Nick Cave and The Wire cast team up for e-book launchesReport by Arts Correspondent Edd McCracken
Canongate, one of Scotland's leading publishers, has teamed up with singer Nick Cave and the cast of the cult TV show, The Wire, to change how we read books. In the future, they will come with a volume control.
The Edinburgh-based publisher has revealed plans to digitise its entire back catalogue, making its 450 titles available as downloadable e-books by the end of the year. And in a similar style to films coming with extra features when released on DVD, Canongate plans add-ons for anyone who buys an e-book.
For example, for Cave's first novel in 20 years, The Death Of Bunny Munro, the singer is composing a special soundtrack. He will also read the book, unabridged. It will be published physically and digitally in the autumn.
The e-book version of Homicide by David Simon will feature interviews with Simon and cast members from The Wire, the TV show the author also created. Canongate promises that this is only the beginning.
"We're doing some really cool stuff that will turn some heads and break ground in the area of e-books," said Jamie Byng, the managing director. "We are using the medium, not just replicating content. That's where the real opportunities lie."
In line with shifting resources towards e-books, Canongate is to appoint a head of digital publishing. All new Canongate books will be released as e-books.
It is also working with the Scottish Arts Council to make all its Canongate Classics collection, including Alasdair Gray's Lanark, and Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, available as e-books.
In 2006 academics criticised the publisher for allowing poor-selling titles to go out of print. The digital revolution will make that concept redundant, according to Byng.
"The classics is a list that we love, but it became problematic when some books were only selling a hundred copies a year," he said. "The economics of print publishing don't make that viable. But what we are going to be able to do with e-books is have the entire list available. It is an exciting thing for Scottish literature."
Launched in September, the Sony Reader is the only portable e-book reader available in the UK. Smaller than a hardback, it stores 160 e-books and the battery will power 6800 continuous page turns.
After Christmas, when Sony Readers appeared in many people's stockings, Canongate saw a 400% rise in downloads. Byng admits the numbers are still "peanuts" compared to printed book sales (680 e-books sold at last count), but he urged other publishers to take e-books seriously, for fear the internet hits the business as it did the music industry.
"It would be foolish not to take seriously both the opportunities and the changes that are going on in publishing and the ways people are going to read books and digest content," he said. "It's sobering as a publisher when you look at how they screwed up in the music industry. The consequences are still being felt in that area. You have your head in the sand if you are not recognising there are fundamental things going on."
Publishing Scotland, which represents the country's 67 publishers, said while it is encouraging the embrace of new digital technologies, the majority of its members are taking a "wait and see" approach.
Chief executive Marion Sinclair said it will be more of an issue in coming years. At the end of last year Publishing Scotland appointed a board member solely to keep members updated on e-books and digital publishing.
She said: "Young people are so used to getting their entertainment via a screen, so it will be completely natural and desirable for them to move to screen-based technology when it comes to reading. It is the way that some of the market is going. But I don't think print will disappear for the next 50 or 100 years."
