My book, Technology in American Drama, will be published shortly. I have no intention of flogging it endlessly on my blog, but as I was doing some final (I hope) paperwork and checking the page my publisher devoted to the book, I spotted the “printer friendly book flyer” link. When you click it, the browser opens up a new window, with a pop-up informing me that, in order for the flyer to print properly, I’ll have to go to my browser’s “Page Setup,” change all four margins, and delete all headers.

This is “printer friendly”? It’s certainly not user friendly. Re-design the darn flyer, guys. Making users jump through hoops isn’t good for sales.

And.. uh, yeah, I know my book is ridiculously expensive, but libraries are spending so much on databases nowadays that there’s little money left to purchase academic monographs. (See McGann, “Literary Scholarship in the Digital Future“.) Fewer sales mean smaller print runs, which mean higher prices, which means fewer sales.”Printer Friendly Book Flyer” Isn’t.DGJ)