Sue Knott's Blog: Knott The Screaming Type - Posts Tagged "publishers"
The Power In Your Hands
Are you aware that the world of books is changing, perhaps more than at any time since the introduction of the Guttenberg press? Do you know that you, as a reader/book lover are being called upon to play new, hugely important role in this change?
Traditional publishing is dying, or, at the very least, rapidly morphing into something altogether different than it's been--and no one is sure what it will end up changing into.
Today, the digital democratization of publishing is allowing hundreds of thousands of additional titles to be available to readers each year. Egad! Thought it was hard to pick a book 5 years ago? Now your choices are multiplying at exponential rates.
Not only are more NEW books available, more OLD books are becoming available. Titles that no one could afford to keep in print are becoming easy to keep available as digital downloads. It's going to take publishers (dinosaurs who move at the pace of rock) quite some time to make many of the older books available digitally. But, every new book that comes out digitally is now going to hang around rather than finding itself out of print and forgotten.
This is both good and bad news for readers. It's good news because we will have so much more to choose from. So many amazing books have gone unpublished over the decades. Elitist editors can no longer dictate what books we have access to. Long digital shelf lives will allow niche gems to be discovered. Books will no longer need to occupy the stifling confines of existing genre limitations.
The difficult part is where you, the reader come in. Readers are now needed to sort the literary wheat from the chaff. Your ratings and reviews are crucial to helping other readers discover the good and not waste time on the bad. Your blogs, conversations, tweets, etc. will make the difference between a book flourishing or failing. YOU are the gatekeeper that publishers once were.
I have no doubt that books are in far better hands now with readers in control. A savvy analysis of reviews can usually tell me if I'm going to love or hate a book. I know my travel experience has improved ten times over since tripadvisor.com gained hold. Now, sites like goodreads.com and the reviews on store sites are doing the same for my reading experience.
Don't take you new reader responsibilities lightly! Post your reviews. If you love a book, rave. If you hate it, rant. If you're wishy washy, say "eh." If we don't all participate in the process, we'll never be able to keep our heads above the tsunami of literature heading our way in the digital age. (And while you're at it, post to product review sites you use, too...power to the people has never been so readily at our fingertips...wield it wisely!)
Traditional publishing is dying, or, at the very least, rapidly morphing into something altogether different than it's been--and no one is sure what it will end up changing into.
Today, the digital democratization of publishing is allowing hundreds of thousands of additional titles to be available to readers each year. Egad! Thought it was hard to pick a book 5 years ago? Now your choices are multiplying at exponential rates.
Not only are more NEW books available, more OLD books are becoming available. Titles that no one could afford to keep in print are becoming easy to keep available as digital downloads. It's going to take publishers (dinosaurs who move at the pace of rock) quite some time to make many of the older books available digitally. But, every new book that comes out digitally is now going to hang around rather than finding itself out of print and forgotten.
This is both good and bad news for readers. It's good news because we will have so much more to choose from. So many amazing books have gone unpublished over the decades. Elitist editors can no longer dictate what books we have access to. Long digital shelf lives will allow niche gems to be discovered. Books will no longer need to occupy the stifling confines of existing genre limitations.
The difficult part is where you, the reader come in. Readers are now needed to sort the literary wheat from the chaff. Your ratings and reviews are crucial to helping other readers discover the good and not waste time on the bad. Your blogs, conversations, tweets, etc. will make the difference between a book flourishing or failing. YOU are the gatekeeper that publishers once were.
I have no doubt that books are in far better hands now with readers in control. A savvy analysis of reviews can usually tell me if I'm going to love or hate a book. I know my travel experience has improved ten times over since tripadvisor.com gained hold. Now, sites like goodreads.com and the reviews on store sites are doing the same for my reading experience.
Don't take you new reader responsibilities lightly! Post your reviews. If you love a book, rave. If you hate it, rant. If you're wishy washy, say "eh." If we don't all participate in the process, we'll never be able to keep our heads above the tsunami of literature heading our way in the digital age. (And while you're at it, post to product review sites you use, too...power to the people has never been so readily at our fingertips...wield it wisely!)
Knott The Screaming Type
I suppose this will be musings about writing, books and writing books...maybe even about booking writers. I suppose, since it is my blog, I'll also throw in whatever else I think you, dear reader, mig
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