= [Overview]
Some bold publishers decided to use the web as a marketing
tool. In the U.S., NAP (National Academy Press) was the first
publisher in 1994 to post the full text of some books, for
free, with the authors' consent. NAP was followed by MIT Press
in 1995. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, wrote in
1997: "As university publishers struggle to find the right
business model for offering scholarly documents online, some
early innovators are finding that making a monograph available
electronically can boost sales of hard copies" (excerpt from
the Project Gutenberg Newsletter of October 1997). Digital
publishing became mainstream in 1997. Digitization accelerated
the publication process. Editors, designers and other
contributors could all work at the same time on the same book.
For educational, academic and scientific publications, digital
publishing was a cheaper solution than print books, with
regular updates to include the latest information.
= Publishers get bold
Some publishers decided to use the web as a marketing tool. In
the U.S., NAP (National Academy Press) was the first publisher
in 1994 to post the full text of some books, for free, with the
authors' consent. NAP was followed by MIT Press (MIT:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1995.
NAP was created by the National Academy of Sciences to publish
its own reports and the ones of the National Academy of
Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National
Research Council. In 1994, NAP was publishing 200 new books a
year in science, engineering, and health. The new NAP Reading
Room offered 1,000 entire books, available online for free in
various formats: "image" format, HTML format and PDF format.
Oddly enough, there was no drop in sales - on the contrary,
sales increased.
In 1995, MIT Press was publishing 200 new books per year and 40
journals, in science and technology, architecture, social
theory, economics, cognitive science, and computational
science. MIT Press also decided to put a number of books online
for free, as "a long-term commitment to the efficient and
creative use of new technologies". Sales of print books with a
free online version increased.
Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, wrote in 1997: "As
university publishers struggle to find the right business model
for offering scholarly documents online, some early innovators
are finding that making a monograph available electronically
can boost sales of hard copies. The National Academy Press has
already put 1,700 of its books online, and is finding that the
electronic versions of some books have boosted sales of the
hard copy monographs - often by two to three times the previous
level. It's 'great advertising', says the Press's director. The
MIT Press is experiencing similar results: 'For each of our
electronic books, we've approximately doubled our sales. The
plain fact is that no one is going to sit there and read a
whole book online. And it costs money and time to download
it'." (excerpt from the Project Gutenberg Newsletter of October
1997)
= Publishers go digital
Digital publishing became mainstream in 1997, as the latest
trend in the many changes underwent by traditional publishing
since the 1970s. Traditional printing was first disrupted by
new photocomposition machines, with lower costs. Text and image
processing began to be handed over to desktop publishing and
graphic art studios. Impression costs went on decreasing with
photocopiers, color photocopiers and digital printing.
Digitization also accelerated the publication process. Editors,
designers and other contributors could all work at the same
time on the same book.
For educational, academic and scientific publications, online
publishing became a cheaper solution than print books, with
regular updates to include the latest information. Readers
didn't need any more to wait for a new printed edition, often
postponed if not cancelled because of commercial constraints.
Some universities began to create their own textbooks online,
with chapters selected in an extensive database, as well as
papers and comments from professors. For a seminar, a few print
copies could be made upon request, with a selection of online
articles sent to a printer.
Digital publishing and traditional publishing became
complementary. The frontier between the two supports -
electronic and paper - began to vanish. Recent print media
already stem from an electronic version anyway, on a word
processor, a spreadsheet or a database. More and more documents
became "only" electronic, and more and more print books were
digitized to be included in digital libraries and bookstores.
In the mid-1990s, though, there was no proof that electronic
documents would make us paperless in the near future, and save
some trees. Many people still needed a print version for easier
reading, or for their archives, in the fear the electronic file
would be accidentally deleted. We were still a transition
period, from paper to digital.