Readers vs. Watchers: The Digital Revolution is Not Over

Lately a huge controversy has developed around the theme "Indies are Beating Traditional Publishers", and one publishing guru, Mark Coker,  the father of Smashwords, has loudly predicted that self-published authors will outrun traditional publishers by 2020, see here. Indie authors, carried forward by the digital revolution that has lowered production costs and leveled the field, are in a feisty revolt led by Hugh Howey; find all the rebels on his Author Earnings website here.

This race between indies and publishers, no matter how exciting, obscures something much bigger: the sea change that is investing the entertainment industry as readers lose out to watchers. 

We're into a brave new digital world where the written word is losing out to the image.

Evidence of this vast change is still anecdotal, but putting all of it together, it adds up. 

Take ebook sales. After years of exuberant growth, ebook sales started to flatten out in 2013. I've blogged about this before (see here). At first, I thought it was nothing to worry about: a physiological slowdown that indicated the market had reached maturity, that it was better balanced between printed and digital books (good news for the publishing industry!). But now I'm convinced the situation is actually much more serious than that. 

It's the book market's very survival that is threatened.

Why? Look at what's happening to the entertainment industry and more generally to our cultural life. Particularly noteworthy:

• people are about evenly divided between readers and watchers: those were the results of a recent survey carried out in the UK and reported by the BBC (see here) and it's obvious that the divide is very likely to be the same in the US or any other Western country;

• the performance of the tv and videogame industry suggests that more and more people watch films and play videogames and less and less people read books. 

The videogame industry is huge and has become as big as Hollywood. It is projected to grow from $67 billion in 2013 to $82 billion in 2017, a change happening largely at the expense of the movie and music industries (see this interesting article here explaining why this is happening).

TV is no longer an 'idiot box'. The ponderous New York Times itself in a recent article signed David Carr (see here) came out with that arresting statement. Look at what David Carr has to say about TV's "New Golden Age", here's a screen shot of a high point in the article:

What a feast indeed! There's no doubt that TV series, like House of Cards, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones etc are entertaining and well worth watching. 

What is worrisome is that more and more intellectuals who were once upon a time big readers now binge on TV series. I know I have - I recently enjoyed for several weeks the Danish political TV series called "Borgen" centered on a fascinating female politician. My consolation is that it is considered "the hottest show in Europe" (see here). And here's the trailer, you can get it no matter where you live:

In our brave new digital world, the image is displacing the written word, it's as simple as that. 

The ebook has proved to be a neat way to make the written word more accessible to people - on your mobile devices the written word can now follow you anywhere, in the waiting room at the dentist's, on the plane, in the bathroom, in your bed.  

But the written word has to fight against films and music and videogames, a tough fight!

As to the suggestion that Smashwords is a big success and therefore we shouldn't have to worry (see article below), there's no secret: the number of writers who decide to self-publish is increasing exponentially and Smashwords is the platform of choice for them - user-friendly and able to upload  ebooks everywhere, from Apple's ibook store to Kobo to Barnes and Noble (though you still have to upload yourself on Amazon's KDP). 

But please note: Smashwords' success does not translate into increased sales for ebooks worldwide. The two aren't related.


Don't get me wrong. The flattening of ebook sales is not for tomorrow morning, there are still big markets to conquer, in particular India, the country that reads the most in the world, see the reading data here. 

I'm talking about a long-term trend, that is affecting the written word in all its forms, including blogging. It is now well known that blogs based on the written word alone have much less traffic than those lavishly using videos and photos (see tips #9 and #25 in this comprehensive how-to article for bloggers, click here). 

Images win out every time!

The handwriting is on the (digital) wall. This is the end of an era that opened with Cervantes' Don Quixotte in 1605, the first great novel of modern times, and was propelled by Shakespeare, Molière, Voltaire, Dickens, Goethe, Tolstoy, Tolkien and so many fabulous writers over the next four centuries. 

How this new video trend can ever be reversed, I have no idea. 

Any suggestions?

Personally, I do see a silver lining: writers will always have a lot of work on their hands, even in this new image-obsessed world: because the images must tell a story, and writers are the story-tellers par excellence...

++++++++++

Win a book in our Scavenger Hunt. 8 books, more than 30 copies total. I'm one of the authors sponsoring the hunt with "Crimson Clouds".  Come and play, click here

Here's a little more fun from White Hot Christmas: Christmas Stalkings!

