The Book is Dead - or is it?
This is a long book review I wrote for the May 2008 issue of Blue Pencil, Newsletter of the Society of Editors (NSW) Inc.
Sherman Young will be attending the June meeting of the Society to discuss the latest in electronic publishing. “E-books: Where the bloody hell are they?”
In the meantime, check out his blog at www.thebookisdead.com.
The Book is Dead (Long Live the Book)
By Sherman Young
University of New South Wales Press (2007)
By Lachlan Jobbins
It’s not surprising that a senior lecturer in Media at Macquarie University should be announcing the end of the book. As a digital producer and consumer, it’s in his interest to be sounding the death-knell of one technology and signalling the rise of the next.
But Sherman Young’s fine book is not the typical op-ed rant of the techno-futurist. Nor does it pine for an idealised past when publishing was more a cultural endeavour than a business one. In 166 pages of careful argument, plus thorough notes, bibliography and index, Young takes an impassioned look at the precarious position of book culture today, and points toward a digital future.
The Book is Dead was written to start a discussion. Whether you agree with him or not, there is plenty for writers, publishers, editors and booksellers to think about.
First the bad news: According to both anecdotal evidence and statistics, almost no one reads books anymore. Australian novels are barely taught in schools. In universities, literature has been marginalised in favour of cultural studies and ‘new media’. Most people spend their leisure time watching TV or DVDs, surfing the internet or playing computer games. Constrained by ever-busier lives, we are increasingly choosing other forms of entertainment. And when we do read, fewer of us are turning to ‘serious’ books.
At the same time, the way we access and consume information is changing: Online news has taken chunks out of newspaper readerships, the web killed the printed encyclopaedia, and search engines have all-but replaced printed directories and changed the role of the librarian forever. Internet technologies like blogs have made reading a much more fluid - and often interactive - experience.
But according to Young, the real threat to book culture is not technology, but what he calls ‘anti-books’: market-driven products designed to extract maximum profit for minimum input; that do not trade in ideas but which are pure commercial objects. “Ghost-written sports autobiographies, celebrity cookbooks and cynical movie tie-ins, self-help books and cash register stocking fillers”. In his view, it is the growing emphasis on market-driven publishing - at the expense of serious books - that is causing the decline in the importance of the book.
(Naturally, he admits the delicious irony of his own book - a market-driven title with broad appeal from a traditional academic press.)
Yet here he is on slightly shaky ground. While pointing out that the publishing world “has traditionally been peopled by a balance of those who were conscious of their role in the remaking of cultures and those who understood that books were business and that success was about getting the culture / commerce balance correct”, he criticises the extent to which the commercial imperative seems to have gotten the upper hand.
One example he cites is the Harry Potter phenomenon. Originally a series of books, it became a movie franchise, Playstation gaming series, coffee cup, lunchbox and soft toy experience. But are we to blame international multimedia conglomerates for leveraging their products on as many platforms as possible? And why should a publisher invest in an unknown quantity when a David Beckham autobiography or a celebrity cookbook is a guaranteed seller? Surely, this is just good business.
But apart from academically murky arguments about utility versus cultural value, the commercial imperative does make things hard for the lesser-known writer / publisher trying to gain a foothold in the crowded marketplace. “A focus entirely on these sales means that there is less emphasis on other, less prominent titles; the so-called midlist.”
With more books published than ever before, more competition for shelf-space in fewer (and often larger) bookshops, and a need for books to sell now rather than over time, most publishers can no longer afford to support authors over the many years they might take to develop a following. And even if they can, the numbers are often too small to be sustainable. (He cites the example of award-winning novelist Brian Castro being dropped by his publisher before signing to Giramondo).
Young presents the startling figure that, in Australia in 2005, the tenth best-selling paperback sold “over 55,000 copies” - less than the number of people who turn up to the MCG on an average winter afternoon to watch an AFL match - and yet these fans will pay more than the cost of a paperback, and will gladly do it every weekend for the entire season. Such passionate book buyers, I would argue, are few and far between.
Price is another contentious issue. Young looks at the economics of publishing, revealing that a title must usually sell several thousand copies in order to recoup the publisher’s investment. He also shows that almost half the cost comes from the expense of physical printing, shipping and selling - sending it to a bookshop, displaying it and so on. And as anyone who has visited a US bookshop or shopped online knows, Australians pay a lot for our books.
So, in a market that cannot sustain small production runs, and a publishing industry tied to the printed page, with all its negatives (cost, size, inflexibility) and hesitant to make commercially risky decisions, what can be done to save the book?
In Sherman Young’s view, we need to let go of the book as an object, and embrace it as an idea. In order to save the message, we need to kill the medium.
Just as the music industry was forced to adapt to the reality of downloading and electronic distribution, the book industry may have to do the same. The ‘tipping point’ for music came with iTunes and the iPod - an easy way of legally obtaining music online, and a convenient way of listening to it on the run. Recently, iTunes overtook Wal-Mart to become the largest retailer of music in the US.
Wouldn’t it be nice to carry your whole library around in your pocket, to be able to flip through any book, anywhere? Young suggests that, when the right ‘Reader’ comes along, combining an acceptable price and functionality, the effect will be swift and decisive. And just as, in theory at least, the mp3 revolution has allowed artists to be heard by whole new audiences (via the web), so digital technology will allow writers and publishers to access a theoretically limitless market - without the constraints of physical production and handling.
To date, a widely accepted delivery mechanism and convenient portable technology for books remains to be seen. The Book is Dead discusses the Sony eReader and other early market entrants. Since its publication last year, Amazon.com has released the Kindle, and Dymocks has begun selling the iLiad reader in Australia. Digital books are here to stay.
But the real shock may come to booksellers. As an ex-bookseller and passionate lover of the book as ‘object’ (as well as carrier of ideas), I have seen the effect of Amazon.com on ‘bricks and mortar’ bookselling. As electronic distribution of content becomes more common, the pressure on traditional bookstores will only grow.
Competing on price won’t be an option. Why should consumers pay the same for an electronic file which has minimal distribution cost and no physical production cost? In theory, sales margins might be higher (it costs nothing to store an extra ‘copy’ of an electronic file), but why visit a ‘real’ bookstore when you don’t have to?
Young suggests that physical books may one day become the realm of collectors, a different grade of reader for whom the object still has value, and who (like those who still go to stores and purchase CDs and DVDs) are prepared to pay a premium for it.
But what does this all mean for those of us working in publishing and media? How do writers (and editors and publishers) make a living in this new world? The issue of digital rights management (DRM) is yet to be solved, and questions of security, of authors’ (and editors’) rights, of pricing, distribution models and file formats all remain to be answered.
Nevertheless, change is coming. While I don’t agree with everything in The Book is Dead, I found myself forced to accept the implications - we all need to be ready. Young says “I wrote this book because I love books, and want a future in which reading still happens, and books still matter, at least to some of us.” Its aim is to start a discussion - one which continues on his website at www.thebookisdead.com.
Sherman Young is addressing the Society of Editors (NSW) on June 3. With him to continue the conversation will be his publisher, Phillipa McGuinness from UNSW Press, and editor Jessica Perini.
Tags: eBooks, Editing, Sherman Young
