Comments on: Breaking through to the other side: the music and publishing industries are dying. Music and writing will live on in new ways, and we’re living through the revolution.

By: Ben Roth

Ben Roth — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:31:45 +0000

My response was brief,too brief. I meant to say that the style of writing changed with movies as the 19th century novel was dense with description and detail . With the invention of movies , story writing changed to a less descriptive style. We face another change now as writers in the agae of a different technology

By: Peter Friedman

Peter Friedman — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:12:34 +0000

Ben — I don’t think identifying an enemy has anything to do with it. But, then again, the hypothetical “enemies” (other than the eternal pop audience) you’ve identified can all be boiled down to this: writers trying to figure out how they’re going to find their audiences and make money in doing so. They’re not enemies — they’re the people who are trying not to freak out and trying to figure exactly that out (and by and large expressing the curiosity and wonder artists experience at this strange and ever changing world). I’ll try to write more about finding audiences and making the work pay, but I’m certainly no new age marketing guru. And I’m not sure what the wonderful expanses open to film makers has to do with anything. They’re working in a different medium, and they’ve got the same problems.

By: Ben Roth

Ben Roth — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:12:19 +0000

Hi all, I wish to bring different perspectives to this discussion. I am someone who writes, someone who edits writers for psych. journals and someone with strong leanings toward other writing. Movies, made visual and active the images that writers put on paper, filled the screen with background and action never imagined by those limited by and creative with pen ,typewriter and then computer. So ? So I think we need a better definition of the current enemy. Is the enemy the locked up world of the writer who now faces having to hawk his /her wares on the internet? Is the enemy the dumbed down audience who prefers and chooses literary tripe rather than good hearty steak ? Is the enemy the individual writer who must now re-imagine a collective of writers in a business of saving themselves and earning

By: Alice Eaton

Alice Eaton — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:01:10 +0000

Hey thanks for this. I have avoided freaking out too, mostly through denial, but also because I love books and reading and cannot imagine the world will stop loving literature. So this is encouraging. I hope there are powerful, well organized entities that can shape this new technology in a way that helps ALL writers and artists, not just fake celeb ones. The way network TV moved to commercial, safe, unadventurous content may be instructive…

By: Ellie Johnston

Ellie Johnston — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:21:50 +0000

Think: “freemium” or “long-tail” (look up Chris Anderson).

I agree with your statment:

“I suspect in the long run we’ll probably end up with fewer writers making too much money, and more making at least some.”

Makes the most sense to me. Netflix makes their money not off the blockbusters but from all the strange little movies you and I rent.

Audiences will continue to fragment and everybody will need to turn into his or her own mini-Oprah. Your personal brand will hook your audience to your product –doesn’t matter if it’s a blender or a personal essay you’re selling.

I say rather than freaking-out, celebrate.