Comments on: Aspiring Writers & eBooks https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/ the neverending reference interview of life Wed, 29 Jul 2015 03:04:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Andy https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4775 Sun, 05 Jun 2011 15:32:31 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4775 I say higher caliber because there seems to be no problem defining the lower tier (aka awful) writers; it’s that other natural end of that spectrum. No, I don’t think it will only be higher caliber writers who are the only ones who will get paid/noticed/read. As you point out yourself, it is a matter of having writers take on their own promotion; with a new market, it’s a matter of learning new skills.

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By: Helen W. Mallon https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4770 Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:09:42 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4770 Maybe this is a little…oversensitive…but will it be only “higher caliber” WRITERS who are paid/noticed/read? With increased opportunities comes increased competition, and savvy online marketer/writers are the most likely to prevail. As far as I know, those very valuable promotion skills don’t have a lot to do with writing ability. There’s a story about Herman Melville travelling some distance to petition Abraham Lincoln about a job, but falling into awed silence at the moment of meeting–never mentioning why he’d made the trip.

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By: Eric https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4769 Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:24:36 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4769 I think that eBooks are giving new authors unprecedented opportunity. I mean, Amanda Hocking is the poster child for this, making like a few million dollars on sales of teen paranormal romance novels via Kindle at 99 cents a pop. It’s unreal.

But I think that the massive writing revolution began before eBooks. Blogs opened up platforms for public writing where before we had only print journalism. The hot new things is freelance writing and publishing via independent apps. There was a great conversation on the BoingBoing Gweek podcast where they talked with Joel Johnson from Kotaku about the iPad “app” “The Final Hours of Portal 2.” It’s basically a long form article, kind of what you used to find in magazines like Rolling Stone or The Atlantic.

Anything that gives people more of an opportunity to write, share that writing, and receive feedback is an opportunity that they didn’t have before. So, yeah, I think it will increase writing, and hopefully encourage better, more advanced writing.

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By: kimboosan https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4763 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:12:55 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4763 I think that’s already happening in a lot of genre markets; epublishers are basically flooding the market to see what sticks. On one hand, it’s allowing a lot of writers who never had a chance before to get published; on the other, it’s putting some terrible books out there.

As for the legacy publishing system, they stopped focusing on developing talent in-house over a decade ago; the push has been to find the next best seller, not create a stable of writers with dependable sales. It’s why decent writers with good books can’t get contracts renewed: if their second book did not sell more than their first, then they are simply dumped.

One aspect that will serve as a way to separate wheat from chaff is that now, because publishers are mostly sitting back to see who sells before they commit to them, writers are having to bear the bulk of marketing themselves. Some writers hate that, and I don’t blame them, but it certainly takes those who aren’t serious about writing out of the pool.

Whatever else that can be said or prognosticated, it is certainly an era of change. *sigh*

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By: Andy https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4747 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:43:30 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4747 I’m wary of the term “get paid what they deserve”. I’m not denying that they should get paid, but it is a matter of what the market values. Higher caliber writers can demand higher prices as people will pay for quality; mid-list can fiddle with prices that work; and as for the rest, it’s a scramble.

It will be a time of fine tuning as people have preconceived notions about the eBook market and what they will pay for value and what they may look to pirate.

Personally, to answer your question, I think it will be an easier time as people are able to feel like they can connect with the author through their websites and social media. It will create a bond that marketing can’t; it’s a matter of figuring out how these people break through and what works and what doesn’t.

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By: Andy https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4746 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:36:20 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4746 The filter is the market, really. It buys, it shares, it knows. The lesser filter is DRM in that it can create barriers to content. If an eBook is too much hassle to download or read, then it’s not going to get widely circulated.

I’m wondering if it will turn the literary pyramid into more of a literary speed bump; yes there will be more authors at the top, but a fatter midlist and an even larger bottom.

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By: Kim https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4734 Tue, 31 May 2011 16:28:50 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4734 This is an interesting point to consider but I wonder if authors are even less likely to get paid what they deserve for what they produce. With the rise of so many instant, free or very inexpensive, sources and changes in the way books are made, how does an author make money? And if it is more difficult to make a living at your craft, then will there be even fewer writers (or fewer works) because they can’t quit their day jobs?

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By: librarianry https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4732 Tue, 31 May 2011 14:08:38 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4732 Greater number of writers? Absolutely. Greater number of good/competent writers? I suppose so. Greater number of not-so-good writers? Oh dear God yes.

I think that though self publishing will increase something will happen to help filter out what should actually be published. What that filter is, other than lack of sales of each individual author, I do not know.

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By: Helen W. Mallon https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4730 Tue, 31 May 2011 10:04:43 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4730 I believe that the ebook revolution will produce many more published writers. A product that’s cheaper to produce than it used to be tends to survive. As with any market pool, there will be a huge layer of sludge at the bottom (consider YouTube as a subset of the video industry). Ultimately, market forces (driven to an extent by the intelligence of readers) will determine who the bottom feeders will be and who will swim in the sun.

From the standpoint of an (as yet) little-published author, the ubiquity of ebooks is both encouraging and discouraging. There’s sooooo much crap being produced. You don’t want to be embarrassed by the competition that’s beating you out! At the same time, it’s a promising outlet. A short story of mine that’s available from an epublisher has an indefinite shelf life. The others languish on shelves, unread.

I found Libraryscene’s comment about ebooks’ affect on writing style very interesting. Yeah–writing is becoming ‘more cryptic, less elegant.’ So much for my well-polished sentences!

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By: Andy https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4728 Tue, 31 May 2011 05:00:55 +0000 http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/aspiring-writers-ebooks/#comment-4728 As to your last point, I’d guess that the movie industry is bigger than it was before; people can make their own films (think Clerks, Blair Witch, and Paranormal Activity) which can then find mainstream audiences. The reduction of cost of video technology and editing software has made it so that it is more readily accessible. Does that turn every person into a Spielberg or Attenborough? No, but I would say that it increases the potential for those people to emerge if they are given the chance to explore their curiosity.

I left out the PL in this because I wanted to address it from the market viewpoint. As much as I love to relate it back to libraries (and I do a lot on here), I just wanted to leave it as an aside for now.

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