I've mentioned my cousin's book, Dueling Dragons. As part of my help to her I've gotten a fair amount of exposure to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing operation. (The book was published iby CreateSpace, which Amazon bought years ago and now has dropped in favor of KDP.)
With the paperback version out, we now have to worry about the ebook version. This leads me into some thoughts about the whole publishing process. In the old world of publishing, say circa 1960, each hardcover book was handcrafted with lots of choices in its design and packaging. The paperbacks were a bit different with less variety, especially in the cases where a publisher had a series going. (I remember Ballantine's series of World War II histories as one example, or a series of John D. MacDonald's novels.)
I paid very limited attention to self-publishing. It was around, and advertised in the pages of the NY York Times Book Review. I think it required a rather hefty payment to get a batch of your book printed and available for sale.
These days with Amazon ebook publishing you have very limited choices in font and design. But what this standardization does, along with the support of software and the internet, is enable a much greater variety in the content of books, partially because the costs of publishing in ebook format are so low. Because the entry cost is low as long as you can live the with limited choices everyone and her brother can publish that book they've dreamed of.
This interplay of uniformity and diversity fascinates me, and I think you can find similar patterns in other areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment