[12621] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France Xmas -- Cyberpublishing, Dominique Nora
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Tue Dec 15 20:31:34 1998
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 17:54:03 -0500
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
FYI France Xmas Special -- Cyberpublishing, by Dominique Nora
Dominique Nora has made a name for herself in France as one of
their leading writers on things digital and the effects thereof:
she writes for "Nouvel Observateur", and her recent books include
"Les Conque'rants du Cybermonde : l'Epope'e du Multime'dia", and
"Le Hold-Up Plane'taire : La Face Cache'e de Microsoft".
In the fascinating article which follows, she tackles a topic of
increasing interest to all of us who work in books, libraries,
and "information": "Cyberpublishing" -- here as it is developing,
rapidly and in unique ways now, in France...
--oOo--
The Cyberpublishing Revolution -- the new chai^ne du livre...
by Dominique Nora [tr. JK]
There is nothing more, for now, than a few indications:
-- Editions a` la Carte will provide, on demand, the older works
held by the Bibliothe`que de France;
-- the last book of Pierre Bourdieu, for which Le Seuil had
surrendered electronic rights, becomes available on the Internet
at the same time as it does in the bookshops;
-- on this global information spider's web, an increasing number
of cyberpublishers now sell original manuscripts in the form of
electronic files, and "virtual bookshops" multiply, using direct
- sales techniques.
Anecdotes? These first steps only involve, of course, several
thousand books -- against the 342.5 million sold last year by
French publishers. These could very well be, however, the early
tremors of a larger earthquake: the explosion of publishing's
traditional economic model. For the development of the Internet
will lead, in the final analysis, to the recomposition of all of
the links of the chai^ne du livre: the creation of books, their
editing and publishing, their distribution... and even their
means of consumption!
"You can recognize pioneers by the number of arrows planted in
their backs," they say in the US. This maxim applies very well to
Jean - Pierre Arbon. In spite of a rain of ironic and sceptical
commentary, the former general director of Flammarion has in
effect dared to cross the Rubicon by co - founding, last June, a
publishing house on the Internet. Its name? "00h00", or "Zero
Heure", because he knows very well that he is taking off into
new, uncharted territory.
"In publishing as it works today," explains Jean - Pierre Arbon,
"distribution has the power: it eats up more than half of the
price of a book, one reason why print - runs now must be of at
least 2500 copies. Publishers thus are forced to offer only what
they know can be sold in large volume."
Under this warped system, book inventories need to have turnover
rates like yogurts in a supermarket! Result: works which interest
only a smaller public are able to find publishers only more and
more rarely.
The original idea of Jean - Pierre Arbon, and of a handful of
explorers on this new frontier -- such as, in France, Olivier
Gainon of "Cyberlibris" and Patrick Altman of "Edispher", or, in
Great Britain, David Getmann of "Online Originals" -- is to
reverse the logic: to resuscitate, via Internet, the offering of
"niche" cultural products, in literature and in science fiction
as well as in genres in decline such as the humanities,
philosophy, poetry, and theater.
So "00h00" offers on its W3 site a catalog of 120 titles, of
which 7 are entirely unpublished. One finds there, for example,
_La Citrouille Fe^le'e_, a collection of stories by an Algerian
author trying to escape the censorship which oppresses his
country. The reader, wherever she or he is on the planet, can
obtain these texts in the form of electronic files, or in paper
form.
In contrast to the pioneer "CyLibris", which concentrates on
creating new works, "00h00" also re - publishes great classics
now in the public domain, such as _Le Grand Meaulnes_ of Alain -
Fournier, or _Jacques le Fataliste_ of Diderot. It also buys the
digital files of the small firm "Bibliopolis", which has
undertaken the issuing of the national "patrimoine litte'raire"
on CD-ROM for an erudite public.
