Comments on: Writing in a Canyon

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:31:44 +0000

The question about fiction and history related things is a good one. I was thinking about it as I was writing, but decided to skirt around it. I do not think this applies to fiction. Fiction, I think, is an entirely different animal and continuous feedback is not as important, perhaps detrimental. Non-fiction history books would still benefit from a feedback process though and I do think these ideas apply to them, though in a different way. The sources for history are not ever changing, but the new discoveries and insights are. It would be interesting to see, for example, a book about the Holocaust written by a community of regular German citizens and Jewish citizens of the time. Throw in a few of the next generation and that would be a powerful community written book!

However, I do still think that printed fiction books will also cease to be as common but for entirely different reasons. I think fiction books too will be printed only for collecting and vanity, not for simple reading. Printed books are already prohibitively expensive for many. A new hardback easily costs $30+tax and that is more money than most people are willing to spend these days. I only buy print books that I want to keep, to collect and I am running out of physical space to keep them. Plus, my Kindle is much easier to cart around then a 5 lb hardback.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:51:09 +0000

I understand your point for the type of writing you are currently doing, but do you think the same holds true for fiction or possibly even less time sensitive non-fiction subjects like history or literature criticism?

What kind of continuous feedback would be useful to fiction authors? I obviously understand that they have people who critique their work along the way, but I don’t see how putting their creative work out to be critiqued by an endless number of people while they are still in the process of writing would be useful. It would most likely result in to much disparate feedback that would hamper instead of benefit the writing process.

By: Judy Hauser

Judy Hauser — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:42:17 +0000

Jane – I share many of your sentiments. I had a book published last year: “The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy?” and I did use specific Websites and tools and I know that some will disappear from the Web while people are still buying the book. Several example sites and tools I chose disappeared during the writing process forcing me to choose others. It’s a risky thing to write about the Web. However, I think the part that worries me just as much is that the book will not be sold in stores and it’s a book for people who don’t know much about the Web. That means that they have to go online, find it and order it in an environment that they are unsure about!