Thoughts (Sans Werewolves, Sadly)

. . . although, of course, now I am thinking about werewolves.

Did my booktalk at the library this past Wednesday! It went fine, although I think some of the kids were reading at maybe lower levels and not so into it. Also, I think they didn’t know what to think of me waving books at them and going on in dramatic tones about the fates of Katniss Everdeen and Artemis Fowl.*

Still have not seen the Last Airbender movie. Plan to at some point, but not during its opening week. Perhaps I will instead watch a couple of episodes of the actual show. Meantime, have a video that rehashes in just over a minute why I’m not contributing to the movie’s opening box office haul!

On a totally different note, this is a fascinating article about what might be the effects of this whole “death of traditional publishing” thing I keep hearing about, if indeed it is an upcoming death, not an over-hyped case of sniffles.

Still editing The Dogwatchers! I hope to finish within a week or two. Have I mentioned it’s long?

*separately. That would be an extremely ill-advised crossover.

4 thoughts on “Thoughts (Sans Werewolves, Sadly)

  • One can only hope that people competent enough to market their own books in the digital age of publishing will also be competent enough to string a sentence together. I know that there’s some problems with this theory.

    Okay, but if traditional publishers (who *will* still be bringing books to the masses) don’t have to print very many actual books, they will be spending all of their money, after editing, on marketing. Individual authors will presumably be much more likely to get a real marketing budget, because there isn’t the book on the physical shelf to advertise for them.

    This means that self-published writers will still have to compete with this, presumably with a serious blogging presence or similar that will hopefully tie into good writing and creative skills once again. In short, I presume that it will still be difficult to have one’s attention drawn to the books of true incompetents (most of the time).

    I would personally like to see the rise of small e-publishers for niche interests – writers with similar target audiences should and probably will join together and market themselves as a group. This already happens to some extent in print niche markets, and not having to print physical books will be a fantastic boon for them. (Whether the writing will be any good is questionable, but they can be their own “gatekeepers” and keep a certain basic standard of not sucking.)

  • I tend to shudder when I hear about the death of traditional publishing. Maybe it’s insufferably egotistical, but my first thought has always been “but how will anyone find me? I mean, it’s not that I’ve ever had anything published, but there’s a chance that someday I will. If my success as a writer were to suddenly depend more on my marketing skills than my writing skills, I may as well pack in now.

    • Also, I heard The Last Airbender was horrendous even disregarding the cast.

    • I freak out about the anticipated doom of traditional publishing, too, largely because I’ve put so much time into learning about and working with the system. Also, I think, because it feels like getting accepted for publication – by, you know, a publisher – is, while only the beginning of another adventure, still a kind of “you made it!” seal that you don’t get if you’re publishing your own work.

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