On the seventh day, God created the Internet.

It’s happened. I’ve been swept up in the great eBook debates, along with the rest of the brouhaha that’s taking place in the publishing industry right now. And you know what? I’m not nervous or overwrought, I’m not wringing my hands or wiping down my forehead.

I’m excited!

When I went to Europe about a decade ago I had several moments-on-the-hill (‘epiphany’ would be to strong) and one of the major ones was this: when the pendulum swings too far in one direction (digital, digital, digital!!) it’s likely to swish back and find it equilibrium. I’m excited by the new things we’re seeing, by the meta discussions especially.

The meta-discussions happening right now (about publishing, mainly) will simmer down as soon as we land on the technology that fits, but until then – all this visionary chatter is so inspiring and energizing.

Eventually we will accept (and not panic) that the Internet is what it is, does what it does, and like TV, it doesn’t contain all the answers or all the most wonderful nand meaningful things in the world. It doesn’t have everything. It’s limited.

Until then – I’m thrilled to feel so passionate about all of it.

An infinite supply of demand

If social collaborators are potential buyers, and are somewhat representative of the demand, the supplier/artist/creator can probably assume that the sea of collaborators (demand) is as infinite as the sea of ideas (product).

Not that every product will be a success, but maybe the demand is as fluid and malleable as the supply.  Just as I can reinvent my product a hundred times, now we can reinvent our audience a hundred times. It’s infinite.

This is reassuring to me as a writer with an unpublished novel. A few years ago, the timing for market-entry would have been paramount – my book would be introduced to the world at point A and deemed big success or big flop by point B. There was very little that could be done “post” the point B milestone.

But now – I’m contemplating multiple launches (all free, of course), approaches, and demographics. My work might click at any one of an infinite number of points in time or ‘place.’ 

Add conversation to the mix, and there’s another way to continuously promote and introduce it. The conversation itself becomes the ripple in the pond. The product is the stone. And I can drop it in the water as many times as I want, and there will always be different appetites and opinions in the infinite stream.

If every day brings fresh supply AND demand, any ‘final product’ can go public in tons of different ways.  Many junctures. Many opportunities.

What used to be elusive (is there a market for my work? Who knows!) is starting to seem like something tangible and reactive – not quite transparent, but definitely…within reach. I like the idea of dropping something into the stream and seeing if it gets nibbles – and then trying it again a different way, at a different time. 

It’s making me think that for good content/art, there is an infinite supply of demand –  Fluid and responsive and capable of maturing or regressing or rebelling.

In a market where artists and collaborators (more crassly – supply and demand) are starting to move together, or at least closer to each other, (and talking to each other!) the relationship becomes so much…better.

Using Twitter to Create the Life you want

I know that it sounds absurd, and 6 months ago I would never have had such a thought. But then I started using Tweetie on my new Mac (at my new job) and started really getting into searching people out and following individuals who are doing or saying or referring to things that interest me.

The stream of consciousness that you build is no coincidence. It can tell you something about who you are and who you want to be. Funny? Smart? Out and About? Random?

I’m very selective with the tweets I want to see, for example, I don’t to see too much of one person in my feed, I’d prefer it to be a nice balanced mix of people. And I like to see some business and some pleasure – not all deep stuff and article references, but some emotions, some random expressions of frustration. Whatever.

Ok, this is sounding less meaningful by the minute. Back to my original point. Follow the people and energies you want to bring into your life. Follow your inspirations. Follow people who are doing something you’d like to do… and everyday, they’ll feed your own life’s vision.

The world is there for the taking.

Internet killed the Journalist Star?

When Maureen Dowd refers to “Web sites like Google” in her NY Times Op-Ed, I instantly cringe. Nobody puts baby in the corner calls Google a Web site!

If journalists don’t want to be dinosoars, they shouldn’t act like dinosoars. Common journalists, pony up.

This is not the first time that I’ve found hints of ludditism lurking in a journalist’s point of view, as they openly express their disregard for the new world order (the Internet) they say leaves them behind. 

Personally, I’m thrilled that new-world journalism will be based on merit, likeability, relevance and community.  Journalism is coming back into the hands of the people, losing its smug elitism but not its edge – supply is ample, and so is demand – it’s just that now the demanders have a lot more to choose from. Including the option of writing their own supply.

What’s elitist now, as my partner pointed out lastnight – is technology itself. That’s where the fancy phrases and the culture-leading opinions are coming from. Don’t know what a retweet is? hint: It’s not a spa day with a lisp.

So journalists, recall that day 10 years ago when you sneared at the Internet and secretly laughed at the imposter “online journlist” at your company.

Their world has triumphed, and now it’s your turn to try to fit in.

We are the elephant

It’s ironic that social media was born from cutesy emoticons and advertising campaigns. The earliest forms of self-expression on the Internet were pretty basic – leave an opinion, offer a smile, pass on an email. But now that I think about it, TV and radio never evolved even that far. Watch a show or boycott it. Listen passively to the radio or perhaps call in (Hey, I finally got through!!) with an opinion.  

Most of us were trained to be passive media absorbers – passive-aggressive at most. Whether something on TV or radio was good or bad, we weren’t going to do much more than complain or rave, and usually just to a friend at work the next morning.

