Today is World Book Day and we are using this occasion to celebrate books in all their shapes and sizes. Contrary to predictions that the internet will erase our love and need for print, book publishing is on the rise pretty much everywhere around the world.

The FT Weekend ran an uplifting piece recently about Self Publish, Be Happy, the online platform for self-published artists’ books. The London-based initiative with a focus on photography books has been a huge success since it was set up five years ago with some of the more rare books fetching up to £400.

Digital technology has helped with the design and production of print, and social media is an excellent source for promotion and selling directly to the customer thus saving a great deal of cost for self-publishers.

It also allows for a certain amount of artistic freedom – and for some of us who have had to deal with book publishers, they tend to stick to a more conservative, tried-and-tested, possibly dated model.

We have a dedicated design bookshop on DT where we source and sell specialist books. Sadly, megastores like Amazon have hijacked this market – who can compete with their slashing prices and in a way we would not want to show a lack of respect for the work and passion that goes into publishing books by following the Amazon model.

For printed books to succeed, they need to be more special, more beautiful, more intelligent, more precious – and independent thinking.

Which brings me to our next venture – promoting select books from self-publishers. The subject will need to be in-line with what we do here, so topics on design, critical theory and creativity are all welcome.

We are keen to hear from you, so please contact me at Nargess@me.com.

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