# A new world of publishing beckons



## Divus

I believe we writers should take into consideration the significant changes which are occurring in the world of literature. The electronic book is going to take much of the traditional book market for a number of reasons,: cost and ease of access being but two of them. It will not always be necessary to delivery physically a book to a book seller. 

I can envisage book shops having a book printing machine down in the basement in the same way that a super market often has a digital film processor in a corner of the store. Of course many readers will already have down loaded direct off the internet the book of choice onto an i-Pad or similar device. Books of fiction take up too much space on book shelves. 

The existing publishing industry is going to resist this change but in the long run they cannot hold back the march of progress. The capability of being able to incorporate videos into an electronic book will hasten the demise of the hard back. Paper is by its very nature environmentally unfriendly.

My guess is that one day the readers will be connecting their I-Pads into TV monitors.
What still remains the problem is getting the book before the eyes of the prospective e reader who must agree to pay for the pleasure of reading. But that is where the likes of Google and Yahoo come into the world of publishing. Amazon is already investing heavily in electronic book technology. Amazon has become the biggest outlet for books and you’ll not find an Amazon bookstore in your local shopping centre. The book store will steadily become a niche market place for second hand books and traditionalists who can‘t or won't master a computer.

The creative writer is the one component of any book which cannot be short circuited. Although at the moment it is the part of the book publishing process which is being squeezed, with some new writers even feeling it is necessary for themselves to fund the launch of a first book. Hence the birth of the vanity press.

However genre - the niche in the market - is always going to be the elusive hoard of gold. For some subjects there will always be a space to fill for example science fiction, sex, crime & fantasy. Someone will make a fortune selling an electronic book embedded with sexually explicit videos.

For me it is all too late. Even if I made a serious attempt to penetrate the market with writings I already know to have appeal, I shall be too old. Personally I would once have tried to tap into the genre which Anna Sewell opened up and if I wanted a second string to my bow, I’d re-brand Lassie as a Staffordshire Bull terrier. At the same time I would continue to work on my Alien Quadrapods who could bridge the sci-fi to fantasy divide.

Microsoft believes that increasingly data will be stored up in the ether. I personally believe that both the town centre book store and the local library including all the newspapers are going to be stored in the sky too. 

But for the amateur writer the question remains - how does one break into this new world?      The secret must lie in both understanding how the market works and finding the genre of literature which the author can best write.

Then you have to become part of the team which can put together these new ideas and also the system to collect the customer's cash.


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## The Backward OX

Excuse me for being a thicko - I was always a slow learner - but what does finding one's genre have to do with entering this brave new world?


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## The Backward OX

And what is to become of the notion that a visitor can gain an insight into his/her host's character by a quick visual scan of the host's bookshelves? Does this brave new world mean we all become vapid and featureless?


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## Linton Robinson

The modern equivalent to the "my identity is my bookshelf" thing (and just as capable of being rigged to give false impressions) are the "bookshelves" on websites like goodreads, etc, which display what one is reading or has downloaded.


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## Divus

Gentlemen I never said we had to like this new electronic world of the ether, I merely said that it was coming. So we have to learn how to manipulate it.

I always read try to read the titles of the books on a stranger's book shelves, as and when they will let me into the house.    What disturbs me is that all too often there are no bookshelves.

It is all very similar to sitting down and allowing oneself to be fed - on one side there is the warm glow for having been invited to eat at the table but then there is the necessity to eat the food. Rarely am I allowed to take the dog with me.

As for the wine, even if I take it with me, they often give me something else to drink.


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