My, don't they grow up fast

When I started working at Penguin a little over thirteen years ago, Penguin Towers was a very different place (it was, in fact, *in* a different place). The stationery cupboard still stocked tippex, secretaries used dictaphones and typewriters and the few computers in the office printed out sales reports on dot-matrix paper. Neither Google or Amazon yet existed and ebooks were still in the minds of science fiction writers rather than in the hands of readers.

So as I cleared out my desk drawers preparing for my imminent departure I experienced a huge nostalgia rush as I discovered a selection of past and present ereading devices that have accumulated there over the years. From humble beginnings (I remember the thrill of selling four copies of a particular title in a week in the 2001 launch of Penguin's first ebook list) to today's 'magical' devices which can incorporate video (video!) into ebooks, it's clear that we've come a long way in a short time.

There's still plenty to do before ebooks are the primary format for the distribution of books (and it is my personal belief that this will one day inevitably come to pass) - publishers need to demonstrate to consumers that digital files have value in themselves, device interoperability would be a good thing and we still need to work turning the slow juggernaut of book publishing into agile digital workflow. But the changes I've been involved in and seen at first hand over the past thirteen years (and particular during the last couple of years) convince me that publishers have the will to make digital publishing succeed and that the audience is there for the sort of digital content that we can commission and distribute.

Of course it's not just about ebooks - everything is different as the web has, for millions of people, become their primary form of information and entertainment. If in 1997 I'd been told that I'd be working on a wikinovel, or a data visualization of an autobiography or an alternate reality game or even on a blog read globally, I'd have thought that I was in a surreal dream. Yet these things have come to pass and a generation is growing up (my own children included) for whom these concepts are not particularly strange but part of the fabric of their everyday lives.

So I've been lucky enough to witness an industry in the midst of dramatic transformation and particularly lucky to be working at a company where change is seen as an opportunity as well as a challenge. Now I am going to carry on watching from outside the publishing industry and I can't wait to see where the flightless bird takes readers in the future.

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

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Comments

[Mark]

What a great blog post. I remember working for Pearson in 2001 being the first person in the UK selling SafariBooksOnline. No one gave much of a hoot then (fair enough, I didn't sell many licences) so it's pleasing that this year digital book delivery is all anyone is talking about.

Best of luck in your new job, I've enjoyed reading your tweets and blogs, even if I've never actually commented before. It's a bit late to start now I suppose.

[Dulcie]

Book lovers will ALWAYS favour books. Why crush a format so aesthetically desirable?

[Michael Adie]

I bought my first Kindle recently: thousands of books in a device the size of a paperback. Just as the ipod revolutionized the way I listen to and transport music, I have no doubt that the Kindle will replace my collection of paper-back books, though not hardbacks.
Penguin should launch its own version with a classic Penguin cover design and preloaded with Penguin Classics.