Writing in the digital age can be depressing. We hear of Google digitizing millions of books and millions of people self publishing and how books will be downloaded from sites all over creation and who will pay for these pirated books anymore? Serious writers making their living shiver. There seems to be no end to the leaking ship royalty and why should anyone bother when a twenty six year old can pop a bunch of troll novels online and make millions? Well that's not really why you write now is it?
No. Certainly there is a higher calling but making a buck is not to be trivialized. It comes in pretty handy down here bub as George Bailey said to his guardian angel and so worrying about the IPOD era of books is as silly as worrying about aging. You can not control either. But we should understand we are not in the Fitzgerald Perkins era of publishing anymore, if we ever were.
You could make a case that literary fiction might be circling the grave. Not that people don't appreciate literary fiction, but like grass being pushed out by weeds the mid list author is close to being moribund. There is just so much accessible fiction that the extra effort will not occur for many readers. And to that end the digitization of writing has had an effect. Ease of use is not be shrugged away.
Still, a good story is a good story and people will pay for a good story. We are humans. Humans want to understand their place in the world every day. We see ourselves in a story and it gives us comfort and takes us away for a little while. So yes the times are more trying with so much out there now, but talent does still rise to the top along with the cream. Maybe it just takes a little longer now to find that blade of grass in all those weeds.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will blast off July 26th
No. Certainly there is a higher calling but making a buck is not to be trivialized. It comes in pretty handy down here bub as George Bailey said to his guardian angel and so worrying about the IPOD era of books is as silly as worrying about aging. You can not control either. But we should understand we are not in the Fitzgerald Perkins era of publishing anymore, if we ever were.
You could make a case that literary fiction might be circling the grave. Not that people don't appreciate literary fiction, but like grass being pushed out by weeds the mid list author is close to being moribund. There is just so much accessible fiction that the extra effort will not occur for many readers. And to that end the digitization of writing has had an effect. Ease of use is not be shrugged away.
Still, a good story is a good story and people will pay for a good story. We are humans. Humans want to understand their place in the world every day. We see ourselves in a story and it gives us comfort and takes us away for a little while. So yes the times are more trying with so much out there now, but talent does still rise to the top along with the cream. Maybe it just takes a little longer now to find that blade of grass in all those weeds.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will blast off July 26th
