The fact has been bandied about that 80% of the U.S. population wants to write a book. Since this is greater than the number of book buyers in the country, we face a serious problem. Who are we writing for, and why? Language skills are in decline and so is the interest in reading.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I love books. I love the tactile feel of them in my hand, their portability. I can’t imagine reading the screen of an e-reader while I am camped in the high granite of the Sierra Nevada, angling it about while I try to make out the words in the sunlight. The ideas that move me lie far below the formation of technology.
I prefer my dog-eared copy of Gary Snyder poems. On one backpacking trip during the seventies a friend pulled out his worn copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and introduced me to a different world. Books (at least some) have this quality of shopworn knowledge handed down through the generations. Can the same be said of PDF files?
I bow in the direction of John Muir, or Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson. For me, books are a living, breathing organism of communication, while to others books are only commodities, more merchandisable items on which to make money. Can the worlds intersect?
There are so many books and so many potential writers. The world is flooded with books, most of them of dubious quality. Desktop publishing has liberated us, but unfortunately it has liberated us to pay no attention to the art and craft of writing or to the basic notion of why we are writing in the first place. We publish simply because we can. The bookshelves are crowded, with many more books vying for space. How’s a reader to know where to begin, to know what’s good, what’s interesting?
In her autobiography, Natalie Goldberg talked about her background in Zen where she found herself to be a poor meditator. Goldberg’s teacher told her that writing was her path to understanding the nature of things, as meditation was for others. I find myself in that bracket. When I am writing, things fall into a crystal focus even while I struggle with the words.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very eloquent and sensible John, I really enjoyed it - thanks!
2 - Mark Saleski
keep it up john. i'm totally lovin' where you've gone so far.
3 - John Spivey
Thanks.
4 - Victor Lana
John, I am enjoying the series. As someone who wanted his book published as it was written (instead of the way agents and traditional publishers wanted to corrupt its very nature), I chose self-publishing as a way to protect the sancity of my work.
I'm looking forward to more of your series.
5 - bonnie wren
John - I was moved to tears at the way my totally spontaneous response to your manuscript really served your creative process - I am the same way when I get that with my music.- (I am "the woman from Pennsylvania" right?) Your heart-and-soul-felt writing really did serve me in inexpressable ways but I guess I expressed it well enough - You knew I meant it
love,b
6 - Nicholas Stix
Some poll results are credible, and some ain't. If "80% of the U.S. population wants to write a book," but considerably less than that percentage reads books, either the poll result is nonsense, or the notion of authorship is in even more trouble than I thought. Either people are making claims that have no connection to their future conduct, or armies of the semi-literate and functionally illiterate are marching off to "express" themselves, at which point virtually no one will take any self-published work seriously.
7 - gypsyman
Nicholas, have your read the majority of what passes for writing on blogs these days? If those are them same people who claim that they want to write a book, is it any wonder that there is a proliferation of "self publishing" sites ready willing and able to exploit that delusion?
One of the most unfortunate things the internet and blogging has done is allow for the ridiculous notion of everybody is an artist to extend even further to the idea that everybody is a writer.
While it's true everybody can sit down at a keyboard and type words on a screen and put them up on the internet, that does not make them a writer.
The truely unfortunate fallout of this is that people like John who have the real motivation, drive and talent to write are lumped into that faceless morass of dross that is called self publishing.
Fewer and fewer publishers are looking at workd unless you have an agent, and fewer and fewer agents are looking at work unless you have been published...Why, because they are sick and tired of reading manuscripts by people who assume they are writers because they have a blog.
There has always been a percentage of people who have suffered under the delusion that they can write, for one reason or another (who knows I may be one of them) but with blogs that number has increased exponentially.
I wrote a piece a while back called "The Difference Between Writing and Blogging" or something along those lines, and boy were those who chose to comment upset. Maybe I'm a snob and an intellectual elitiest, but there has to be a benchmark for what is considered worthy of being bound in a book form, or the whole idea becomes worthless and demeaned.
If everbody is a writer than writing is no longer something that is an art form or anything special. If publishers are able to maintain a level of quality that preserves the integrity of writing to a certain degree, then I'm all for them.
What's needed is a means of new authors being able to access that apparatus for a legitimate assesment, and not just be lumped into the mass of non writers. Supposedly that was the job of the agent, but they now have become more interested in signing the next ten digit advance author to their rosters, than contributing to the quality of growth of the industry.
What will they do when all their "favourites" die out? If they have not developed a new crop of writers to follow in the footsteps of who's current, or at least encouraged that development, what will become of literature?
Thoughts to ponder.
gypsyman
8 - Scott Butki
If you haven't read it, read Stephen King's book on writing. Unlike most of his writing this one is good from start to finish.
9 - John Spivey
gypsyman-
I just read your comments on both Part 2 and Part 3. Thanks. I share your frustration as voiced above. I wish we had a web place where quality of writing was paramount. In many ways the web has created a democratization of mediocrity. Even more I wish that we actually had a chance to be heard and represented in the book world. I'm a good writer with something to say.