Penguin 2.0 Mashes Up Essays and Short Texts

Mac Slocum
December 8, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | Listen

Penguin's new project -- dubbed "Penguin 2.0" -- incorporates elements of customization and remixing found in Web content. Jeff Gomez, Penguin's senior director of online consumer sales and marketing, discusses the program with the New York Observer:

... in 2009 the company will introduce a program that allows customers to choose from a variety of short stories, essays, and other short standalone texts and combine them into custom-made collections. Mr. Gomez said the program is part of Penguin's effort to incorporate elements of so called 'Web 2.0' into publishing without abandoning print ...

... He cautioned, however, that he "would never want to break apart an entire book" and thereby render the full-length volume obsolete the way iTunes has done to the 74-minute LP.

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2 Comments

bowerbird said:
December 8, 2008 6:54 PM

um... a press release like this -- with no mention of the _price_
that will be charged for the "mashups" -- is quite meaningless...

checking out their site, i see they're charging $17 for a p.o.d.
collection of a potpourri of public-domain materials, which is
perhaps not all that bad for a 340-page book, since it includes
a one-page "dedication" that can be personalized by the giver.

but other than that dedication, that's not a customized book.

at the same time, moreover, they are charging $8-$10 _each_
for a warmed-over bunch of well-worn public-domain titles,
which is highway robbery.

if that's "publishing 2.0", you can count me and consumers out.

-bowerbird

bowerbird said:
December 8, 2008 6:58 PM

if i wasn't clear, they're charging $8-$10 _each_ for _e-books_,
which are all freely available from umpteen public-domain sites.

yeah, right, they'll make a lot of sales on that...

-bowerbird

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