In the walk-it-like-you-write-it mode, contributors to
Book: A Futurist's Manifesto: A Futurist's Manifesto break conventions. They conceptually and practically cover the current nascent forms of publishing.
Most obvious include that this work is in process. The intro material and part one of three is available now. Buy it and you get the upgrades as they are ready. The electronic versions are much cheaper. You can also stumble around on the authors' site [...] to read it for free online, but not take it away.
This work lives its content and requires flexible commitment by the reader. Nothing could be more reasonable for authors Huge McGuire (writer/technologist) and Brian O'Leary (publisher/futurist), and their set of essayists. They come from various angles on how books will come to be conceived, designed, written, laid out, distributed, updated and more.
This first cut is The Setup: Approaches to the Digital Present. It's 91 pages at the moment. Coming up are in the next months will be The Outlook: What Is Next for the Book?, and The Things We Can Do with Books: Projects from the Bleeding Edge.
Part one tries with fair success at defining the concepts of old and new-style books. Various chapters by different writers cover largely conceptual material, backed up by small to moderate specifics. In the main, a shortcoming is that having set us up for a whiz-bang new world, their uses of links, graphics and other technologies are only so-so.
Never mind, their ideas are big and sound.
Sure, we've all noticed and used ebooks in various formats on disparate platforms. The writers in the manifesto tell us how we got to this point, from technological, artistic and business perspectives. It is well worth wading through the differing voices of part one to get a fix on how format and form, context and content, truly differ and how each affects the present and will affect the future of publishing.
Note for example that context is key, above content, already. Writers and publishers are already responding to the new truth that "Increasingly, readers want convenience, specificity, discoverability, ease of access, and connection." That is bringing with it such features as automated updates and links that go beyond the footnote model. Extra information now has to offer two kinds of new utility. First it must be "immersive" -- appearing at a point in the book where it is most useful, and second, it must be nontrivial -- "Primary source material, topics not easily discoverable via search engines, or deeply curated dives into ancillary topics represent rewarding additions that readers will want to explore."
That requires a heightened, self-aware level of savvy that the writers claim is in the works.
So you can see what's happened so far and what is in the works, they dive into the related technologies as well as the concepts. There's a good introduction to a dozen development, publishing and distribution tools with examples. There's also a tutorial on the benefits and drawbacks of the different digital rights management (DRM) schemes. Distribution, design and metadata each get a section by a different expert.
While O'Leary's Context, not Container piece is self-serving, it is specific about how O'Reilly approached epubs. He details the technologies and distribution methods they used. They clearly were not afraid of jumping in and learning in the process.
He criticizes publishers who fumble in this transitional period. Many do in fact just want to figure a way to continue as they have as much as possible, while keeping profit margins. He calls this attitude "container myopia." He figures that new entrants and existing publishers who get it will thrive by delivering books or book-like-things that let the readers discover in the process, as well as reuse the material. The old minds who simply see digital publishing as a cheaper way to deliver will get left out.
Instead, this work includes calls for deep and early tagging, for products that solve readers problems and let them satisfy their curiosity with related material and seems to flow from the content. Publishers will have to adhere to current and emerging standards and encourage reuse of their products. Success should come to those who help readers/purchasers manage abundant information well.
This first third is, as they admit up front, a teaser. I want the rest. The epub itself makes a compelling argument for updatable books, purchases that include improved versions as they are ready.
I already want more from writer/designer Craig Mod, who framed his section with Everyone asks, "How do we change books to read them digitally?" But the more interesting question is, "How does digital change books?" And, similarly, "How does digital change the authorship process?" He provides examples of divides between products delivered as printed, on an iPhone or Kindle, and on an iPad. The tablet leaps over the limitations of the other deliveries.
Another touchstone is Wikipedia. It lets us "develop a text in real time, erasing the preciousness imbued by printing." Or in futurist terms "Time itself becomes an active ingredient in authorship."
With its flaws, such as fairly lame links, the manifesto is plenty of value in its first third. More please.
