It was back in 1985 I first ventured into publishing, releasing a small book of poetry by Vaughan G. Harris, The Cabinetmaker’s Art, under my then wee imprint, Keystone Press. I published a few other chapbooks of poetry and short fiction. And quietly drifted away. In those days publishing for a microscopic press was cumbersome, ridiculously expensive, heart-breaking hard work that often meant slogging books out of the trunk of your car. It was a…
There are those who will read this blog post and tut-tut behind their hands. Some will consider the views expressed here as neophyte, uninformed, someone who plainly doesn’t understand how things work in the publishing industry. We’ve always had the long tail, the convoluted, ritualistic, bureaucratic process by which an author’s books are brought to market. This is the way it’s done. We shouldn’t change it. But perhaps we should change it. Leigh Anne Williams…
The following is a position paper written by our own Public Relations and Marketing Director, Kelly Stephens, for a university course on Anthropology and Technology. The paper garnered a 95%, and we thought germane to the current discussion about the effect of the Internet on publishing. The paper is reproduced her with the permission of the author. Web 2.0 has changed accessibility standards, bringing information down into the hands of the proverbial academic pauper and raising…
Espresso at University of Waterloo Since first it was launched in 2007, I’ve been a staunch supporter of the vision of the Espresso Book Machine. That belief, however, begins to wane of late. Why? Well, there are a series of problems, most of them human, which seem to plague this remarkable technology. I will address those problems, both human and technical. Initial cost investment. Cost would appear to be the major hurdle for…
It has become almost a tired argument the past three years that print books will suffer extinction. Pundits far wiser than I have expostulated that in this world of immediate gratification and three second attention, of rampant consumerism and the rule of the mob, that books — real, paper-filled and cover bound books — will see a demise in favour of digital information and literature. Certainly that prediction is not without precedent. Just look at…