I keep thinking of something that Ken Auletta, author of the new google book, said on NPR a few weeks back. (It’s been so long, I forget which show). When Auletta was preparing his book, Sergey Brin of Google came Razor-ing into an office and challenged Auletta just to publish his book on-line, free for everyone. No one buys books anymore, get it out there, he said. In his NPR appearance, Auletta dismissed this as so much childish fancy. Where would I get the advance to prepare my book? he said. How could I afford to do all this reporting? No: I must work with a conventional publisher. His book’s subtitle is The End of the World as We Know It, but Auletta sort of likes the world as we know it.
The exchange reminded me precisely of advice Craig Newmark of craigslist gave me years ago when I said there was something wrong with the economy when I was getting thousands of dollars from a magazine to write an article on antiwar forces in Washington, and bloggers were covering the same hearing for nothing. Newmark said, You don’t know why those bloggers are doing that. They may be investing in themselves, building their sites, etc.
He was a visionary, I was a conventional professional.
So I think Brin’s got a point, on a number of grounds. Auletta is privileged. His wife is a highly successful literary agent. I bet that he could have afforded to do his reporting out of his own pocket. And who knows what he might have achieved by publishing his book on-line. He would have made publishing history. He would have built the Auletta brand (instead of others’ brands). He would likely have sold his book commercially in any case. Something to think about.
