Publish or Perish:
A McLuddite Gets Caught in the Net

I've always loved gadgets and toys with bells and whistles. Pinball machines were the coolest thing when I was a kid. After marriage and children, we got an Atari "for the kids." My wife became addicted to Pac Man. I tried to learn "Basic" programming language and spent hours trying to input program for games. They'd never work... Undaunted, I marched along with time as computers were made increasingly "user-friendly." I eventually caught on. It was about this time that my transformation from McLuhanite to McLuddite began.

I started musing about word processing and how electronic words on a computer screen seemed so much more ethereal and insubstantial than typed or written words on paper. True, word processing was incredibly faster and more efficient than either typing or writing by hand. It revolutionized office work and the nature of writing itself. Look at the terminology: writing on paper = hard copy; writing on a computer screen = soft copy. Language itself, is intrinsically "soft", a fact recognized by college publishers who lump languages, arts, social sciences and humanities in to "the soft side", while, computer science, engineering business, etc. are categorized as "the hard side."

Once words are on paper and especially if they are published in a bound book, they take on a life of their own. Electronic words, by contrast, last only as long as someone doesn't hit "delete." In the digital age, words and for that matter images and sounds too, are no longer permanent, or sacred or true. Is it live or is it Memorex? Can't tell no more.

And while I'm at it, how come all these "time saving" devices have resulted in less time, more stress? In fact, the more time we save, the less we have. So what does all this have to do with ESL publishing? Well, publishers are now calling themselves media companies. Textbooks are history say some pundits. The theory goes that when all schools are wired, students will get their education from interactive CD's or from the Internet. In the meantime, students still have to use books, so why not sell them online? Publishers can cut out pesky bookstores, expensive sales reps and managers. Students can just go online, find what they want, and pay directly. This brave new world has not yet come to pass, though believe me, the bean counters can't wait. What has happened, is those far-sighted entrepreneurs such as amazon.com have proven that trade books can be sold successfully on the web. Stick around, textbooks will be next. You read it here.

Textbook publishers have been very erratic with their web sites. They all have one, but what they do with it is something else. Some sell, some sample and others only promote. I checked out the ESL publishing sites and what did I find? A couple of cutting edge, exciting, and innovative sites, a couple of real dogs, and the rest of the shlubs are somewhere in the middle. The better sites have bought into the philosophy of the web to form a new kind of interactive, personal relationship with the profession (teachers and students), while others are strictly one-way streets that treat customers pretty much as used car salesmen treat their "prospects."