From the Print Media to the Internet Part 3

The Internet has considerably reinforced the relations between the authors and their readers. In fact, do authors still need publishers? Thanks to the Web, a writer can now post his work, sell it or discuss with his/her readers without any intermediary.

Murray Suid is a free-lance writer of books (How to be President of the U.S.A., Moviemaking Ill.u.s.trated, etc.), multimedia products (Oval Office, The Writing Trek), and screenplays (Now, Moving to Mars). He is also vice president of Monday Morning Books, an educational publis.h.i.+ng company located in Palo Alto, California. He replied to my questions in his e-mail of September 7, 1998:

ML: "How do you see the relations.h.i.+p between the print media and the Internet?"

MS: "For one thing, the Internet serves other print media. [...] My recently published book, The Kids' How to Do (Almost) Everything Guide, would probably not have been done prior to the invention of e-mail because it would have cost too much in money/time to locate the experts. So the Internet is a powerful research tool for writers of books, articles, etc.

Also, in a time of great change, many 'facts' don't stay factual for long. In other words, many books go quickly out of date. But if a book can be web extended (living partly in cybers.p.a.ce), then an author can easily update and correct it, whereas otherwise the author would have to wait a long time for the next edition, if indeed a next edition ever came out.

Also, in terms of marketing, the Web seems crucial, especially for small publishers that can't afford to place ads in major magazines and on the radio.

Although large companies continue to have an advantage, in Cybers.p.a.ce small publishers can put up very compet.i.tive marketing efforts.

We think that paper books will be around for a while, because using them is habitual. Many readers like the feel of paper, and the 'heft' of a book held in the hands or carried in a purse or backpack. I haven't yet used a digital book, and I think I might prefer one - because of ease of search, because of color, because of sound, etc. Obviously, multimedia 'books' can be easily downloaded from the Web, and such books probably will dominate publis.h.i.+ng in the future.

Not yet though."

ML: "What did the Internet bring to your professional and personal life?"

MS: "Professionally, the Internet has become my major research tool, largely - but not entirely - replacing the traditional library and even replacing person-to-person research. Now, instead of phoning people or interviewing them face to face, I do it via e-mail.

Because of speed, it has also enabled me to collaborate with people at a distance, particularly on screenplays. (I've worked with two producers in Germany.)

Also, digital correspondence is so easy to store and organize, I find that I have easy access to information exchanged this way. Thus, e-mailing facilitates keeping track of ideas and materials.

As for personal uses, the Internet has increased my correspondence dramatically.

Like most people, I find that e-mail works better than snail mail. My geographic range of correspondents has also increased - extending mainly to Europe. In the old days, I hardly ever did transatlantic pen-palling.

I also find that e-mailing is so easy, I am able to find more time to a.s.sist other writers with their work - a kind of a virtual writing group. This isn't merely altruistic. I gain a lot when I give feedback. But before the Internet, doing so was more of an effort."

ML: "How do you see see your future life - professional and personal - in connection with the Internet?"

MS: "I'm not very state-of-the-art so I'm not sure. I would like to have direct access to text - digitally read books in the Library of Congress, for example, just as now I can read back issues of many newspapers. Currently, while I can find out about books on-line, I need to get the books into my hands to use them.

I would rather access them on-line and copy sections that I need for my work, whereas today I either have to photocopy relevant pages, or scan them in, etc.

I expect that soon I will use the Internet for video telephoning, and that will be a happy development.

I do not know if I will publish 'books' on the Web - as opposed to publis.h.i.+ng paper books. Probably that will happen when books become multimedia. (I currently am helping develop multimedia learning materials, and it's a form of teaching that I like a lot - blending text, movies, audio, graphics, and - when possible - interactivity)."

Esther Dyson is the president and owner of EDventure Holdings, a company focused on emerging information technology worldwide, and on the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The company produces the annual PC Forum and High-Tech Forum conferences. Since 1982 she has been the editor of Release 1.0, a monthly information newsletter which is considered the computer industry's most intellectual letter.