Jean - Pierre Arbon also has acquired the electronic rights for
new editions issued by Le Seuil -- _La Domination Masculine_ of
Pierre Bourdieu, and _La Mort Opportune_ of Jacques Pohier -- and
also recent works of Denoe:l, Julliard, Robert Laffont, Calmann -
Le'vy...
"These are contracts for derivative rights, comparable to those
made for 'pocket' editions," says Jean - Pierre Arbon. In this
case Internautes and Internauts also may, at their option, order
a paper version of these works or -- for about 30% less --
download the fulltext, finishing on their own printer, if they
wish to read the text on paper.
For Cyberpublishers the idea is to return to the sources of their
trade, which after all consists of the editing and publishing of
texts and not necessarily the producing of ink on paper!
"We are opening a complementary market, and also attracting a
younger public, one which after all is seen less and less in the
bookshops," says Jean - Pierre Arbon, who now receives one
manuscript per day.
Treason! After the free giveaways of libraries, and
"photocopillage", the electronic book will de - stabilize the
noble art of publishing and bury the bookshop, insist a handful
of publishers who complain of these developments to the Ministry
of Culture.
Some new entrepreneurs, such as Patrick Altman, push to the
limits -- selling an electronic book for half the price of the
work on paper.
From which springs another debate: are electronic publishers
violating the spirit of the "loi Lang" on the uniform price of
books? ["loi Lang": 1981 national law -- named for the Minister
of Culture of the time, Jack Lang -- which seeks to protect small
bookshops against large chains by guaranteeing a uniform price
for a given book. JK]
Should we impose, for certain types of works, a minimum "floor"
price for the sale of electronic files, or establish an official
"delay" between the release of a printed book in the bookshops
and that of the electronic version online, as suggested by
Professor Pascal Fouche'? (in _Le Monde_, September 24, 1998.)
Still others fear that authors simply will use the new
technologies for self - publication...
Je'ro^me Lindon, of Editions de Minuit, fears that the Internet
menaces literary creativity:
"The profusion of texts, the lowering of prices, the increased
speed, create a kind of 'Zap' culture which works against
literature," he asserts, "The bookshops are at risk of being
deprived of entire levels of publishing which today are an
important part of their fragile economy."
Also, without the bookshop, and the filter of literary criticism,
how to discover a Beckett or a Proust?
One encouraging sign, however: an electronic book published by
the British electronic publisher Online Originals, _The Angels of
Russia" of Patricia Le Roy, was selected for the prestigious
Booker Prize competition.
Claude Cherki, the head of Le Seuil and an ardent defender of the
bookshop network, feels in any case that one must look to the
future: "The world evolves -- publishers and booksellers must
change with it... so that it will not change against them..."
Claude Cherki explores the possibilities of "the book on the
Internet" the way one has any general "experience": to see
whether or not an interactive debate on the networks stimulates
sales in the bookshop, to familiarize the editors of his firm
with this new medium, and also to get to know the readers better.
"Publishing is the only sector in the modern era in which the
producer knows absolutely nothing about his ultimate customers,"
he emphasizes.
A task force, "Livre Nume'rique" -- launched before summer by the
Ministry of Culture and presided over by Alain Cordier of Bayard
Presse -- is supposed to cover the entire field, for all of these
questions, in a report to appear in March, 1999. But -- surprise
-- there is no electronic publisher on it...
One thing is sure: it would be pointless to raise a Maginot Line
against the change, at the risk of seeing France's literary
patrimony exploited and sold by servers situated overseas. In
addition, the very idea of "the book" can evolve. The "Edispher"
site already offers to its visitors the downloading of texts into
a personal electronic calendar, such as the PalmPilot.
"The sale of works as electronic files will not take off until
the receptacle for the texts is as portable as a book," asserts
Patrick Altman.
Two small American firms have made the same bet: they are
preparing to launch electronic tablets, dedicated to reading, in
the US market. Selling for between 1500 and 3000 francs, SoftBook
and Rocket Book allow the reading -- on a high - resolution
screen -- of the equivalent of a suitcase - full of printed
works. Their promoters have developed agreements with mainstream
publishers to assure a steady supply of content.
