When websites turn to print
Article by Dan Eldridge
Resonance, 11/01/2000
With the dot-com world in disarray--at least according to the New York Stock Exchange--web sites the world over have been forced to change the way they work. Hundreds have done the seemingly sensible thing, filing Chapter 11 and washing their hands of the whole messy business. But others, like the crafty online magazines profiled in this month's Browser, have approached their problem from a decidedly backwards perspective: they've turned to old-school publishing houses to change their electronic words into real books and magazines--things that can be touched and held and sold at the newsstand. Sure, it's the ultimate online irony, but is it one worth paying attention to?
Few online ventures have entered the publishing scene with as much vigor as Nerve.com, a sex-positive site for the thinking person. In 1998, Nerve gave birth to Literate Smut, a classy collection of essays and stories which, like the ones in their second title, Full Frontal Fiction, had already been published online. Next up was The New Nude, a coffee table picture-book for fetishists. Their latest project is the strangest one yet: a print version of their (free) website that sells for a cool $5.95. Presumptuous? Maybe. But at least they've got the balls to try!
Word.com, one of the web's most under-appreciated sites, has recently jumped on the publishing bandwagon with Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the End of the Millennium. Based on a long-running online column, Gig includes absolutely captivating interviews with such intriguing folks as a heavy metal roadie, a pretzel vender, and, yes, a transvestite prostitute. Not only is Gig one of the most fascinating non-fiction books of the year, it's also the only dot-com crossover title to appear in hardcover.
Another extension of a long-running, online project, The Slate Diaries are based on the assumption that the rich and famous are more interesting people than you and me. The concept? Slate invites writers, artists and the ultra-cool to keep a written journal for one week, which is then published online. The paperback version includes Douglas Coupland waxing poetic about his book tour, Ira Glass rambling on about his visit to the Letterman show, even Bill Gates giving his thoughts on fame. It's inarguably a fantastic idea--getting fabulous people to reveal their inner monologue--but why do we need to hold a copy of it in our hands? At least the Slate accounting department is up to task: Thousands of smart people have now been successfully bilked out of their hard-earned $14.00. Plus tax.
Just Curious, Jeeves, a reference book culled from the archives of AskJeeves.com, claims to offer its readers the answers to the "1001 Most Intriguing Questions Ever Asked on the Internet." A bit of a loaded promise, to be sure, but Just Curious manages to pull it off by adding humor to their more often stiff, factual-heavy formula. Those who shell out $16.50 for the collection, for instance, will discover what a decent dogsled might set you back (about $500), how many T-shirts the average person owns (25), and that yes, you can actually die from laughing. Necessity aside, the book's originality earns it a spot in that top tier of new media manuals: those that have actually used their heads.
New media champions Salon.com have already published four titles, every one of them an undisputed winner. The most recent, Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance, is a chunky collection of the best travel writing you're likely to see anywhere these days, on or off the net. Salon's "Mother's Who Think" section, whose online version is filled with essays about the modern woman and her changing place in the world, has already yielded two books of its own. And then there's The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors, a gigantic brick of a book that's really a cleverly illustrated reference guide filled with brief bios of modern day wordsmiths such as Rick Moody, Tobias Wolff and Paul Auster. Sure, most of this stuff has already seen the light of day online, but the sheer quality of these essays speak for themselves. Sometimes, these writers and memoirists and essayists seem to be saying, permanence is a good thing.
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