tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post8329803744705352564..comments2024-03-25T02:15:02.505-07:00Comments on Nancy's Blog: The Future of Publishingadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442349453021015062noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-50632976169576729842010-12-11T08:31:23.858-08:002010-12-11T08:31:23.858-08:00One thing I'm certain of: The "speedup&qu...One thing I'm certain of: The "speedup" caused by digital publishing will make the sluggishness of the traditional publishing process increasingly intolerable to readers, writers and publishers alike.<br /><br />Especially in SF, which thrives on being current and "with it"...A.R.Yngvehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03972668378286177600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-21701406383953341352010-12-09T13:14:53.856-08:002010-12-09T13:14:53.856-08:00I think Neil and Jack are both right. I think som...I think Neil and Jack are both right. I think some readers would be excited to have video/audio extras in a book. Others, maybe not so much. As I said above, we don't know what changes in the book industry will "take" and which ones won't.<br /><br />I'm having a hard enough time coming up with covers for my e-books that I'm doubtful about some people being able to produce multi-media productions -- a lack of familiarity with producing such content could be one drawback, just finding time to do it if you're not a full-time writer is another. <br /><br />That said, it could be pretty cool to attempt such a production sometime. It would be pretty challenging, but that would be the fun.Dave Creekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09271289032845085477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-35306453512310398552010-12-09T12:05:47.908-08:002010-12-09T12:05:47.908-08:00Sorry, Neil, but I disagree entirely. Writing fict...Sorry, Neil, but I disagree entirely. Writing fiction is not a collaborative enterprise. Adding a sound track and video clips and all that simply undercuts the reader's experience by diffusing it across unrelated media. You can't make a book more appealing by turning it into a carnival. Good books don't need to be made more appealing. In the earlier days of motion pictures, directors often tried to incorporate narrative voices and even shots of book pages slowly turning, in an attempt, I guess, to make readers more comfortable with a non-literary medium. My point is, that was dumb -- and so is tarting up novels to look and act like something they are not. Writing is a solitary activity. So is reading. If you are a certain type of person, the peculiar joys derived from that situation are more than sufficient. As a segment of the population, book readers have always hovered around a very low number, maybe as low as one percent. Adding video clips and sound tracks won't increase that number, it will simply create a broken thing that is halfway between a novel and a music video.Jack Skillingsteadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17207752603640432019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-38077925098530941962010-12-09T05:19:40.777-08:002010-12-09T05:19:40.777-08:00Hi Nancy. I think writers will, more and more, fin...Hi Nancy. I think writers will, more and more, find collaborators from other mediums to enhance and imbue their work with extra levels of experience. I think the days of what are now called "enhanced ebooks" being simply just known as "ebooks" are well on their way, and that consumers will soon expect what are currently known as extras (soundtracks, video clips, interviews, artwork) to come as standard with the purchase of an electronic version of a book. <br /><br />New ideas and stories have less time than ever now to make an impact on mass culture before they're forgotten or pushed aside by the next thing, so I foresee increasing levels of cross-fertilisation with other art forms as artists work together to create something that is at once a real event and more than the sum of its parts, and yet can be boiled down and still enjoyed as its separate elements, eg novel, soundtrack, comic book, image gallery etc.<br /><br />It's an exciting time to be a writer and creative artist, and also, I reckon, an exciting time to be a consumer of creative content.Neil Voglerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15306928741501293782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-55989536146469500782010-12-08T09:46:05.195-08:002010-12-08T09:46:05.195-08:00Argh. I let my Locus subscription lapse and the la...Argh. I let my <i>Locus</i> subscription lapse and the last issue was last month's. Off to the newsstand I go.Bryan H. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10402949387497613164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-80225437889983378682010-12-08T06:39:32.072-08:002010-12-08T06:39:32.072-08:00Russell- Thank you. That is exactly what I was t...Russell- Thank you. That is exactly what I was trying to do with the BEGGARS series -- and in fact with most of my fiction. Nothing in life is unambiguous, and that includes "progress." But I'd still rather have it than not have it.Nancy Kresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09834410304227906387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-64894811172947317032010-12-07T12:31:52.049-08:002010-12-07T12:31:52.049-08:00Your Locus interview was the second thing I read w...Your <i>Locus</i> interview was the second thing I read when my copy came. (You can figure what the first was.) You're not the only person who likes <i>Beggars Ride</i>--I thought it was a splendid finish for the trilogy and absolutely the right resolution for the whole story arc and the moral problems presented. And despite your statement that (if I'm reading you correctly) the problems with genetic engineering were there to enable the story, it seems to me that an inescapable theme of the series is that there is no gift so wonderful that we can't use it to poke ourselves in the eye. That "yes, but" response to utopian possibilities is one of the parts of being a grownup that I have reluctantly come to see as not just inevitable but necessary and useful--"no joy but lacks salt/That is not dashed with pain/And weariness and fault," not because hope is wrong but because experience is as important as innocence.Russell Letsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18214408485070732231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-5647680593093606222010-12-06T18:19:44.386-08:002010-12-06T18:19:44.386-08:00They're harbingers of genuine change. We just...They're harbingers of genuine change. We just don't know which ones will work out yet. Or which ones may fail for now, and come back in a few years when someone has a better idea how to make them work, or when a new technological fix makes them practical.<br /><br />I know I'm in the (slow) process of working through Smashwords to get all my previously published stories online, to try to take advantage of having professional material available, as opposed to all the slushpile material that's flooding the web. I think without such a presence, none of us has a future in publishing.<br /><br />Not that print is going away. But it's going to be one choice among many.Dave Creekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09271289032845085477noreply@blogger.com