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Don’t Believe Books Are Dead
Writers are still writing, readers are still reading, and publishers are still printing — for good reason.
I just read a post here on Medium in which the writer had strong opinions about the current state of books and publishing. Novels only exist, the writer said, because they were a better form of money-making than short pamphlets.
Inspiration and truth-telling be damned — turns out authors were only ever in it for the money (according to this writer). They go on to suggest that digital self-publishing models are the best way to optimize your product (the writing) for instantaneous, abundant sales.
Because that’s all that matters, right?
It’s not about sharing the story inside you with the rest of the world or writing for the sake of writing — no, it’s about optimizing how to best collect your customers’ payment information so you can download your AI-generated written product directly into their most convenient digital device.
The writer of that post, oddly enough, is an English teacher who has self-published some novels. I don’t know how anyone could complete an entire degree in the literary arts and come out of it thinking that novels were created for profitability and not for the sake of the art of writing.
