Talkin bout tech

I’ve just read an interesting article in Harper's, “The Last Book Party: Publishing drinks to a life after death”. In it, the author is attending a German publishing festival where publishing houses bid for the international rights to the year’s ‘hottest’ new books. What is interesting about the article is that the author is expressing a doubt I myself have about the future of the publishing industry and the different ways in which both authors and publishers are dealing with it. The author, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, also covers some ground familiar in Epstein. Lewis-Kraus creates a vision of the older generation of publishers as people genuinely interested in literature for literature’s sake, content with small profit margins with the greater goal of being purveyors of thought. This environment of people actually taking pride in their work was transformed when entities like Viacom and CBS entered the mix and “were insulted by margins of 5 percent”. We have all read about how this has created a craving for the next bestseller and authors receiving huge advances usually out of proportion with how well their book will actually sell. New technology, and more importantly the author’s ability to manipulate this technology is changing the focus once again. One author at the Fair, in a move similar to Stephen King’s online novel, has put his entire catalog on his website. He quips that he is “stealing from myself”. I find it interesting that by being on the vanguard of this techno-movement, the author forces the pendulum to swing back the other way, away from huge advances and inflated expectations. Because, at the moment, there is not an adequate system in place to create revenue for authors using technology to spread their work, we may be left with those authors that are true artists and whose greatest passion is to create great literature. Conversely, we may get to the point where everyone with an internet connection thinks that their work is worthy of being read to the masses. It will be interesting to see in the coming years how the publishing industry continues to navigate the issues arising from the use of newer technologies.