a Beatles song about to become obsolete
Sep. 22nd, 2010 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sergebroomDear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It's based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer!
- the Beatles
“The mass-market paperback is a dying facet of publishing.”
- Barry Malzberg to Mike Resnick, in their column “Dialogues: XLIX”, page 25 of The SFWA Bulletin’s issue #44:2
Mind you, neither Malzberg nor Resnick are saying that stories are dying, but that where and how they can be made available has been changing drastically. I got a Nook for my birthday because there are more and more stories out there that are found solely on the web. They probably wouldn’t exist if not for the web, because of the financial investment necessary for a viable printed magazine. Some of those tales suck, no doubt, and should never have been inflicted upon us. The again, neither should we have suffered thru some novels that came out the old-fashioned way – and no, I won’t name names.
Will I be sad when paperbacks aren’t published anymore? Definitely. I like the feel of them, and will keep buying them as long as they are available. But the world is changing, for better and for worse, whether I like it or not. When I graduated from college, we punched our programs on punched cards and one of my fellow programmers, only 10 years younger than me, never saw a card-puncher outside of a museum. Today, kids have cell phones that basically are computers - off of which we can... read stories. I expect that my Nook will be obsolete in a couple of years, if not sooner.
The Future is here.
Hopefully it won’t bypass the poor.
Hopefully it will allow writers such as my wife to live off the electronic fruit of their labors. It’s working out for Resnick, but he is already known in the world of crumbly paper.
That being said…
These days, I'm reading Allen Steele’s novel ”Coyote”.
In paperback.
Of course.
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It's based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer!
- the Beatles
“The mass-market paperback is a dying facet of publishing.”
- Barry Malzberg to Mike Resnick, in their column “Dialogues: XLIX”, page 25 of The SFWA Bulletin’s issue #44:2
Mind you, neither Malzberg nor Resnick are saying that stories are dying, but that where and how they can be made available has been changing drastically. I got a Nook for my birthday because there are more and more stories out there that are found solely on the web. They probably wouldn’t exist if not for the web, because of the financial investment necessary for a viable printed magazine. Some of those tales suck, no doubt, and should never have been inflicted upon us. The again, neither should we have suffered thru some novels that came out the old-fashioned way – and no, I won’t name names.
Will I be sad when paperbacks aren’t published anymore? Definitely. I like the feel of them, and will keep buying them as long as they are available. But the world is changing, for better and for worse, whether I like it or not. When I graduated from college, we punched our programs on punched cards and one of my fellow programmers, only 10 years younger than me, never saw a card-puncher outside of a museum. Today, kids have cell phones that basically are computers - off of which we can... read stories. I expect that my Nook will be obsolete in a couple of years, if not sooner.
The Future is here.
Hopefully it won’t bypass the poor.
Hopefully it will allow writers such as my wife to live off the electronic fruit of their labors. It’s working out for Resnick, but he is already known in the world of crumbly paper.
That being said…
These days, I'm reading Allen Steele’s novel ”Coyote”.
In paperback.
Of course.
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Say it ain't so!
Date: Sep. 22nd, 2010 05:59 pm (UTC)By the way, it's not just kids with the fancy phones... I was at a friend's wedding and there was a lady at least as old as my grandmother there, comparing iPhone apps with my husband :)
Re: Say it ain't so!
Date: Sep. 22nd, 2010 06:31 pm (UTC)Granny and the iPhone, eh?
Re: Say it ain't so!
Date: Sep. 23rd, 2010 01:40 am (UTC)nook
Date: Sep. 22nd, 2010 06:04 pm (UTC)Re: nook
Date: Sep. 22nd, 2010 06:28 pm (UTC)Tor.com
http://www.tor.com/
They publish some original fiction, all of it free.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/
Their stuff is free, but they have a tin can where you make donations, should you wish to.
Steampunk Tales
http://www.steampunktales.com/
I discovered them when I read that GD Falksen is regularly published there. I've piled up a lot of stuff that I still have to read. Each 'issue' costs a couple of dollars.
Re: nook
Date: Sep. 22nd, 2010 06:53 pm (UTC)Re: nook
Date: Sep. 22nd, 2010 07:43 pm (UTC)Re: nook
Date: Sep. 23rd, 2010 01:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 23rd, 2010 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 24th, 2010 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 24th, 2010 10:15 am (UTC)