Last week I posted my thoughts and predictions about the ultimate fate of print books. My friend and fellow author Elena wrote a comment to which I can’t help but reply. I encourage you to read her comment, but boiling her comment down, she brings up three points:
- Losing the tangible (look and feel) of print books may lead to less reading.
- How can we find good books when the tsunami of self-published works flood the internet?
- People aren’t reading as much as they used to.
I want to be clear that I’m not arguing or refuting Elena’s points. She raises some excellent questions and I simply want to respond.
Losing the Physicality of Books
Reading and handling a physical book is definitely a different experience when compared to reading an e-book. The book has weight, the cover bursts with color, and yes, there is even that book smell. We will lose some of these simple pleasures when we move to e-book readers.
But let’s remember what exactly the book is. The print book is a medium. It’s the means, not the end. I don’t pick up a book because I want to handle something, or because I want to turn pages. I pick up a book because I want to be taken away to a different place. Storytelling has been taking place much longer than we’ve had the printing press, or even a written language. Books allow me to read stories from people I’ve never met; I’m no longer required to share the same space and time with the storyteller. Books aren’t the most important part. It’s the story I want.
E-book readers are nothing more than a new way to connect those with the stories, to those who hunger for stories. The art of sharing stories through literature is not going away; it’s receiving an additional medium.
Needle in a Haystack
Publishing your book is easier today than it’s ever been. So how do we wade through all the junk to find the really good stuff? Actually, that’s an easy one.
There are millions of website on the internet, and yet Google usually delivers just the page we’re looking for. Google’s search engine is based on a social formula. If a thousand people point to a certain website from their blog, then Google decides that website is more valuable than the website with only three links. In other words, we’ll find good books the same way we find good books today–by word of mouth.
You can go to Amazon or Netflix and the site will suggest materials based on previous purchases. If you rate movies, Netflix will guess at what else you might like. We can also see how other people have rated material. If my friends on Goodreads tell me I’ll like a book, and an intelligent recommender system tells me I’ll like a book, it’s probably better than taking the word of a clerk at Barnes & Noble whom I’ve never met.
Nobody is Reading Anymore
And this is where it gets exciting. Remember how we talked about books being just a medium? Well, there are limitations to that medium.
Anybody who writes know there are word limits. Middle grade is a certain number of words; YA allows a few more; epic fantasy can’t have too any. These limits are placed on the story by the medium. Large books are too daunting and don’t sell. Small books don’t sell because they don’t seem like a good value. The medium dictates aspects of the story.
E-books take away some of those limits. Or to put it another way, e-books allow us to play around with the art of storytelling. Novellas might make a comeback, and serials could take off. A really good short story sold for 99 cents might make a decent profit for an authors. These are things we couldn’t do before, but are now possible.
And I believe with more choice, you’ll attract more readers. Teens who are used to clicking on a new link every three minutes may fall in love with shorter stories. Adults who realize they can download classics for free may start reading more. Readers who have very specific interests may find lesser known authors who write for a niche.
All of this could lead to more and more people falling in love with, and rediscovering the joy of, storytelling.
One final note. I’ve had the privilege of reading one of Elena’s books. The protagonist is a girl in her early teens, and I think it’s safe to say that as a thirty something male, I wasn’t the book’s target audience.
And yet I fell in love with this character, this world, and Elena’s writing. It’s a book that I think many many people would enjoy. Sure, it needed some work, but it is clear that Elena has the gift of storytelling. But unless Elena can get past the intern, and the agent, and the editor, her book may never see the light of day.
With e-books, and the ease at which we can now share stories, thousands of readers might be able to enjoy Elena’s book. Ultimately e-books will allow more storytellers to share their work with more writers.
And that is what excites me the most about the digital revolution.
