Augmented Reality (AR) is the combining of real world content with computer generated imagery. In books, this means holding up a mobile device to a set place in the book, and discovering what further information a publisher has included into it – it adds to reality with a layer of digital information. While this is also possible through desktop augmented reality, using a desktop computer’s webcam to recognise the real world objects that have the virtual elements embedded, it would be very difficult in the current age to find someone without a mobile device of some sort. While most uses of AR is in military and training programs and in providing advanced search and real time programs - such as GPS (Gobbetti, 2012), AR can also be used by publishers in order to create more interactive content for adult users. While Nosy Crow’s book-apps and games keep young children interested, an older reader will not be as interested in this. Thus, using AR technology can provide the exciting interactive element, without distracting too much from a book itself, and something I feel will work really well for non-fiction literature. One of the best AR publications I have seen has surprisingly been from Ikea, which Metz (2012) calls AR’s “biggest mass-market push yet". Yes, the Swedish flat-packing masters. Their 2013 catalogue for Germany had a multitude of items, letting the consumer see selected products from their range. The video below shows someone using the catalogue’s AR functions. Esquire Magazine takes this another step further, as you can see in the video below. In place of the simple 3-D views shown in Ikea’s catalogue, the AR technology by Esquire actually puts the reader in charge – with exciting videos and holding the magazine to different angles bringing different results. So, why has this technology not taken off? It’s dynamic, it’s new and it is a method of providing extra information for buyers of print material. That is exactly where I feel the problem lies: with digital sales increasing, why would someone wish to buy a print item only to then have to have their mobile/webcam device out anyway. Most uses of AR publishing shows either the printed material or the camera being stable. Most content is now consumed on-the-go in quick, bite-sized chunks. However, it becomes completely impractical when trying to use AR technology while moving, thus not meeting consumer needs. And if AR is not being used from the printed product, it just seems to be a book/magazine with a higher production cost. Word Count: 422 Bibliography Esquire, 2012, Esquire's Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour. [video online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGwHQwgBzSI [Accessed 24 November 2014]
Esquire, 2012, Robert Downey Jr. on Esquire's Augmented Reality Cover: A Demo [video online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp2z36kKn0s [Accessed 24 November 2014] Fussman, C. (2012) The Complete Robert Downey Jr. Available at: http://www.esquire.com/features/robert-downey-jr-interview-0512#slide-1 [Accessed 23 November 2014] Gobbetti, D. (2012) Augmented Reality (AR). Available at: http://www.augmentedrealityon.com/ [Accessed: 25 November 2014] Knight, K. (2014) Expert: Why marketers should watch augmented reality. Available at: http://www.bizreport.com/2014/11/expert-why-marketers-should-watch-augmented-reality.html [Accessed 26 November 2014] Metz, R. (2012) Augmented Reality is Finally Getting Real. Available at: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428654/augmented-reality-is-finally-getting-real/ [Accessed 22 November 2014] Newgadgets.de, 2012, IKEA 2013 Catalog with Augmented Reality [ENGLISH]. [video online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPfUN4ffssU [Accessed 24 November 2014] Ware-Jarrett, D. (2014) Augmented Reality and Publishing. Available at: http://www.pagelizard.com/augmented-reality-publishing/ [Accessed 23 November 2014]
