In preparing for the talk today at the Paris Writers Workshop on Electronic Books: Opportunities and Pitfalls for writers, I realized there is a lot I want to say about business.
Not business!
Yes, I know. Mention business and writers--often the best writers--tend to faint like marines at the sight of a needle.
But writer friends, you need to know how the technological revolutions in the book INDUSTRY affect you. Production, distribution, logistics, marketing -- and don't vomit! --outsourcing, decentralization, and automation !
And, even, (slap! slap! stay with us) division of profits.
Readers and writers shall always be with us. Because we need to tell and to be told stories.
But how stories are selected, disseminated, stored and paid for is changing. Radically.
And this affects us all. For better and for worse.
But mostly, for us writers, for the best.
It's a whole new world out there...
