amazon and other publishing platforms, but in my mind it's just one more reason for abolishing DRM. Traditional publishers, much like the music and motion picture industries, are more concerned with their profit margin than taking care of their artists. Writers, musicians, artists, and actors need to stop handing over the fruits of their labor to corporate middlemen, aka, publishers and producers. Besides, unless you're an a-list talent, they don't provide any more resources to promote you than the artist could get for themselves. Which leads me to the question:
If you're still working with a traditional publisher: WHY? Other than the perceived prestige of being selected from the slush pile (which we all know just means your work happens to fit the publisher's current business model), what possible benefit can there be? You do all the work and make pennies on your book while the publisher reaps the majority of the rewards. As a consummate DIYer, I can't stand the thought of allowing someone else to profit off my sweat.
In response to this shift in priorities, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the governing body of all things web, announced this week it is working to bridge the gap between publishing and the web with their Digital Publishing Interest Group. EBook readers, including Kindle, Nook, Apple, Sony, etc., already use W3C technologies, such as XHTML, HTML, CSS, SVG, SMIL, XML, and various web APIs, and having these technologies standardized across the board will make getting material to the masses that much easier. What this means for the writer who self-publishes is that converting files to ePub should become smoother. Naturally, like all things web-related, it will take awhile for all the players to get onboard.
In reading through the W3C announcement, I was surprised to learn that the publishing industry, in all its forms (including self-publishing) has become one the largest consumers of W3C technology. In addition to coding digital formats, the commercial publishing industry relies on W3C technology in their back-end processing from authoring to delivering both printed and electronic products.
Other publishing news:
Barnes & Noble is discontinuing their Pubit! platform and migrating to Nook Press effective July 10th. I suspect this is a direct attempt to compete with Amazon's ever-expanding stable of publishing tools for both digital and print media, including Kindle and CreateSpace. Nook Press will offer expanded tools to help authors create and publish their works, though they've yet to explain what exactly that entails. I logged into my Pubit account this week and switched it over to Nook Press just to see what had changed, but other than a cleaner interface, I really didn't see much difference. Apparently you can add a cover image right into your manuscript, and they claim there are multiple changes under the hood to make publishing easier, but I personally don't see anything groundbreaking. Most authors who self-pub usually prepare their ePub files in applications such as Calibre or Sigil, or dump them into the Smashwords grinder and upload to B&N, so unless they're offering to do the conversion themselves, it looks more like a rebranding move.
Google won its appeal against the Author's Guild class action status this week concerning Google's library scanning project. This centers around the determination of fair use policies in classifying author's works, granting Google the right to scan in books and sell them for a profit without the author's permission, in essence making them legal pirates. To be fair, the project centers mainly around out-of-print titles and authors, the works of which are already available for free on Amazon and other publishing platforms, but in my mind it's just one more reason for abolishing DRM. Traditional publishers, much like the music and motion picture industries, are more concerned with their profit margin than taking care of their artists. Writers, musicians, artists, and actors need to stop handing over the fruits of their labor to corporate middlemen, aka, publishers and producers. Besides, unless you're an a-list talent, they don't provide any more resources to promote you than the artist could get for themselves. Which leads me to the question:
If you're still working with a traditional publisher: WHY? Other than the perceived prestige of being selected from the slush pile (which we all know just means your work happens to fit the publisher's current business model), what possible benefit can there be? You do all the work and make pennies on your book while the publisher reaps the majority of the rewards. As a consummate DIYer, I can't stand the thought of allowing someone else to profit off my sweat.
Comments
Post a Comment