Forum Moderators: goodroi
Watch out Amazon. Google is hitting the online bookstore business.The search giant announced Thursday at the Frankfurt Book Fair that in the first half of next year it will launch Google Editions, a new service that will deliver e-books to anyone with a Web browser.
poppyrich,
I'm in academia and, the fact is, points are more important than people actually reading your book or article. Tenure, promotions, raises are all based on publications in peer-reviewed publications, so self-published books pretty much won't count.
The economics of this are absurd, however, and the only hope for academia is peer-reviewed electronic publications. (see my comments here: [webmasterworld.com...] )
Bob Darnton, former head of the American Historical Assocation and an expert on the history of printing, saw this coming in the 1980s (yep, the 80s). He established a prize that basically works like this: every year, one sub-specialty is chosen and the best dissertation in that sub-specialty gets awarded a substantial prize (it was about $35,000 when I got my PdD), but there's a condition: if the author accepts the prize, he cannot publish the dissertation on paper and must agree that it will be electronic only. Darnton's idea was that he had to break the stupid idea that the snootier the press, the more points.
Sadly, not many scholars are as enlightened and forward-thinking as Darnton.
Funny anecdote that you might appreciate in light of your conversation with your friend. A professor I know who taught in the Religion dept wanted his course on Heidegger cross-listed as a Philosophy course. The head of the Phil dept. said "No, we have someone coming next year who can teach Heidegger"
"But I can teach Heidegger this year"
"He has a book on Heidegger"
"I have a book on Heidegger"
"His book is published with Oxford University Press"
"My book is published with Felix Meiner Verlag, Heidegger's publisher".
Still didn't get cross-listed, but the incident recalls the famous quote from Kissinger: "The reason the disputes in academia are so bitter is because the stakes are so small."
VHS Machines did not replace movie theatres in the 1980's and books will always be with us too.
Yes, but as a specialty item. Writing on stone tablets is still with us (gravestones for example), but it accounts for an infinitesimal proportion of written materials.
The VHS/theater issue compares two very different formats. Wait to see what happens to theaters if 7-meter, wall-mounted OLED screens become common. Or if movies move to a 3D format viewable on a heads-up display. I guarantee people won't pay in large numbers to sit together in a group and get the same experience they can get at home.
This is more analagous to digital versus film cameras. Eventually, digital books will provide a generally superior reading experience, always with some downsides. When that will happen is unclear.
Or perhaps it's like the switch from parchment to paper. Same essential format, on a different medium. It just wasn't worth killing that many sheep (the full Bible on parchment/vellum took some 250-300 sheep; it's estimated that the Gutenberg bible took about 170 calf skins per vellum copy). It won't be worth killing that many trees for a book in the future.
@Mack Yeah, I agree with Mack Attack. If I'm reading a book, I dont want to be sitting in a 45degree angle in my chair looking into a screen. If I'm reading something off a screen, I 99% of the time clasify it as a work related issue, even if it's for a hobby such as my online store. A book is for truly relaxing. Looking at a monitor screen is not relaxing, I dont care if it's a cell phone, a kindle, a computer, a laptop.VHS Machines did not replace movie theatres in the 1980's and books will always be with us too.
x2
I read a lot on the computer, but I still like to take a book to bed or my couch or the toilet.