But the most certain evolution, although one that is somewhat
muted, is that affecting the technologies of printing. With new
IBM or Xerox systems -- which include a scanner, a database of
electronic files, and a sophisticated digital printer -- it
becomes possible to reproduce on demand, in very small
quantities, rare or ancient books or even out - of - print works.
The quality improves and the costs drop. "We sell this service
for 2.5 francs per page for a single copy, the price falling to 1
franc per page for 50 copies," explains Henri Le More, former
head editor of Flammarion, who has joined Jean - Georges Etter at
Editions a` la Carte.
Having helped to develop a scanner which is kind to damaged or
precious books, their firm offers to furnish visitors to the
Bibliothe`que Nationale de France -- on demand, although of
course with the permission of the librarian -- a copy of any work
in the collection which is in the public domain.
Editions a` la Carte, which includes Presses Universitaires de
France and Editions Odile Jacob among its partners, also offers
to reprint out - of - print editions for publishers themselves.
"In the US, a subsidiary of the wholesaler - distributor Ingram
already offers this type of service to its publisher - clients,
cutting into the printer's professional role," explains Jean -
Georges Etter.
But French publishers, tied by exclusive distribution contracts,
for now are dragging their feet. And the distributors, who are
tied into much larger corporations, do not have a really
independent outlook on their own profession. Still, the re -
printing of a small series of out - of - print works would
respond to a real demand.
As for the assembling of public domain works which normally are
difficult to reach, this presents an awesome possibility: already
the "Electre" database of books available in booksellers' stocks
includes 380,000 titles -- the entire French "patrimoine
culturel" might count... 20 million!
In one of the ironies of all these changes, in the US the leading
client of Ingram for the re - printing of out - of - print books
is... the "virtual" bookshop, "Amazon.com".
In France, the direct sale of books via Internet site must
confront, along with booksellers' sites such as "Furet du Nord",
two giants: "La FNAC", and "Books On Line / BOL", a new
subsidiary of Havas and Bertelsmann which will open its site
before the end of the year.
The W3 site "fnac.fr" gets 200,000 hits per month -- and, since
April 1998, it outperforms the FNAC direct - sales services via
telephone or Minitel.
"Our monthly figures are ten times what they were last year,"
emphasizes Franc,ois - Henri Pinault, head of "La FNAC", who has
decided to reinvest to improve his "virtual" shop.
No one, however, has yet developed the economic model for the
cyberbookshop: the two American pioneers -- "Amazon.com" and
"Barnesandnoble.com" (of which Bertelsmann just purchased 50%) --
lose plenty of money still. But as direct - sales could, in the
end, represent 20% of the French book market, the distribution
giants cannot ignore it.
So what will the final landscape look like for these changes in
the "chai^ne e'ditoriale"?
"One can see, little by little, a publishing process emerging
which will run at several speeds," forecasts Henri Le More. "The
'best - sellers' will be sold in 'La FNAC' and 'Les Centres
Leclerc' [generic for "supermarkets". JK] But, at the same time,
a myriad of books, covering the entire spectrum of special
interests, will be published and re - published in paper or
electronic form by a great variety of small publishers."
Will these mutations accelerate the decline of bookshops? A few
among them, such as Le Furet du Nord in Lille or Tschann in
Paris, already are launched into cybercommerce. Decitre, in
Lyon, has chosen to ally itself with Books On Line. The others
will suffer.
But the landscape, thus reconstituted, also offers opportunities
to the most creative among them. One proof: the initiative
undertaken by Editions a` la Carte in partnership with Les
Librairies du Savoir. At Clermont - Ferrand, an editorial
committee -- composed of representatives of the Librairie des
Volcans, the local library, the journal La Montagne, and the
president of the Academy [the region's university and schools.
