Publishing in the Digital Age 1

Publishing in the Digital Age:

How the Technological Revolution
Has Changed the Publishing Industry

T
he technological revolution is paving the way for the largest transforma-

tion the publishing industry has seen since the invention of the Guten-
There are berg printing press. Much like that catalyst, the medium of reading is evolving
three essential
and in turn, so is the way that the written word is distributed to and read by the
groups that
make the pub- masses. The omnipresence of the internet, new technologies like e-readers
lishing indus- and the sale of digital books are only the most recent advances to the chang-
try thrive: the
ing world of modern literature. The effect this metamorphosis has on the pub-
readers who
purchase and lishing industry could mean that the way the written word is distributed and ac-
read books; cessed will be changed forever. This paper will explore how the technological
the authors
revolution and the dawning of the digital age have specifically effected the core
who create
books; and the components that make up the backbone of the publishing industry.

publishing
To understand the impact that the flood of recent technology has had on
companies
that sell and the publishing industry, one first needs to understand the framework that the
distribute industry rests upon. There are three essential groups that make the publishing
books.
industry thrive: the readers who purchase and read books; the authors who

create books; and the publishing companies (consisting of agents, editors, and

corporate staff) that sell and distribute books. For the purposes of this paper,

bookstores will also be considered as part of publishing companies, since they

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 2

serve the same purpose – selling books. If any single point in the power trian-

gle the industry is based on experiences a change, the rest of the supporting

structure is forced to adapt along with it. For example, the emerging promi-

nence of e-readers (portable electronic reading devices that are capable of

holding many books at once) like the Amazon Kindle and the Apple Ipad have

caused bookselling giants like Amazon and Macmillan to rethink they way they

New technol- sell books. They are doing this so that they can distribute their material to the
ogy is expand-
consumers in the way the consumers want it. To discuss this clearly, I have
ing and evolv-
ing at light- organized my paper into three main sections, each containing secondary sub-

ning speed, sections. In the first section I discuss how the technological revolution has af-
and it is fected publishing houses, and how publishing houses are reacting to it. In the
changing the
second section, I explore what kind of impact recent technological advances
way people
buy and read have had on authors. In the final section, I explain how new technology has
books. changed the average reader’s habits opportunities.

The Effect on Publishers

It would be easy to assume that the publishing companies are the sole

power players in the publishing industry, but that is far from the truth. New

technology is expanding and evolving at lightning speed, and it is changing the

way people buy and read books. This has left publishing companies scram-

bling to evolve along with the pace of digital progress. However, many publish-

ing houses have also been able to harness and use technology to their advan-

tage as well, especially as a marketing tool.

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 3

With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle e-reader in 2007, publish-

ing houses were introduced to a competitor unlike any they had every experi-

enced before. Amazon.com was created with the goal of eliminating the mid-

dle-man price markup of books by selling and delivering books directly to cus-

tomers. The Kindle worked well within that business plan, and Amazon be-

came one of the top booksellers in the business. However, the recent advent

The once- of the Apple Ipad (an e-reader with capabilities similar to the Kindle) came with
popular
a new business model, which enables publishers to stay involved in the distri-
independently
owned book- bution of their titles.

store is fast
With the digitizing of books, there also comes a much higher possibility
becoming
obsolete. of theft and piracy, which results in millions of dollars of lost profits. The skill

set this generation’s hackers possess are far more advanced than that of their

predecessors. When a book becomes digital, the simplicity of format that con-

veniently allows customers to buy it digitally also makes it easy to steal and

distribute. The intellectual property of authors and publishers is much more

likely to be stolen and pirated now, than it has been in any other age. The mu-

sic and film industries were plagued with similar problems when their formats

changed into easily downloaded and shared digital files.

The effect of the popularity of e-readers on small bookstores has been

purely negative. The once-popular independently owned bookstore is fast be-

coming obsolete. A recent article in the Seattle Times describes the severe

downturn that many locally owned bookstores have experienced. In a city that

Booth - How the Technological Revolution has Changed the Publishing Industry
 Publishing in the Digital Age 4

once boasted more than 150 bookstores, many of them are closing down in

rapid succession. (Westneat, 1)

The publishing industry, however, is just that – an industry. It would be

a discredit to them to not mention the ways they are taking advantage of newly

popular technology in order to increase their bottom lines in any way they can.

Publishing companies, like the rest of the business world, are beginning to
It is possible
that wise up to the amazing advertising opportunities the internet presents. They

publishing have adapted their sales tactics by making their websites attractive and user-
companies
friendly, and have created a presence on social networking sites like Facebook
will be able to
recover the and Myspace. By harnessing the advertising possibilities of the internet, pub-
profits that
lishing companies and big-chain bookstores have shown their ability to adapt
have been lost
in the wake of to the digital world. Like mentioned previously, Macmillan has struck a deal
the e-book
with Apple in order to make their books available through the Ipad, and many
and e-reader.
more publishing houses are expected to follow suit. It is possible that publish-

ing companies will be able to recover the profits that have been lost in the

wake of the e-book and e-reader.

