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June 3, 2009
How the Web and the Weblog have changed Writing
Phillip Greenspun: Publishing from Gutenberg (1455) through 1990- The pre-1990 commercial publishing world supported two lengths of manuscript:
the five-page magazine article, serving as filler among the ads - the book, with a minimum of 200 pages
Suppose that an idea merited 20 pages, no more and no less? A handful of long-copy magazines, such as the old New Yorker would print 20-page essays, but an author who wished his or her work to be distributed would generally be forced to cut it down to a meaningless 5-page magazine piece or add 180 pages of filler until it reached the minimum size to fit into the book distribution system.
Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 3, 2009 4:55 AM
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