Publishing and the Internet don't - superficially at least - appear to
mix. But like the music industry, publishing is going to have to make
adjustments to accommodate the net's impact on our lives.
The most obvious change
in publishing wrought by the internet is in buying habits - ordering books
online has become the consumer mode of choice for a generation of net-savvy
users. Companies specialising in online book ordering - such as Amazon
and the super-corporate Barnes & Noble - have successfully tapped into
a vast global market. One sad side-effect of this is the long-forecast
(and now authentic) demise of the small independent bookshop, which cannot
compete with the sheer speed and accessibility offered by a company like
Amazon. These big firms have also found the viral marketing opportunities
offered by the net to be a vitally useful tool.
As for developments
from the creative end of the book trade itself, there is some evidence
of experimentation in the field of online books. Horror writer Stephen
King has led the way by asking readers/browsers to pay for each chapter
of his new book The Plant, which has prompted media interest by being
only available on the net. One of the most significant comments in the
site prelude relates to the aesthetics of its downloading: 'we've even
left you room to have it bound.' Customised home-made publishing seems
to be pointed as the way ahead.
So people can read
different chapters at different times, pay for their reading online (if
they want to - it's not enforced) and - potentially at least - customise
the look of their books? The implications of this suggest a radical change
to the whole we experience books and raises the hackneyed concerns of
most web-sceptics: a technology that is supposed to unite us threatens
to turn once communal experiences into solitary, soulless and personalised
- but also harshly de-personalised - activities.
So what of the future?
Browsing online will continue to exist with browsing in reality, but it's
truly hard to believe cyber reading will overtake the real, raw experience
of reading books.
Books make people
imagine hard realities, and the format they come in is key to the enjoyment
of that tactile pursuit. It may seem mawkish and sentimental and hopelessly
old-fashioned but it's also true: we will always love a good book.
