Comments on: Big Think interviews author Sherman Alexie http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/big-think-interviews-author-sherman-alexie/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:35:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Steve Jordan http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/big-think-interviews-author-sherman-alexie/comment-page-1/#comment-1148195 Steve Jordan Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:41:41 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=31367#comment-1148195 Actually, I'm surprised Sherman would consider e-books "elitist" because "dedicated reading devices are $300." It sounds like the dismissive kind of thing that an "elitist" author would say... as if he is blithely unaware that e-books can be read on cellphones, devices now more ubiquitous than computers on this planet. It's not surprising that, as a published author, he feels a closer affinity to the Big Pub community than to independent writers making the effort to self-publish. He is right in one point: Those self-publishers (like me) have a much harder time being found by the public than Big Pub writers (like him), expressly because of the money spent by his publishers to promote him. But he seems to think the internet can't change that, and it already has. He emphasizes that the money made by Big Pub is its own justification, and that justification will eventually take over the internet, and control e-books. I say that the internet is changing that economic justification, as well as its model, and that Big Pub is not necessarily the future of publishing... I suspect it is the past, fighting to justify itself before it dries up and blows away. Actually, I’m surprised Sherman would consider e-books “elitist” because “dedicated reading devices are $300.” It sounds like the dismissive kind of thing that an “elitist” author would say… as if he is blithely unaware that e-books can be read on cellphones, devices now more ubiquitous than computers on this planet.

It’s not surprising that, as a published author, he feels a closer affinity to the Big Pub community than to independent writers making the effort to self-publish. He is right in one point: Those self-publishers (like me) have a much harder time being found by the public than Big Pub writers (like him), expressly because of the money spent by his publishers to promote him.

But he seems to think the internet can’t change that, and it already has. He emphasizes that the money made by Big Pub is its own justification, and that justification will eventually take over the internet, and control e-books. I say that the internet is changing that economic justification, as well as its model, and that Big Pub is not necessarily the future of publishing… I suspect it is the past, fighting to justify itself before it dries up and blows away.

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