As I battle to complete a first novel worthy of the name I noticed two significant but opposite developments in publishing.
The first is magazine print-on-demand.
A friend in NY is artistic director of the one-year-old Constellation on-line magazine. Dissatisfied with the quality and non-tactile nature of web only publication, the editors also moved it to print-on-demand publisher Magcloud, which appears to be a Hewlett Packard based company or spin-off.
I have to say I am impressed by the high-end color print and paper quality. Turn around of my copy, delivered by US mail, was only a few days and yes it is more portable and engaging on paper.
Which brings me to the other development in portability. Amazon's new Kindle 2, a paperback sized, pencil-thin electronic screen, capable of holding 1500 paperback size books, each one available by 3G wireless download in 60 seconds from a catalog of 230,000 choices.The thing weighs less than 10 ounces and will even read text aloud, which could be a boon in a language or reading learning environment. 1500 books - can you say library anyone?
I'll know that is ready for prime time when:
a) I have one
b) There are as many people pulling one out on the T as reading the free Metro 'newspaper'
c) My book is available as a download.
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