Indian self-publishing platform companies like Pothi and Notion Press are doing great service to the nation through their very affordable book publication services
I now have two paperback books (both being associated, at least in part, with spirituality) which have been self-published using Pothi (pothi.com) in A5 size and will very soon have the same two books in 6 in. x 9 in. size, self-published using Notion Press (notionpress.com). I think that Pothi (pothi.com) and Notion Press (notionpress.com) are doing terrific work! Great service to society if you ask me, as these Print-On-Demand self-publishing platforms with a free Do-It-Yourself (DIY) option, provide a platform for writers and knowledge-sharers to very affordably provide a way for interested persons to buy printed copies of their writings/knowledge-sharings. I think that contributes significantly to more ideas and more knowledge being available to those who are interested.
The key point about Print-On-Demand is that the book author/self-publisher does not have to invest in ordering and storing hundreds of copies of his/her book, and also worry about selling those copies. With self-publishing platforms like Pothi and Notion Press, the author's book is put up on the web store of these companies, and users can directly buy the books from that web store. Additionally, sometimes for a fee, the books can also be sold on major Internet stores like amazon.in and flipkart.com.
Of course, some books may not be of interest and may vanish into oblivion over time. But that's how it is. Time is the great test of what ideas, what creative literature and what knowledge survives, perhaps with some modifications, over time.
Europe surged ahead of the rest of the world with inventions like Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in the 1430s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press#Gutenberg's_press. That made it possible for knowledge, creative literature, information etc. to be shared with literate people far more easily than earlier.
As far as I know, India (or rather various Indian kingdoms then) was mainly into palm leaves, copper plate and other metal plates, or stone inscriptions as a way to preserve and transmit knowledge/information other than verbal knowledge transmission processes, till the Europeans brought the printing press into India as they were trading with India and later as they colonized parts and later whole of India. The Chinese were into printing on cloth prior to the Europeans but I don't think India was into printing on cloth then, or at least not in a significant way.
To just show what an impact Gutenberg's press had on Europe and how it contributed to Europe's transformation as a powerhouse of knowledge and learning and science & technology ..., here's an extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press :
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink, and accelerated the process. Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.[1][2]
Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed, circa 1439, a printing system by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes, as well as making inventions of his own. Printing in East Asia had been prevalent since the Tang dynasty,[3][4] and in Europe, woodblock printing based on existing screw presses was common by the 14th century. Gutenberg's most important innovation was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, thus producing a movable type–based printing press system. His newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. Movable type had been hitherto unknown in Europe. In Europe, the two inventions, the hand mould and the printing press, together drastically reduced the cost of printing books and other documents, particularly in short print runs.
The printing press spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries.[5] By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes.[5] In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.[5] The operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing, and lent its name to a new medium of expression and communication, "the press".[6]
In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism, and accelerated by the development of European vernacular languages, to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.[7] In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on an industrial scale.[8]
...
[Wiki References:]
1. For example, in 1999, the A&E Network ranked Gutenberg no. 1 on their "People of the Millennium" countdown. In 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium Archived 10 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine; the same did four prominent US journalists in their 1998 resume 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking The Men and Women Who Shaped The Millennium Archived 3 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Johann Gutenberg entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia describes his invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era.
2. McLuhan 1962 [McLuhan, Marshall (1962), The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1st ed.), University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-0-8020-6041-9]; Eisenstein 1980 [Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. (1980), The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29955-8]; Febvre & Martin 1997 [Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1997), The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800, London: Verso, ISBN 978-1-85984-108-2]; Man 2002 [Man, John (2002), The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention that Changed the World, London: Headline Review, ISBN 978-0-7472-4504-9]
3. Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin; Joseph Needham (1985). Paper and Printing. Science and Civilisation in China. 5 part 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 158, 201.
4. Briggs, Asa and Burke, Peter (2002). A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet, Polity, Cambridge, pp.15–23, 61–73.
5. Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976): "The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800", London: New Left Books, quoted in: Anderson, Benedict: "Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo", Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 58f.
6. Weber 2006 [Weber, Johannes (2006), "Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe", German History, 24 (3): 387–412, doi:10.1191/0266355406gh380oa], p. 387:
At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage. The phenomenon of publishing was born.
7. Anderson, Benedict: Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo, Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 63–76
8. Gerhardt 1978 [Gerhardt, Claus W. (1978), "Besitzt Gutenbergs Erfindung heute noch einen Wert?", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch: 212–217], p. 217
--- end extract from wikipedia ---
Ravi: While I have not researched this in depth, I am quite sure that Gutenberg's printing press (inventions prior to it helped it to develop to that stage) and his hand mould invention, were absolutely vital inventions in bringing about the transformation of Europe into a powerhouse of knowledge, science & technology and so military power, thereby making Europe the dominant force in world affairs for a few centuries later on, till the end of World War II in the mid twentieth century. Asia which had been the dominant power prior to that got completely overwhelmed by European power!
Now Asia is re-emerging as a world power continent.
Knowledge and easy transmission of knowledge are absolutely vital necessities for a country to become a knowledge-power. I think self-publishing platforms like Pothi (pothi.com) and Notion Press (notionpress.com) are doing a great job in enabling knowledge to be shared easily via very affordable ways of self-publishing books using Print-On-Demand approach. That's a terrific contribution to the nation, IMHO. I am not saying this lightly. I mean it. I was a part of the Information Technology field in India whose work ***in the private sector*** especially from the 80s contributed significantly to making India a rising or re-emerging power in the world. So I am not just talking in the air :-).