The new technologies that are available to publishing companies also

help them save money in the process of printing. Digital printing and the new

ability to print on demand (POD) allow publishers to print books in a more cost

efficient manner. Simply put, POD gives the publisher the ability to sell a book

before they print it, which saves money and time.

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E-books also save money, since they cost nothing to create and dupli-

cate. Now that many publishing houses are expected to follow in Macmillan’s

footsteps by contracting with e-reader companies, they can also enjoy selling

thousands of titles without the burden of inventory and warehouse storage

space. Whether or not this will be able to save publishing houses profits with-

out causing large layoffs is yet to be seen. For example, during the industrial

Is the printed revolution companies saved money by mechanizing labor; however, since peo-
and bound
ple were replaced by machines, they were forced to find work elsewhere.
book going to
become ex- Is the printed and bound book going to become extinct? Most industry
tinct? Most
insiders and experts don’t believe so, for many different reasons. Instead, the
industry in-
siders and ex- emergence of e-books and e-readers will be an addition to the traditional form

perts don’t that books have, but it can’t replace them any more than the electronic synthe-
believe so, for
sizer could replace a grand piano. It will simply afford readers more options to
many differ-
ent reasons. choose from when selecting a book. If the publishing industry continues to

evolve along with technology, the book will not become a dusty relic of the

past. Truly, only time will be able to tell for sure; however, the definition of what

is considered a book may be changing as well. Will it always mean a bound

collection of paper pages printed with ink? It may soon be known as no more

and no less then the creative intelligence property of the author, regardless of

whether it is printed on a page or downloaded and read on a screen.

The Effect on Authors

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 6

The next important group involved in the success of the publishing in-

dustry is authors. It may be safely assumed that they are the group that is

treated with the most creative respect and sentimentality by the world’s read-

ers at large. After all, can the average consumer list off their favorite publishing

house in casual conversation? No, that is an honor that only authors and the

beloved books they have penned can hold. Authors (and the fantastic worlds

It may be they create) are the artistic lifeblood of the publishing industry, and the techno-
safely
logical revolution hasn’t left them untouched.
assumed that
authors are Do new technologies and quick internet search engines play a role in
the group
the actual writing process of the twenty-first century author? They absolutely
that is
treated with do, and not only in the ways they research, but in technique as well. The num-

the most ber of options and features that modern writers have available at their finger-
creative
tips that their predecessors did not is staggering. If an author would like to find
respect and
sentimental- the details about a particular place, person or thing they are thinking of writing

ity by the about, a quick internet search with the proper keywords can deliver them the
world’s
information they seek in minutes, not days. A query search on any popular
readers at
search engine can and will bring an author thousands of possible writing op-
large.
portunities to them in a matter of minutes. There are also much more than just

research tools available to modern authors as well. Things like spell-checking

tools, helpful punctuation and grammatical assistance programs are synony-

mous with any word-processing system.

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If an author is brand new to the industry and can’t find an agent or a

publishing company (notwithstanding all of the technological resources they

have at their disposal) there is a new option which has developed rapidly over

the last ten years that wouldn’t exist without the technological revolution. It is

now possible to do what has always been unthinkable in the past – simply go

around the publisher all together, and publish one’s book independently. If an

author self-publishes, they can have complete creative control over the content
When it comes
of their book without the hassle of censorship or market consideration or med-
to publicity
and building dlesome editors. Granted, it will still need to be coherent and well edited in or-
a fan base, der to have a chance on the market, but that is something many people can
online net-
accomplish without the assistance of a professional editor. Lisa Genova’s story
working com-
munities are proved this; her book eventually gained incredible popularity, and she was
a powerful, consequently offered a contract for publication worth half of a million dollars.
cheap, and ef-
When it comes to publicity and building a fan base, online networking
fective tool to
promote a communities are a powerful, cheap, and effective tool to promote a book. This

book. also makes the question of financial viability much easier to prove to a pro-

spective publisher. Instead of making it a gamble to sign on and print a novice

author, publishing companies can rest assured that the books they publish will

have a ready audience. These online communities and networking sites have

also provided a surprising way for authors and readers to interact in ways that

were unimaginable in the past.

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Take now-bestselling author Stephenie Meyer, for example. Just after

her first book, Twilight, was released in 2006 a fan writing a piece of fan-fiction

(an original short story that uses characters and canon from an already-

existing novel or series) had a few questions about the book, and decided to

email the author about it. This fan, whose screen name is Alphie, doubted that

she would get a reply. She relates what happened next:

The advan- “I contacted [Stephenie Meyer] and expressed how difficult I was
tages of finding writing in her AU [Authors Universe] as there was no lexicon. I asked
email, web-
sites, and if she would mind if someone would start one and she said she thought it
online
was an excellent idea, offering at the same time to answer any unanswered
communities
are helping questions [… ]Basically from there on in, if I asked it, she answered it and
authors con-
then some. Often times she would answer questions I hadn’t even asked. It
nect with
their readers was as if she was begging to get this information out to her fans and at long
in a very un-
last someone as willing to help. I gladly took up the roll . . . and voila! The
precedented
way. Twilight Lexicon was born!“ ( Alphie 1)

The advantages of email, websites, and online communities are help-

ing authors connect with their readers in a very unprecedented way.