Digital media didn’t have to change that, but it has. And we have all been instrumental navigators on this mission, directing and determining the direction of this r/evolution. We have proven again and again that we want to participate. Give us a voice, and we will use it! We’ll enter the contest, express our opinions, rave about a restaurant, raise money, tell ten people, vote for a friend. We now have a medium for being social without constraint or risk. And we like it.

But are we using it to it’s full capacity? I don’t think so. I have this hunch that we are like the elephant that gets chained when he’s young and learns that he can’t go beyond a certain distance. Then when he gets old, he still thinks that it lacks the power to move. So he stays. Even though the chain is weak – or even long, long gone. (I hate this story. I’ll get to the point.) The elephant can do whatever he wants!

Sooner or later we’re going to see that the ability to ‘thumbs up’ a book or have a public opinion on a movie is only a small fraction of ’social media’ power. It’s just us playing safely in the yard, not even pulling on that chain - being fairly passive, obedient, timid, non-confrontational.

But we are not chained anymore. We have a voice. We can rally, we can go public with our throughts, visions, and ideas, we can let the community decide the worth of something, instead of the suits at the top. I don’t think we’ve fully grasped it. I certainly haven’t. We’re stuck in an old paradigm of hopelessly passive comsumption, even though we could restructure - bit by bit, of course –  the entire world. 

Add up all us voters/tweeters/reviewers/humans-on-the-internet and we are a massive amount of people. Massive.

Don’t be alarmed, but right at this very minute you could be helping to free someone, solve something, create something miraculous. Whatever you’re passionate about – you could be making it bigger, making it happen. I want to commit now to using this power and to pushing its limits.

So let’s shake of the apathy and decide what we want – out of life, or for the next generation, or whatever the case may be – and see how one voice or thousands of voices can make it happen. Now, more than ever, we have a voice.

Yes folks, we are tidal.  We are TIDAL! I’m curious to see what happens when we all wake up and realize it.

Social Publishing II

Cerebral satisfaction, like intellectual foreplay, is only half the story. Enjoyable, but incomplete.  

I’ve decided. I’ve been convinced! Digital is going to be a big part of publishing life, even for fiction, but not the whole shabang.  

I’ve been reading a ton about the effect of social media on publishing, and I think there will be lots more that I have to say on the matter. For now though, I want to weigh-in on the biggie. What becomes of the real live book?

My prediction is that proper bound lit (real books) will follow the vinyl path - not completely, but kind of! – with book sales dropping drastically for a while. But ultimately, people will never bond to e-books, and real live books will remain man’s best friend. Books on the go will be supplemented by books for show, and tell, and sharing and touching. Books are hot. HAWT. Books are sensory experiences that will never be replaced. Never. And who doesn’t love a bookshelf? I remember a time when I would bring dates home and show them my bookshelf. Ha! But I was proud, and at that time, the bookshelf defined me.

People are concerned that youngsters aren’t reading enough. You know what? They will. They will crave meaning and answers and guidance, and they will turn to their cultural and intellectual ancestry – literature.

Will I read a book on my iPhone (when I get one), yeah, I will. But I’ll also buy the hard copy. And if (ahem, when) I was boss I’d sell them together. For my own book – I’d like it to be a package deal. You take my novel on the subway with you in the morning, then at night you check the page you were on and pick up the real thing.

Books will be around forever. Satisfying experiences never die - they are all too rare.   For the same reason that I’m on the hunt for a turntable, books will never go away. They’re just to awesome. Like records! But the other side is convincing. See what you think after watching this. (not so much about literature, but deifinitely about the new groovy new trends in publishing.)

Social Publishing

When I attended a writer’s workshop in Kingston last month, given by the Writer’s Union of Canada, an interesting word kept coming up, and not a word that I very much like: blogosphere. 

To hear published writers utter it – I almost cringe. Blogosphere. What would [insert revered writers name] think? Would Mark Twain have had a blog? Or Virginia Woolf, or Shakespeare? These were not writers who would ever ramble on about what they had for lunch.

Blogosphere. It’s like a bad contrived concoction of a word. The B and L together call up things like blech and bla and bloop bloop.

Nonetheless, this is where we find ourselves. Twitter is here. Online presence is the nouveau networking. 

One interesting thing is that the writers who spoke at this conference explained that publishers appreciate when a writer already has an established soapbox, or is willing to participate in publicity-making. If you go to a publisher with an audience already, you increase the chances that your book will do well. You reduce their risk. It’s win win.

It’s not a bad argument, especially at a time when not much money (I’ve heard) is going into publicity for new writers. Get a book deal and there’s a good chance that you will not be whisked away on a 10-city book tour.  If you’ve established a rapport with people, you’re not completely relying on your publisher to do the leg work. Helper cat… is helping!

My take on it is pretty simple. I will write when I have things to say. I will build a site for myself if people need to know who I am. And I will most definitely collaborate and use my digital super powers to connect with people. But I’m not joining the blogosphere because the cool kids are doin’ it. The pendulum always swings back and I do believe that bad content will begin to stink like old garbage. And good content always triumphs. A story. A valuable insight. An interesing idea. If I’m going to be in the ‘blogosphere’ it’s going to be for a reason – primarily to share information, inspire, commiserate, and connect with people.

I tried a few blogs before this one, but my passion really lies in talking about writing and getting others interested in putting pen to paper. None of my other ideas really stuck. So there it is once again. As it is with any kind of writing, the thing that drives and motivates you is the thing that needs to be expressed. The channel itself is not the motivator.