Customer Reviews

The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first sentence of this book says: 'Today, virtually all publishing is digital to some extent, whether content is delivered electronically or in print.' He is right, and this large (750 page) book covers virtually every aspect of the digital aspect of document production, manufacture, distribution and everything else. The book is produced by a group of people with experience in all aspects of the industry. They are consultants, analysts, professors, authors, printers, journalists, and come from industry, universities, consulting and publishing firms.

Most of the book is on the technical aspects, the hardware, software communications that allow the creation, management and distribution of digital documents.

The last part of the book is on marketing, copyrights and so on. I believe this area is a bigger problem than the authors admit. Yes, copyright law has been extended to cover electronic publishing, but how do you handle web sites in Nigeria or China that simply don't follow the rules? What is to keep them from selling your material on their web site?

An overall excellent book for someone new to the field. It is getting a bit dated, and a new edition would be nice to have.

Yesterday I helped my 10th grade sister with Politics and the English Language by George Orwell. I explained to her why Mr. Orwell says a double negative is bad English.

I highly recommend all the contributors to this book begin with the basics of writing in the English language. Strunk & White is a good read and not too long and I also recommend Mr. Orwell's essay to elucidate exactly why not not is not not not good English.

The most aggravating aspect of this book however isn't the piss poor English. I have school books for my MA in publishing I am supposedly to learn from that are full of grammatical and spelling errors every other page. It happens. I can deal with that.

No, the worst part of this book are the factual errors that just make me want to throw the book out the window in a fit of rage at the sheer lack of research put into it.

Don't believe me? On page 626, the author predicts that in possibly five years technology may be available that will prohibit users from making photocopies of protected material and that this technology may be commercially viable in seven to ten years.

If the author did the slightest amount of research, he would know the technology is already widely used and has been for nearly a decade. The article on wikipedia about the EURion constellation can provide you all the details.

You know I'm really trying to give the book a fair chance. It is a textbook after all, and I am trying, I really am, but I continually question the intelligence of the authors and their competence in the field they are supposed to be experts in every other paragraph.

Don't buy this book. And if you need it for school, photocopy the parts you can stomach to read.