The Future Format of Books?

Tim Bulkeley has written a book. The title is Not Only a Father: Talk of God as Mother in the Bible and Christian Tradition. You can buy it in traditional printed book format if you are so inclined.

But he has also done some other interesting and perhaps radically innovative things with it.

He’s made it available online – in a format that not only allows but encourages comments to be left and conversations to take place in the margins of the book.

Is this the future of publishing – or at least, of scholarly publishing?

Posting our work online provides encouragement as we get an indication of how many people are reading our work. But this takes it to the next level, and lets the author “hear” what people think of the book or article, and even participate in their conversations about the book, regardless of whether they involve people on the other side of the planet.

Click through, take a look, and join in a conversation or start a new one. But please also come back here and let me know what you think of this format. Could this be the future of online publishing? If not, what do you think the future of online publishing looks like?