The Capitulation Of Print Publishing

Self-deluded Authors Guild rep waving Google Book Search Settlement agreement

Self-deluded Authors Guild rep standing next to Google

Oh yes this bombastic analogy is apt!

1) Neville Chamberlain signed an agreement giving away property he did not own — just as the Authors Guild has done

2) Hitler knew what he wanted — so does Google

3) Hitler had a long-range plan — so does Google

4) Chamberlain was clueless — so is the Authors Guild

Stop this madness. Now.

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #3

How much metadata?

Look:

Click = big

That’s a series of screensnaps from the ePub editor, SIGIL. Those designations are just for Author.

A example of possible user-contributed metadata linking:

I once had a wise and honest teacher; I asked him one day to explain a certain matter; and he replied: “I haven’t time now. If I knew it thoroughly I could tell you in a few minutes, but as I know it only imperfectly, it would take me an hour.”

— Footnotes to Life by Dr. Frank Crane, published 1920

connects/relates loosely to:

I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. –Blaise Pascal

— quoted in The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, published 2004

Where I Stand Now

I need to do this post to make everything clear.

Most of this has been covered in recent posts, but this is the short all-in-one summary.

1) eInk = monochrome non-backlit display suited to viewing lightly tarted-up text files.

2) eBook = lightly tarted-up text file exemplified by the “industry standard” of —

3) ePub = an alleged “standard” pieced together by a committee without teeth, now a footstool of Adobe.

4) Axis of E = 1 + 2 + 3.

5) Digital book = multi-dimensional interactive book with a rich back-end metadata component that can connect to other digital books. What books need to be.

6) Google Book Search = there is no need to rush into this, it is based on a false understanding of what an “electronic book” is. Google understands the difference, so they want to rush.

People also wonder if I still endorse something like the Sony Reader (I have never endorsed the Kindle). Only conditionally:

1) You do not purchase any “eBooks” for it (because it’s likely you will have to repurchase those in digital book format)

2) You use it for library loans

3) You use it for public domain books

4) You use it for free eBooks

5) You use it to view your own material (manuscript, RSS feeds, etc)

I am, in short, now opposed to buying anything called an “eBook,” because it’s contributing to a “standard” that is doomed to be swept away.

Save your money. Borrow print books from a library.

It will be worth the wait.