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By David Rothman

printisdeadbook3Print Is Dead, Jeff Gomez’s book, is on sale, and I recommend that you check it out, in either print or electronic format (Sony BBeB, Mobipocket, Adobe, but not, quite yet, the Kindle format). Now Jeff blogs some additional support for his conclusions:

“In hundreds of small ways print is already giving up the ghost…Picador UK is going to stop publishing hardback books, except in special limited editions. Instead, books will be published directly in paperback format.”

So how long until Picador books are e-first or e-only? I hope that paper editions will be available for a long time. But who can predict, or control, the future?

Earlier discussion of Jeff’s book: See my publishersweekly.com writeup based on several chapters. I have the proofs of the entire book, and they live up to the promise of the excerpts. My favorite material in PID is an anti-DRM quote from Steve Jobs, who calls for an end to format-related barrier so “any store can sell music which is playable on all players.” Exactly.

The above overlaps somewhat with the welcome assurance from Fritz Foy, a senior VP at Macmillan, Jeff’s former employer and the publisher of PID, assuring us that the company favors .epub and interoperable DRM and won’t diss independent e-bookstores. My preference, of course, like Jobs’, is no DRM. But I’m convinced Fritz’s heart is in the right place, and interoperable DRM is better than the current mess.

Related: More details on p-book formats from the Guardian Book Blog. Also see Joe Wikert’s interview with Jeff.

And a similar book, a copy of which is supposed to on the way to me: Sherman Young’s The Book Is Dead (Long Live the Book).

(Found via Peter Brantley.)

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