Is it possible to write a book in 24 hours?

Yes, according to Spread the Word, which has commissioned the Society of Young Publishers (see www.thesyp.org.uk/newsfull.php?id=372), Completely Novel and if:book to do just that.

The project starts on Saturday 3 October and the book will be edited, proofread and prepared for publication on Sunday, ready to go on sale on Monday 5 October.

How diverse is the English language?

I've always taken it for granted that English is one of the world's most diverse and expressive languages. But I've recently discovered that proving it is virtually impossible. This is not just because of the scale of the research that would be required, but also because, while counting the number of words is one thing, calculating their ability to express different ideas and concepts is quite another.

So it's apparently just possible that English is overrated in this respect. But I still love the way in which historical quirks of spelling, writing and usage have resulted in a richer language.

Take, for example, the way that many words beginning with gu, borrowed from French, came to be written with a 'w' in English. So, we have the word 'warranty'. And yet, we've retained 'guarantee' and even, in legal circles, 'guaranty'. One word, spelt in three different ways, has become three words, with three ever so slightly different meanings. Similarly, we have words from different sources, which have essentially the same meaning, running in parallel, before the meanings start to diverge ever so slightly (e.g. 'get' and 'obtain'). And it's that nuance of meaning – the abundance of not-quite-synonyms that really makes the language come alive. It also helps speakers of that language to understand different ideas (a concept is much easier to understand if you have a word for it in your own language!).

Now that English has effectively become an international language, it looks as though this process will continue for many years to come. I hope so.

Did everyone in my generation miss out on grammar teaching at school?

I learnt what verbs, adjectives and nouns were, and that was about it. I even remember one teacher being suitably outraged when he discovered the level of ignorance in the class ... but not quite outraged enough to do anything about it. And I know I’m not alone. Many of my contemporaries seem to have had the same (lack of) experience.

For me (and, it turns out, for quite a few of the people I’ve talked to about this), the saving grace was learning foreign languages. When I realised that my knowledge of French, Spanish and Latin grammar dwarfed my knowledge of English, I realised something was very wrong and decided to do something about it.

Should I have bothered, though? Does it really matter? So what if we can’t all conjugate our verbs correctly? If someone says ‘He done well’ instead of ‘He did well’, I still understand what that person means.

Well, from a purely mercenary point of view, it matters to the people who do get it badly wrong, because it will cost them. You may have been able to get good academic grades with poor English, but you’re unlikely to get very far in a job application.

But I think there’s something more fundamental at stake. The English-speaking world is huge. Imagine what would happen if we abandoned all attempts to control the language through education.

Some might argue that it would free the language to evolve in its own way, unfettered, and not held back by the fossilising effect of the classroom. But I believe we would soon be in a world where we would be unable to agree on a common meaning for even the commonest forms of words.

Education in general would become more difficult and law – which relies on unambiguous and clear language – would become almost impossible. Ultimately, the language would dissolve into a myriad of dialects, making it impossible to communicate with even our closest neighbours, or with different generations. Books would become unreadable within a few years of being written. For society to function at all, we would be forced to develop a common language – one with a clear set of rules and a well understood vocabulary. So maybe it’s not quite time to abandon the one we already have.

The real tragedy for those of us in the ‘missing link’ generation, though, is that things seem to be so much better in schools nowadays. Children are once again learning the basics of English grammar. Those of us who missed out had better make sure our own skills are up to scratch before we are upstaged by the next well-educated generation...

New book competition

I came across something called the People's Book Prize (www.peoplesbookprize.com) recently – a new literary competition that lets readers vote for their favourite titles. There are three categories (fiction, non-fiction and children's) and the winners are to be announced in July 2010.

Of course, in one sense, sales figures already tell us which books are most popular with readers.

But this competition does do something different in that it offers a slightly more level playing field. Plenty of independent publishers have registered their books, and publishers with huge marketing budgets will have no greater visibility than those with no budget at all.

Perhaps this will give the chance for talented, but perhaps less well-known, authors to shine through?

What will we leave behind?

Will we ever get to the stage where a truly great literary work is published only in electronic format?

If so, will it still be around in 200, 500 or 1,000 years?

I can’t help wondering if the rapid pace of technological change that defines our era also makes us incredibly short-sighted. I remember being taught how to use a word-processing program at school. I was told that it was very important to master it, that it was a crucial business skill, that it was the next big thing – everyone would be using it.

By the time I entered the job market, I’d forgotten everything I’d learnt about it.

But that was OK – it was obsolete anyway by then.

