The Book UnboundDisruption and Disintermediation

in the Digital AgeAn AHRC Digital Transformations

Research Development ProjectAH/J01317X/1

Project Partners

University of StirlingPI: Professor Claire Squires

Co-Is: Dr Paula Morris& Dr Padmini Ray Murray

Project Assistants: Helen Lewis-McPhee, Louisa Preston & Aileen-

Elizabeth Taylor

External PartnersScott Russell Publishing Services

Electric Bookshop

www.bookunbound.stir.ac.uk@stirpublishing @clairesquires

@praymurray

The Book Unbound focused on how publishing is reacting to the advent

of digital technologies, and on the constantly changing relationships in

the book trade as it moves from print and paper to digital ink and

screen. Seismic shifts are resulting in

emergent business models that challenge the prevailing hierarchies

of cultural gatekeeping, as well as developing new modes of authorship, and reshaping

perceptions of the book as cultural artifact.

The traditional publishing value chain traces the trajectory of

intellectual property from author to reader, where publishing activities

such as editorial, marketing and design are all performed by the

publisher. Now, this process is being disrupted and

disintermediated at every stage.

Traditional to Digital Communications Circuit

We explored the impact of the digital age on publishing through

two modes of enquiry, both of which fed into a series of

infographics depicting changing models of publishing:

Case studies of And Other Stories, Blasted Heath,

Canongate TV, Faber Factory and Guardian Books, focusing on

business models created in response to technological

change.

Experimental enquiry via the research, development and

making of a digital publication (Borderlines) for the iPad, using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

Borderlines

OutputsElectric Bookshop

showcasePublishing Scotland

conference 2013The Bookseller

‘Forward Thinking: Indies Tackle Digital Straight On’

Book 2.0‘The Digital Publishing

Communications Circuit’Borderlines

the app

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

Taleist Survey: Not a Gold Rushhttp://blog.taleist.com/2012/05/24/report-self-publishing-survey/

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/what-the-new-penguin-random-house-logo-might-look-like/

http://www.andotherstories.org/about/11-commandments/

http://www.kobobooks.com/readinglife

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weq_sHxghcg