__________________________

Abby stumbled into the kitchen for a drink without bothering to turn the lights on. The ambient glow from the streetlight was usually enough for her to find her way. Yet tonight, the glow was absent.

Maybe it's cloudy outside.


She felt her way along the wall and crossed the dining room toward the kitchen, only to run into a solid wall where there shouldn't be one. Abby stuck out her hands, and felt... skin. Warm, solid, muscled, skin, dusted with hair. Male skin.

She screamed, prompting another warm, solid, muscled male body to slide behind her, his hand gently covering her mouth. She was bracketed by them in an almost naked Abby sandwich.

No way, Jose! I've seen this kind of movie too many times. I'm not gonna end up on the wrong side of a slasher film with screeching music after letting some strangers feel me up.

The man in front of her framed her face with his hands as if he wanted to kiss her, so she placed her palms on either side of his waist as he drew near, pulling him just a little bit closer.

Thud!

The guy in front of her went down with a whimper, her sharp knee right on target. She flung her head back toward the man behind her, hoping he was close enough and short enough for her skull to hit him in the face.
She was correct on both guesses, and the second man went down. Abby ran for her cell phone and the front door, dialing 9-1-1 as she fumbled with the locks.

The phone went dead. Dropping the useless thing, she undid four of the locks by feel before she heard the men stirring. She shot a glance behind her and doubled her efforts, only to find all the locks re-secured when she turned the light on. "Holy crap! What the hell is going on?" I know I undid those locks. I've done it a thousand times.

"We're your Christmas presents, Abby." A man's pained voice sounded from the bodies she'd left near the kitchen.

Abby turned toward them after glancing again at the dead cell phone. The locks, she couldn't explain.

The men rose shakily, helping each other up. Two nearly identical "steaming hot, muscled hunks of love," her girlfriends at work would call them. She could easily imagine her friends pushing each other out of the way to shove crisp dollar bills down the men's tight, brightly colored little thongs.

Thongs in Chicago in December? Oh no. "Uhm... you said you were my Christmas presents?"

They nodded in tandem.

"Did Mandy and Kim send you? I told them not to get me anything for Christmas, damn it!"

The men shrugged, and the one with the bloodied nose pulled a towel away from his face. "We don't know who sent us, Abby, just that we're here to grant your every desire."

"Great. How about you start by cleaning the bathroom? I hate doing that. Or are you strictly the dancing and dollar bill type?"

They glanced at each other in confusion, and she groaned when their eyes widened in obvious interest while they checked each other out. She had to admit, her friends definitely had good taste in eye candy. Completely delicious, from the top of their heads, past their broad, muscled chests, ripped abs, over their miniscule thongs, down their perfectly sculpted legs, and all the way down to their feet. One of which, on each man, was covered in an odd sock that looked suspiciously like the ones from her window sill.

She sighed in disappointment as they completely ignored her for each other. "The bathroom's that way, guys." She pointed down the hall, and strode into the bedroom to dress and down a couple of aspirin for the pounding headache she felt starting. "Just my luck. Two gorgeous men at my beck and call, bought and paid for... and they're gay. Figures." She shut the door on her fantasies and changed into her sweats.

* * *

"Oh yeah, shove it in there! Harder! Harder!"

The enthusiastic shout coming from her bathroom had Abby rushing to finish dressing. No way. No fucking way! They couldn't be... not in her bathroom!

"Wait, it's too tight." The other voice sounded strained, panting hard. "I don't think it's going to fit -- oh, there it goes!" A disgusting sound squirted wetly, the sound coming faster and faster as the men cheered themselves on, breathing harder and harder.

"Who knew there would be so much suction?"

"Damn, it's kind of dirty, don't you think?"

She stood outside the bathroom door, hesitating. It was swung closed, but not entirely shut. Just a little push, and it would swing open wider...

No, that would be disturbing their privacy.

Still unsure, she nudged the door with her foot. Oops. She peeked through the slight gap in the door, feeling kind of naughty, but ready for a little man-on-man action to liven up her Christmas Eve.

________________________

White Hot Christmas: Christmas Stalkings is available now at Changeling Press!

~ Cassidy

http://www.cassidymckay.com