The Digital Writer |
What does it take to conduct a digital writing career? No, we are not going to develop an ehandbook. Not yet at any rate. I think these general thoughts are right on target:
(1) The print publishing industry has the capital and talent but it can not change.
(2) Young talent that is bursting with hope has a publishing system in front of it that says, "leap on my back and flourish! Here's good production value and here's stimulating, new forms of distribution." The beachheads will be made with that type of adrenaline.
(3) The Net presents the perfect psychological ploy for the writer: Your work has the potential of reaching millions of people. Despite the odds against that happening, the possibility is enough. That should inspire writers to try innovative ways to write and publish.
It has also returned us to the naive hope that tomorrow will not only be better but it will be a happy surprise. We have balanced our insatiable need for information with our practical need for its use; we have welcomed all kinds of wisdom's into us. In such a happy state, life is mystery once more. Our calculations were all based on incomplete, even corrupt information sources and we were in a constant struggle between wisdom and facts. Now, we are no longer divided. They live happily in us.
We stare into the interface with two heads.
The real power types that arise in the first generation of the Net are the editors and librarian types who have neatly chronicled the Net resources. The webloggers, for the most part, want power but are not resourceful enough to gain any.
It hasn't been a seamless transition from print to digital. And when we pinpoint the advantages of digital over print we are, at times, a bit mystified. In my case it's a simple matter of knowing that the writing I have is not attractive to the commercial press. Obviously, for many others they want to be attractive to the commercial press. And we respect that and try to accommodate that through a variety of resources. Does it matter, in the long run? A writer, writes. And the medium it appears in is the second consideration.
However, I am convinced that print publishing is going to go through a sea-change and the critical mass of talent and money will end up in the digital system. So, those who are adapted and prepared stand to gain as this process unfolds. The very first beachheads have been taken.
Print publishing has the same problem as all other industries. It must protect its gains with everything it's got. It gets taken over by the salesmen who start to produce a shoddy, mediocre product to cut cost, knowing that they can sell anything to the people. That is, when they have full control over the "literary system," including the universities. The vital seed that gave the industry such momentum in the beginning is lost. That vital seed is a literary culture that has all but disappeared.
At this moment in time it's far more fascinating to search for the new, the vital, the gems in the digital system than passively accept what the publishing machine offers month after month.
It occurred to me that a young writer may have a dilemma because the rewards, in writing, are still with the print publishing world. The digital system is still in its beginning stages, is diffuse and chaotic, has difficulty building its credibility. Yet, if a 20 year old opts for the print publishing system he may become dependent on a declining system. Whereas his fellow writer who struggles in the new, digital system may find himself with a great competitive advantage, just as his own writing life begins to mature.
What the writer needs to come to terms with is whether he is engaged in an art or a livelihood. We do notice more and more ads for "web content writers" and things of this nature.
David