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Nosy Crow has been going from strength to strength. In FutureBook awards, they have won Best Children’s App for Cinderella in 2011, Best Children’s Digital Book for Rounds: Parker Penguin in 2013, and 2 more in 2014: Best Digital Children’s Fiction Book 2014 for Jack and the Beanstalk, and Inspiring Publishing Person of the Year for Kate Wilson (Managing Director). In just 3 years, it has become the UK’s 16th largest book publisher (Smarta Enterprises Ltd., 2014), winning the Independent Publishers Guild’s Children’s Publisher of the Year award in both 2012 and 2013 (as well as another 3 awards from them in those 2 years!). What is the reason behind their success? At a time when there has been a general global decline in book sales, with UK sales falling by 3.4% (Nawotka, 2013), how has Nosy Crow managed to start-up and grow so rapidly? I feel the key lies in their approach to their children’s book-apps. These are not quite e-books, instead using more interactivity and providing a more game-like reading experience. As Gomez says, they create “a direct relationship between the child and the app or the digital book, and it is manipulateable with tremendous ease" (Dredge, 2012). Moss at Walker, however, said that an app can be an “expensive marketing medium. We have seen a number of successful picture book apps being developed,” he said. “But they are expensive to make, which means you automatically have very high download targets in a very competitive marketplace -- especially when you consider the number of free gaming apps.” (Eyre, 2014). This may be the reason why many publishers are staying away from the app market. Whilst I do agree that there is an extremely high level of competition coming in from the games market as book-apps become more popular, I do also feel that the reading experience and the learning opportunities presented through book-apps in place of games make them more appealing to parents and guardians – the buyers – while also making them fun for children. Furthermore, Rasmussen, publisher a Macmillan Children’s Books, says "it would be a shame if that came at the expense of the emotional value of the book” (Dredge, 2012). The emotional value of a book is only placed upon it by the consumer. In an increasingly digital age, who is to say children will not grow up with a favourite app? At a time when there was no film, I can imagine many not understanding the emotional value some movies now hold – but these norms are constantly shifting and changing. The book-apps can, and should, still be used as a bonding activity for parents and their children, as they play and learn together. With more than 40 per cent of primary schools in the UK now using iPads, with many adopting a one-iPad-per-child’ approach (Flood, 2014), I personally, am expecting Nosy Crow’s book-apps to continue leading the way. Word Count: 483 Bibliography Bookseller (2014) Nosy Crow, Profile and PRH among FutureBook's innovation winners. Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/nosy-crow-profile-and-prh-among-futurebooks-innovation-winners [Accessed 16 November 2014]
Dredge, S., 2012 Penguin, Macmillan and Nosy Crow talk digital books for children. Guardian.com Apps blog [blog] 15 April. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2012/apr/15/digital-books-children-lbf-2012 [Accessed 28 October 2014] Eyre, C (2014) Digital Publishing and Children - 'tipping point'?Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/digital-publishing-and-children-tipping-point [Accessed 16 November 2014] Flood, A. (2014) Digital publishing: the experts' view of what's next. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/10/digital-publishing-next-industry-revolution [Accessed 16 November 2014] Nawotka, E. (2013) There’s a General Global Decline in Book Sales, Why? Available at: http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/03/theres-a-general-global-decline-in-book-sales-why/ [Accessed 17 November 2014] Nosy Crow, 2014, Nosy Crow. Available at: http://nosycrow.com/ [Accessed 17 November 2014] Smarta Enterprises Ltd. (2014) Nosy Crow. Available at: http://www.smarta.com/smarta100/2014/nosy-crow/ [Accessed 16 November 2014] Wilson, K. (2014) Nosy Crow is Highly Commended in the Independent Publisher of the Year Category of the Bookseller Industry Awards nosycrow.com [blog] 13 May. Available at: http://nosycrow.com/blog/nosy-crow-is-highly-commended-in-the-independent-publisher-of-the-year-category-of-the-bookseller-industry-awards [Accessed 17 November 2014] Traditional publishers “seek new ways to commercialize content or accentuate their relevance and hence add commercial value”, as well as by using social media and creating online communities to form direct relationships with readers (Lossius, 2013). Frey (2014) agrees that in the same way “the music industry has shifted to selling concerts rather than records, the publishing