With the publishing world in turmoil over the future of paper books – real books to many of us – I started thinking about the first great revolution in publishing. The printing press brought book ownership to the masses, which is good. Literacy spread; also good. There was a down side, however. While the Bible was the first book printed by Gutenberg, cheap novels (in every sense of the word) and political attack pamphlets were the more popular products after that. Yes, even in the fifteenth century, trash paid the bills. I’ve read about the battles over censorship, intellectual freedom, and the balance between duty to society and duty to conscience. The principles resonate with me, but the costs were much higher. Printers as well as writers faced more than loss of income if they offended the wrong people. An angry monarch could order the books destroyed – and the writer, and the printer. Writers and publishers are still fighting battles over censorship, and freedom, and duty, but at least no one is coming after us with guns or burning torches. There is money to be won or lost; reviews from readers that border on cyberbullying; the challenge to actively promote yourself without turning into a non-stop infomercial. Beyond that, however, we only have to suffer as much as we want to. And isn’t that an amazing gift – to live through a publishing revolution without dodging bullets?