The Effect on Readers

The last group that makes up the power structure of modern publishing

is readers. They are the customers, and the driving force behind sales. They

are who the publishers wish to cater to, and by whom authors hope to be read.

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 9

If one point of the triangle is the most essential to the success of the publishing

industry, it is most assuredly the common reader.

Among all of the specific devices and advances that are available to

the average reader now that weren’t available a decade ago, the most signifi-

cant is the e-reader. Mentioned earlier, an e-reader (also known as an e-book

reader or e-book device) is a lightweight electronic device that is designed to

Technology
read books, magazines, or any other print-based publication. Although one of
isn’t useful if
it doesn’t the first e-readers came onto the market in 1993, they have only recently be-
make the gun to catch on with mainstream manufacturers due to increased memory ca-
average con-
pabilities and battery life.
sumer’s life
easier. The modern e-reader is lighter and much more compact than tradi-

tional books, since you can have a library’s worth of volumes at your disposal

in a device that is usually the size of a pad of notebook paper. They weigh in at

around ten ounces, depending on the model you choose. In order for the e-

reader to be successful, prototypes like the Kindle and the Ipad need to have

more advantages than regular books. Technology isn’t useful if it doesn’t make

the average consumer’s life easier. It also won’t sell if it simply does the same

thing its less-advanced predecessor did; it needs to be even better than a

book. The modern e-reader also is designed to cause less strain on the eye

than traditional computer screens, since it utilizes Electronic Ink technology (E

Ink) as opposed to being backlit. E Ink mimics the appearance of black ink on

a white page very closely. However, the Kindle can do something that none of

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 10

its predecessors could. With a Kindle, a reader can increase the font size of

the print with the click of a button – a feature that many with poor eyesight will

appreciate. Consumers can also perform a key-term search within a book, and

the Kindle will show you anywhere else that specific word shows up again in

the text. Another great selling point for the e-reader is that it does the legwork

for you. It brings the bookstore to your fingertips. In today’s modern world, time

You also can’t is money. Anything that saves the average consumer time and highway miles
lend your e-
is incredibly valuable, and e-readers do just that. There are several e-readers
book to a
friend if they on the market currently, and each boast a specific set of features (see fig.1).
don’t have the
same kind of A feature that also makes the new breed of e-books and e-readers
e-reader as
more advanced than printed books is the fact that they can incorporate multi-
you, since the
formats for media files directly onto the page. While a person reads an Ipad, they have the
each device
option to listen to an audio file of the passage simultaneously. Videos, too, can
are different
depending on easily be displayed on the screen along side the written word. This opens up
the brand
doors of creativity that were never available to readers, or authors, before.
they belong
to.
Of course, there are a few disadvantages to an e-reader as opposed to

a tried-and-true book. You also can’t lend your e-book to a friend if they don’t

have the same kind of e-reader as you, since the formats for each device are

different depending on the brand they belong to.

The popularity of the E-book is absolutely not due to the fact that it is

less expensive than a library card. The cheapest version of an Amazon Kindle

will cost around two hundred and sixty dollars. However, when it comes to indi-

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 11

vidual books it is more cost effective to purchase them as e-books if you al-

ready have a Kindle; brand new titles only cost $9.99. That is an incredible

savings considering the fact that a newly released hardcover novel can cost

anywhere between fifteen dollars and thirty dollars. The average consumer

would need to buy around forty books before they began to save money.

Additionally, an E-book reader saves space. Any apartment dweller in

The techno-
New York City would be able to testify of the incredibly high price that space
logical ad-
vances that fetches in the twenty-first century. Our world is expanding, but unfortunately it
this century is also becoming more cramped in the process. E-books assuage the pressure
has seen thus
of not having enough space to fit all of your favorite books on a bookshelf, be-
far have ef-
fected every cause the bookshelf has now gone digital.

facet of the
The technological advances that this century has seen thus far have ef-
publishing in-
dustry. fected every facet of the publishing industry. Publishers have risen to the chal-

lenge of the e-book. Authors are connected to their readers in ways that could

not have existed in any previous generation. The average twenty-first century

reader has a bevy of options to choose from when buying books. These

changes will continue to evolve and expand the way that people sell, read, and

write books. The invention of the Gutenberg printing press ushered in the

dawning of the printing age. Masses of people were finally able to read books

– namely, the Bible – in their own language, wherever and however they pre-

ferred. Perhaps the internet, the e-reader and its sure-to-follow offspring will

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 Publishing in the Digital Age 12

one day be referred to as the catalyst for the dawning of a new age of literature

once more.

Notes:
1. Alphie. “Site History & FAQ: The Lexicon Story: According to Alphie.” The Twilight Lexicon
2010. Web. 9 Feb. 2010.
2. Westneat, Danny. “Bookstores May Have to Turn Page.” The Seattle Times 30 Jan. 2010.
Web. Feb. 2010.

Booth - How the Technological Revolution has Changed the Publishing Industry