Future of Publishing

The Future of Publishing: Enigma Variations

The Future of Publishing: Enigma Variations

“This short e-book is funny. All-the-way-through-funny.” —eCapris review

Referenced by GalleyCat and Teleread, The Future of Publishing: Enigma Variations consists of 14 variations or brief insights on what the future of publishing holds. Consider it a definitive and comprehensive view on how book publishing will evolve and transform. It analyzes the future of not only authors, but also agents, editors, publishers, bookstores, and reading/literacy.

Read formal reviews of The Future of Publishing

Note on e-book format/compatibility
Due to illustrations and unusual formatting, this book is only available as a PDF document. However, the PDF can be downloaded, viewed, and read on virtually any device—including your desktop computer, your tablet, your mobile, and your e-reading device (such as Kindle). You can also print out a hard copy from the PDF. If you have any questions, please contact me.


Praise for The Future of Publishing

“Jane Friedman’s new book is part publishing world science fiction, part 21st century book fugue and part author-agent-publisher slapstick! Released on April Fool’s Day, it delivers the wisdom that only laughter can conjure. … It should be on every writer’s, reader’s, editor’s, agent’s and publisher’s bedside table. Or Kindle. Or iPad, etc. The Future of Publishing is a baker’s dozen of hypothetical ‘tomorrows’ for the publishing industry plus a less-hyperbolic-more-realistic snapshot of what we should all expect to see over the next few decades.”

 

“Think Rashomon and Future Shock, and then look at this little treatise as The 39 Pages. Each ‘Enigma Variation’ is a tiny, crafty irritant, a satirical nudge of ‘No, it couldn’t really be THAT way’-ness. Jane’s just riffing.’ Yeah—including her idyllic Variation #6 in which publishers go angelic: ‘When a book doesn’t sell, the publisher takes all the blame, and issues a public apology to the author—knowing that the author could, at any time, jump ship to Amazon, Google, or Apple for higher royalties.’

You alternately want the dream to go on, and the nightmare to end, as this publishing pundit reads the entrails of authors (who starved without cheese sandwiches, Ms. Atwood) to foretell the ‘definitive’ uncertainty of the pathways a direly troubled, and vulgarly self-fascinated, industry may take. The bell Jane rings here? It tolls for we.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you will see GAA(d), and that’s Google, Amazon, Apple and (their developers), an unholy trinity of entities who will, like good weaponry manufacturers in all civil wars, be the only profitable parties to the fray. You know we’re in trouble when one Variation, No. 9, makes you feel warm and fuzzy—because it sparks fond memories of Fahrenheit 451.”

—Porter Anderson

“What makes this book so funny? Simply put:  Hyperbole. Ms. Friedman took all of my bleakest imaginings and wildest expectations of publishing industry trends, stripped them down, turned them on their edge, and somehow made me appreciate being shown how completely batty I’ve been over this topic.”

—Marni Folsom

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