All the best to folks at Pothi and Notion Press! Keep up the good work!
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
The key point about Print-On-Demand is that the book author/self-publisher does not have to invest in ordering and storing hundreds of copies of his/her book, and also worry about selling those copies. With self-publishing platforms like Pothi and Notion Press, the author's book is put up on the web store of these companies, and users can directly buy the books from that web store. Additionally, sometimes for a fee, the books can also be sold on major Internet stores like amazon.in and flipkart.com.
Of course, some books may not be of interest and may vanish into oblivion over time. But that's how it is. Time is the great test of what ideas, what creative literature and what knowledge survives, perhaps with some modifications, over time.
Europe surged ahead of the rest of the world with inventions like Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in the 1430s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press#Gutenberg's_press. That made it possible for knowledge, creative literature, information etc. to be shared with literate people far more easily than earlier.
As far as I know, India (or rather various Indian kingdoms then) was mainly into palm leaves, copper plate and other metal plates, or stone inscriptions as a way to preserve and transmit knowledge/information other than verbal knowledge transmission processes, till the Europeans brought the printing press into India as they were trading with India and later as they colonized parts and later whole of India. The Chinese were into printing on cloth prior to the Europeans but I don't think India was into printing on cloth then, or at least not in a significant way.
To just show what an impact Gutenberg's press had on Europe and how it contributed to Europe's transformation as a powerhouse of knowledge and learning and science & technology ..., here's an extract from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press :
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink, and accelerated the process. Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium.[1][2]
Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed, circa 1439, a printing system by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes, as well as making inventions of his own. Printing in East Asia had been prevalent since the Tang dynasty,[3][4] and in Europe, woodblock printing based on existing screw presses was common by the 14th century. Gutenberg's most important innovation was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, thus producing a movable type–based printing press system. His newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. Movable type had been hitherto unknown in Europe. In Europe, the two inventions, the hand mould and the printing press, together drastically reduced the cost of printing books and other documents, particularly in short print runs.
The printing press spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries.[5] By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes.[5] In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.[5] The operation of a press became synonymous with the enterprise of printing, and lent its name to a new medium of expression and communication, "the press".[6]
In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism, and accelerated by the development of European vernacular languages, to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.[7] In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on an industrial scale.[8]
...
[Wiki References:]
1. For example, in 1999, the A&E Network ranked Gutenberg no. 1 on their "People of the Millennium" countdown. In 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium Archived 10 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine; the same did four prominent US journalists in their 1998 resume 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking The Men and Women Who Shaped The Millennium Archived 3 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. The Johann Gutenberg entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia describes his invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era.
2. McLuhan 1962 [McLuhan, Marshall (1962), The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1st ed.), University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-0-8020-6041-9]; Eisenstein 1980 [Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. (1980), The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29955-8]; Febvre & Martin 1997 [Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1997), The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800, London: Verso, ISBN 978-1-85984-108-2]; Man 2002 [Man, John (2002), The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention that Changed the World, London: Headline Review, ISBN 978-0-7472-4504-9]
3. Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin; Joseph Needham (1985). Paper and Printing. Science and Civilisation in China. 5 part 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 158, 201.
4. Briggs, Asa and Burke, Peter (2002). A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet, Polity, Cambridge, pp.15–23, 61–73.
5. Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976): "The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800", London: New Left Books, quoted in: Anderson, Benedict: "Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo", Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 58f.
6. Weber 2006 [Weber, Johannes (2006), "Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe", German History, 24 (3): 387–412, doi:10.1191/0266355406gh380oa], p. 387:
At the same time, then, as the printing press in the physical, technological sense was invented, 'the press' in the extended sense of the word also entered the historical stage. The phenomenon of publishing was born.
7. Anderson, Benedict: Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo, Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico 1993, ISBN 978-968-16-3867-2, pp. 63–76
8. Gerhardt 1978 [Gerhardt, Claus W. (1978), "Besitzt Gutenbergs Erfindung heute noch einen Wert?", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch: 212–217], p. 217
--- end extract from wikipedia ---
Ravi: While I have not researched this in depth, I am quite sure that Gutenberg's printing press (inventions prior to it helped it to develop to that stage) and his hand mould invention, were absolutely vital inventions in bringing about the transformation of Europe into a powerhouse of knowledge, science & technology and so military power, thereby making Europe the dominant force in world affairs for a few centuries later on, till the end of World War II in the mid twentieth century. Asia which had been the dominant power prior to that got completely overwhelmed by European power!
Now Asia is re-emerging as a world power continent.
Knowledge and easy transmission of knowledge are absolutely vital necessities for a country to become a knowledge-power. I think self-publishing platforms like Pothi (pothi.com) and Notion Press (notionpress.com) are doing a great job in enabling knowledge to be shared easily via very affordable ways of self-publishing books using Print-On-Demand approach. That's a terrific contribution to the nation, IMHO. I am not saying this lightly. I mean it. I was a part of the Information Technology field in India whose work ***in the private sector*** especially from the 80s contributed significantly to making India a rising or re-emerging power in the world. So I am not just talking in the air :-).
All the best to folks at Pothi and Notion Press! Keep up the good work!
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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