October 22, 2013 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harris School of Public Policy
1155 E. 60th St.
Room 289B
Garrett P. Kiely, Director of the University of Chicago Press
Starting with the introduction of the Rocket Ebook reader in 1998, book publishers have been obsessed with the emergence of digital books and the coming revolution in publishing. The only problem is that it turns out that we weren’t really sure what that meant and we certainly weren’t ready for it when it actually happened. In the space of just a few years the Kindle and iPad have become mainstream consumer products, we regularly read books on smartphones, and products like the Nook have experienced an entire lifecycle. Now is a good time to declare that the “e-book revolution” has come and gone and book publishing is finally in a post-digital world. What does this mean and how does a publisher like the University of Chicago Press see its way forward? This presentation will seek to answer these questions.
Garrett P. Kiely has been the Director of the University of Chicago Press since September 2007. The Press is the largest university press in the US, annually publishing over 300 titles and 60 scholarly journals. Today, over 2,000 Press books and all journals are available in digital form. In addition, the Press offers print and digital distribution services to over other 100 publishers.