Do digital books dream of digital readers?
Books, like any other human artifact, aren’t static objects. They evolve, change and adapt to the needs and habits of the people who use them. As with any other man-made object, this is not a straightforward process, but one of action and response. The emergence of new technology to satisfy existing needs always leads to new needs and adaptations, which in turn make room for more technological innovation. The printed book is a typical example of this feedback loop. When Gutenberg perfected his invention, he surely thought that he would simply be able to churn out more books at a lower price, but that they would be very similar to the old ones. He probably never imagined that these practical benefits would provide the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation and ultimately produced the eras of Rationalism, Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution. He also could never have foreseen the modern publishing industry and its readers.
To clarify what I mean, let’s take another step back in time and have a look at a great medieval treasure: Petrarch’s personal library. This copious collection of around two hundred codices, the equivalent of five to six hundred modern books, was a true wonder of its time. Ordinary people and erudites alike marveled at the fact that a single man could even possess, let alone read, so many titles. Still, this is a rather unimpressive feat by modern standards. However, the main difference between Petrarch’s library and the collection of cheap paperbacks on the average student’s shelves is not one of quantity, but quality. With this, I don’t mean to say that Petrarch’s books were, by any means, better, more profound or superior to the ones of our friend in college. In the latter’s collection, we might find Critique of Pure Reason, the Karamazov Brothers and even Petrarch’s Sonnets. I mean that they are different objects; and that such a qualitative difference originates from a quantitative process.
A novel or a modern philosophical treatise are cultural products that could never have existed without the changes in production and circulation of written media brought about by the printed press. To write novels, writers must have an ideal reader to address (a notion derived from Eco’s model reader), whom they will never know personally. Similarly, a modern philosophical treatise or, even more, an essay, is made up of other books. It is the result of an ongoing academic debate that couldn’t exist without the wide access and intense production of questions, confutations and vindications made possible by printed media.
Books, and therefore modern culture, are above all an industrial product. They may have even been the first truly industrial product in Western history, as the main purpose of the printing press was the mass production of a single product. Inversely, the codexes of the Petrarchan library were an artisanal product, the result of the serendipitous compresence of texts to be copied and enough paper to do so. Each codex was unique and would have been completely out of place in both the production and distribution stages of an industrial system.
Industrial production, however, is not only defined as a way to make things. It is also a specific form of distribution, where supply and demand for a standard product regularly converge, with a stable price and a well-defined system of commercial outlets. The publishing industry, as we know it today, has established itself on these pillars of production and distribution. As a result, publishers have become the gatekeepers between authors and readers. They select the books they deem worthy of being published and offer them to the readers, using their capital of goodwill as a guarantee of quality. It is within this framework that the model reader of modern books has arisen and, with it, the particular kind of cultural product addressed to this reader.
We are now experiencing a collective “Gutenberg moment” for the first time in about five centuries. Digital publishing is undoubtedly as disruptive to the traditional publishing industry as the printing press was to hand-written manuscripts and medieval libraries. Digital books are, in a sense, the ultimate industrial product. They can be replicated indefinitely with almost zero expenditure and a degree of efficiency that no physical object could possibly attain. And all without the need for complicated and costly machinery. In other words, the ultimate degree of efficiency in industrial production leads to the irrelevance of that industry itself, as publishers no longer have anything to guard.
That is not the only thing on the brink of extinction. As gatekeepers of the printing press, publishers operated an ex-ante selection, based on quality, marketability, cultural value and any other criteria they chose, including personal whims. However, the unprecedented amount of books published every day (1,000 in the US alone) ensures this is all set to change. And the rise of self-publishing is only going to expedite the matter.
This result is that ex-ante selection becomes redundant, since the sheer output of the publishing industry means that an overwhelming majority of titles go unnoticed by traditional media, bookstore chains and all other middlemen connecting the industry to readers. Digital technology will also play its part, providing a new decentralized and free distribution system. Yet, it seems that little has changed in recent years. Since eBooks are (mostly) the same as paperbacks — the only difference being how they are read — the book market has remained as it was. A lot of cheap printed paper, a bunch of big-selling titles, a few big players that gobble up a large portion of the market and many little ones jostling to get a slice of the cake.
But this is just scratching the surface. We should put it all into perspective and try to look deeper. The point is that the digitization of written media has not only made it easier than ever to produce and publish books, it has also provided opportunity for books themselves to evolve. Just like with the printing press, this new technology is producing a new kind of book. A digital text can be searched, indexed, linked, quoted, pasted and updated in unprecedented ways. And that could be just the tip of the iceberg. What’s interesting is that this peak in industrial efficiency goes hand in hand with new possibilities for craftsmanship. Digital objects can be modified, expanded, customized and built upon to give rise to a whole world of new codexes.
There is much to be said about the new forms of books and the underlying technological choices that will guide this future evolution. But that is for a future post. All I will say is that the traditional role of publishers is becoming obsolete. Authors, editors, readers and the many other people involved in a book’s lifecycle have a wide, open road ahead of them. A road along which new relations and alliances will be born, where the fortune of a book will be decided ex post, once it has been read. The future survival of books, their chances to thrive in a digital world and continue being an essential part of our lives, depends on their ability to achieve their destiny and become fully social objects.
