There will always be printed material, but the PC boom calls for a re-examination of the ways writers and publishers deliver the goods. Are you ready for the challenge?
DO YOU always write with a view to being published on paper – ie, in traditional book, magazine or newspaper article form – or on TV or radio?If so, you may need to change your view of publishing if you are to succeed at selling your work into the markets of the future.
While there will always be books and, most likely, various printed journals ranging from dailies to annuals, one item of news above all others in the past few months confirms that the personal computer is set to become a major, if not THE major, publishing platform.
The news is:
- Britain is now officially the home computer capital of the world. The level of personal computer ownership here is twice as high, per head of population, as in the United Sates, and higher than anywhere else in Europe.
- Nearly one in three homes in the UK has a computer, and average usage is around 10 hours a week.
- For the first time ever, television watching has been “significantly eroded” by computer usage.
- Nearly 45 per cent of homes with schoolchildren own a personal computer, compared with 30 per cent in 1990.
- Almost one in three children – and twice as many boys as girls – never or hardly ever read a book out of school, yet they will happily absorb the same information from their computers.
With 7.5 million personal computers (the vast majority of them, by the way, IBM or compatible PCs) now in use in 31.8 per cent of households in this country, the platform for electronic publications is already well established. Add to this the vast number of PCs in business, and many more in schools, colleges and universities and the case is even more convincing.
Also, the phenomenal growth of the Internet continues, and although there are many, many sources of free information on the Net – a situation which is likely to continue – there is nevertheless a growing trend on the part of many Internet publishers to start charging for admission to certain information and publications, particularly on the World Wide Web, the easiest to use, most attractive, and most popular area of the Internet.It doesn’t take a publishing genius to see from the facts set out above that big changes are taking place in the way people want information presented to them.Your instinct as a writer concerned with the quality of the printed word may be that the changes are for the worse. However, it is just as likely that good writers who embrace the electronic medium now will be the standard setters of the future, ensuring the quality of material that reaches the vast and seemingly ever-growing PC-user audience.
An example of that growth is the fact that the IBM or compatible PC is now becoming the standard platform for nearly every school in Britain. The non-industry standard Acorn computers are losing ground rapidly if The Guardian education supplement is to be believed.
A generation of children who have barely read a book but can recite sections of Microsoft Encarta and list the best sites on the World Wide Web without prompt or pause seems to be the current reality.
‘The PC is about 20 years old now. The next ten years will see the start of its golden era’ As PCs become even more sophisticated, CD-ROM publishing begins to mature and accessing the Internet becomes easier (even though it is, quite literally, child’s play for many already), the trend is certain to continue.
Channel 4’s three-part series, The Triumph of the Nerds, made the point that, generally speaking, new technologies – like the car and the television – take about 30 years to gain full acceptance. The PC is about 20 years old now. The next ten years will see that start of its golden era.
All of this is, of course, most gratifying for electronic publishers. But competition for the paying audience is already fierce, and it can only become fiercer still as the PC continues to gain ground at the partial – but probably never total – expense of other kinds of publishing.
What does it mean for you, the writer? If you have a computer (and you must at least have access to one if you are reading this), take a look at the kind of work that is currently being published for the platform if you haven’t already done so. It ranges from basic ASCII text articles which you load into a word processor, through to full multimedia which requires a powerful PC system including sound card, speakers, plenty of RAM and a fast graphics card. Take a long look, also, at both free and, if possible, paid-for publishing on the Web.
Having seen what’s on offer, decide which area of this burgeoning market you could contribute to. You don’t need to be a programmer or a computer graphics genius – a good idea and an equally good understanding of what computers are capable of when it comes to disseminating information or presenting fiction is often all you need to impress a prospective publisher.
‘Authoring tools take care of the programming for you, while you concentrate on substance, layout,interface etc.’ However, it is in the area of self-publishing that the major benefits are to be found. Again, you don’t need to be a programmer. Authoring tools – some of which are available at very reasonable prices – take care of the programming for you, while you concentrate on substance, layout, interface etc.
Once your publication is finished, you can upload it to a Web site (or have a third party do that for you), copy it ten times or several million times, and the quality will never suffer.
How do you do it? Read Self-publish Your Work the Economical Way in this issue of Writers’ Update, do some market research, buy yourself an authoring package and start work. There’s really no time to lose!
Your vital link with the world of writing and publishing
(traditional and electronic!)KEEPING up with markets and events is vital for the serious writer. The world of electronic publishing, in particular, can be confusing and objective advice is in short supply.
Writers’ Update promises to keep you well-informed on all aspects of publishing – traditional and electronic – with special emphasis on the computer as a writing and publishing tool. As a PC user, you have an enormous amount to gain from the developments happening daily in this sphere.
The only way to be sure of receiving this vital information regularly is to subscribe to the floppy disk version of Writers’ Update. With a generous amount of market information, the best advice, free software and demonstrations of useful programs included in the deal, we believe it’s the best investment of £14.95 a year (inc. delivery) you will ever make.
Richard Williams
Editor
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