We need to decouple the idea of ‘book’ from the mental image we carry around of ‘book.’ The innovation and benefit that digital brings to books and publishing lies less in how digital affects final artifacts, and more in how digital affects the systems leading up to and extending beyond those artifacts.
http://www.webdirections.org/resources/craig-mod-how-digital-affects-books-and-publishing/
Craig Mod joins Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin to discuss the decision to jump from freelance work to startup work, Craig’s experience traveling and writing the GF1 Fieldtest, how travel affects the work you do, and the multifaceted challenges and future of web publishing.
Tagged with craig mod jeffery zeldman dan benhamin books publishing big web show 5by5
Guardian Books podcast: new literary directions, and Jon Ronson’s Psychopath Test
Change is upon us in the books world. We review Faber’s Waste Land iPad app, talk to children’s editor Julia Eccleshare about JK Rowling’s latest venture and consider a new subscription-based publishing model. Finally, Jon Ronson talks about the process of researching his book, The Psychopath Test
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2011/jul/01/pottermore-waste-land-ipad-books
We will always debate: the quality of the paper, the pixel density of the display; the cloth used on covers, the interface for highlighting; location by page, location by paragraph.
This is not what matters. Surface is secondary.
What are the core systems comprising the future book? What are the tools that need to be built?
As designers we will need to provide the scaffolding for these systems. The interfaces for these tools. Not just as surface, but holistically—understanding the shifting of emotional space, the import of the artifact, the evocation of a souvenir, digitally.
How will we surface the myriad data just below the words of digital books in organic, clean and deliberately designed ways? How will we shape the future book?
http://2011.dconstruct.org/conference/craig-mod
Craig Mod is a writer, designer and publisher concerned with the future of books, publishing, and storytelling. He lives in a tiny Bay Area village in the California full of dreamers, endless yogurt, and trees that let loose money when shaken just so. His writing appears mainly on his website, but has also appeared in the New Scientist, The New York Times, and A List Apart. He works as a designer for Flipboard.