Today I read an article about the future of the brick and mortar book store and even though the self-publishing boon may be calming down to some degree, the dreams that I had of seeing a row of my books on the shelves of Barnes & Noble or another store like that may be long gone.
The fact is that more and more people are reading things digitally. As a point of fact, I have yet to send anything printed to my agent who always requests my projects sent to her so that she can read them on the go — on her phone. I send them to her in epub format which is easily read on an iPhone or other such device. I myself have not read a print book in some time and I’m a shade over 40. As much as I read (and since I live so far from a book store or library) it is much easier to hop on my Kindle and download a book for .99 cents or even less than ten bucks (the price range of most e-books).
The article in question, “The Future of Reading and Writing: Book Experts Weigh In” by The Washington Post was published today and leads us through the opinions of novelists, agents, publishers, book reviewers, indie publishers, and several others. It is a very good cross section of the industry and gives us a very good look at what people are thinking about the issue of e-publishing and what it is doing to all of us.
In light of this article, it is worth mentioning that even if you haven’t landed an agent or published traditionally, there are still several options out there for writers like myself to get noticed or to build a following. What it takes today is the internet acumen to follow through with the dream. I may never see a row of my books in a book store, but I already have a row of them online. What will single us out from the pack of tripe being written by every Tom, Dick and Harry who fancies themselves as a novelist is quality, care, and most importantly hard work.
Related articles
- How To Get Your Self Published Book On Bookstore Shelves (selfpublishingmadeeasy.wordpress.com)
- Merging book stores & ebooks (thewavingcat.com)
Writing Is Hard Work 