Two articles that examine different ways that authors can get their work out into the wilds. Hopefully print-on-demand will allow independent bookstores to remain viable businesses, their success determined by a convivial atmosphere, thoughtful staff, and place in the community rather than the tonnage on their shelves. As for self-publishing, I think it is the inevitable future of digital books– critics and social media will primarily serve as filters against the inevitable crap, critics accumulating value through the accuracy and consistency of their aesthetic judgment while social media spins connections between disparate and/or unknown books.
via The New York Observer:
McNally Jackson Will Soon Be Printing Books While You Wait
By the time 2011 rolls around, Nolita’s McNally Jackson Books will have an Espresso Book Machine, the Xerox-like on-demand device that prints a fully bound book in mere minutes.
and from NPR:
Diving Into The New World Of Electronic Self-Publishing: A True Story
This is a post for everyone else who’s written an unpublished novel or novels. I believe we are legion. Why live, after all, if you’re not going to have fun writing about it?
Akopos 