t’s fun to watch the birth of a brand new blog, and a promising new blog is Kristin Lawrence on scholarly publishing.

In a post titled on text taking precedence, she writes

Moving to a text-takes-precedence model, where design gives way to an XML style sheet and printing is offered only on demand and serves just to hold the book together, means we have to focus on content and use and search, not aesthetics.

This reminds me a lot of my days in academic libraries. But over the last few years I’ve come to a rather opposite conclusion. For 15 years I specialized in digital libraries, which primarily is focused on content and search retrieval.

After a move to South America I got involved with book design. For so long I tried to convince myself that the text-takes-precedence model had to work since, after all, that was the basis of everything I valued in developing digital libraries. But I always felt that something was missing and that was largely the aesthetics of digital content.

Most people involved in developing digital libraries and scholarly publishing are programmers, project managers, and administrators. Occasionally, someone in that crew will have learned a few things about Photoshop and labeled himself a graphic designer.

(And I will be the first to admit that I am no graphic designer but I do work with one).

If the future of publishing scholarly monographs is to store the content in XML and generate end-products in various formats via styles sheets, then it’s imperative that those involved in scholarly publishing connect with those who can bring quality design to those style sheets.

These days there are a ton of professional designers well versed in crafting great designs with style sheets. It can be done and it’s vital that individuals within the scholarly community don’t let programmers and administrators convince them that aesthetics does not matter.

‘m convinced that e-books eventually will replace printed books as the world’s primary reading material.

And before you say it: just because you don’t want to cuddle up in bed with an e-book, don’t assume, don’t assert, that others share that attitude.

Wide acceptance of e-books largely depends upon functional reading devices but limited distribution of printed books is an even larger issue. Sure, print-on-demand offers a solution but what happens when the quality of e-books are better and more affordable and more accessible than books printed on demand?

I already live in a part of the world where 95% of the English-languages books I want to read are not easily available. That scenario, the lack of printed reading material, really adjusts your perspective about e-books. (Meanwhile, fortunately, I am surrounded by a wealth of Spanish-language books). But I still feel the necessity of an e-book reader. Unfortunately, international shipping to Argentina is not reliable and there’s a huge import tax on electronics. So, my e-book reader will have to wait until some future visit to North America.

What is the future of book design in an e-book world? Very healthy.

Book design, layout, and typography will continue to play the same role in producing e-books as in printed books. Indeed, one could argue that readability may be an even more important factor with e-books. New possibilities with layout and presentation also may be presented through e-book readers. Of course, there will be limitations and some books just will not be as presentable through e-book readers as in their printed counterparts. Essentially, book designers already produce every printed book as an e-book anyway. In all cases, the final production files delivered to the printer are digital files and almost always in PDF. So, there is still plenty need for book designers in an e-book world.

What about book cover design? Very healthy.

The cover image will continue to play an important marketing role in helping people select which e-books to read. Just as with printed books, e-books need some way of standing out in the crowd.

And what about printed books in an e-book world?

People will still want to buy books, but my thinking is that people will be more interested in spending money on specialized books, books not available digitally, books that offer an experience, books that involve a high degree of design.

So, we may be book designers but that doesn’t mean we’re traditionalists. Of course, in a sense, book design is not so much about the book but about the ways that text and images are conveyed to the reader.

At first, I was intrigued by the Amazon announcement of their new e-book reader Kindle. Then I didn’t follow much of the coverage since I don’t live in the U.S. and knew I wouldn’t have access to this new gadget. But Joe Wikert’s question, “How do you feel about paying $9.99 for an ebook?” made me think about Kindle a little more.

The price of books

Here in Buenos Aires English-language books are hard to come by. There are two bookstores in this very large city that specializes in English books, neither is anything near a Border’s in collection size (far from it, actually). Of the two bookstores I almost always go to the one that sells used books, partly because they have a very good literary selection. At the used bookstore in Buenos Aires I usually pay around $25- $35 pesos for a book. That’s about $7.94 - $11.11 given current exchange rates.

Given the limitations of buying books in English I would gladly pay $9.99 for an e-book. Indeed, I would be thrilled for the ability to purchase a wide variety of books that could be placed on a portable e-book reader at that price.

Reading digitally

Before moving to Buenos Aires I rarely read anything on the screen, almost always printing out everything I downloaded. Now, I tend not to print very much and over the last few years have gotten very used to reading on a screen. Having made that hurdle, I’m just waiting for a quality e-book reader to come along. Perhaps Kindle is it. I think it is getting very close and surely it’s just a matter of time before e-book readers become as common as portable audio players.

International use of the Kindle e-book reader

International use is where an e-book reader becomes a necessity. And I’m not talking about Canada, Australia, or the UK but places where books in English are not so easy to come across.

So, I thought, hmmm, maybe I should really consider getting a Kindle even with its current flaws. But the wireless device only works in the U.S. You can’t use the wireless downloads outside the U.S. I can live without wireless downloads if content could be transferred via USB from a PC. From reviewing the Amazon forums on Kindle, this question of international usage has come up a few times. Currently, Kindle only functions on the Sprint EVDO data network, which cuts out most of the world.

Yet, I’m certain these data access issues will become less restrictive in future versions of Kindle or with whatever new e-book device is next to appear. So, I keep waiting for that e-book reader, which for me down here at the end of the world, is a necessity.

And a word about product design

Obviously, I’ve not seen Kindle in person but the photo of Kindle makes it look like a cheap, plastic toy made for children ages 5 - 8. That becomes especially obvious when I pulled up the Amazon home page last night that displayed Kindle just above the Nintendo DS, which looks lovely.

If you travel a lot then you know the problem of carrying around guidebooks: they can be large and you often don’t use half the chapters in the book. A travel guide friend of mine actually recommends ripping out the pages that you don’t want from a guidebook in order to make it lighter, easier to carry around.

Lonely Planet is introducing downloadable chapters of its guidebooks. The price of each chapter varies but it seems to be around $2.50 or so. It reminds me of the TravelFish guides to southeast Asia that we wrote about last month.

So far, Lonely Planet only has chapters from its Latin American guidebooks available for download. This concept is particularly good for travelers on the road. In many countries it’s very difficult to find English-language travel books.

Yesterday we talked about some of the problems with the current generation of e-books. And by e-book we’re not talking about the types that require a proprietary hardware reader. We mean just digital files (usually PDF) that can be purchased online.

Travelfish is a company that specializes in producing downloadable guidebooks (eGuides) to travel spots in Southeast Asia. Each guide is available in PDF and costs around $2.95 - $3.95. For each eGuide book Travelfish tells the prospective buyer exactly how many pages and maps are included as well as other relevant information to help make your purchase decision.

And one of the things I like the best is that Travelfish provides screen snapshots of the interior layout of the eGuides.

That tells potential buyers that Travelfish isn’t trying to hide anything, isn’t attempting to rip someone off with a crappy e-book. Travelfish just put a little effort into making what appears to be a quality product.

I also like the low pricing of the Travelfish guides. I see a lot of e-books that charge the same as a printed hardcover volume. I think that a smaller page count along with a smaller price creates a better e-book product. Most books, even in print, don’t need to be 300 pages and an e-book certainly doesn’t need to be that long. Also, the low pricing should make the purchase an impulse buy for many people.

We think that Travelfish has a good model for the ways that e-books should be developed and marketed.