Of course, things will be a little different with published e-books, and I’m sure efforts will be made to transfer existing works to new formats as those new formats are developed. There is also work under way to ensure that work stored in obsolete formats will be accessible by current users (this looks like an interesting and worthy project: Keeping emulation environments portable or KEEP).

But this only goes so far. Because I think our high standard of living and sense of technological achievement belie the ephemeral nature of that achievement. There is no guarantee (especially with the environmental troubles facing future generations) that our civilisation will continue in the same form for the next 100 or 200 years, let alone the next 1,000.

So there may come a time when all that is left of this great technological age is what can be discerned from the archaeological record. And there is a chance that that won’t amount to very much. Even if hard drives, CD-ROMs and magnetic tape survive for generations, will future civilisations know what to do with them?

And if not, should we be keeping printed, written records of everything that is published electronically? Should we also be trying to ensure that those printed records are durable (something that, perhaps, goes against the grain at a time when we are supposed to be making everything biodegradable)? Of course, the trouble with that is that there is probably not enough paper in the world to do it. Someone could browse the web for a lifetime without coming close to reading all the content on it.

So it is inevitable that a huge part of the world’s repository of knowledge and literature is, by its very nature, transient.

This places a huge burden of responsibility upon publishers. They are the ones faced with the enormous task of sorting the wheat from the chaff (and you don’t have to browse the web for very long before realising that there is an awful lot of chaff out there!). And although their primary motivation is obviously to make money, we can also hope that they also have an eye on their place in history.

After all, it is possible that the work of the greatest writer who ever lived is languishing, undiscovered, on a web server somewhere, waiting to be given the permanent form of a printed book before it is lost forever…

The SYP's 60th anniversary celebrations

The Society of Young Publishers is getting very good indeed at running some spectacular events. The 60th anniversary party that took place last Thursday at Shakespeare's Globe was quite something. (And this is not self-congratulation – although I work on the SYP's website, I can take no credit for the organisation of this event, which is down to some fellow hard-working committee members.)

People with decades of experience in publishing rubbed shoulders with those who are just starting out (along with some of us who are somewhere in between), united by a passion for the industry. It was precisely what it should have been.

And this by no means the end of what the organisation has planned this year – whoever organises the 70th anniversary celebrations will have a lot to live up to!

The future of e-readers

E-readers – electronic devices that can store hundreds of books at a time – are beginning to make some inroads into the market for traditional paper books. And there is much to be said for something that gives you hundreds of books at your fingertips while weighing no more than an average paperback.

The trouble is, though, that most e-readers can't do much more. There is no colour and limited multimedia functionality.

And with publishers now starting to make content available via mobile phone, is this the future of the e-book? After all, why pay £200 or more for an e-reader, when you can get the same functionality on your phone … which you can also use to make calls, access the internet, send emails, etc, etc.

One answer is that e-readers typically have much more readable interfaces. A lot of time and money has been invested in creating screens that mimic ordinary paper as much as possible. The absence of screen flicker and projected light should make e-readers much easier on the eye than mobile phones or pocket PCs. There is also less screen glare, which make them usable outside even when it is sunny (and this is a frustrating thing about some modern mobile phones – I can't use mine at all in strong sunlight, in contrast to the first one I ever bought, more than ten years ago).

To me, e-readers as they are seem like an intermediate technology with a limited shelf-life. The interface is at the moment the only real advantage they have over other technologies and how long will it take mobile phone manufacturers to devise screens that will be equally easy to read?

Unless, that is, makers of e-readers can raise their game too. More multi-media features, full internet browsing capabilities, colour, perhaps – all without losing that easy-to-read screen? And what about flexible electronic paper – something that's been on the horizon for some time and is now becoming viable? People like the feel of real, paper books. An e-reader that seems more like a 'real' book will surely enjoy more success. And to really compete effectively [a split infinitive – I am obviously learning to be flexible!], e-readers are also bound to need the robustness of a paper book. Something that you can drop in the bath without it being a complete disaster. Or take with you to a sandy beach. Or drop on a concrete floor.

Even then, though, books are not just for reading. They can be conversation pieces and even status symbols. A full book shelf says a lot about its owner. What's more, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks it's easier to scan a bookshelf for a title than it is to look through a list of titles on an electronic device. Perhaps, then, one day we’ll see virtual 'bookshelves' – wall mounted displays showing off your books in all their glory – touch a title and it loads up in your e-reader…

Maybe. But it seems to me that we're just getting to grips with lots of converging technologies – e-readers, mobile phones, pocket PCs, etc. When the dust settles, whatever we end up with will probably seem perfectly natural and obvious when it arrives. But books in their current form have been around for hundreds of years and it's going to take a few collective leaps of imagination to catch up with the possibilities that current technology offers.