industry will look for new ways to monetize the performances of its talent base”. Thus, big name authors become celebrities with huge ‘fandoms’ surrounding them and their characters. From ‘Potterheads’ (Harry Potter fans) to ‘Twihards’ (Twilight fans), readers feel a sense of community in not only talking to other fans of the same books and having detailed discussions around them, but also in creating and sharing fan-made content. Keeping Harry Potter in mind, one can clearly see J.K. Rowling’s celebrity stature. From writing on a delayed train, to having a $1 billion net worth over time (Forbes, 2014), Rowling is the ultimate author-turned-celebrity of our time. But, her success was not limited to Harry Potter. The impact on sales purely through her author-status can be clearly seen through her 2013 book ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’. She published under a pseudonym and, after being announced as the author, faced a 150,000% surge in sales (Hern, 2013). It can be argued Rowling’s popularity is not due to her internet presence – she rarely makes any social media updates herself. But, the digital age gives the opportunity for fan-bases to connect. Fans rushed to read her works and quickly discuss the new books within these communities, such as through the seemingly infinite Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling based fan-pages on Facebook alone, or fan-sites, such as ‘MuggleNet’ “The World’s #1 Harry Potter Site” (MuggleNet, 2014). What about authors who did not start off with best-selling books? Take John Green for instance. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ had been made a best-seller, being Number 1 on both Amazon Barnes & Nobles’ in 2011 – while he was still writing the book… on pre-orders alone. How in Tatooine?! Well, in 2007, John Green launched a YouTube Channel, ‘VlogBrothers’, to stay in touch with his brother Hank. John would make a video, Hank would reply. His first book ‘Looking For Alaska’ was published in 2005 and was in no way unsuccessful at that time, winning 2 awards in 2006 (Lustufka, 2014). However, it was with the growing “NerdFighter” community that the VlogBrothers became internet celebrities, encouraging young adults to read the books written by their favourite YouTube star. As one can tell from his video, below, he is extremely taken aback by the massive amounts of pre-ordering – something he was not expecting when he agreed to sign every copy of the first print-run. And he definitely feels that without the NerdFighter community it would not have been possible. Overall, I feel the social and community aspect of reading is something publishers are still coming to terms with. Although traditional publishers appear old-fashioned in their approach - with John Green quoting Penguin calling his vlog an “internet television show” (2011) - I feel like they have realised the impact digital communities can have in gaining book sales and establishing an author, but need to continue working with authors to fully utilise this growing marketing tool. Word Count: 542 Bibliography Alter, A. (2014) John Green and His Nerdfighters Are Upending the Summer Blockbuster Model. Available at: http://online.wsj.com/articles/john-green-and-his-nerdfighters-are-upending-the-summer-blockbuster-model-1400088712 [Accessed 14 November 2014]
BBC (2013) JK Rowling revealed as author of The Cuckoo's Calling. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23304181 [Accessed 14 November 2014] Brooks, R. (2013) Whodunnit? JK Rowling’s secret life as wizard crime writer revealed, The Sunday Times, 14 July [Online]. Available at: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Arts/article1287513.ece [Accessed 14 November 2014] Dunlop, S. (2014) A good subscription for the ebook industry: Making books social. Available at: http://www.itproportal.com/2014/10/31/a-good-subscription-for-the-ebook-industry-making-books-social/?et_mid=701088&rid=245702996 [Accessed 14 November 2014] Frey, T. (2014) The Fall of Book Publishing: The Rise of New E-Book Business Models. Available at: http://www.davinciinstitute.com/papers/the-fall-of-book-publishing-the-rise-of-new-e-book-business-models/ [Accessed 14 November 2014] Forbes (2014) J.K. Rowling. