Printing Presses and Dinosaurs

 Pat here:

Mary Jo, our resident astrologer, tells me I have a Uranian nature and that I enjoy change. I have no idea what Uranus has to do with it, but she’s right. I have a restless nature and I’m forever exploring new things. It’s probably the reason we’ve lived in three cities and are planning another move. And even when we stay in one place for a while, we move from house to house. Like Goldilocks, I want to try them all!

 

As I’ve mentioned  before , I’ve about had more than enough change. The book industry is dragging us all through a lot of major upheavals, and we’re all digging in our heels and looking for steady ground. I doubt that our current upheavals can compare to the social, cultural, and literary changes created by Gutenberg’s printing press in medieval Europe, however. 

From a single press in 1436, printing presses spread to 110 cities by 1480 and by 1500, they could be found all over Central and Western Europe. That’s pretty fast work in a time when just traveling from city to city could take weeks, and putting together a single press took huge amounts of time, money, and expertise. (press show here is a streamlined 1811 edition) The learning process with all those fiddly bits of type and ink had to have been enormous, but the demand for printed documents was so high that printers couldn’t work fast enough. They not only killed the careers of a lot of people who sold their services as scribes, the presses allowed laymen and heretics to produce pamphlets that hitherto had been in the almost complete control of the Catholic church and their monks .This wasn’t just industrial revolution, it became a religious and cultural revolution.

 

Those enormous old printing presses with their rag paper process started cottage industries selling old  clothes-- and cheap paper was plentiful when the price of rags plummeted after the plague dumped a surplus of old clothes on the market. How's that for a transition? That early press also created the world’s first bestsellers--Erasmus sold three-quarters of a million copies of his work during his lifetime alone. And suddenly, scientists could communicate and share their discoveries in meticulous detail over vast distances and there we were—the early internet.

 

Printing presses also made it possible to create documents in the local language, so church Latin disappeared as the standard language of text. Spelling and grammar in these languages had to be standardized so everyone could read and understand the books produced—which actually reduced the variety of words and syntax. Saying “Yo, mama” didn’t always have the same meaning to the person saying it as the person reading it, so regulation was probably necessary to prevent duels. Alas that we can’t say the same today!

 But reaching that point of regulation took centuries. We’ve all seen the old documents with half a dozen different spellings of the same word—and even their own names—on the same page. Change begets change. I’m pretty sure there’s a physics rule in there.

 Change makes some aspects of life easier, but it also adds new levels of confusion and upheaval. That’s the nature of the beast. And that’s what’s happening in the book industry today. We no longer need printing presses! We’re throwing out six centuries of tradition. Just think about the trees saved—and the timber industry killed. No environmentally damaging ink—no bookstores. We’d need a crystal ball to see the wide-spreading effect on our futures.

Right now, we’re in that period of transition where chaos reigns and standardization hasn’t developed. Will Amazon’s mobi format become the formal language of e-books? Or will the e-pub format’s ease of use kill the Kindle? Will bookstores find a way to work directly with authors so we can sell both print and e-books without the expense of the middle man? Surely this wild, wild west of heaving every page ever written onto the market has to end, but when? And how?

Even though change excites me, and I’m riding the wave with great glee, I’m aware that we could all crash on the rocks tomorrow. But slowly, we should see improvement.

For now, I’m enjoying the opportunity to reissue old books that haven’t seen the light of day in years because storage of print books is too costly. On June 12, Book View Café will reissue my 1997 Regency romance THE MARQUESS   with a stunning new cover, in anticipation of the July release of the never-before printed sequel, THE ENGLISH HEIRESS, Michael’s book.(click for sample pages)

 And in the interest of change, BVC has completely updated their website and bookstore. If you go over and find a book you’d like to have, and come back here and tell me which one, you could win a free coupon for that book. Here are the official rules:

Book View Café is celebrating the opening of our new, completely-redesigned bookstore by giving readers a chance to get the book of their choice free. Just take a look around the store anytime up until midnight, June 8, and choose the book you'd like—all the books that are eligible for the giveaway are plainly marked. Then come back here and leave a comment with the name and author of the book and why you want it (BVC may use that comment for publicity purposes).

 When the promotion ends, Sherrie will pull a name from your comments out of the hat, and I'll send you a coupon for the book of your choice. If you're interested, you can go to all the blogs listed in the link above and comment for more chances to win a coupon. What's the point of new technology if we can't play with it?

How would you put the brakes on technology? Or improve it?

Comments

[Anne Gracie]

Pat, I think it's fantastic that so many authors are now able to rerelease their out of print books and make them available to a whole new readership.

I know when I find an author I love I want to read everything they've ever written, and prior to this it was a slow and often expensive hunt for used copies. I also love it that the authors will also make money from these books, which they don't with used copies. A win-win situation if ever there was one.

[Isobel Carr]

This is so cool, congrats. That’s a LONG awaited sequel!!! I’m thrilled with all the opportunities I see eBooks opening up to authors.

[Patricia Rice]

A lot of the authors at BVC are in the sff field and they saw their print market shutting down faster than the romance market has. So it's wonderful to have an outlet for new and backlist books besides dark corners of a used bookstore.

I'm brokenhearted at having to leave behind my huge library of books when we move, but thrilled to be able to collect on an e-reader now. So change has benefits.

But I do worry about the downside of life without print.

[LouisaCornell]

I don't want to believe print will go out of existence. My Kindle is convenient, but I am one of those dinosaurs who loves to read printed books. I have a house full of them. They are some of my oldest and dearest friends. It hurts me to think the next generation won't know the thrill of turning pages and holding a book in their hands. With every "convenience" we acquire there is a price to pay. I wonder what the price will be for this? I think we would be amazed to discover the number of households, the number of people who do NOT have electronic readers for all sorts or reasons. Reading is a privilege everyone should be afforded. Whereas, frankly, being "published" is NOT necessarily a privilege everyone should be afforded. Some great new authors have shown up because of the e-book phenomenon. But some not so great writers have too. And some who might one day be great have jumped the gun and put their work out there before they have honed their craft. One great book can make a career. I wonder if one not so great one can hinder it. Tyranareadus Rex crawling back into her book-lined cave. LOL

[Patricia Rice]

Believe me, Louisa, I concur, as I sit here in a house lined with wall-to-wall books. I still fondly remember old friends I had to give away in my last move. In my next move, I'll have to give away almost all my books. It's killing me. That's how I learned to make friends with e-readers. I can transport e-readers a lot easier than paper. But I weep at my illustrated classics...

[bn100]

I would like Denim and Lace by Patricia Rice because the characters sound interesting.

[LilMissMolly]

I'm not a big digital book fan. I prefer the old fashioned paperback!

[Patricia Rice]

Wish I could help Miss Molly! It will take me time to figure out how to do print copies, and they'll be expensive, but it's on my To Do list!

Thank you bn!

[Joy Islei]

I have been a fan for a long time and enjoyed reading all of your books.

[Artemisia]

My Kindle has been a mixed bag so far. I think the main benefit of it will be owning the Mary Russell books as e-books. On the other hand, I read a book on Kindle that needs to be re-read as a book with pencil in hand and file tabs at the ready! * I totally empathize with Patricia. Every time I move I have to winnow the books, and I'm cleaning the bookcases right now. * A book doesn't break when you drop it, and the battery never runs down. They both have their poits.

[Patricia Rice]

Please do not remind me that tech is fallible! My computer crashed today and I've already killed three e-readers. But the books remain in the cloud, so all is not lost--besides my temper.

[Printing Brisbane]

Wow. That is a dinosaur, such old school equipment. Hahah.I've never seen anything like it for a while now. Piece of history.