IRONIC INDEED! In this Age of electronic wonders and instant communication, as we step forward into 2012 the Christmas message has been sounding faint. "Peace on Earth" and "Love Thy Neighbour" struggle nowadays to be heard above the anger against greed and corruption. There is no continent free of protest by the people.
Just before the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus, Time Magazine acknowledged global wrath by naming "The Protester" as its frontcover personality of the year 2011. From the Holy Land to everywhere else, there was, and remains, public outcry. The Protester has dominated the past year's news. In the Bookworld it's different. Here the personality of the year was also publisher of the year. It was the self-published author.
Wails of despair have continued from traditional publishers and bookshops. Bankruptcies abound, redundancies rage, but authors have never had it so good. The urge and instinct to get published has been achieved by digital distribution to every corner of the globe. Websites like Smashwords and Kindle Books have guided solo scribblers into acceptable online formats.
Authors have responded by issuing their works directly to readers. The Literary Agent, once mandatory, is no longer required, a publishing company unnecessary. The Bookworld has become a vast democracy of self-published authors.
It goes beyond ebooks, too. Authors still keen on paper books with real ink, bound between solid covers, can realise this aim. It comes through a growing number of websites where anyone can print-on-demand their own creations. Often, the biggest cost is postage.
Sites that spring to mind are Create Space, Lulu, WordClay, and Cafe Press. More will appear as more authors join the ranks of the self-published. These sites also market the books created, offering them to readers everywhere. This momentum will bring the next element needed in online publishing . . . trustworthy reviewers to help readers choose. We try to do this at Booktaste, complete with free samples, yet more such guidance would be good to bring obscure talent to public notice.
As new self-published writers join the millions of online titles now clamouring for sales, the year ahead will see review needs hopefully met. And readers might be thankfully satisfied, at last, after years of weary brandname novelists and boring clones of what sold well the year before. All this thanks to literature's self-published hero, the SP author, publisher of the year.
Also saviour of the world? Not quite. The Holy Child still fulfils that task. A messiah for the Bookworld then? We can only hope.
Happy reading! from Cathy Macleod at Booktaste.
Just before the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus, Time Magazine acknowledged global wrath by naming "The Protester" as its frontcover personality of the year 2011. From the Holy Land to everywhere else, there was, and remains, public outcry. The Protester has dominated the past year's news. In the Bookworld it's different. Here the personality of the year was also publisher of the year. It was the self-published author.
Wails of despair have continued from traditional publishers and bookshops. Bankruptcies abound, redundancies rage, but authors have never had it so good. The urge and instinct to get published has been achieved by digital distribution to every corner of the globe. Websites like Smashwords and Kindle Books have guided solo scribblers into acceptable online formats.
Authors have responded by issuing their works directly to readers. The Literary Agent, once mandatory, is no longer required, a publishing company unnecessary. The Bookworld has become a vast democracy of self-published authors.
It goes beyond ebooks, too. Authors still keen on paper books with real ink, bound between solid covers, can realise this aim. It comes through a growing number of websites where anyone can print-on-demand their own creations. Often, the biggest cost is postage.
Sites that spring to mind are Create Space, Lulu, WordClay, and Cafe Press. More will appear as more authors join the ranks of the self-published. These sites also market the books created, offering them to readers everywhere. This momentum will bring the next element needed in online publishing . . . trustworthy reviewers to help readers choose. We try to do this at Booktaste, complete with free samples, yet more such guidance would be good to bring obscure talent to public notice.
As new self-published writers join the millions of online titles now clamouring for sales, the year ahead will see review needs hopefully met. And readers might be thankfully satisfied, at last, after years of weary brandname novelists and boring clones of what sold well the year before. All this thanks to literature's self-published hero, the SP author, publisher of the year.
Also saviour of the world? Not quite. The Holy Child still fulfils that task. A messiah for the Bookworld then? We can only hope.
Happy reading! from Cathy Macleod at Booktaste.