With all the material available in blogs, self•publishing, memoirs, e•mail, instant messenger and other formats • there appears to be more writers than readers. Shrinking leisure hours due to the 24×7 work week restricts time for reading even further; and when you have to factor in time to read blogs and e•mail and instant messenger and all the other stuff that did not matter ten years ago, what is left for quality reading is abysmal.
There once used to be a mid•tier list of published books; they seem to have vanished into the realms of self•publishing or even up into the bestseller list which are marketed so hard these days, some people buy them out of curiosity. I wonder how many books sit on shelves • purchased due to peer pressure or in a spirit of self•indulgence • and are never read? I have many of those too: some purchased at book launches by writers I know but am too polite to refuse an autographed copy from • after all, they buy mine!
And so they sit • books in search of readers, books mined from the collective consciousness of an aging but educated generation that feels each member has at least one good story in them.
Has this cycle occured some time before in history or is this the first time? And what do writers do in this cycle? Continue to write books and stories that come from within and hopefully inspire readers, or chuck up the pen and take up golf or some other hobby that thare aging bodies can cope with? Any insights from anyone reading this would be welcome. I sometimes feel that I am the man on the island sending out notes in bottles with this blog. Hopefully, there is still a reader out there who is not overwhelmed with blogs, e•mail, self•publishing, bestselling non•sellers, memoirs and instant messenger to stop and read this • and write back!
