K. Marvin Bruce

I recently had a glimpse of a publisher’s handbook to authors.  This was a handbook for academic books.  Not that I ever personally have had use for one, but anyway, curiosity drives feline morbidity.  A great deal of the handbook deals with ebooks. This got me to thinking—since publishers are so beholden to electronic publication, the use of technology is now driving how authors write.  We are being limited by our own devices.  Consider: any books should now be readable via internet, Kindle, Nook, iBook, iPhone, Android, you get the picture.  Many of these platforms have their own programming requirements. I never ran into the word “chunky” in academics before.  To me, chunky is an adjective appropriate to ice cream or peanut butter, not units of text.  I was, of course, wrong. Chunky text is text that keeps information in small blocks.  It allows for skimming, not taking the time to absorb content.  As someone who has written seven books (none published), I know that sho