JK] -- has drawn up a list of works concerning the region and
judged worthy of being re - published. At the top, _Le Voyage a`
Clermont_, of Chateaubriand...
The idea is to distribute this virtual catalog very widely -- via
Les Volcans, of course, but also through the educational
institutions and the libraries of the region, as well as various
networks and clubs (why not also the 'bougnats' of Paris?).
The ordered books are then printed on demand. The ambition of
Editions a` la Carte is to expand its collections: on theology,
with _La Procure_ and the _Bibliothe`que de Saulchoir_, art,
anarchist movements, and -- why not? -- "la chasse a` la
be'casse"...
Problem: this system, pushed to its extremes, also permits the
publication of incomplete extracts, of literary "compilations".
The US already foresees, in this case, the application of a model
of copyright payments similar to that used for music... But then
what becomes of the very French "droit moral" of authors?
[A la fin: How to translate the very un - translateable "'droit
moral' of authors"? In France, "copyright" may be sold or
surrendered or may expire, all as it may elsewhere, but an
author's "droit moral" is, "perpe'tuel, incessible et
inalie'nable" -- copyright to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is
one thing, Victor Hugo's personal and enduring "droit moral" is
another -- and the latter is a notion very strange to American
lawyers, and American intellectual property negotiators. Let it
perhaps best be said that the "droit moral" simply is "very
French". But then, increasingly and inevitably, a lot which is
online will be: "very French", that is -- or "very Indonesian" or
"very Chinese" -- not, in other words, "very American"... JK.]
--oOo--
[Box which accompanied her original article.]
The Magazine of 'Inter - lecteurs'
"Yes the Frankfurt Fair looked a little like the 'Titanic', this
year. And francophone publishing found itself in the drink -- are
we waiting for the lifeboat?" demanded the editorial in "Pagina",
in mid - October.
Irreverent and impertinent, this literary magazine on the
Internet was created in... 1996. An ancient creature, on the time
- scale of the Net! "Salon du Livre", "Temps du Lire", "Lire en
Fe^te": "Pagina" is one of the events which count, in the
"landerneau" of publishing.
"For 'Lire en Fe^te' we put up, online, 80 original sites,"
recalls Philippe Di Folco, editor - in - chief and Webmaster of
the site along with the site's founder, Alexandre Rosa.
Independent of all the "known" group, "Pagina" depends above all
on the good will of a volunteer network of collaborators and
contributing authors.
"The publishers looked at us, at the beginning, with great
scepticism. We had to do a lot of envangelizing," recalls Di
Folco. Now the site gets 5000 users per day, who come looking for
un - published texts, thematic "dossiers", and author interviews.
--oOo--
[Cites provided in her original article.]
A Few Links...
Publishers
http://www.odilejacob.fr
http://www.gallimard.fr
http://www.puf.com
Cyberpublishers
http://www.cylibris.com
http://www.00h00.com
http://www.edispher.fr
http://www.onlineoriginals.com
Cyberbookshops
http://www.alapage.tm.fr
http://www.club-internet.fr/livres
http://www.livre-en-ligne.fr
http://www.fnac.fr
http://www.furetdunord.fr
http://www.terra.fr/charade
Literary Magazines
http://www.pagina.tm.fr
http://www.republique-des-lettres.com
http://www.lafactory.com
http://www.imaginet.fr/zazieweb
Fulltext for free downloading
http://cedric.cnam.fr/ABU/
http://palissy.humana.univ-nantes.fr/CETE/CETE.html
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/polar/
http://www.gutenberg.net
--oOo-
The above article appears here with permission -- it was first
published, in French, in "Le Nouvel Observateur", 12-18 novembre
1998, p. 52 -- the printed edition. And see also,
http://www.nouvelobs.com/archives/obs_data/1775/la_revolution_de_la.html
Happy Cyberpublishing, and Merry Christmas!
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
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--oOo--
