Sony Readers also showing up at Hachette—for manuscript-screening

By David Rothman

S&S isn’t the only big house using Sony Readers these days. Hundreds are in the hands of editors and others at the Hachette Book Group, the home of best-sellers such as 7th Heaven.

Some thirty manuscripts lurk within the Reader that a Hachette publisher named Jonathan Karp is toting. "People are evangelical about it," New York Magazine quotes him. “If you’re traveling, this is so much easier than lugging around manuscripts. It’s good for reading in bed, too.” Not to mention the ease of backing up E, compared to Xeroxing and the like.

Only e-manuscripts from agents, please

Rather understandably, then, agents must now send e-manuscripts, rather than paper, to Grand Central and other Hachette imprints. Last I knew, the E-only requirement wasn’t in place at S&S

Does the above mean that writers can e-mail manuscripts to Hachette and other big houses directly? In most cases not. Still, maybe this will telegraph a little message to the more old-fashioned of the literary agents—that they should start accepting full manuscripts in E rather than messing with "partials" on paper. Can you always tell the nature of books by their first 50 pages? I know. Agents are in a hurry, and most of what they get is the slush, from start to end; but it would be  nice for full manuscripts to be there in case they did want to keep on reading.

Hachette also an .epub leader

Meanwhile congratulations to Hachette, which is saving a pile of money in Xeroxing, just as it also is trimming costs through the use of the IDPF‘s .epub standard as its sole distribution format. May the same commonsense reach retailers and Sony itself. Sony’s proprietary BBeB format and the other eBabelers are no small contributors to the e-book industry’s costs!

As noted at the Tools of Change Conference, Hachette is producing E versions of all titles—something so much easier when you don’t have to worry about propping up the Tower of eBabel.

Jug of wine, a p-manuscript, and thee?

Which isn’t to say that Hachette has lost some charming, old-fashioned ways. The New York article concludes with a revealing quote from Neil Young, the house’s digital media director. The Sony Readers cannot be used for editing, and besides, notes Young, "“Some of the more senior editors like sitting on their couches with a glass of red wine and pencil in hand." OK, just remember that editing is like driving. Might someone from the Association of Author Representatives show up at Hachette one day and demand blood-alcohol tests? And what about editors and cellphones? Oh, the perils between a manuscript and literary greatness!

Of greater relevance to e-books and slightly more seriously, isn’t fondness for couches one more argument for Apple going ahead with a possible tablet that the New York Times and a lot of other people are dreaming about? It could be used not just for reading but also for editing (with handwriting recognition) and writing (with a USB keyboard and stand to prop it up).

Apple and the better parts of the publishing industry share something in common: a love of aesthetics. If the Apple tablet happens, I suspect that publishing folks will be among its biggest boosters.

(Via Media Bistro.)