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More info on the Softserv Concept (paperless books
*****
*** WELCOME TO SoftServ® ***
SoftServ Publishing Services, Inc.
"Literature for the Third Millennium"
*****************************************************************
"The SoftServ Concept"
SoftServ Publishing Services, Inc., has founded the exciting
new Paperless Book industry. The types of Works that, until
now, have been published only as bound books-- novels, self-help
books, biographies, textbooks, reference works, etc.-- are being
stored as electronic text and delivered to personal computers.
Hundreds of new and out-of-print works, many not available
anywhere else, are being made available on SoftServ. Once on your
computer, you're able to desktop publish a copy of the work
for your own use, or scan through it onscreen, or listen to it
with a voice synthesizer, or take it to the beach in a handheld
electronic "reader."
*****************************************************************
WHAT IS A SOFTSERV PAPERLESS BOOK?
A SoftServ Paperless Book is an authorized electronic
edition of a book, designed to be read on screen or printed out
using virtually any computer or computer peripheral. When opened
up, all SoftServ Paperless Books are ASCII plaintext, usually 65
to 70 characters per line, and no formatting other than a hard
C/R at the end of each line. By making unformatted versions of
paperless books available, SoftServ leaves the reader able to
format the book before print-out to their personal comfort, or
read it on-screen without being distracted by non-compatible
formatting.
But as a practical matter, "off-the-shelf" SoftServ
Paperless Books are only available from SoftServ in versions
which can be opened up on the most common personal computers,
though SoftServ can create special paperless book files to be
used on certain other computers for a small extra charge.
****************************************************************
THE SOFTSERV MANIFESTO
or
Why I started this crazy business in the first place
by J. Neil Schulman
I started SoftServ knowing that I didn't need to create a
new physical distribution; it already exists. There are around
40 million PC's (most with printers) in US homes today. Around
a third of them have modems. The overlap between literacy and
computer literacy is substantial in the right direction: that is,
most people smart enough to have learned how to use a computer
were smart enough to have learned how to read first.
All that was left was to set up the distribution licenses
and marketing ... then get past the habits that cause people to
view readables that come to them via their computer as in some
sense inferior.
This comes down to a primary question: Is the substantial
\value\ of the thing being read in the text or in the packaging?
I thought it would be obvious that the value is in the text
itself, no matter how it gets to you. I am constantly surprised
to find this point being challenged by people who are supposed to
understand what it is authors do.
Sure, books are pretty and smell nice. They look and smell
so nice that interior decorators regularly order books by the
yard to fill out bookshelves in rooms they are decorating.
As an author, I am insulted by this view of books. Books
are packages. They are packages for an author's thoughts,
feelings, blood, sweat, toil, and tears. They have been, until
computers, printers, and modems came along, the most economical
way to get an author's work to a reader.
But, as I have pointed out before, before cars came along,
horses had been regarded for two millennia as the most economical
way to get from one place to another . . . and when it came to
the idiotic idea of a "horseless carriage," you had to be a clown
not to know what everybody else knew: that the value of the
horseless carriage came from the \horse\.
I do not believe that the value of a book comes from the
package. I think it comes from what's \inside\ the book.
\The Odyssey\, read onscreen, is still \The Odyssey\.
\Hamlet\ printed out by your Epson, will allow quite as good
a production as the copy you get from Samuel French's bookstore.
And the Cliff Notes you might someday get at 3AM some Sunday
morning before a test -- by modem from a 24 hour bbs -- might
very well be the difference between passing a final or not.
Sure, right now there are still conveniences printed books
can offer that paperless books can't. These advantages are
shortlived. We are today in precisely the same position that TV
was in 1948, compared to movie theaters. The theaters had all
the big name stars, and big screens, and Technicolor. TV was
black and white, had a 9-inch screen in a box that took up half
your living room, and could only bring to you something that
could be transmitted live -- videotape wasn't economic to use
yet.
Well, we all know what an utter failure TV turned out to be,
don't we?
As soon as the price of a convenient electronic reader
becomes low enough that everyone who now owns a portable CD
player can own a handheld reader, the market will change,
forever.
Meanwhile, as slow as it is taking to convince people that
what an author writes is in the words, not in the package --
that you can't, in fact, judge a book by its cover anymore -- we
footsoldiers of the electronic revolution will continue to play
Uncle Miltie until the rest of the world catches up to us.
