Are publishers cheesy because they use the wrong software? – Rue89

Do you know why France in the eBook market stagnates below 5% of the market? I hear someone in the room talking about the high price of ebooks. Yes you are right. Why such prices?

Making of

Thierry Crouzet is a writer and blogger that love to read, as he raised the art of original and profound questions. In this post, published April 2, it emits an interesting hypothesis: what if the stagnation of the digital book was not a matter of economics or read usage, but software? In other words, as writers produce their texts on software for the paper publication, they did not invent forms adapted to digital. Never forget that in the history of literature, mutations of media and techniques have been accompanied by aesthetic mutations. One more would be to imagine. This text was written in the words of Thierry Crouzet, “in preparation for a small intervention in inter-meetings” Book Actors face the digital upheaval “in Florac 3 April 2015″. He kindly allowed us to reproduce it here. We thank. Xavier de La Porte

If ebooks were cheaper, people would buy more, which would mean a huge loss to the physical bookstores and would run much. We often hear this argument from some publishers. It is not entirely wrong when you see what happened in the United States and Britain, the two countries where ebooks represent nearly 40% of the market.

But is it really to protect booksellers that larger publishers keep prices high? I doubt it. In France, we are in a unique situation where the big publishers like Hachette and Gallimard, are also major distributors. So much they earn more by setting up books, their own and those of other publishers, by editing them.

These groups are the carriers. That the eBook is growing and this martingale breaks the figure. In this story, the closure of libraries will be for them a collateral damage. I think they do not care much booksellers, otherwise they would give them higher margins for save today. So we live under the yoke of protectionism. Of course it will not last. At one point, the fall will be brutal, because others will bypass this beautiful mechanical actors

400 book lovers imagine how we are about to read (Good e-Reader)

A survey conducted by Good e-Reader, with their US readers, England and Canada, explains why. When asked how we read in twenty years, what do they respond? If you are conservative, you probably think that we will remain faithful to the paper? Congratulations, you almost won. With nearly 14% of the votes, second only to paper reading lights. OK, this is just a survey, but it is exciting because it divides readers among many tools, making do and bring a process already underway. We now read about tablet, reading lights, telephone, apps … The book will soon be the preferred support.

Unfortunate developments for truckers who will see their share of the cake reduced to almost nothing, but it does has consequences for the perpetrators themselves. Today, most write with in mind the idea of ​​a paper book. So they use software designed to send text to a printer. They mostly work with Word or one of its avatars as Page Mac or OpenOffice Writer

Word is designed to create printable documents

These software have a point common: WYSIWYG [acronym for "what you see is what you get" editor's note]. What I see on screen is what will be printed. As a result, many functions are used to lay out, choose the typeface. Word and its derivatives are actually office tools, for printing letters, resumes, records, why not books. They were thought best in the 80s and since they have not evolved. Suffice to say that most authors use outdated software.

Working with software that requires thinking the form returns to be placed in an archaic paradigm editorial and doubly archaic since it involves many tools writing than diffusion. Now, it is impossible for an author to know how his texts are read: on paper, smartphone, reading light, tablet, apps like Feedly Wattpad or even by mail … I think it vital to take into account this development, at the same time writing, and even upstream when you dream to future legislation.

I did as everyone. I wrote with Apple Works with WordStar with Word Perfect and then with Word, which I remained faithful almost 25 years, then I discovered Ulysses and everything changed. Skip Word Ulysses was for me too transformer than spending manuscript text processing, not less.

In my next essay, the eventual title of “e-critures” I will show how, over the centuries, the technique influenced the writing, how to change tools is change the text. Pending its release, I would just show you how Ulysses no I would not be writing One minute, my daily soap opera that has just celebrated its first three months.

A single screenshot Just to show how Ulysses differs from Word. We do not work in a document, but in a project, imagine it as an office with questions over various stacks of sheets of varying thickness.

A picture to understand Ulysses

On the left of the screen, a column list projects, usually stored in the cloud (and synchronized with other Ulysses on other Mac or iPad). You probably locate the folder 1 minute, divided into three sub-folders, or groups.

The script stores being written texts. They are called the leaves. In the “bible”, there are other sheets where I list my ideas, describe the characters, setting, plot générale.Dans “published” I put the leaves already posted on my blog and on Wattpad. This is my book in some way.

The second column lists the sheets in the selected group (catching on, those already published). In the third column, the text of the bill or the selected sheets. It is entered in Markdown, minimalist Markup Language (a pound to a line makes a title level 1, two sharps make it as level two …).

At this point, it is already very different from Word, but you may not measure the benefit. You notice at least I do not have a document or documents. This concept simply does not exist in Ulysses (logical, since I am not writing a book specifically, but primarily a text). In contrast, native, working in some sort of plan mode. The work of the structure, and even of the workshop is to be seen. Everything is spread before the eyes of the author.

You might be wondering What do the little red pellets. Deputy Ulysses, we can set goals. Indicate how many characters should have a sheet or group. Gradually, as we wrote a wheel turns, kind of speedometer. When we reached the goal, it turns green when it is exceeded it turns red.

A gadget do you believe? Quite the contrary. Many professional writers are obliged to produce a number of signs / day or wish chapters of a given size. Ulysses think of them, and that’s why I finally threw myself into One minute.

A very fast reader should be able to read one of my chapters in a minute, so they should be around 2 000 signs. So every day, when I run, I created a new leaf, I set the goal. When I write, I always know where I am. When the wheel turns green, I know it’s time to find a fall, which invariably makes me move slightly in the red. This is simply liberating many automated things I no longer think.

But Ulysses revolution does not stop there. Its creators understand this fundamental thing today: we do not write for a given medium. So I have to work with a word processor that does not care about formatting, but that gives me the most effective writing environment possible and that does not distract me.

Thus, Most often, I erase the two left columns and face to me that the text, with the small wheel at the top. I no longer write that, without thinking of anything else. Done fonts, margins, layouts … All this forgotten. I write as Kerouac kilometer on its roll. Remove unnecessary functions for writing, it’s liberating, even for the author never uses them. Because their presence disturbs. “And if I put in shape …” It is so easy to get distracted when writing.

Ulysses is a text creation tool, no office software such as Word. It helps not only to write but also to structure, build, assemble, document. It then becomes magical. Rather than a typewriter improved, Ulysses reinvents the ancient manuscript, with its flexibility, by providing all the digital power.

For example, if I select multiple sheets in the second column, even disjointed The third column creates a virtual document that allows you to read and work consecutively. Indispensable for example when I want to browse all the minutes I speak of Sarah Cash, my heroine. I can then manually select the leaves, look for the tag … Ulysses offers up mode multiplied with unlimited layout possibilities. In Word, it is simply impossible (and Scrivener is playable, but less elegant).

The text is written regardless of its form. It only takes a form that when exporting sheets by applying a style. With one click, you can generate Word, PDF, ebooks, HTML … and tomorrow all that is left to imagine.

Ulysses does not create a file at the time of export

Aujourd ‘ hui too often editing functions as if it was only one export mode. It restricts its possibilities. The simple passage of the profession Ulysses sufficient to invalidate the unique model of the book and awareness to all stakeholders of the plurality of playback formats

PS:. To experiment without Ulysses Ulysses, you can test new writing directly on the web with GitBook. You can also try other Markdown writing tools.