What will book publishing look like in the future? O’Reilly Publishing has a new book called Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto Essays: A Collection from the Bleeding Edge of Publishing which attempts to answer this question.
Hugh McGuire, one of the book’s editors, explains the idea behind the book on his blog:
The “idea” of this book was to explore “the idea of a book.” We wanted to get away from the abstract or philosophical, and make a practical guide for the publishing world — for someone just starting a publishing enterprise today, for people in the business already, and for authors and self-publishers who want to think beyond “upload my book to Kindle.”
McGuire made the book using PressBooks, a new online book publishing tool, that he built. PressBooks is available for other authors and it converts manuscripts into eBooks available for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and reading online.