What's a Girl (or Publisher) To Do?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 7:43PM 
One of my most recently beloved publishers, the forever (time will tell) perfect HarperStudio, had a greatastic post on their super wonderful blog today. All about print vs. digital, and why should readers have to choose???
...and whatnot. So, being the Bookish Dilettante that I am, I interjected my two-cents.
I really, really do believe that books matter and that helping make them and get them to readers is a worthy life's calling. I don't think I'm alone so much in that thought either.
Sure, the times, they are a-changing, but, they have always been-a changing. It's not a matter of whether the incredible ideas and thoughts and stories that come from all of us are worth preserving, it's more a matter of, how will we find out about them, and how will we experience those ideas and thoughts and stories? And, are these ideas and thoughts and stories relevant to US--and how would we know? Cuz, as much as we may like our Uncle Bud, he may not be an engrosing writer.
So, anyway, my hope for the future of the whatever a book is is as long as I can once in a while look up from my "whatever a book is at that point" and say to the guy eating a ham sandwich next to me, "hey, have you read this?" and "what did you think?" and maybe this guy can offer some kind of an answer - i'll be happy...cuz otherwise, i'd feel a little sad about the future of books. cuz, it should be communal ish.
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Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for your generous comments about HarperStudio. We hope to live up to your high opinion of us! And we hope to publish many books, in many forms, that encourage conversations over ham sandwiches in the years to come...
As an avid reader of books and magazines, it is my hope that they will always exist in some low-tech version. As a modern worker I sit at a computer all day (mostly creating interiors of books).
The last thing I want to do as I get ready for sleep is to continue to stare at a screen. Sometimes, even if it isn't the story that's engaging, it's having my eyes not assaulted by light and pixels that makes books a joy. The slowness and the tactile nature of reading on paper is something I don't want to give up.
Also, the reading playing field with books is fairly level in the case of income brackets. Even when I have no extra cash (which is pretty much the case always since I am in the book publishing business), I can go to the library, borrow a book, enjoy the story, and then give it back. Even if the library, Amazon, and other virtual sites offer free downloads, I can't afford most of the gadgets that come along.
It would be a sad day when reading became a luxury of the affluent.
I am bracing myself for the next wave in book publishing. In fact, I welcome it! I think the increased technology will be exciting. But I hope that books in their more archaic form will continue to exist and that sitting with my future child to read "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" won't mean sitting in my IKEA lounger while I flick a finger across the screen to turn the page.