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Downtown Writers Network is a resource for independent writers in central
Ohio. |
A Writer's Guide to E-PublishingPart 1 -- The TechnologyWhat You're Reading Right Now
Internet e-publishing has been around for years in the form of ftp sites, web sites, e-mail, e-zines and online bulletin boards and newsletters. But e-publishing is attracting so much media attention today because it's moving into the field of book publishing, and that's the big news.
As a writer, you should be interested, too. This technology will change the marketplace. It will change your job as a writer. It will change your relationship with publishers. And it may well change the very notion of what it means to publish and to be published. You don't need to be a book-writer for these changes to shake your world, either. Journalists, essayists, reviewers, technical writers, short story writers and poets -- you'll all find your relationships with your publishers, your audiences and even your way of working altered by e-publishing. Several different technologies are currently driving the industry. E-publishing is a development in communications media. Like Gutenberg's printing press, e-publishing is about how documents are produced and distributed. Unlike Gutenberg's press, though, different types of electronic "presses" are developing simultaneously. All of them may find a particular niche in the electronic publishing world, though some are likely to prove less successful than others. Even so, if you want to delve into e-publishing, these are the products and software programs you need to know about. For a printer friendly version of this article, click here. Contents of this
article
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What you're reading right now is one
kind of e-publishing. This article was written on a computer for a web site.
You're reading it online with a Netscape or Internet Explorer browser. So far,
every bit of it has been electronic. Not a single piece of paper has been
involved, and none will be unless you decide to hit the print button.
As long as e-publishing was confined primarily to the internet
and other related media, publishing houses had less financial stake in the
technology. Now that electronic books have entered the market, publishers have
become deeply interested. Although this technology will compete with their
traditional industry of printing physical books, it's also a way for them to
extend their business and their profits.