The editors of that fascinating website Edge by some inexplicable oversight forgot to ask me their question for 2007, 'What Are You Optimistic About?' So, here is my answer...
I'm optimistic that in the next two or three years someone will come up with a practical e-book reader and that this will transform the way we read and write. Unlike some people, I believe this will be progress. Many booksellers and some authors are deeply pessimistic about what will happen when people begin to read e-books in preference to paper ones. Many publishers pretend to be delighted about the e-revolution, and are intent on getting unsuspecting authors to sign away digital rights for very little or even nothing. But secretly they must know that if they are too greedy authors will simply by-pass them and self-publish on the internet. And all the time they see Google digitizing books and making all or parts of them available. We writers know how cheap it is to send a file by email; how there are no storage or postage costs; how the internet puts writers directly in touch with their readers; how sophisticated search engines can provide the equivalent of marketing; how the small players in the long tail can reach their niche readership via the internet without the need for a publisher at all; and so on. And authors are already catching on to what is happening and starting to read the small print.
Some authors and readers are sentimental about the book. But there will always be the chance to print on demand, and this could include stipulating the font, paper, binding, cover, and so on. Book lovers should be able to have greater control over the appearance of their printed books. They will be able to produce their own selections for anthologies too. And there will be secondhand books in circulation for centuries. From the environmental perspective, re-useable e-book readers, which may be solar powered, will be far preferable to paper-based media.
If the new e-book readers, which must surely come on to the market soon, have a screen or e-paper that is comfortable to read, and are relatively cheap and portable, they will open up new ways to write. Imagine a wi-fi connected e-book reader with a personalised library available wherever you are. Or, from the writer's perspective, the possibility of including links, visual and audio clips, illustrations, references, and so on, all branching out from what you write. All this is available already, of course on a laptop; but at the moment most of us still struggle to read with ease on screen for any length of time. Once e-readers kick in, a new generation of writers may eschew strictly linear writing.
Authors may worry about income streams from their writing. But technology now allows efficient handling of micropayments in ways undreamt of a decade ago. As printed books become rarer, authors will find new ways to generate appropriate remuneration for their work being used. Self-published authors may sell their books using a payment system like Paypal.The prices needn't be too high: at present publishers cream off more than 90 percent of what they receive for most books. Even if self-published authors sell fewer copies at lower prices, they could still receive more money than they do in the present system.
These are exciting times for writers prepared to evolve.
HEAR, HEAR!
Your optimism is, like flu, contagious, only much more welcome. Please save a seat for me in your brave new world.
Ideas are everything; the form in which they’re distributed are mere wrapping and have evolved through the ages anyway. I find hieroglyphics are no longer practical for long journeys; nor are those cumbersome scrolls. The only rule about writing in the digital age is that there are no limits to one’s imagination and vision. Creators will be able to produce and control their works as never before… but only if the right safeguards are put in place immediately. No, sooner.
It’s paramount to protect authors’ copyright now, so that the proper gatekeepers are in place, and writers’ rights and income are well protected in the future. I know you’re part of all that through your valuable work with ALCS. It’s time wonderfully spent.
Posted by: Gail Renard | January 14, 2007 at 01:31 PM