In 1997, her first book Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age was published at the same time by several publishers in the world (Broadway in the United States, Viking/Penguin in the United Kingdom, Droemer Knaur in Germany, Shueisha in j.a.pan, etc.). In this book, she explores the impact and implications of cybers.p.a.ce: its effect on our daily lives, the responsibilities that come with our new powers, and the global issues the Internet creates. She also addresses the fundamental conflicts in the spread of digital communication: conflicts between personal privacy and society's interest in openness; between security and freedom; between commerce and community. At the same time, Esther Dyson opened a website to converse with her eaders. She will take her readers'

comments into consideration in a paperback version, Release 2.1.

Jean-Paul, a musician and writer living in Paris, sent his comments in his e-mail of June 21, 1998:

"My future on the Web is more personal than professional. The Internet will allow me to do without any intermediaries: record companies, publishers, distributors... Above all it will allow me to formalize what I have in my head (and elsewhere), for which the print medium (micro-publis.h.i.+ng, in fact) only allowed me to give something approximate. Then the intermediaries will take over, and I'll have to look somewhere else, a place where the gra.s.s is greener..."

4.3. Electronic Publis.h.i.+ng

Since the seventies, the traditional publis.h.i.+ng chain has been drastically disrupted.

The printing work traditionally done by pre-press shops was first weakened by the introduction of photocomposition machines. The text and image processing work began to be executed by advertising agencies and graphic art studies. The impression costs went on decreasing with the spread of desktop publis.h.i.+ng, copiers, color copiers and digital printing equipment.The text and image processing work is now provided at low price by desktop publis.h.i.+ng shops and graphic art studios.

Furthermore, digitization accelerated the preparation process of a publication, because the sub-editor, the artistic designer and the staff responsible for the make-up can now work at the same time on the same book.

During the ILO Symposium on Multimedia Convergence held in January 1997, Peter Leisink, a.s.sociate Professor of Labour Studies at the Utrecht University, Netherlands, explained:

"A survey of the United Kingdom book publis.h.i.+ng industry showed that proofreaders and editors have been externalized and now work as home-based teleworkers. The vast majority of them had entered self-employment, not as a first-choice option, but as a result of industry mergers, relocations and redundancies. These people should actually be regarded as casualized workers, rather than as self-employed, since they have little autonomy and tend to depend on only one publis.h.i.+ng house for their work."

Digitization makes possible the on-line publis.h.i.+ng of educational and scientific publications, for which the latest information is essential. Some U.S.

universities distribute specific textbooks gathering a selection of chapters selected in an extensive database and some professors' articles and commentaries. For a seminar, a very small print run can be prepared upon request with electronic scientific texts sent to a printer. Electronic publis.h.i.+ng could also keep alive some academic publishers, and publishers issuing doc.u.ments relating to very specific and specialized research, for which the printing of a doc.u.ment in a small number of copies has become more and more difficult for budgetary reasons.

At present, electronic publis.h.i.+ng and "traditional" publis.h.i.+ng - such as on-line bookstores and "traditional" bookstores, or cyberlibraries and "traditional"

libraries - are complementary.

Even if electronic publis.h.i.+ng considerably expands over the next few years, people will still find it convenient to have the paper version of a book or a magazine, perhaps until the digital books become really cheap. Nevertheless, the functions of traditional publis.h.i.+ng will certainly have to be thoroughly redefined in relation to the development of electronic publis.h.i.+ng and its considerable prospects, beginning with the low costs and the quick access to doc.u.ments.

The Web has developed more and more interaction between the printed doc.u.ment and the electronic doc.u.ment, to such an extent that it becomes difficult to establish a frontier between the two supports, and it will probably no longer be necessary to make a distinction between them in the future. Most of the recent print media already stem from an electronic version on a word processor, a spreadsheet or a database. More and more doc.u.ments are "only" electronic.

Because of the development of digital libraries, there are fewer doc.u.ments available in print. Those doc.u.ments existing only in a print version can easily be scanned if necessary.

