Mechanical man

To what extent does technology drive the publishing industry now? As the Harvard psychologist, Frederic Skinner, put it, “the real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” Charlie Chaplin had warned us in Modern Times about robots that act almost like men or people who act almost like robots. Hence the question that is often asked in publishing houses — how much technology do we need and how much can we manage on our own?

Look at the present state of affairs. Of the four main divisions in publishing houses — production, editorial, marketing and sales, and accounting — the first three are almost wholly computer-driven. Design and layout, finalization of the print copy, even proofreading through spelling and grammar checks are done through computers; marketing and distribution plans for every segment of the market are fine-tuned in computers before being handed over to field representatives; sales records, debtors’ lists, royalty statements, and a whole range of accounting activities are almost fully computerized.

Editorial functions such as fact-checking or tightening the copy are still handled by desk editors but it helps if they can use the computer. In any case, since most typescripts are now submitted on CDs, it is essential that desk editors know the basic computer functions.

Many Indian publishers have embraced the computer as the solution to all publishing problems without realizing that it is better to know some of the questions than all the answers. The problem today is not that we don’t have the information but that we have too much of it. This information needs to be sorted out, but this can only be done if we ask the right questions. In other words, the human element can’t be ignored.

Production processes have become easier and quicker with computer-aided designs but the book designer still has to make a selection to serve the needs of a book. This requires a thorough understanding of the software being used, and that can come only from knowledge of the traditional production techniques. Old techniques haven’t become irrelevant with the arrival of computers; the basic foundations of design and layout and their relevance for a particular book for which they have been planned are still very much the same as before. If anything, the human factor has assumed greater importance because of the competition that multiple computer-designs have thrown up.

Unfortunately, many Indian publishers have resorted to spell-checks as a substitute for proofreading. This is a grave mistake, since spell-checks don’t discriminate between the various meanings of a word or make sense of a sentence. This accounts for the numerous proofing errors and bloomers in our books.

The editorial department, which has been described as the ‘brain’ of a publishing house, can never be subordinate to a machine because its basic function is to discriminate between sense and nonsense. If a great deal of today’s literature makes little sense, you can put it down to the computer taking command.