L’Odeur des Livres
I was recently invited to present a soapbox speech at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre as part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival. So I took the opportunity to berate those who espouse the smell of books as a defence of the printed book.
Needless to say, it wasn’t an entirely serious speech. But, at its core, it does have a serious message: the radical transformation at the heart of publishing presents an opportunity for everyone involved in bookishness: from writers to publishers to readers. Morose pining for an idealised past (that never existed) is not the way to face the necessary challenges.
At least that’s what I think.
Read MoreSpeech at The Reader
I recently spoke at The Reader, an if:book Australia symposium on booky/digitally stuff. Hardly surprising that I spoke when I was the one organising it, but still worth a mention since I squeezed a few good riffs on digital publishing cliches via a drinking game.
Chugalug.
Simon Groth from if:book Australia on Vimeo.
Read MoreNew novel available soon
For some time now, I have been working on making download-ready editions of my first novel Here Today. Like the short story collection Saccades, it will be available in multiple formats simultaneously. All digital editions will be free to download and share, published under a Creative Commons licence. The print edition (of which I have a test copy I’m mildly in love with) will be sold at near cost. I’ve tried many different models of digital publishing over the years and I’ve found this to be the one that works best for readers. No shopping cart, no credit cards, just instant fiction. For all those who have downloaded Saccades in such a fashion, I hope you have enjoyed it.
Saccades was really my test case for this novel. The idea was to iron out any kinks and make Here Today as seamless a process as possible. It hasn’t worked out that way. Actually, Here Today has been an incredibly long and arduous process. Where the attitude behind Saccades had a suck-it-and-see approach with cheerful abandon, Here Today has been bogged down in the arduous process of making sure everything is right. I’ve been through about eighteen versions of the cover and obsessed over every instance of italics in the text. And that’s just for the print version. All those ebook editions need a patient hand, especially now I know much more about ereaders and their various eccentricities.
I’ll post more (much more) about Here Today when it’s released at the end of this month.
As my daughter used to say, ‘I’m very exciting!’
Read MoreOff the Record Now Available in Digital
After much technical jiggery-pokery, Off The Record is now available in digital form, including the Kindle store for all you kindlers out there. The book is also coming soon to Apple iBookstore and Google eBooks.
In time it will also be available from all major vendors, including Baker & Taylor, B&N, Borders, Bowker, Ebooks.com, Ebrary, Follett Digital Resources, Kobo, Lightning Source (Ingram), Netlibrary, Overdrive, Sony, and Tecknoquest.
The ebook for Off the Record will be available to customers worldwide, so if you have had any trouble finding yourself a print copy (you obviously haven’t tried here), now is your chance to pick yourself up copy in fully recyclable pixels.
Read MoreEssence of book
Originally published at futureofthebook.org.au, where this post has been fermenting for quite a while, perhaps like a good stinky cheese.
In discussions around digital and print publishing, can we all agree to finally stop referring to the smell of print books?
Seriously. Just get over it. If the smell of books was that intoxicating, we’d dispense with reading altogether and just wander libraries, running our noses along the shelves. Bookshops would bottle the ‘Essence of Book’ and pump it out from their entrance, like cinemas do with popcorn. Connoisseurs would bore each other with detailed analyses of variations by region or era:
Honestly, the 1963 Penguins carry a little more cinnamon and a far less wet dog than their 1974 counterparts…
Books have many amazing qualities as an incredibly efficient and proven technology for storing ideas, knowledge, and stories. They are not a vehicle for transporting odour, although some of them may do so inadvertently. The greatest smell in the world won’t save you from poorly written tripe.
Referring to the smell of books was once an emotional tug, designed to appeal to bibliophiles anxious that their preferred medium might be vanishing. Now it’s just a lazy cliche. I’m wondering if we need to create a digital publishing version of Godwin’s Law.
So either stop banging on about it or create your own bottled Essence of Book™. My cut is 10%.
A sad old ereader
Originally published at futureofthebook.org.au.
On the weekend, I visited a big suburban technology shop. On a display table that mostly featured those squinty little netbooks was a single solitary iRiver. The only ereader in the shop not locked up behind glass, it was nevertheless tethered to the table. Its stark white casing and white-ish screen provided stark contrast to the shiny black plastic objects that surrounded it.
I was interested in investigating the device further, since it’s one I was yet to try out.
As I got closer to it, though, I noticed the first scuff marks down each side of it and the oily fingerprints that plastered the screen. Keep in mind, it doesn’t have a touch screen. I guess that’s understandable; it was on display in a busy shop and people are now conditioned to think a device that looks like that should have a touch screen (though you think think they’d at least wipe their fingers on their clothes first). More of a worry though was the fact that the screen displayed little more than a few half-rendered words and some random horizontal lines. Okay, maybe it just needed a restart.
I picked it up (avoiding the gunk on the screen) and pressed a few buttons.
Nothing. The half text and lines remained. I pressed a few more buttons, I turned it over, wondering if there was a reset switch I wasn’t aware of.
Meanwhile, my son called to me from another part of the shop. A car racing game was set up complete with steering wheel, pedals, and a bucket seat. I replaced the ereader and joined him.
The Books