****************************************************************
SOFTSERV'S STANDARD ARCHIVE: ZIP FILES
SoftServ's standard paperless book is an archive of ZIP
files, compressed and archived with the MS-DOS program PKZIP, and
able to be uncompressed and unarchived using UnZIP programs on a
number of different types of computer. A ZIP archive is a way of
taking a number of files and making one file out of them, and
storing the files so they take up less space. This not only
saves space on your hard or floppy disks, but since the files are
smaller, they take less time to transfer via modem. You can tell
a ZIP file because the filename has "ZIP" as the extension, like
the following: FILENAME.ZIP.
MS-DOS (IBM compatible) Users: you need a copy of the
shareware program PKUNZIP.EXE to unZIP SoftServ Paperless Book
files. If you do not have a copy, you may download it from
the SoftServ Paperless Bookstore File Area D, at no charge. The
latest version of PKUNZIP is included in the archive PKZ110.EXE,
a self-extracting archive containing both the PKZIP and PKUNZIP
programs.
Macintosh Users: you need a copy of the program UZ102B.ARC,
available from File Area D, at no charge.
Commodore Amiga Users: you will need a copy of the program
UNZIP.ZIP or PKAZIP_1.01, either one available from File Area D,
at no charge. Our Amiga expert around here, Sean Barrett,
recommends UNZIP.ZIP.
Atari ST Users: you will need a copy of the program ST_UNZIP.ARC,
available from File Area D, at no charge. You will also need an UnArc
utility to open the ST_UNZIP.ARC file, which we do not have a copy of.
Apple ][gs Users: you will need a copy of the program
UNZIP2_0.BXY, available from File Area D, at no charge.
There may be additional unZIP utilities for other computers
available; we suggest you check with either a bbs specializing in
support for your computer, or with PKWARE itself, at PKWARE, Inc.,
7545 N. Port Washington Road, Glendale, WI 53217-3422 /
Tel. 414-352-3670 (Voice); 414-352-7176 (BBS), or 414-352-3815 (FAX).
HOW CAN YOU GET SOFTSERV PAPERLESS BOOKS?
SoftServ Paperless Books may be downloaded either from the
SoftServ Paperless Bookstore, SoftServ's own 24-hour bbs or from
Library 9 of the WRITERS INK RoundTable on GEnie. The Paperless
Book archives which are publicly available for download contain a
SoftServ Sampler -- an openly readable sample of the book -- and
a locked file containing the entire book. The software to unlock
the file is included, but it works only on MS-DOS computers, and
requires buying a password from SoftServ. If after reading the
Sampler, MS-DOS Users want to read the complete book, they can
mail a check for the price of the book to SoftServ and we will
tell them the password.
Unlocked versions of SoftServ Paperless Books may be ordered
to be mailed to you on diskette, on either MS-DOS diskettes
(5-1/4", either 360K or 1.2 Meg; or 3-1/2", either 720K or 1.4
meg); Macintosh diskettes (either 400K or 800K), or on 5-1/4"
CP/M diskettes (specify exact computer brand and model when
ordering) for $3.00 added to the catalog price of a paperless
book.
Finally, unlocked versions of all SoftServ Paperless Books
are available for downloading from the SoftServ Paperless
Bookstore to Members of the SoftServ Paperless Book Club.
Information on joining is included in the file JOINCLUB.TXT, or
in the SoftServ Category of the WRITERS.INK RT on GEnie.
ALTERNATIVE ARCHIVING AVAILABLE
For delivery by either mail or club member downloading from
the SoftServ Paperless Bookstore, we will archive a paperless
book in an alternative format -- ARC, LHarc, or PAK -- for a
$1.00 extra charge per title.
WHAT PAPERLESS BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FROM SOFTSERV?
An up-to-date copy of the latest SoftServ Catalog, and
additional information about SoftServ, may be obtained by
sending a 3-1/2" or 5-1/4" diskette and a self-addressed,
stamped diskette mailer to SoftServ at P.O. Box 94, Long Beach,
CA 90801. Please be sure to tell us whether the diskette is for
an MS-DOS computer, a Macintosh, or a CP/M computer -- and if it
is a CP/M computer, precisely what make and model it is.
Copies of the Catalog are also available in the SoftServ
areas in the WRITERS INK RT on GEnie and, of course, downloadable
from the SoftServ Paperless Bookstore.
We look forward to seeing you on line!
J. Neil Schulman, President
SoftServ Publishing Services, Inc.
SOFTSERV PUBLISHING SERVICES, INC.
P.O. Box 94
Long Beach, CA 90801-0094
Modem: (213) 827-3160 24 hours
Voice: (213) 827-7259 M-F 10AM - 6PM Pacific Time
Fax: (213) 827-7259 (Touchtone 23 after answer to connect manual fax)
GEnie Address: SOFTSERV
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