The near ubiquity of the internet has changed the way many of us find answers to our questions. Through the ability to immediately access information, I often obviously go to the net instead of a book or the library. Additionally, it has allowed individuals to distribute audio, text, video and photos quickly and at low or no cost. It's all about immediacy.
The written word or photographs in books are different. Other than the latest and greatest Harry Potter novel, there typically isn't an urgency with books. There is something about holding something that contains volumes of words and pictures on pages that can easily be kept and passed around to friends and families. This sense of difference, and value of a book, may change over the generations, but I feel that it is deeply planted in current generations.
Previously, publishing a book was limited to the very talented and those lucky enough to convince a publisher to invest, distribute and sell their works.
Technology is changing that in a big way.
The definition of desktop publishing is shifting into one of true desktop publishing. Machines that can print several digital pages per second and bind them into books, have made printing of individual books on demand an economical reality.
No more minimum runs of hundreds of books that need to be stored and distributed. The publishing model has changed - who needs a traditional publisher, with condesending attitudes, overgrown eyebrows and the smell of old paper now?
To learn how individuals can self publish, and sell publicly - even through
Amazon.com, click over to
Lulu.comYou may be as amazed as I was, and realize that the traditional, stiff publishing world is as screwed as Hollywood is.