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/profile/jk-rowling/ [Accessed 13 November 2014] Hern, A. (2013) Sales of "The Cuckoo's Calling" surge by 150,000% after JK Rowling revealed as author. Available at: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/07/sales-cuckoos-calling-surge-150000-after-jk-rowling-revealed-author [Accessed 14 November 2014] Kakutani, M. (2013) A Murder Is Solved, a Sleuth Is Born, NY Times, 17 July [Online]. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/books/in-j-k-rowlings-cuckoos-calling-model-dies-but-why.html [Accessed 14 November 2014] Lossius, G. (2013) Publishers should invest in skills, business models and new ideas in 2014. Available at: http://www.publishingtechnology.com/2013/10/publishers-skills-business-models-2014/ [Accessed 14 November 2014] Lastufka, A. (2014) Looking for Alaska. Available at: http://johngreenbooks.com/looking-for-alaska/ [Accessed 14 November 2014] Stock, J. (2013) JK Rowling unmasked: the lawyer, the wife, her tweet - and a furious author, Telegraph, 21 July [Online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10192275/JK-Rowling-unmasked-the-lawyer-the-wife-her-tweet-and-a-furious-author.html [Accessed 14 November 2014] Trachtenburg, J.A. (2011) Tweeting from a La-Z-Boy, An Unfinished Book Hits No. 1. Available at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304450604576418161912396814 [Accessed 14 November 2014] Vlogbrothers, 2011, 150,000 signatures [video online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f9Rkdg7BR8 [Accessed 14 November 2014] A long time ago in a galaxy…right here, the only easy place to buy books was in book stores. No digital book-selling platforms existed and no amount of worry came from these platforms. That was, until Amazon, with its 26,500 per cent rise in stocks since going public in 1997 (Roth, 2014). Its growing domination over the market is the cause of many grey hairs on a Publisher’s head. Amazon’s current annual revenue from book sales lies at approximately $5.25 billion, meaning “books account for 7% of the company’s $75 billion in total yearly revenue” (Packer, 2014). In presenting itself as a force to be reckoned with, Amazon has become the Darth Maul to the wise old Yoda that is publishing. What the industry needs is its own Luke Skywalker, brandishing traditional publishing knowledge like a blazing lightsaber. As publishing students, we always hear about Amazon as evil. From 2008, it’s been accused of being "predatory" and "ruthless" (Alan). Yet, to reach its level of success, Amazon has to do something right to make Publishers feel so threatened. If I started listing the number of things Amazon currently sells, this whole blog post will just be a huge – and not very interesting - list. Instead, quickly skim their profile on Forbes, linked here (Forbes, 2014). From co-branded credit card agreements to electronic devices, the company has it all. But, how is that so different to a supermarket? Tesco has ‘Tesco Bank’ and produces electronics. A market survey by ConsumerWatch found that the majority of surveyed consumers did not care about a brand, as long as the product is good (Barnes, 2011). This, perhaps, applies even more to books. Rarely do book buyers have a favourite publisher; they follow authors, illustrators, or even just a character. However, Amazon is #24 in the World’s Most Valuable Brands (Forbes, 2014), and if asking most students where they will go to buy their books, most will respond with Amazon. Why? Price and delivery. As it has become such a well-established bookselling platform, not having books on Amazon results in a huge loss of sales (approximately 30 per cent of the profit for larger publishers), as customers choose the often cheaper and easier method of buying (Packer, 2014). Furthermore, Bezos was one of the first to realise “the greatest value of an online company lay in the consumer data it collected” (Packer, 2014). In doing so, Amazon has been able to build up a huge collection of information regarding consumers, using their buying habits to increase sales volumes (Packer, 2014). Amazon gained its real advantage with the 2007 launch of the Kindle. “Through combining several technologies and practices into one item[…] and putting real marketing muscle behind the Kindle, Amazon launched the e-book revolution. E-book sales skyrocketed in their first few years before slowing in 2012. In 2013, e-books accounted for about 27 percent of total adult books sold” (Gessen, 2014). Amazon managed to take past failures and transform ideas dismissed by publishers. It has then made publishers have to buy in to having their books sold on the platform, with discounts reaching up to 60 per cent for smaller publishers (Packer, 2014). But, perhaps it is time publishers started getting more creative and working on their power to resist The Force. Word Count: 547 Bibliography Allan, N. (2008) Amazon could face strike by authors and publishers. Telegraph, 13 June [Online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2123221/Amazon-could-face-strike-by-authors-and-publishers.html [Accessed 26 October 2014]
