Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The future of book publishing

Sara Lloyd, A book publisher’s manifesto - Part VI (The End), The Digitalist, May 21, 2008.  Excerpt:

...The publishing world awaits the outcome of Google’s legal battle with the Author’s Guild, but in a way, the bluster about Google’s generous interpretation of the fair use clause often only serves to cover up a sense of shame that it was not publishers who first chose to invest in the digitisation of our print archives and to develop the means to access them....

Whilst Google has led the drive to make book content ‘discoverable’ online, publishers have been slow to harness web techniques to promote and sell books, both in print and in digital formats....

Whether publishers will find a way to cohabit with Google and the other search engines, to ensure that their content is discoverable through search but on their terms,...remains to be seen. Publishers certainly could have a role to play in trying to work with Google and the other search engines to ensure the highest standards of quality are upheld....Whichever way it goes, in order for publishers to break their traditional boundaries and to develop into the publishing companies of tomorrow will require a step change in their form, culture and approach. Digital publishing strategies will need to move from defensive or protective to creative and liberal, with an emphasis on enabling readers to share and to change what they read....

Publishers...will need to embrace new business models and they may even need to become media companies rather than publishing companies....

Update (10/21/08). Lloyd's full article has now been published in Library Trends, Summer 2008 (not OA).