TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Publishers Weekly, TeleRead team up on e-book coverage

By David Rothman

The Web site of Publishers Weekly, the powerful 135-year-old bible of book publishing, has started running news and views I adapt from the TeleBlog.

I’ll also write some PW-first items, online and offline, and will welcome suggestions from the e-book community.

PW’s home page will spotlight my E-Book Report blog at least 2-3 times a week, and I hope that TeleBlog regulars will drop by to enrich my posts with their own insights. Commenters don’t have to work in publishing or agree with me. The only musts are civility and fairness.

P-E bridges

Also known as the TeleRead Web Log, we draw tens of thousands of e-book lovers each month and are read not just in the public domain and open source communities but also at major companies such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Oxford University Press. Not to mention our much-appreciated participants from smaller houses such as Books for a Buck and Drollerie Press. So the PW alliance is natural one. Meanwhile thanks to Robert Nagle, Branko Collin, Garson O’Toole, Jon Noring and others whose posts—sometimes in line with mine, sometimes fervently not—have helped us reach our present level.

My own personal vision over the years has been to build bridges between E and P. Despite my years-long campaign for free e-books via well-stocked libraries, I’ve always cared about the little detail of fair compensation for writers and publishers (as well as about e-stores—to assure the widest-possible choice of books). The PW gig is a paid one.

Same TeleTude

These past few days, I’ve been busy seeding E-Book Report with posts for you to comment on. My ‘tude in PW is the same as here, especially on DRM matters.

I hope you’ll jump in while keeping in mind PW’s different, less technical audience and the need to explain tech terms. That’s A Good Thing. Let’s share our enthusiasm with e-book newsbies in publishing. Be tactful and patient with them, DRM boosters included. Ideally all sides in the debate will learn from each other.

My PW posts so far:

–Parts I and II of “Feed Ed’s e-cats? Best-sellers out of tested ’slush’?”—complete with a photo of Ed Howdershelt with “Muffin” and “Bear.” The post is pro-Ed. As a successful E writer with crossover potential, he deserves a chance in P. Later I’ll mention other candidates for Big New York Publishers, or BNYPs as they say on the eBook Community list.

–The joys of e-book ownership. I did the library-in-your-hand routine and shared a few choice words about the anti-ownership technology known as DRM. I’d welcome some positive e-book stories in your comments—and why it’s better if  you can own books for real. Would you like to be able to pass on all your e-titles to your children, for example? I’m not saying that ownership should be the only option. But if we’re going to take e-books seriously as a medium, it had better be one.

-Parts I and II of “Why you should care about E–even if e-books now disappoint us.” No miracles promised, but I give four reasons for long-term financial growth–Topic A for publishers, even though I remain just as interested as ever in the social benefits of e-books.

OK, gang. That’s it for now. I’ll welcome topic suggestions for future PW and TeleBlog posts.

The title thing: I’ve never been big on titles and am happy just to be called moderator. But, hey, if it serves the interest of E-Book Report or the TeleBlog, I’ll be flexible. Editor-publisher is probably the best description, for PW’s more traditional audience, of what I do. Robert Nagle in effect is functioning as deputy editor-publisher, given all the ideas he’s contributed and all the hours he’s put in—both through his posts and behind the scenes with WordPress.

Details: Because of the limits of PW’s content management system, it’s difficult to write long. Maybe we can actually turn this to everyone’s advantage. Feel free to use the comments area to expand on what I say (as well as disagree if you’d like). I may also link from PW to the TeleBlog, where the discussion can be more technical and more detailed. But don’t write off PW. It’s a chance to make a difference, considering the influence of the executives and editors and others reading it.

Photo Department: The damn picture accompanying the column makes me look 90 years old with white hair (actual shade: gray-brown, depending on the light). I had to brighten it up since it wasn’t taken in the best light. A replacement may be up in the near future, lest the whiteness falsely convey a few extra decades of sagacity.