Last night, after an exhausting and exhilarating time spent editing a chapter and the graphics within it, I thought fleetingly of why people in this digital age would even bother writing or editing print books anymore. Do the editors have any idea how difficult it may be to engage in such work? Do they know how many work and non-work hours they'll put into coordinating with their contributors and the book publishers and all the others involved in this process?

Why are books even around at this point, with some 60,000 or so published from the US annually (and this is probably an old stat).

Aren't we all about ebooks now? Or chunked pieces of digital "books" distributed in various ways like mobile devices and e-text readers?

Short Memory

I think some academics benefit from purposively short memories. Almost all the academics I know have had some traumatic book writing experiences from years past. There have been failed book contracts or books that came out with dreaded misprints. Or collaborations that never came to fruition.

And then we forget. And opportunity seems to shine.

Signing away Rights

So a series of about a dozen documents came by email the other day. These files covered how to get releases for interviews for the chapter. Creating an index. Signing away all sorts of rights on a contract.

And then the kicker. For the days of vacation I took to write the chapter...and the high stress and work...I would get a byline and one copy of the book and 50% off as many as I would ever want to buy. The byline is just a label to put on the chapter. I don't need it for tenure as I'm in a staff position. I'd walked away from earned tenure already after years of working as a tenured faculty member. One free copy means that I have a dozen folks that I'll have to buy copies for.

So Why?

I'm still not sure why anyone pursues book publishing. Maybe it's that old ego thing, the cheap thrill of seeing a name in print. Maybe it's about connecting with colleagues. Maybe it's about the camaraderie of shared diligent work. Maybe there's something about having a tangible in hand.

I forget...