Inspiring O'Reilly, and others

01/23/2006

Tim O’Reilly (of O’Reilly publishing fame) finds inspiration in the Pragmatic Bookshelf Beta Books model, according to his latest blog entry.

Their new “Rough Cuts” program follows a similar model to our Beta Books program, giving readers early, unedited access to cutting-edge topics. Other publishers are jumping on the bandwagon as well, offering early access to upcoming titles.

And that’s a good thing. Publishing has some pretty staid roots, from the days when the cost of entry to dissemenating knowledge was huge. The whole bookstore model is founded on practices dating back to the Great Depression in the US.

But times have changed, and now anyone with a browser and a free blogging account is in the “publishing business”. With Print On Demand technology, there’s little to stop anyone from publishing Grandma’s cookie recipes, or your own ideas of how architecture and design should really work. It may not be hugely profitable, but you can do it.

But will anyone actually read it?

Back before the internet exploded, pundits claimed that the real value in the net would not be the fact that everyone has the ability to create and post content. That alone results in too much noise and too little signal. What you needed, they claimed, was trusted, respected editors who could separate the wheat from the chaff, and point you to the Good Stuff.

And while those early pundits didn’t really forsee collaborative editorial efforts such as digg.com, they had the right idea: you need trusted folks to select and promote the good stuff.

That’s where we come in. That’s the real value that publishers, editors, and aggregators bring to the table. Improving the signal, and filtering out the noise.

Getting better content out to readers more quickly is boosting the signal. Small touches that improve the readability of the content (as in my last blog posting) is boosting the signal. PDF e-books, WITHOUT ANY DRM OR COPY PROTECTION, is boosting the signal. That’s what we sell, and I don’t think any other publisher is doing that these days.

DRM cripples your reading experience. We don’t use it. 9, 12, or 18-month production times (from final draft to published book) cripples your reading experience. We can do it in 0-3 months.

As a reader, I want the latest stuff, I want the best stuff, and I want it in whatever format is convenient—paper or PDF.

That’s what we’re doing, and I hope it catches on.