History Repeating
We opened Vook to our first group of beta users today. We trained the early adopters in online sessions, fielded questions, and handed over accounts.
The first eBooks produced independently with the new Vook are now rolling off the digital press!
It’s a big moment for the company — and it’s got us looking back on our precursors.
The first typographic printed books — produced with Gutenberg’s moveable type press — were called incanabula; which means, ‘the first infancy of printing.’
But even with the form in its infancy, those early publishers produced some 15 million volumes before 1500. People were more concerned with the plague than content commidification in the 16th century, but it’s evidence: Human beings are going to publish as many titles as they possibly can if they have a way to do it easily.
Ebooks are the publishing medium of our time. And they’re in their incanabula. Our titles, with customized images, styled formating, and audio and video enhancements, are the modern equivalent of medieval woodcut illustrations.
Whether it’s the 16th century or today, people want to make distinct, powerful looking titles. They wanted styled books.
If he was transported to our time, a Gutenberg foreman might mistake Vook for sorcery. But once we started discussing typography, ledding and image manipulation, he’d understand that however much the world changes, people will always want to make better books.
It’s a grand tradition — everyone using Vook to produce great digital books is now a part of it.
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