{"id":28609,"date":"2016-07-23T08:28:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T06:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=28609"},"modified":"2016-07-23T08:28:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-23T06:28:46","slug":"the-road-to-e-book-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2016\/07\/23\/the-road-to-e-book-publishing\/","title":{"rendered":"The road to e-book publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/strong>he internet is the glory of the 21st century. It is difficult to call to mind everything that resembles it.<\/p>\n

And, yet, hard copy books have made humanity merry for thousands of years.<\/p>\n

While it can be said that information on various aspects can still be found in hard copy, it is equally true that a significant supply of knowledge and information is poured, to a larger degree, through e-books and the internet.<\/p>\n

True, hardcopy material has the tradition behind it, but the internet has the technological flavour.<\/p>\n

So, anyone who ignores the internet is just ripe enough to be an object, not of pity, but of ridicule.<\/p>\n

While authors and publishers in other countries have joined the bandwagon of electronic (e)-books, Malawi seems off the mark.<\/p>\n

The Malawian author and publisher\u2019s mind is, still, occupied by no strong feeling of going electronic; it is too pre-occupied with the traditional way of doing things\u2014 the hard copy way. The hope of going electronic surfaces, from time to time, and vanishes as soon as it resurfaces.<\/p>\n

There are reasons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, times are changing and we are exploring the idea of publishing books in soft copy. But this is not something that can happen now. It\u2019s something we can plan and think about,\u201d says Malawi Writers Union (Mawu) president, Aubrey Sambalikagwa Mvona.<\/p>\n

Mvona, who has just retained his seat as Mawu president after winning the confidence of members, says books in hard copy still have advantages over e-books in developing countries such as Malawi.<\/p>\n

He says, for example, that while Malawians have embraced technological advancements, some technologies move so fast that people cannot catch up with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake, for example, people in the rural areas. People in these areas do not have computers and there is no way we can talk of e-books when we want to focus on them. So, while e-books serve a particular audience and have their own advantages, in our case, books in hard copy serve many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is easy to read and store a book in hard copy for someone in rural<\/p>\n

Malawi. However, since significant number of people in rural areas do not have facilities such as computers, phones with internet connectivity and other devices that help in connecting people to the internet, we can safely say that hard copy books still hold value and are an important source of information and knowledge among Malawians,\u201d says Mvona.<\/p>\n

Mvona is, however, optimistic that Malawian authors would catch up with the internet buzz once the dynamics change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are capable of making the switch, if need be. But we have not been affected by e-books at the moment. But we know what is happening in the world and we are ready to embrace e-books because they also serve our interests,\u201d says Mvona.<\/p>\n

To make the switch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Book Publishers Association of Malawi (Bpam) president, Alfred Msadala, observes that, even among publishers, it is not a question of making the big switch from hard copy publishing to e-books.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to e-books, the art of publishing becomes complicated. This is because there are specialised publishers for e-books,\u201d says Msadala.<\/p>\n

Msadala cites the case of e-book publisher Amazon, saying Amazon had no experience of hard copy publishing when it decided to venture into the trade.<\/p>\n

Online information indicates that Amazon.com, Inc., also referred to as simply Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon was established especially for e-books. Of course, they have since diversified into hard copy book publishing but their initial specialty was e-books publishing, \u201csays Msadala.<\/p>\n

Msadala observes that the case of Amazon\u2014 which started as an e-book publisher before turning its focus on publishing books in hard copy form\u2014 is a special one.<\/p>\n

He, however, says the road is not closed for Malawian authors who have publishing books in hard copy form.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo begin with, publishers can diversify and accommodate both hard copy books and e-books. Or, the author, depending on contractual agreements with the publisher, may go into an agreement with e-book publisher who may publish a book that is in hard copy as an e-book.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, as I have said, this depends on the contractual agreement between the author and the publisher. If the contract does not provide for such an eventually, then it would become difficult for an author to do that, or for a publisher to accept that,\u201d says Msadala.<\/p>\n

The Bpam president says the publishing scene in the country is dominated by publishers of hard copy books; meaning that an author with an already published hard copy book may have to look outward [outside the country] for any such eventualities.<\/p>\n

When all is said and done, it is clear that Malawian authors and publishers have not stuck to the old, hard cover, book format because they are slaves of habit, doing what they have been taught without variation.<\/p>\n

They are simply sticking to a format that has served readers \u2018faithfully\u2019 for generations; its contents\u2014 time and again, or sometimes, warming us into appreciation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The internet is the glory of the 21st century. It is difficult to call to mind everything that resembles it. And, yet, hard copy books have made humanity merry for thousands of years. While it can be said that information on various aspects can still be found in hard copy, it is equally true that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28613,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28609\/revisions\/28613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}