The three essays, particularly the piece by Douglas Rushkoff, in the book's fourth section, “The Future,” should help calm the frazzled nerves of writers and publishers alike. Rushkoff points out, for instance, that “…the Internet has been nothing but great for my own writing career, and those of just about every other writer that I know. Even better the Internet serves to disseminate our ideas – which is the real reason anyone worth his or her pulp should be writing in the first place.” He points out the obvious: name recognition sells books and name recognition is a product of having people discuss an author’s ideas and writing. If it takes giving away electronic copies of his work in order to build name recognition, Rushkoff is all for it.
A seventeen-year-old book blog offering book reviews and news about authors, publishers, bookstores, and libraries.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Bookmark Now
It has become fashionable in the last few months for writers and literary commentators to talk back when anyone brings up the now infamous National Endowment of the Arts study claiming that the death of “literary reading” is imminent. According to the NEA study, readers of all ages are succumbing to the lure of the Internet, video games, high-definition TVs, and ever-newer gadgets in such large numbers that the entire publishing industry is in danger of being snuffed out. Bookmark Now, a 2005 collection of twenty-four essays from young writers compiled by Kevin Smokler, makes a strong case that the NEA study is stridently misleading.
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Now that sounds a like a cool book. I totally gotta get me onea those.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I keep thing is that such end-of-the-reading-world lore has to be misleading; what do most of us do on the Internet? We read. We read blogs and news and MySpace/Facebook pages. I mean, sure, YouTube is viral, but streaming video has only recently really come into its own (and I still think it's yet mostly used for porn), and most of us are still reading.
The other thing that the argument, I think, generally fails to consider is that reading has never actually been popular; it began restricted to only a few (the well educated) and the rich, and even still, folks like Dan Brown and Jo Rowling are remarkable solely because they're exceptions to the general rule, which is that most novels don't sell, and really haven't ever sold, more than a few thousand copies (into the tens if they're lucky).
Sounds like an excellent book that is much needed by the public! Us readers already know literature is far from its death.
ReplyDeleteWill, you are exactly right. There are a few, very few, big name millionaire authors and then there is everybody else. Book royalties will not make many people wealthy BUT they will provide a nice living to lots of folks who get to do what they enjoy doing for a living. It's the same in the music business. Those who love what they are doing, and do it for that reason as much as the cash, will continue to do it...Thank God.
ReplyDeleteJeane, we do know it and it is always nice to see someone with a little authority provide the proof that good books will be around forever. I just don't see the electronic media killing off books in the next several generations...hopefully, never.
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