My boss stopped at my desk the other day, set down his iPad and showed me a piece of the future.
The publishing business, much like plumbing, has evolved quite a bit over the last 100 years or so. Toilets weren’t yet in every house back then, and neither was the Internet. Information was primarily gathered from the local newspaper, which was typically delivered on foot, not via fiber optic cable or Wi-Fi connection. Today, even the newspapers aren’t relegated to paper. Websites and e-editions have become the bread – if not the butter – of the newspaper business, a business with “paper” right in its name.
Personally, I like old things, but you can’t let nostalgia block the way of progress. When the digital age came to photography I clung to film a little too long. The vinyl era was dead by the time I started buying music, but while I have an iPod and too many CDs to count, I still like to listen to vinyl on the vintage sound system I keep in my basement. It’s got a nice rich sound, and there’s something very tangible with a record that doesn’t exist with an mp3 file.
Print journalism is that way, too. I like spreading the paper out on the counter while I eat breakfast. I’m a lot more comfortable getting greasy fingerprints on a $.75 paper than a $750 tablet, but e-books, e-zines, online editions, the mobile web and even “traditional” websites are easily accessible, easy to read and provide infinitely more options. They are the present and future.
So, I read way more news online than in print now. I like all the extras: photo galleries, video, links, related stories, etc. I look at ways to make our print product work with our online presence, rather than as something that must be preserved in its original state in spite of the Internet’s grasp. I’m blogging, and yes, I have a twitter account.
Failing to embrace the technology, to me, seems pointless and counterproductive. You don’t use an outhouse because that’s the way your great-grandparents lived. You don’t bathe in a galvanized washtub on the back porch and you don’t carry buckets of water into the house from the hand pump outside. You have indoor plumbing because it’s easy, convenient and efficient.
The same can be said of digital media. The new e-books my boss just showed me are a testament to that. They are the future, or at least a piece of the future where publishing is concerned, providing a way to bundle tightly focused content and deliver it to the people who can benefit most from it. It gives us another way to reach readers, and it gives those readers an easy and convenient way to access useful information for future use.
New e-books featuring specialized content from Cleaner and Treatment Plant Operator (TPO) are available at www.cole-mart.com. Books from Pumper, Onsite Installer, Municipal Sewer & Water (MSW), Portable Restroom Operator (PRO) and Gas, Oil & Mining Contractor (GOMC) will be available soon. Eventually they’ll all be available at the Apple and Amazon stores as well.
It’s incredible how book publishing has gone from a years-long saga to a nearly instantaneous process. By embracing the technology we can move forward at a pace that would have been impossible even a decade ago, and the same can be true for your business if you stay on top of the latest technological advances in equipment and systems.
Do yourself and your business a favor: Get on board with technology. It will help you pave a better path to your future.