Bercovici, J. (2014) Amazon Vs. Book Publishers, By The Numbers. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/02/10/amazon-vs-book-publishers-by-the-numbers/ [Accessed 26 October 2014] Daffron, S.C. (2013) Understanding Book Discounts. Available at: http://www.spawn.org/editing/bookdiscounts.htm [Accessed 25 October 2014] Deahl, R. (2014) AAR Calls Out Amazon in Hachette Dispute. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/62290-aar-calls-out-amazon-in-hachette-dispute.html [Accessed 24 October 2014] Duryee, T. (2012) Making Money While Keeping Prices Low: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Explains It All (Mostly). Available at: http://allthingsd.com/20120906/making-money-while-keeping-prices-low-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-explains-it-all-mostly/[Accessed 25 October 2014] McKinney, K. (2014) Book revenues are up — but without ebooks, they'd be plummeting. Available at: http://www.vox.com/2014/6/27/5849354/e-books-will-save-the-publishing-industry [Accessed 24 October 2014] Packer, G. (2014) Cheap Words: Amazon is good for customers. But is it good for books? Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/cheap-words [Accessed 25 October 2014] Reid, C. (2014) Amazon’s Impact on Publishing? It’s Complicated. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/64563-amazon-s-impact-on-publishing-it-s-complicated.html [Accessed 24 October 2014] Roth, C. (2014) Amazon's No. 1 competitor-slaying advantage: Its investors. Available at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101327853 [Accessed 25 October 2014] Shepard, A. (2007). Aiming at Amazon. Washington, D.C.: Shepard Publications Shatzkin, M. (2014) Amazon and Hachette have settled so there will be no big bang change in the publishing business model. Available at: http://www.idealog.com/blog/amazon-hachette-settled-will-big-bang-change-publishing-business-model/ [Accessed 26 October 2014] Shatzkin, M. (2014), The motivation of the publisher-bashing commentariat is what I cannot figure out. Available at: http://www.idealog.com/blog/motivation-publisher-bashing-commentariat-figure/ [Accessed 25 October 2014] The eBook Reader (2014) Amazon Reveals Interesting Kindle eBook Sales Statistics. Available at: http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2014/08/01/amazon-reveals-interesting-kindle-ebook-sales-statistics/ [Accessed 26 October 2014] The Guardian (2014) The Guardian view on Amazon v Hachette: reading and writing. The Guardian, 18 August [Online]. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/18/guardian-view-on-amazon-v-hachette-reading-writing [Accessed 25 October 2014] Worstall, T. (2013) Fascinating Number: Amazon Is Larger Than The Next Dozen Internet Retailers Combined. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/09/01/fascinating-number-amazon-is-larger-than-the-next-dozen-internet-retailers-combined/ [Accessed 24 October 2014] Carr says “magazines …don’t work very well in the marketplace anymore” (2012). At a time when “Funny lists, emotionally-charged headlines and an informal, irreverent tone are… far more attractive to web users than simply replicating print articles online” (Parker, 2014), publishers must create new business models that “commercialize content or accentuate their relevance and hence [add] commercial value” (Lossius, 2013). Dentist’s waiting rooms no longer have disgruntled patients nervously fingering gossip magazines, instead reading what’s relevant to their interests on their smartphones. “The attention span of consumers is dwindling thanks to the surfeit of content across media and devices” (Bhat, 2013); popular information is available and shared instantly, so magazines only provide outdated material. