The paperless book

Leaving hardcovers and paperbacks behind, an Internet publisher experiments with downloadable literature.

By Tamsin Todd

Jul 31, 1998 | Online book publishing won't work: That's been the consensus among publishers and readers ever since widespread Web access made Internet books a real possibility. For commercial publishers, the idea of publishing a book without putting it through the marketing machine -- jacket blurbs, sexy covers, in-store displays -- is ludicrous. No one, they assume, would ever buy a book directly over the Internet. And many readers share this skepticism, arguing a book has a certain feel, a certain smell -- you can't crack the binding of a virtual book or snuggle up with it in bed.

"The idea of reading a novel by Dickens from a screen is mad!" Literary Review editor and writer Auberon Waugh recently complained. So it's no wonder that the growing visibility of Online Originals, an Internet book publisher, is causing a stir in publishing and literary circles.

Online Originals has a list of 32 fiction and nonfiction titles. Customers browse sample chapters on the company's Web site, then place orders by e-mail. The books are e-mailed to the reader as digital files. Each book costs four pounds sterling, or about U.S. $7, of which the author receives half as royalties. The company is based in London and Bordeaux and publishes books in English and French. Its authors are evenly split between Europe and America -- but it has attracted readers worldwide, with book orders coming in from 130 countries. To date, orders average several hundred per title -- though many of these orders are for a free book the publisher gives away each month.

Just how seriously should we take this company? On its home page, Online Originals is careful to present itself as a serious venture. "Welcome to Online Originals, a publishing company that operates solely on the Internet," new visitors are informed. "Online Originals are chosen for their intellectual or literary merit, as well as their originality." Many of the books are written by established writers with strong academic credentials, although none of them are household names.

Still, without reading the books, it's hard not to suspect that these are books that don't meet the standards of conventional publishing houses. Is Online Originals a vanity press for rejected authors? Or does it present -- as co-founder and managing editor David Gettman argues -- a serious alternative to conventional publishing? If so, is Online Originals the kind of publisher we'll see more of in the future?

Certainly, the literary world is taking notice of Online Originals. Last September, three of the publisher's novels received positive reviews in the Times Literary Supplement. "The firm's recent front-line fiction titles compare in literary quality with those of orthodox publishers and are strikingly diverse in style," wrote veteran TLS critic John Sutherland. This May, the management committee of the Booker Prize -- Britain's most prestigious literary award -- controversially agreed to consider one of those novels, "The Angels of Russia," by Patricia le Roy. It's the first time a novel published on the Internet has been accepted by the committee, which allows conventional publishers to enter two novels each.

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