What is a book?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, "a book is a set of printed or written sheets bound at one edge with a cover." If you were to believe the above definition literally, then books are made of paper.

However, with the advancement of technology in recent years, now many books exist in digital form: floppy disks, CD- ROMs, DVD-ROMs, or simply as e-mail attachments. Many computer experts believe that these are among the first generation of electronic books. One day, these books may become highly sought collectibles, much as papyrus scrolls have become rare collectors' items today.

The electronic age has greatly simplified the speed and effort for publishing one's thoughts. Today, there are literally millions of web sites on the Net, and most are in written format. There are eye-catching homepages which may be filled with amateur writings, graphics and scanned images. One can even get lost in the forest of the web or become addicted to it.

The Net has been faulted with causing information overload. There are literally billions of electronic pages reachable beyond the boundaries of time and place. The logical consequence of this massive overload is locating reliable sources of information without eliminating the "fun" factor.

mong the most reliable sources on the Net are professional electronic book publishers. When you're tired of reading amateur products, try this one: Online Originals . Online Originals is a professional publishing house which publishes solely on the Internet, and aims to accommodate both authors' and readers' wishes.

The authors' works get published without high overhead costs and market-led criteria, while the readers benefit from access to high quality literary works, conveniently and at a low price.

Online Originals' founders -- David Gettman, a London based published author and professional editor and Christopher Macann, an English professor of philosophy teaching at Bordeaux University-- believe that the Internet will likely be the future of book-length publishing. "We had the time, resources, and expertise to make it work," David said during an on-line interview.

They came up with the idea when their experience as authors, in dealing with conventional publishers, was becoming increasingly unsatisfactory. They found that commissioning editors were completely ruled by the publishing firms' marketing people, who in turn were answerable to the firms' accountants. The consolidation of publishing houses through mergers and acquisitions has created immense pressure to generate high profits.

As a result, commissioning editors were known to reject works of very high quality simply because they were perceived as too difficult to market. Any of the following reasons might apply:
(1) the author was new and untried in the marketplace,
(2) the proposed genre was not selling well at the moment,
(3) the subject matter was specialized,
(4) the author's perspective ran against the mainstream accepted view,
(5) the style was too avant garde,
(6) the work was too hard to classify (and so too hard for bookshops to locate on their shelves),
(7) the perceived audience was in the thousands rather than the millions, or
(8) the author was trying to break away from their previously published style or subject matter.

As the internet grew in popularity, Chris and David saw that they could publish high quality works purely on the basis of literary or intellectual merit, without applying the restrictive guidelines often enforced by traditional publishing houses.

More flexible publishing guidelines have enabled Online Originals to showcase authors who are distinguished and talented professionals in the literary world: a British philosophy professor, a Scottish systems scientist, a French philosopher, an Irish professor, American writers and journalists, an American computer designer, English novelists and playwrights, and other European novelists.

The cost of producing a book on the Internet is limited to the time required for reviewing, editing and electronic formatting, and the minor costs of having web space and e-mail. In contrast, the highest cost in producing a printed book (around $30,000 for a new novel, for example) is the printing and distribution. With the Internet, no printing is needed, and distribution is fast and nearly cost-free. This enables the house to sell books £ 4, or $ 7 each.

Online Originals' humorous logo and web site design were designed by a London-based graphic designer --who is also now a web designer. His name is Doug Alexander and his company is called WebDirection (dalexander@webdirection.co.uk ). The founders of Online Originals found him through designers they already knew. Together with David, he manages the site, since it was set up in 1996.

Six weeks was all it took to plan and develop the site, but the founders spent much longer, about six months, preparing the initial content. The hardest part was convincing authors whose work were respected to put their latest work on the Internet rather than submit it to conventional publishers.

The web was very new in 1996, and it was difficult to explain what they were doing and why. Chris and David each put one of their own manuscripts on in order to show the authors that they were committed, and to demonstrate how it works.

Both founders spent a lot of time and energy on their new endeavor, because they knew that the direction the web was going was multimedia --and they wanted a site that depended on words rather than images for its impact and effectiveness.

So their directives to web designer Doug were to ensure maximum simplicity, fast downloading, high legibility of large amounts of text, and maximum accessibility. These factors were imperative, since the audience would be mainly non- technical people who might be using basic browsers, with no access to plug-ins.

So far they have spent several thousand dollars on capital equipment and software. Though this sounds like a lot of money, it is only a small fraction compared with establishing a traditional paper-based publishing house.

The other is a file format for reading the works on a 3Com Palm computer (PalmPilot or Palm III). These handheld devices are different from many palmtop computers in that they have no keyboard. Their tiny screens are touch-sensitive, and use a handwriting recognition system for data entry. This makes them easy to hold in one hand, and ideal for finding one's way around Online Originals' electronic works.

Readers just press the up or down button to change pages. To change chapters, just touch the screen. There are two sizes of type to choose. When switched off, the book is automatically bookmarked. A reader can even search the online book easily for any word or phrase, simply by writing the words on the screen.

Lastly, the PalmPilot screen is backlit--so you can read in bed without having a light on! Although it was not designed for reading books it is becoming a popular medium, since many people are not comfortable with reading long text while seated at their desks.

Online Originals promotes their site mainly via links with all the literary and book-related sites and indices on the Net, plus a lot of press relations. They have had rewarding press coverage and have never bought conventional media advertising. In addition to the above, they offer a special incentive bonus for frequent readers and recommenders to earn a 50% (yes, it is!) rebate on every purchase.

Anybody interested in their works can fill out the form on their site to become a rebate holder called a Book Agent. To make new electronic book readers comfortable with the concept of reading books online, Online Originals lets new subscribers order their first book for free.

In addition there is one free, pre-selected book offered every month. In time, readers will realize that reading electronic books is not only convenient, it is also less expensive than buying traditional paper books. Environmentalists happily support the electronic book industry, since acres of trees are now spared.

After a year-and-a-half in operation, Online Originals' daily stats are impressive: on average one new submission , hundreds of orders, and many thousands of visitors.

David and Chris had a vision to take their business to the Internet to help restore literary publishing to a higher standard; one based on quality-led, rather than market-led, criteria. David confirms that the best thing about having a web site is the opportunity to meet fascinating, cultured, clever people from all over the planet.

A highlight for this fledgling entity was an informal gathering or "literary salon" held September 24-27, 1998, at a neo-gothic château, about an hour from Bordeaux, France. This event represents the culmination of their months and years of hard work. "We are starting to create a real community of writers and readers with common values," asserts David.

Bravo Online Originals, a pioneer of future books today!

This article is written by Jennie Siat-Bevlyadi, a writer based in Indonesia. She has published 40 articles in English and Indonesia. She can be contacted by e-mail: jenniesb@hotmail.com .