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in 2012, even the relatively more ‘journalistic’ “Time magazine had a 31 percent decline compared with a 3.4 percent decline the same time last year” (Haughney, 2012). Subcompact publishing is believed to be the saviour for magazines. Mod and Salmeron argue that digital magazine sales declining is due to publishers not developing new products for new formats. Mod says they choose instead to ‘add on’ to old products, thus unnecessarily complicating it and making it unappealing to mainstream audiences (2012), while Salmeron says, they simply provide “glorified PDFs — print layouts crammed into a very different platform and experience and, thus, unsuccessful in their attempts at attracting an audience” (2013). Subcompact publishing creates a completely new, digital-friendly business model. Salmeron (2013) summarises it as: “a method of digitally publishing focused HTML-based content targeted at carefully identified audiences, primarily via mobile devices, in small, weekly (or so), mainly text-based issues, adhering to simple user-interface and navigation principles. Each issue may be free or may demand a small payment. Monetization happens via Apple’s Newsstand, Amazon’s Kindle platform and more.” Mod (2013) said the “first truly tablet-indigenous subcompact publication” is Marco Arment’s The Magazine. Each issue contains four or five articles and is less than a few megabytes in size; the subscription price is $1.99 a month; users are able to subscribe seamlessly via Newsstand; it’s published twice a month; it’s not paginated; is HTML based; and has simple navigation. Whew! It has the huge advantage of “giving the publisher a new stream of recurring revenue at a low production cost.”, therefore seemingly being sustainable (Roberts, 2013). However, this is easier to explain than implement. A Jedi must have patience, but exactly how much patience can a publisher afford? In The Magazine’s case, over two years’ worth. From having started up in 2012, The Magazine gained a large reader base. However, since February 2013, the subscription base has been declining, meaning decreasing profits as they failed to “replace departing subscribers with new ones fast enough” (Fleishman, 2014). As a result, the company will publish its last issue on December 17th 2014 (Hoffelder, 2014). However, the company is “survived by an industry…it inspired” (Hoffelder, 2014). TypeEngine.net is one of these successors, currently acting as a publishing platform for 31 e-magazines, to provide “a seamless reading experience [with] an app that is Flexible. Responsive. Quick. Light.” (typeengine.net, 2014). Thus, whilst The Magazine didn’t work out, for perhaps the same reason as many a start-up, maybe it doesn’t reflect sub-compact publishing as a whole. After all, Buzzfeed seems to just be getting stronger every day. Word Count: 549 Bibliography Bhat, L. (2013) The Atlantic adopts subcompact publishing: is the trend here to stay? Available at: http://www.picsean.com/the-atlantic-adopts-subcompact-publishing-is-the-trend-here-to-stay/
(Accessed 8 October 2014) Carr, D (2012) Wondering How Far Maagazines Must Fall. NY Times, August 12 [Online]. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/business/media/wondering-how-far-magazines-must-fall.html (Accessed 8 October 2014) Fleishman, G. (2014) Last Issue is December 18, 2014. Available at: http://the-magazine.com/closing (Accessed 9 October 2014) Fleishman, G. (2014) The Magazine is Making a Book (again) and Shutting Down (what?!). Available at: http://glog.glennf.com/blog/2014/10/8/the-magazine-is-making-a-book-again-and-shutting-down-what (Accessed 9 October 2014) Goodman, H. (2014) Building Products That Customers Want. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/harrisgoodman/2014/02/05/building-products-that-customers-want/ (Accessed 8 October 2014) Hoffelder, N. (2013) Marco Arment & The Magazine: Getting it Right is More Important Than Being First. Available at: http://the-digital-reader.com/2013/06/04/marco-arment-the-magazine-and-why-getting-it-right-is-more-important-than-being-first/ (Accessed 9 October 2014) Hoffelder, N. (2014) Pioneering Digital-Only Magazine “The Maagazine” to Close By The End of the Year. Available at: http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/10/08/pioneering-digital-magazine-magazine-close-end-year/ (Accessed 10 October 2014) Huaghnew, C. (2012) Women’s Magazines Lead Overall Decline in Newsstand Sales. Available at: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/womens-magazines-lead-overall-decline-in-newsstand-sales/ (Accessed 8 October 