Save the Book

Digital publishing, e-publishing, podcasting, novels on your cell phone, the rise of the e-book. With all the technological advances of the past few years, is the quality of our books and our content taking a backseat to the bells and whistles of technology? Publishing companies spend millions on new technology yet are apprehensive about giving a useful marketing budget to what might be considered a “smaller” book. They streamline production to cut costs and save time and risk losing valuable steps in editing and quality control. Materials get more expensive so cheaper paper that yellows before it even leaves the warehouse becomes acceptable. Yes, book publishing is a business and companies must make a profit. In the constant quest for a better return on investment, however, are we losing sight of the bigger picture? If you publish an e-book and nobody reads it, does it make a sound? You want to take books into the 21st century? You want to create the next big thing? Somebody out there create decent, cheap synthetic paper and save our preferred content delivery format.

We're at Fahrenheit 449, folks, and the pages are starting to smoke.

Save the book.