No 1 - What Future Books?

What Future Books?

Do not be too alarmed with the coming of the new media like blogs, podcasting, rss. Of course there will be an impact but it will not make books obsolete entirely.

But academic publishing is definitely changing rapidly. Resource materials like dictionaries, encyclopaedias and technical manuals will definitely go the electronic way because they are too heavy and expensive to publish. At the same time, libraries are running out of space to store the many volumes. Academics are finding it easier to rely on e-resources as they can get information that they need almost immediately - via on-line (pay-per-view, on-line subscription, one-time access ...).

General reading books especially children's books are as popular as ever. Click on the link below and in the downloaded page click on the pdf file: The latest children's supplement, published by The Bookseller, 17th March:

http://www.thebookseller.com/?pid=13

We see a multiplicity of media in future, rather than one medium replacing another. If you look at the history of media in general, when a new medium comes along, it does not usually replace an earlier one; it just adds to it. Books came first, then radio, cinema, video and computing. None of these things has replaced the book. Even the introduction of the CD-Rom (predicted to mark the end of books in the 1990s) audio and e-books have not been able to replace the printed books or media in general (like newspaper, magazines). These new media only enriches choice for the customer and that’s good news.

Publishers should make use of this new media to enhance the sale of their books.

Blogs: Publishers in the west are already making use of blogs to create book community (like a virtual book club). These blogs discuss books.

Examples of blogs on Malay books:

http://kakibuku.blogdrive.com/

http://buku.blogdrive.com/

RSS (Rich Site Summary) – can send info on upcoming books to your website’s subscribers.

Podcasting: the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Pustaka Nasional has started using this to enhance their books.

http://www.pustaka.com.sg/podcast.html

Other resources:

1. Making use of search engines like Google, Yahoo to publisher’s advantage.

2. Exploring Open Source resources for tools to enhance publishing workflow/marketing.