2014) Jurkowitz, M. (2014) The Growth in Digital Reporting; What it Means for Journalism and News Consumers. Available at: http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/the-growth-in-digital-reporting/ (Accessed 8 October 2014) Lossius, G. (2013) Publishers should invest in skills, business models and new ideas in 2014. Available at: http://www.publishingtechnology.com/2013/10/publishers-skills-business-models-2014/ (Accessed 9 October 2014) Magazine Mavin (2012) The Silver Lining in the Bad News About Magazine Publishing. Available at: http://magazine-mavin.com/2012/08/30/the-silver-lining-in-the-bad-news-about-magazine-publishing/ (Accessed 10 October 2014) Mod, C. (2012) Subcompact Publishing. Available at: http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/ (Accessed 7 October 2014) Parker, S. (2014) BuzzFeed's success does not mean we should be slaves to clicks. The Guardian, 24 January [Online]. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2014/jan/24/buzzfeed-success-digital-news (Accessed 8 October 2014) Roberts. J. (2013) The Atlantic launches weekly iPhone magazine for $2.99 a month. Available at: https://gigaom.com/2013/06/14/the-atlantic-launches-weekly-iphone-magazine-for-2-99-a-month/ (Accessed 8 October 2014) Salmeron, J. M. (2013) Recent Trends In Storytelling And New Business Models For Publishers. Available at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/10/28/recent-trends-in-storytelling-and-new-business-models-for-publishers/ (Accessed 8 October 2014) Stocks, E. J. (2014) On Digital Publishing in 2014. Available at: http://www.elliotjaystocks.com/blog/on-digital-publishing-in-2014/ (Accessed 9 October 2014) Watson, S. (2014) Behind the Scenes: Compass Cultura. Available at: http://www.stackmagazines.com/digital/behind-scenes-compass-cultura/ (Accessed 8 October 2014) 54 years ago, Penguin Books was persecuted for publishing D.H. Lawrence’s ‘obscene’ Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Penguin won the case and “changed Britain forever” (Sandbrook, 2010). The case of Lady Chatterley’s Lover emphasised the public’s craving for more daring, ‘adult’ content. 15 minutes after winning the court case, Foyles alone sold 300 copies and ordered 3,000 more (Sandbrook, 2010). This interest in controversial content has continued, evidenced in the recent response to E.L. James’ bestselling 50 Shades trilogy. October 2013 found hardcore pornographic titles appearing in the same search results as children’s stories on booksellers’ websites. For example, searching “Daddy” on WHSmith wielded results of both Bedtime Stories to Grandchildren and the explicit Pregnant with Daddy (Ellery & Gallagher, 2013). These were self-published through Kobo, with “inaccurate and misleading metadata that were intended to aid their discovery by consumers” (McCrudden, 2013). Through setting up fake publishing houses and using symbols to censor key words, self-published authors were able to skip the necessary categorisation, and therefore disguise illicit material that goes against Amazon and Kobo guidelines (Abrams, 2013). Whilst finding these items on Amazon itself requires a direct link, the recommended items then showed a further number of explicit publications. Yet, booksellers with an automated feed to Kobo had pornographic results integrated. WHSmith and Kobo shut down their websites until all abuse-themed e-books were removed (Kellogg, 2013). The Indecent Displays Control Act, 1981, incriminates anyone making or permitting indecent public displays. Showcasing specific chosen books is manageable for bookstores at times when they select the works available on store shelves, endorsing it through giving shelf space based upon their own judgement of quality (McCrudden, 2013). However, self-publishing platforms such as Kindle’s Direct Publishing and Nook’s Writing Life make it increasingly easier for authors to self-publish, focusing on quantity, not quality. These differing expectations result in more of an outraged reaction from the public towards booksellers than the publishing platforms (McCrudden, 2013). Booksellers face the problem of deciding which self-published titles should be displayed and which are too ‘hardcore’. How does one distinguish between a novel one finds scandalous and one that will be accepted by the general public? Holloway says authors should have the freedom to write whatever they deem acceptable (2014). He also says “readers’ needs” should