This event proved one of the highlights of the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival thus far, certainly for this reviewer.
Having lain stricken on the columnar sick-bed whilst the event on Writing in the Digital Age was taking place, there was clearly some catching up to do, since some attendees at the earlier event had bones to pick over remarks made on the phenomena that digital self-publishing has become.
That said, this event, sponsored by Publishing Scotland and chaired by Padmini Ray Murray of the Department of Publishing at the University of Stirling, was equally lively, attended as it was by a large audience including many involved in publishing in Scotland.
The three speakers were very well qualified to speak to the topic, Mark Buckland of Cargo for one. Cargo has been described as one of Scotland’s ‘most innovative publishers’ - they cite Rebel Ink, Clocktower and Canongate as influences, and publish Cargo Crate, Scotland’s first dedicated digital label and work from an impressive string of well-known authors.
Martin Greig’s Backpage Press produce sports based books clearly aimed at ‘fan bases’ looking for engaging content and are clearly committed to digital publishing.
Blasted Heath, represented here by Allan Guthrie, publish crime fiction and it would takes a brave publishing house to issue some thirty books in its first year of operation, even on a digital basis.
Each of the three speakers had a story to tell, whether it be Guthrie’s of his move from author to agent at Jenny Brown Associates to his current role as publisher since 2011, Greig’s of the genesis of Backpage Press and its ‘Ninety Minutes’ series of digital publications involving submission of short pieces from a number of authors in ways that are only viable digitally.
There was discussion of the potential for author/ reader collaboration in more interactive ways through the use of digital media, and the development of a creative collaboration reflecting the phenomena of ‘fan fiction’. Digital publishing offers the potential to ‘gameify’ content for generations who have grown up with digital and on-line games, and whose experience will unavoidably alter how narrative is communicated and experienced.
Guthrie suggested that digital publishing offered opportunities to test the market in ways previously unknown, and cited the case of Hugh Howie, whose self-published work had garnered some three thousand five-star online reviews, and a six-figure pay cheque from Amazon – those familiar with the percentage allotted to authors from Amazon downloads will appreciate the number of sales this represents.
Publishers able to present the work of new authors in 20,000 word novella are more able to test the market than conventional publishers who have to commit to full-length work.
Technology, however, moves fast and books rarely sell as well as ‘apps’, and it becomes a question of how to add to existing content and advance sales of the work. As publisher Jamie Byng of Canongate has put it, ‘books are our starting point’, suggesting that in a digital age, they are no longer an end in themselves.
‘Neural fiction’ may be the outcome of our increasing fascination with machine learning, or at least machine that can learn and mimic human response – a future in which machines replicate the ‘if you liked x, you may also like y’ assumptions of Amazon recommendations.
Existing technology also allows the reader to choose the story he/she wishes to follow – this reviewer recalls an early HyperCard (remember that?) experiment that took the operator from one illustrated window to another by the click of a mouse, with multiple choices available at each stage.
Even this kind of ‘choice’, however, begs the question of in what ways the reader can be surprised, disturbed or if needs be, alienated from what they are presented with.
If there is loss, however, there is also positive change, at least in potential. Scotland, being small, encourages co-operation while one of the upsides of globalisation means that international collaboration becomes more possible. Sheer economics compel publishers to look outside the ‘bubble’ of their closed community, while crowd funding offers an alternative model of raising capital, and in the case of publishing may see a return to the subscription-funded model of publication.
Questions from the audience included asking whether literary fiction would survive in this new market, or more specifically if its promotion of values could.
None of the panellists had an answer to this; any more than on the question of what would happen if Amazon’s relentless reach for greater market share entirely eliminated the remaining alternative outlets.
The future of libraries was also raised, and the issue of PLR (Public Lending Right) payment on E-books.
This was an enormously stimulating session, with the kind and quality of debate that ought to lie at the heart of this or any other book festival.