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Innovation (创新)

An Open Book 开卷有益

详细资料: 创建于 2009年12月18日; 最后更新于 2024年5月25日; 发布于 2012年7月03日; 作者：Mike Lee; 点击数：265

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（译注：open book原指令人一目了然、或毫无秘密可言的人或事物，但由于本课主题是书，因此book也有字面上「书」的双关意。）

The Kindle is not the only way technology is changing – and saving? – book publishing 先进科技正改变──甚至可说是拯救了──图书出版产业，而科技所运用的改变利器不仅是燃烧电子阅读器而已（译注：指除了电子阅读器之外，还有许多其他科技新发明都改变了出版业的面貌）

The virtual book clubber 虚拟爱书俱乐部

Josh Hug, 30, cofounded Shelfari, a social-networking site devoted to generating conversations and recommendations around books. Amazon acquired the bibliophilic company in the summer of 2008.

三十岁的乔许．哈格与人共同创办了Shelfari社交网站（译注：shelfari结合了shelf〔书架〕和safari〔冒险之旅〕），专供爱书人进行与书相关的交流和建议。该图书网站在二００八年夏季被亚马逊公司收购。

“Our mission is to improve the reading experience. Short of sitting next to a reader with a warm cup of coffee, the most powerful way to do that is to add a social component. What are other readers of this book thinking? Even as innovations like the Kindle change how people read, reading tends to be solitary. But we can add things around it that are powerful.”

「我们的使命是进一步改善人们阅读的经验。除了真的手里拿杯温咖啡，坐在另一位读书人旁边之外（译注：short of指「除了…没有做之外」），让阅读添加社交的元素，也是能有效改善阅读经验的最佳途径；比方说，可以让读者知道别人在读这本书时，心里都有哪些感想。即使现在有像燃烧电子阅读器这类新发明问世，而改变了人们阅读的方式，但阅读行为本身，仍倾向于是一个人单独进行的活动。不过，我们仍旧能在阅读的经验中，添加一些更强有力的元素。」

The new storytellers 全新的说书人

John Yoo, 39, David Levithan, 36, and Rachel Griffiths, 33, created the children’s series The 39 Clues, which weaves its story through 10 books, an online game and trading cards. The first three books sold more than 2.5 million copies, and DreamWorks bought the movie rights.

三十九岁的约翰．裕、三十六岁的戴维．里维森和三十三岁的瑞雪．葛里菲斯共同创造了《三十九条线索》童书系列，透过十本书、在线游戏和收藏卡（译注：或译收集卡、交换卡）编织出一套故事。他们出的头三本书，就狂销了超过两百五十万册，而梦工厂电影公司更是买下了该书的电影版权。

Levithan: “From the beginning, we knew the story would encompass books, a website and cards. It was minutely choreographed that we’d reveal 10 clues in print and 29 online.”

里维森指出：「我们打从一开始的构思就是，这套故事将会包含出书、成立网站和发行收藏卡。我们精心安排在纸本书里揭露十条线索，而网站上则揭露二十九条线索。」

Kids don’t make a distinction between loving the book version of this story or the online game. The perceived gap between readers and gamers is just not that big.

他进一步指出：「小朋友对于自己对这套故事的纸本版或在线游戏版的喜爱，其实并不会加以区分。读者和在线游戏者这两种身分之间的差距，感觉起来其实并没有那么大。」

Yoo: “A new book rolls out every three months, and we try to create a similar pacing with the online game, so there’s a constant desire and need to return to uncover more clues. In the first six months, we had more than 300,000 registered users, and on average, kids came back 3.2 times each week.”

裕则表示：「我们每三个月就会推出一本新书，也试着让在线游戏也依照相同步调推出，好让读者持续渴望想揭开更多线索。我们在头六个月就吸引了超过三十万名注册用户，而孩子们平均每周上我们网站的次数是三点二次。」

Levithan: “This structure isn’t going to supplant traditional publishing, but it’s going to broaden it. There are things you can do in a multidimensional format that you just can’t do on 200 printed pieces of paper.”

