Starting Young: A Dying Breed?
Yeah, and that's what's going to end up happening. Real books will be sentimental. They'll simple be special. Gifts and whatnot. Decorations (I still love the way a big bookcase looks on a wall. Give the room some soul). Not for everyday consumption. Our everyday reading, magazines, newspapers, novels, short stories, essays, will all end up being on e-readers. And I have to admit, I'm excited by this. I'm excited by the unknown future of the publishing industry and I'm even more excited to be a new writer coming up through this new age. I had my reservations regarding e-books and whatnot, but now, I'm all for it. Could not be more for it. Sure, there's gonna be some shit--a lot of shit--but, there's a lot of shit being published and printed on pages, too. Consumers are smarter than most people give them credit for. We know what we want. We know how to find it. And we know how to sift through the crap and find what we're actually after. Sure, some people don't know this stuff. But most do.
What's happening now, especially with the self-publishing Kindle thing, is that it's allowing literature to come back to the forefront of the arts. It's bring it to the people. making it easily accessible. Making it less of a drag. Making it simple, easy, affordable. All things that we want in a product.
Now, the opportunity is there for magazines to publish issues, for writers to publish novels, and, better yet, publish the shit presses are not that into, like short story collection and novellas, which I've found strange that publishers don't want because a lot of people love reading short stories and novellas because they're bite-sized and not a lot of time needs to be invested in them. You can read a short story on your lunch break at work. Or on the bus ride home. You can read a novella in that hour and a half free time you get at night before bed. And you feel satisfied having consumed a whole product. It's a good feeling, finishing a read.
Anyway. Very exciting times ahead.
I consider myself quite hypocritical. I have a kindle, which I love, yet still love print books. I like covers, being able to flick in between pages and just holding it and having a bookcase. Yet, I do not want to pay £7 for a Steig Larson novel when I could pay £3. It's swings and roundabouts really.
It's stupid to say that print is dead, also to say that electronic formats won't last. I imagine, like vinyl, one will be able to purchase a book and find an electronic free kindle download code.
I think it's something to be excited about. Technology is pushing forward, it's like complaining that e-mails killed post. Or that downloading music kills cds. Sure, its happening, but what can be done?
Also, regarding children reading. Sure, video games and movies may be killing their chances. But I consider those two an art as well, a well made video game can be outstanding and amazing. Twilight and Harry Potter may be a platform for children to read, they may read on afterwards or not. But the main job is for the parents to make their child do so. Find them the right series or book, encourage them without forcing them. Teach them how fun it is rathe than forcing it etc.
You look like the type of guy / gal, who would like:
Again that's just two different topics in reality. That's more about collecting than Publishing itself. I seriously doubt anyone will get attached to smelling and feeling an instructional manual for school. Much less having to carry a butt load of college books in a big campus.
Not to mention damages to the book, etc.
Collecting Books will always be around, even more valuable now once Print eventually kicks it.
As for Editing, Spelling and general corrections on the internet, that is not true in published media. I used the forum as an example for sheer volume, but even then you can argue that the reviews and the workshop side of the cult contradicts that notion.
In any case most newspapers and regular publishing media have edited and maintained their standards in online publishing through the years, even better than print since they can correct them quicker.
Don't get me wrong. I completely understand the making of a book as an art form in itself. But it is not practical to every day life, and as technology advances it will be left behind as a medium and will become just a niche market.
So...We are still going to die. Right?
Call me crazy but if someone wants me to pay $100-300 for a textbook, I want it to be a huge book with actual substance, so I feel like I got my money's worth. I'm probably going to have to end up printing out a bunch of pages for study purposes anyway, so why not just have an actual book?
I find it hard to believe that the price of textbooks will come down much at all even if they do go to electronic-only format, simply because too many people make too much money out of selling them.
I find it hard to believe that the price of textbooks will come down much at all even if they do go to electronic-only format, simply because too many people make too much money out of selling them.
I understand that logic, but I see my old college books battered, and missing pages from ten years ago, and something tells me that those hundreds of dollars I spent to study back then, would have been more useful in a current format, as I would still have the prime source intact by now, with corrections.
I mean after all, if you are studying something you really want, you will want to keep that investment over the years, and I can't think of any better way to keep that, than in a format I can read on my laptop, phone or whatever other device I choose.
Plus unlike the e-books of the past, you can now make notes, highlight, etc more effectively than back then. So for me right now, I would even need less printing out paper than before. Maybe even none.
Plus students here right now study in many different ways than before. A popular technique is just breaking down the info from the book into power point presentations. Since that's what you will be doing in a real company at some point.
The only big drawback to all this is re-selling. Which will be non-existant in a kindle format, and I am pretty sure the initial years won't be as cost effective.
But just wait, once the big publishers get a hold of this model, it will happen.
Even if it doesn't mean a cost reduction to the student, it means a cost reduction to them and a more effective model. Ultimately I think that is what is going to win them over.
So...We are still going to die. Right?
Anyways my point in all this is that the medium is secondary.
What is more important is the content itself, rather than how it gets to you.
Just like all this was an oral tradition when it started, instead of words.
I am sure people felt the same way when they no longer gathered together to tell stories, which I find kind of ironic this posture here, since Chuck is such a narrative writer and how different his stories are when he reads them.
But I think wether you love books or not, like the theme of this thread the importance is that people get stimulated by words and stories no matter in which form they come (be it video games, magazines, books, audiobooks, e-books, etc.)
I think that is different for me because when I started to read flash fiction we thrived on different formats, like that one dude who wrote a book and published it via text messages.
Whatever the way it just needs to get out and hopefully stimulate in some meaningful way.
So...We are still going to die. Right?
Now try carrying around all these words with you in a physical form. In every trip that you take, in every place that you live, in the dentist office, at the bus stop, etc.
Sorry I didn't get to read the whole post. I feel I have to respond to this portion of your post at the very least.
The problem with reading on the internet, specifically this forum(regardless of it being a writer's workshop), the posts we read aren't edited, most likely have grammar and spelling errors, and run-on sentences like this one.
I don't even remember what I posted in the beginning but I know I like the idea of holding a book in my hand, the smell of it, and the fact that most of my books belonged to someone else or were personalized to me as a gift.
I guess for me it's more about sentimental reasons.