We have been recently recording interviews with people from around the world who work at the intersection of publishing and technology, finding out more about the projects currently happening that will play a role in the future of the book.
In between live sessions during Bookcamp, we will screen the complete interviews in what we’re suddenly going to call an Automatic Panel. The panel will feature Adrian Hon from Six to Start, Richard Nash of Small Demons and Arthur Attwell from Paperight.
Bookcamp gathers together smart, bookish people from creative backgrounds of all stripes to explore the future of books – and consider emerging technologies, people, ideas, and stories in the fast-changing business of connecting writers with readers.
Bookcamp 2012 is in Brisbane on 28 September. Find out more.
At about 11:30 am on Tuesday 12 June, a group of writers surrounded me at my desk, handed me a glass of sparkling wine and took photos while I desperately copied a group of hyperlinks and emailed them to my colleague at a desk three metres away. Shortly before that, I’d been uploading ebooks to the if:book website and felt a pang of completely unexpected emotion. Uploading files had never felt so weighty before. Within about an hour, a photo would appear via Twitter of a print copy of the same book visiting Times Square and I would end up in a sad approximation of a human pyramid.
Also, in talking about the project, we’ve been reminded too of this classic Monty Python sketch. The 24-Hour Book won’t be like this, but we really wish it could.
In fact, we suspect it will be a little more like this.
Lisa Dempster, Director of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, launching EWFdigital, the Festival’s online component o. Here she introduces the concept of a digital literary festival and asks why more arts organisations aren’t programming events in the digital space.
What might you expect would help make the 24-Hour Book? Writing utensils and a computer are the obvious first choices. Some would say a cup of coffee or a glass of wine would be next.
However, one piece of technology vital to producing the 24-Hour Book will be Espresso Book Machine. The first copy will be freshly bound at the Brooklyn Public Library and available on the EspressNet digital catalogue soon after the final word is typed. This promises a worldwide readership for the 24-Hour Book.
The Xerox machine takes a computer file and adds paper and glue to churn out a book within minutes, offering readers a wide selection of books almost instantaneously. Libraries and bricks-and-mortar bookstores worldwide are taking advantage of the technology and keeping hard-copy books alive.
Harper Collins, Hachette and Macmillan are some of the top publishers who have released their books on EspressNet, but the technology also presents another option for new authors to self-publish.
The machine can be found humming away in the Harvard Book Store, New York University’s Library in Abu Dhabi and even The University of Melbourne’s Custom Book Centre.
The Espresso Book Machine makes a tasty book and we’re pleased for the 24-Hour Book to be the beans.
Kate Eltham is the Chief Executive Officer of Queensland Writers Centre and founder of if:book Australia. In 2009 she was named by The Australian newspaper as one of 10 Emerging Leaders of Culture.
Kate contributed to the discussion on Access and Accessibility.
