Dreck, defined as trash or rubbish, has become a buzz word in publishing to denote what some agent or publisher thinks is a bad manuscript/project.

Well, examining the history of traditional publishing proves their track record on what is dreck or not is pretty dismal...at best, a 50% success rate. REALLY hit and miss. Just read all the horror stories of past great writers (such as Faulkner and Hemingway) who were turned down multiple times before their masterpiece was finally published! The writers' persistence was commendable and was probably one of the most powerful influences in traditional publishing's success.

Liz Gannes of GigaOM has written a great analysis of the current problems in publishing and technology's impact as discussed by experts from the tech, business and creative sides of the publishing industry:

Do Problems in the Publishing Industry Have a Technical Solution?

While paper books are still the norm, e-books now account for up to 20 percent of book sales in categories like romance and sci-fi. The shift in publishing isn’t just about going digital on the iPad or Kindle instead of killing trees; authors now have the options of self-publishing e-books on Smashwords, posting research materials on Scribd, connecting to readers on Facebook and Twitter, and transforming the experience of a book with the web and multimedia through Vook. Experts from the tech, business and creative sides of the publishing industry gathered today for a broad discussion of disintermediationas part of our GigaOM Pro Bunker Series (video and analysis available to subscribers).

Two key conflicts between attendees were apparent to this watcher, one on the platform side and one on marketing. In our first session on the technical platforms for digital publishing, our own GigaOM Pro head Mike Wolf queried panelists from Adobe, Vook and Scribd on the future of an ePub standard, and whether it might wither on the vine considering the fast and splintered pace of e-book adoption. Scribd SVP Business Development Rob Macdonald replied that his company is betting on HTML5, which (eventually) should be universally compatible across browsers and, as such, will offer accessibility from nearly any web-enabled device.

Audience member Peter Brantley of the Internet Archive, who sits on the board of the International Digital Publishing Forum, urged participants that the IDPF is well aware of the pace of the industry, and said an ePub 3.0 release candidate will be ready next year.

Read more http://alturl.com/wi3hk