Wiki – Laboratoire Ex situ / René Audet

Référence : ANGUS, Phillips, Turning the page : the evolution of the book, London, Routledge, 2014, 139 p.

Synthèse : Focalisé sur trois aspects majeurs de l’édition (« authorship, readership, copyright »), l’ouvrage semble extrêmement pertinent en ce qu’il touche non seulement l’économie et la sociologie mais également la neuroscience et la psychologie, quand bien même il se focalise sur la question éditoriale. Définitivement à consulter pour les questions d’expérientialité !

Mots-clés : Authorship, Readership, Copyright, Electronic Publishing, Book industry

Langue : Anglais

Format : Papier

Description existante : « This is an exciting period for the book, a time of innovation, experimentation, and change. It is also a time of considerable fear within the book industry as it adjusts to changes in how books are created and consumed. The movement to digital has been taking place for some time, but with consumer books experiencing the transition, the effects of digitization can be clearly seen to everybody. In Turning the Page Angus Phillips analyses the fundamental drivers of the book publishing industry - authorship, readership, and copyright - and examines the effects of digital and other developments on the book itself. Drawing on theory and research across a range of subjects, from business and sociology to neuroscience and psychology, and from interviews with industry professionals, Phillips investigates how the fundamentals of the book industry are changing in a world of ebooks, self-publishing, and emerging business models. Useful comparisons are also made with other media industries which have undergone rapid change, such as music and newspapers. This book is an ideal companion for anyone wishing to understand the transition of the book, writing and publishing in recent years and will be particularly relevant to students studying publishing, media and communications. », trouvé sur http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3188168&R=3188168, le 27 février 2017.

Compte rendu existant : MACEVICIUTE, Elena, « The text consists of six main chapters focusing on different elements of the book life-cycle in the consumer book market. Its structure and the emphasis on the main issues of disintermediation, globalisation, convergence and discoverability are explained in the Introduction, that sets the framework for reading. The first chapter looks at the many ways that are available to the authors of the texts, stories, and books. The concept of an author itself becomes diffused. The consequences of the democratisation of authorship are much more difficult to grasp than the impact of self-publishing on the usual book production by publishers. At present authors are working not only in different genres but also for various digital devices. New forms of storytelling emerge and the old ones are revived and enabled by the new gadgets. The books can be longer than before, but in addition we see the revival of short stories and other forms of short or continued (serialised) texts created by individual authors or crowds of readers. The landscape of reading is even more complicated as it is affected not only by publishing, but also by new technologies, emerging new media and communication channels, educational programmes, and social norms. The complexity and variety of reading habits across the world, social groups and professions is captured and presented in the second chapter, which also includes presentation of modern science of reading and the outline of the reading future as seen by some researchers. The third chapter relates to the sensitive issue of free digital content and the development of modern books in this environment of unlimited access to unpaid information, music, film and stories in all possible formats. The author accepts the situation as it is and discusses the issues of piracy, copyright protection and the possible future developments. The tensions between making living out of creative production and free of charge contents is examined as a condition for new business models. The tested and evolving ones are presented in all their variety. One can expect further complications and solutions in this area as the new formats and technologies evolve. The parallels with music industry and newspaper transformation in this part are explicit, but the solutions found by music and news creators are not always usable by book publishers. Business models are also central in the chapter on digital capital. This title did not seem to me quite revealing the content as I perceived it as much wider and richer than the title suggests. It actually looks into a variety of forms of circulation of e-books and books, as well as the ways of promoting the books and reading. But at the end of the chapter the author brings these separate threads together and presents a model of digital capital as a form of relational marketing of digital content. The fifth chapter discussed the issues of global culture and consequences of English language domination on the local publishing, translation and spread of the texts. I have read this chapter with great interest as translation is my point of entry into the publishing industry, from which I can observe it as a participant, not only external researcher or member of a public distribution community. Despite being available worldwide, e-books in local languages are still constrained by the local language. This makes a huge difference for the development of e-book production for small language groups. The book closes with the chapter on convergence and diversity of technologies, media, texts, readers and possible futures. Being optimistic about the place of books in the future world, the author nevertheless presents areas of tension and sketches different potential directions of the development in our book production and reading culture. The book is written from the point of view of English speaking and writing world, but it is enriched by the global perspective not only through authors readings, but also through his respondents from different national backgrounds. », trouvé sur http://www.informationr.net/ir/reviews/revs534.html, le 27 février 2017.