No Country For Old Pen
I follow a list where authors discuss writing - garden writing.
Twenty years ago I was in the middle of authoring a book in this subject area. It took over my life for the best part of six months. It seems amazing to me that so much time has passed since then. It's the only book I've written (to date), though I've often wondered about writing another. The book sold pretty well, and somewhat unexpectedly is still in print, though I have made a trifling amount from it (first time authors of non-fiction illustrated books have little bargaining power). Fortunately the kudos hasn't done me any harm.
In the intervening time I've had stints writing articles for a monthly magazine, and as a quarterly journal editor (a struggle, as I wasn't good at deadlines). I'm still on its editorial board, proofing copy.
Writing has seen so much change in these twenty years - the internet/technology has truly upset the apple cart. The average author has always been very poorly paid, and it's a downward trend. Just as well that I never made it more than a part-time occupation.
Publishers have gone under or been taken over. New contracts want all rights for less money. And people just don't buy books in the same way. I don't either.
Someone on the list linked to an enlightening article in the Washington Post that highlighted how radically newspapers have changed - some would say, dumbed down. (That's where I pinched my title.)
The average person reads less on each topic; though perhaps they read about more topics than they used to? List commenters confirmed that magazine article lengths have dropped from the 1,500 - 2,000 words that I used to get asked for. Now it's 1,000, or 500 words... or less. The space is filled with pictures and adverts.
The pictures used to be carefully chosen, perhaps from stock libraries or specialist photographers (I made a bit that way). Nowadays it is just as likely to be cheap, rights-free stuff, off the internet or publicity shots from advertisers. Editors have even less time to edit. Quality often suffers.
For non-fiction information, we now go to the web first, rather than a book. A friend in the library service pointed out that non-fiction books are given 10% (perhaps less now) of the space that they once used to occupy. Perhaps that's one of the key pieces of information that has put me off further book writing. How to make it pay when we expect facts for free? Maybe a big colourful coffee-table book with 'nice' captions?... a high-risk proposition.
And today, I read that Kindle e-book sales are now outselling new hardbacks on Amazon. The tipping point reached? Yet another revolution on the way. Will the authors do any better this time?
Twenty years ago I was in the middle of authoring a book in this subject area. It took over my life for the best part of six months. It seems amazing to me that so much time has passed since then. It's the only book I've written (to date), though I've often wondered about writing another. The book sold pretty well, and somewhat unexpectedly is still in print, though I have made a trifling amount from it (first time authors of non-fiction illustrated books have little bargaining power). Fortunately the kudos hasn't done me any harm.
In the intervening time I've had stints writing articles for a monthly magazine, and as a quarterly journal editor (a struggle, as I wasn't good at deadlines). I'm still on its editorial board, proofing copy.
Writing has seen so much change in these twenty years - the internet/technology has truly upset the apple cart. The average author has always been very poorly paid, and it's a downward trend. Just as well that I never made it more than a part-time occupation.
Publishers have gone under or been taken over. New contracts want all rights for less money. And people just don't buy books in the same way. I don't either.
Someone on the list linked to an enlightening article in the Washington Post that highlighted how radically newspapers have changed - some would say, dumbed down. (That's where I pinched my title.)
The average person reads less on each topic; though perhaps they read about more topics than they used to? List commenters confirmed that magazine article lengths have dropped from the 1,500 - 2,000 words that I used to get asked for. Now it's 1,000, or 500 words... or less. The space is filled with pictures and adverts.
The pictures used to be carefully chosen, perhaps from stock libraries or specialist photographers (I made a bit that way). Nowadays it is just as likely to be cheap, rights-free stuff, off the internet or publicity shots from advertisers. Editors have even less time to edit. Quality often suffers.
For non-fiction information, we now go to the web first, rather than a book. A friend in the library service pointed out that non-fiction books are given 10% (perhaps less now) of the space that they once used to occupy. Perhaps that's one of the key pieces of information that has put me off further book writing. How to make it pay when we expect facts for free? Maybe a big colourful coffee-table book with 'nice' captions?... a high-risk proposition.
And today, I read that Kindle e-book sales are now outselling new hardbacks on Amazon. The tipping point reached? Yet another revolution on the way. Will the authors do any better this time?