be taken into consideration by the author. Thus, does the increase in hardcore erotice titles correlate with “readers’ needs”? And, even it does, the main question remains: who decides what to censor? Whilst Amazon and Nook have their guidelines in place, I feel there should be more of an importance on the correct usage of meta tags and categorisation, as guidelines alone do not discourage hardcore erotica writers from self-publishing. However, age appropriateness is necessary, through more filters and age verification methods. Yet, these are difficult to police, “especially on large aggregator sites such as Amazon or Kobo” (Stephenson, 2013). One solution recommended by Morozov (2011) is to “crowdsource censorship”; an idea similar to McCrudden’s “e-Bay style feedback system”, which ‘solves publishing problems, identifies and labels good behaviour from authors, locates and penalises bad behaviour, provides filtering methods for conventional authors who are self-publishing, and eliminates “review trolls”’ (2013). This could greatly reduce the number of explicit publications through censoring, whilst being a decision made by the public, not a corporation. Word Count: 550 Bibliography: Abrams, D. (2013) Should Self-publishing Platforms Censor Objectionable Books? Available at: http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/10/should-self-publishing-platforms-censor-objectionable-books/ (Accessed 1 October 2014)
Anon. (2013) WH Smith takes website offline after porn e-book scandal. BBC News, 14 October [Online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24519179 (Accessed 1 October 2014) Bosman, J. (2012) Discreetly Digital, Erotic Novel Sets American Women Abuzz. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/business/media/an-erotic-novel-50-shades-of-grey-goes-viral-with-women.html (Accessed 1 October 2014) Crown Prosecution Service (2014) Obscene Publications. Available at: http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/obscene_publications/ (Accessed 1 October 2014) Deahl, R. (2013) Indie Authors Launch Petition Reacting to Retailers' Censorship. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/59576-indie-authors-launch-petition-reacting-to-retailers-censorship.html (Accessed 1 October 2013) Ellery, B. & Gallagher, I. (2013) WHSmith's vile trade in online rape porn: Bookseller apologises after sales of sick ebooks are revealed. Daily Mail, 12 October [Online]. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2456651/WHSmiths-vile-trade-online-rape-porn-Bookseller-apologises-sales-sick-ebooks-revealed.html (Accessed 1 October 2014) Goodall, C. (2013) To our readers: Update on Kobo. Available at: http://cafe.kobo.com/blog/to-our-readers:-update-on-kobo-com (Accessed: 1 October 2014) Holloway, D. (2014) Opinion: Self-Censorship & Self-Expression in Self-Publishing. Available at: http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org/opinion-self-censorship-self-expression-in-self-publishing/ (Accessed 1 October 2014) Kellog, C. (2013) Self-published pornographic e-books cause trouble for Amazon, Kobo. LA Times, 16 October [Online]. Available at: http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-pornographic-self-published-ebooks-trouble-for-amazon-and-kobo-20131016-story.html (Accessed 1 October 2014) McCruden, C. (2013) If self-publishing is the new Wild West, who’s the Sheriff? Available at: https://medium.com/@cmccrudden/if-self-publishing-is-the-new-wild-west-whos-the-sheriff-36a575f57aa9 (Accessed 1 October 2014) Morozov, E. (2011). The Net Delusion: How not to liberate the world. London: Penguin Books Sandbrook, D. (2013) Lady Chatterley trial - 50 years on. The filthy book that set us free and fettered us forever. Telegraph, 16 October [Online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8066784/Lady-Chatterley-trial-50-years-on.-The-filthy-book-that-set-us-free-and-fettered-us-forever.html (Accessed 1 October 2014) Skurnick, L. (2012) ‘50 Shades of Grey,’ a Self-Published E-Book, Is the Future of Publishing. Available at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/17/50-shades-of-grey-a-self-published-e-book-is-the-future-of-publishing.html (Accessed 1 October 2014) Stephenson, R. (2013) 3 Simple Censorship Riles can Safeguard Self-Published Ebooks. Available at: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/3-simple-censorship-rules-can-safeguard-self-published-ebooks/ (Accessed 1 October 2014) |