里维森指出：「这种结构并不会取代传统出版业，只会扩大出版的范畴。有些能透过多维形式办到的事，根本就无法凭着二百页印出来的纸（译注：指传统纸本出版品：书）办到。

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Kindle [ˋkɪnd!] n. 名为燃烧的电子阅读器 an e-book device that provides wireless connectivity to Amazon for e-book downloads: it holds more than 200 books, blogs and newspapers and includes a built-in dictionary

clubber [ˋklʌbɚ] n. 俱乐部会员

bibliophilic [bɪblɪəˋfɪlɪk] adj. 爱书者的, 藏书家的 of or relating to bibliophiles; relating to someone who loves and collects books

bibliophile [ˋbɪblɪə͵faɪl] n. 爱书者, 藏书家

short of 除...外

minutely [maɪˈnutlɪ] adv. 仔细地；周密地 with attention to small details

roll out (launch) 推出; 开展 to launch (a new film, product, etc.) in a series of stages over an area, each stage involving an increased number of outlets

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The format buster 纸本书克星（译注：buster指破坏者）

Steve Haber, 48, developed the Sony Reader, an electronic reading device. The third-generation Reader (complete with touch screen, and highlighting and notation features) tripled its sales last holiday season.

四十八岁的史帝夫．哈柏是新力电子阅读器的研发者，这款第三代阅读器（包含了触碰式屏幕，以及重点标示和加注释等功能）在上个岁末年初期间，销售数字暴增了三倍（译注：holiday season此指感恩节、圣诞节一直到次年新年等连续重大节日的这段期间）。

“E-book readers will largely dominate the industry, and it could happen in less than 10 years. Every time I give a Reader to someone to test, I never get it back. It’s just like when TiVo or digital cameras came out. At first, people didn’t know they needed it. But once they have it, they can’t live without it.”

「未来电子书的读者将成为出版界的主力读者群，而且不到十年内就会实现。每次我把电子阅读器送给别人以便进行测试，最后总是拿不回来。这就和Tivo（译注：智能型电视节目导航器兼数字录放机）或数字相机刚问世的时候一样，起初大家都不知道自己需要这些装置，但一旦用过之后，就再也无法没有它们了。」

“When we introduced our Reader, the biggest resistance I heard was, ‘I like the smell of books, and I like the smell of paper. I can’t go digital.’ That was the confirmation for me that this change will happen. If the smell of paper is the biggest push back, then we’re good to go.”

「当初我们推出电子阅读器时，我们听到的最严重的排斥说辞就是：『我喜欢书闻起来的味道，也喜欢纸张闻起来的味道，根本就不可能改看电子书。』但在我看来，这种说法反倒证明改变必将发生，因为如果我们遭遇的最大阻力只是纸张闻起来的味道的话，那么一切就已准备就绪，可以放心推出上市了。」

The do-it-yourselfer 出书也能DIY

Eileen Gittins, 54, runs Blurb, a profitable print-on-demand startup that sold $30 million worth of books last year.

五十四岁的艾琳．吉登斯经营一家名为部洛伯的营利性随需打印（译注：简称POD，或译随选打印，亦即应顾客需求而打印成纸本的客制化打印）新创公司，去年出版书籍的营收达到三千万美元。

“People are producers now, not just consumers. They have mountains of digital content – images, recipes and poetry from wikis, blogs and Flickr – that [they] want to share, and you can’t gift a website.”

「如今人们不只是消费者，也是生产者。他们拥有堆积如山的数字内容想和别人分享──也就是分散出现在维基网站、部落格和Flickr（译注：免费的数码相片分享平台）上的内容，包括了影像、食谱和诗等──可是网站又不能当作礼物来送人（译注：指民众希望自己发布在部落格或其他网站上的创作集结成册当礼物送人，所以诉诸POD的客制化方式印制成书）。」

“I realized e-commerce should meet desktop publishing and print-on-demand technology. Once we could limit the options down to a manageable number, we could get massive scale out of the operation. We’re able to make money off of a print run of just one book, we were profitable in our second year, and our numbers are up 25 percent in 2009, without advertising. Our business spreads naturally by word of mouth. Moving from the digital world to print as everything else moves in the other direction may seem contrarian. But people want physically, especially as more and more of our lives are lived virtually.”

「因此我灵机一动，发现电子商务应该和桌面版及随需打印科技结合。一旦我们能够把选项缩小到可掌控的数字范围内后，就能在营运中大规模印制。光是一本书的单次印刷量，就能从中获利，我们第二年就有赚钱了，而且不靠广告营销，我们的营业额在二００九年就上扬了百分之二十五。我们的业务是靠口耳相传的方式营销。虽然在一切都迈向数字之际，我们从数字领域转回纸本印刷，看似反其道而行；不过，其实人们很希望能接触到实体，尤其是当大家的生活愈来愈走向虚拟化之际，更是如此。」

－by Kate Rockwood

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