Where is publishing going? That was the question at this year's Book Expo America.
As usual, there was no answer.
Will it be all ebooks and Kindles? Perhaps. But then again, there are many people like me who want to hold the actual book in their hands. They want to be able to skim ahead with the ease of turning pages. Their eyes favor printed paper over an electronic screen. They find beauty in a stack of hard bound books piled on the bedside table, as compared to a white tablet-sized box. They enjoy the scrape of sand grains under their fingers as they read at the beach, without having to worry about frying a very expensive device that isn't built for rough terrain.
Take your Kindle on a camping trip? At least with a book, it never needs recharging.
Novelist Richard Russo stated that everyone is waiting for the next big thing, to adapt perhaps rather than become extinct, but no one knows what that next big thing is.
Tina Brown, who cast her lot in with the blogosphere, believes that social networking is the next big thing. Twittering, Facebooking, et al. is the future of book promotion. Every author needs a website, a Twitter account, a blog, a Facebook page, a MySpace page, and don't forget to fit in time to write the next novel.
I'm with Carol Fitzgerald on this one. She noted that everyone's obsessing over formats and Kindles and the like, and forgetting one important component. It's time to focus on the author and the book. That's what's important to publishing.
2 comments:
How easy it is to get sidetracked these days and forget why we're here!
In browsing - scanning, really - blogs and Twitters, I'm constantly amazed at how many writers are not writing, but talking about it, and - a lot of the time - talking about unrelated things. It's not surprising that so many have problems increasing their word counts...
If you're a writer, WRITE! Otherwise face the fact that you're not really into it.
When I sit down at five in the morning to write, it's a struggle to focus. Sure there's the newspapers, the blogs, what's new on Twitter, and more than enough things to fill ninety minutes.
What I've also noticed is that if I don't put words on paper (my rough drafts are done in long hand) I'm a miserable sot for the rest of the day.
That's it, exactly. If you believe you're a writer, you'd better be writing. It's a solitary habit, no social network required.
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