In his article The Future of Publis.h.i.+ng, Kushal Dave, an avid computer and modem user and a high school freshman, stated:

"[...] the fully electronic doc.u.ment is coming into its own, thanks to the many benefits it provides. The cost is a magnitude lower than paper, while the speed is much higher. Michael Hart is the executive director of Project Gutenberg [...]. In an electronic mail dialogue, he cited the example of Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland. Not taking into account the cost of a computer (as little as $1000) since most people have them anyway, a copy of the book on floppy might cost a dollar. There is also no time spent publis.h.i.+ng the doc.u.ment, once it's in e-text (electronic text) form it can be gotten almost instantly. On the other hand the cheapest possible paper copy of the book would be $5 because of the cost of printing, and printing would also delay its availability to the public.

Electronic doc.u.ments also have a better availability, since they can be reproduced infinitely and do not require leaving your house, thanks to low-cost modems. Furthermore, it is now possible to read a.s.sociated Press Reports as they are released, not in the next morning's paper, and you don't even have to pay the 25 cents. Cost, speed, and availability are just some of the compelling arguments for electronic publis.h.i.+ng instead of paper.

Another advantage of electronic publis.h.i.+ng is all the new possibilities it provides. Just about anybody can electronically publish anything. [...] Karin L.

Trgovac, director of communications for Project Gutenberg, sums it up by saying, 'I think electronic publis.h.i.+ng helps to level the field in terms of who can publish. Look at the range of people who have access.'

Fortunately, the increased variety of the doc.u.ments does nothing to impede searches for particular doc.u.ments. Services like Gopher on the Internet can lead you in the right direction, and within a doc.u.ment, searching is a snap. Just type in what you want and before you could find the index in a paper doc.u.ment, you'll have found what you want.

Thanks to feedback and other features, electronic doc.u.ments are an example of the encroachment of interactivity upon the pa.s.sive activities we hold dear.

[...] 'Physical media just can't compete . . . [electronic text] just offers more 'bang for the buck', explains Hart.[...]

There are also many companies attempting to capitalize on the multimedia possibilities of electronic publis.h.i.+ng. Sound and pictures are being incorporated in low-cost Internet World Wide Web 'publications', and companies like Medio and Nautilus are producing CD-ROMs that represent the new generation of periodicals - now music reviews include sound clips, movie reviews include trailers, book reviews include excerpts, and how-to articles include demonstrative videos. All this is put together with low costs, high speed, and many advantages."

Kushal answered my questions in his e-mail of September 1, 1998:

ML: "How do you see the relations.h.i.+p between the print media and the Internet?"

KD: "This is still being worked out, of course. So far, all I've been able to see is that electronic media undermines the print form in two ways: a) providing completely alternative presses that draw attention away from the previous strongholds and b) forcing the print publications to spend resources trying to counteract this trend. Both forms of media critique one another and proclaim their superiority. Print media operates under a self-important sense of credibility. And the electronic media operates under a belief that they are the only purveyors of unbiased truth. Thus, there are issues of niche and finance that need to be resolved. The Internet is certainly a more accessible and convenient medium, and thus it would be better in the long run if the strengths of the print media could be brought on-line without the extensive costs and copyright concerns that are concomitant. As the transition is made, the neat thing is a growing accountability for previously relatively unreproachable edifices. For example, we already see e-mail addresses after articles in publications, allowing readers to pester authors directly. Discussion forums on virtually all major electronic publications show that future is providing not just one person's opinion but interaction with those of others as well. Their primary job is the provision of background information. Also, the detailed statistics can be gleaned about interest in an advertis.e.m.e.nt or in content itself will force greater adaptability and a questioning of previous beliefs gained from focus groups. This means more finely honed content for the individual, as quant.i.ty and customizability grows."

ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring in your professional/personal life?"

KD: "The Internet has certainly been a distraction. ;) But beyond that, an immeasurable amount of both trivial and pertinent information has been gleaned in casual browsing sessions. [...]"

ML: "How do you see your professional/personal future or the future in general with the Internet?"