I really enjoyed Stephen King’s On Writing and I was expecting Jason Epstein’s Book Business to be just as interesting as King’s book. Since I don’t know much about publishing and the role of publishers, I anticipated learning about the publishing industry, especially the mergers and acquisitions. Reading the first chapter of the book, I noticed how Epstein focused mainly on the new technology-transmitting books electronically- that affects the publishing industry.
Epstein depicts how the new technology renders the traditional publishing outmoded. He lists the pros and cons of this technology. In the Preface, page xi, Epstein writes that these technologies will “make books more widely available, less expensive, and more profitable to writers as costs related to physical distribution are minimized or eliminated.” However, later on he states that the electronic books take away the feeling that a book brings to its readers: “The feel of the book taken from the shelf and held in the hand is a magical experience, linking writer to reader”(38). He places the traditional publishing in competition with the new web technologies as he further suggests, “Tomorrow’s stores will have to be what the Web cannot be: tangible, intimate, and local; communal shrines, perhaps with coffee bars offering pleasure and wisdom in the company of others who share one’s interests, where the book one wants can always be found and surprises and temptations spring from every shelf”(38) Is he urging bookstores to create a communal environment by creating coffee bars? There were quite a few moments in the book, including this part, which threw me off a little.
With no background knowledge on the emergence of publishing houses, the process of publishing, and more, this book was hard to grasp. Also, Epstein’s use of vocabulary was difficult to impart. Perhaps the target audience of this book is more specific than King’s Book. So far, I could hardly say that I’m taking anything out of it. Hopefully, as I continue read, I’ll be able to understand the book and Epstein’s perspective better.
I think what Epstein meant about the feeling about physical traditional books vs. the new e-books is both the connection of having a solid object in your hands as you read and the sense of progression as you turn the pages, which is something e-books cannot imitate (yet?). There is a sense of detachment of having volumes of e-books waiting on the Kindle, rather than a pile of books, which are both visual, physical and entirely tangible. Perhaps, Epstein is urging the technology of the e-books to find a way to make reading these digital files more intimate, to follow in the book tradition.
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