What if the Internet is like Disco?

What if the Internet wears off and like the fad of disco it just becomes historical like roller skates or  the tech bubble or the real estate bubble or like the Charleston and Raccoon Coats were to the twenties? What if we happened to live through a fad brought about by a tech change overblown by the powers that be and the Internet turns out not to be life changing but a colossal waste of time for a bunch of people who thought social media and dot.com companies were the answer. And it just passed into another weird twist of American obsession with something new. Like Pet Rocks.

Kidding some. Yeah. But Facebook is not what it used to be and there is that nagging question of who really makes money on the Internet. And yeah people do but most people don't. Most people spend a lot of time blogging and typing and linking and tweeting and emailing and chatting and it might, it might just be a colossal wast of time and have very little impact on the quality of your life. What if it turned out to be like television. Something that just eats hours and gives you nothing back?

There is that suspicion. Every unreturned email. Every tweet that means nothing. Every blog that falls on no one. And that theory that x amount of hits equal x amount of sales. Yeah. Right. Nobody knows. There is perceived value (see instagram) and there is real value. No doubt it is the biggest home shopping network in the world. No doubt it is the biggest yellow pages in the world. But these utilitarian functions pale to the life changing fodder pumped out by the Internet itself. People living in a cyber world that is really a phantom that means nothing.

Is there anything more disingenuous than friending someone on Facebook? Not even the status of an acquaintance, a digital friend is a ghost that has no physicality. Most people are lucky to have two or three real friends and they are more than a million online "friends." If you don't know the difference then you might be in danger of being victim to the latest fad...the last great days of disco.
www.billhazelgrove.com

The Mid-List

Writers don't like to talk about the Mid-list. Mostly it is only know to writers agents publishers. But it is a graveyard of writers who exist in the shadowy world of great reviews, awards, accolades up the wazoo, but poor sales. The last one is the kicker that puts you into the Mid list. You can have the awards and reviews and all the gravy that goes with it but if you sell then you opt out of Mid-list land. Think of it as genteel poverty. You have a great family history dating back to Jefferson and Washington but grandad invested in a flying machine, the wrong flying machine it turns out and bankrupted the family. Welcome to the Mid-list, high on pedigree low on buckos.

Used to be the Mid-list was a respectable altitude to fly in. You could set your course and publishers would nudge you along as you navigated the vagaries of laudatory reviews, blurbs by respected authors, awards upon awards and the sales that started out small but were expected to grow with every book. Think of Charlie Browns Christmas tree that you want to grow into a big strapping Frazier Fir. No pun intended. So everyone was willing to wait for this very respectable career arc. Then published imploded.

Suddenly all those Mid-list planes began to sputter and spiral to earth. There just isn't enough oxygen anymore for all those authors buzzing around with good books but lousy sales. So they began to crash and burn and there were no more planes to follow. Like the Middle-Class the Mid-list is becoming extinct.  Like the Middle-Class publishing is becoming incredibly sectored between mega sellers and small literary authors who shoulder saying something that matters and starving. The Mid-list authors are becoming extinct.

Economics washes out most things sooner or later and the buying public might just not read reviews anymore. Think of the competition. No don't think of it you are doing it right now. You are reading this on your computer your phone your IPAD. You are not looking for that next great book reviewed by the New York Times. You are buying that book that popped up in one of your twitters, YouTube, Facebook, eBay or maybe you just wanted to read the book after seeing the movie. This is not economics as much as technology.

So the Mid-list authors that were fairly obscure before are now invisible. Publishing is adjusting as fast as it can to this new paradyme and I suspect authors will adjust or get used to the new altitude. Of course I believe that a great story will still upset this very smug applecart I just created. Mid-list Bottom-list, Top-list...if you write it they will come.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man should blast off soon