Eoin Purcell's Blog

Sometimes it seems a wave crashes over the web and a topic ripples with it. The amount of comment on books and digitisation and backlists has been huge. I won’t repeat the links but the last few posts address them. I guess one of the important movers in this current discussion is the HarperCollins’ announcement regarding its “innovative” plans for Search Inside and extracts of books on their site.(you can read the details here)

What intrigues me about this though is that it is not revolutionary. Nothing announced is new. No publisher is really pushing the boat out in terms of change, certainly not any of the largest five publishers that’s for sure. Where is the radical change that the web seems to hold its breath for?

It’s nowhere. Oh there is some messing on the edges, a little change and innovation, some people trying to figure out how to move the industry on but overall progress is slow and mostly stalled.

The more I think on it, the more I hope to see an outsider or an insider change the game completely, to shift the goal posts. The announcement by HarperCollins is welcome but it is hardly that.

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Eoin