Sep 02 2010
Why Books? 9 Reasons for Optimism
I’m excited about books because…?
“Because learning (and as a result, books) is at the heart of human consciousness and experience. Books connect us to the world. That’s the BIG picture, but ultimately finding and reading books is fun and the internet, despite all the doom and gloom talk, has made publishing more fun, more open and expansive. The web is bringing more people into the publishing process, redefining what publishing means and giving everybody new tools to write, publish and sell them. So what’s not to like? It’s a great time to be in book publishing, despite the fact that everything is changing.”
–Calvin Reid, Senior News Editor, Publishers Weekly
If you have much of a finger on the publishing industry (and you should, if you want to write for a living), you know that the electronic age has caused all kinds of panic in the hallowed halls of trade publishing (print books are going to become obsolete! people won’t read anything longer than two paragraphs! self-published trash is taking over! the sky is falling!). There are some good reasons to worry, but overall, I’m pretty optimistic.
