Embracing Digital Possibilities - Guest Post by Lisa Dempster [16.06.2010]
Chris Meade from the Institute of the Future of the Book recently visited Australia and the Emerging Writers' Festival were lucky enough to have him for a guest with us in Melbourne.
His thoughts about ‘future books’ at our online chat was aimed at emerging writers but some of his comments are also relevant to indie publishers:
I’m especially interested in how emerging writers respond to the big shift going on with digital. I’m excited because it seems to me that there’s now a clear continuum for those who want to write to ‘amplify’ their words.We all have the ability to put our words on the global bookshelf of the web for free…
In the UK independent booksellers are folding all the time which is sad, but I think it could be a great time to create the Future of the Book Shop and think afresh about how people want to spend their money on and off line. The future belongs to those who can think clearly about NOW and stop trying to compare the past to the future…
I think there’s also a new kind of reader who doesn’t buy paper books but does read intelligent writing on websites who may well be lured to reading whole books on their iphone or kindle. Don’t you think most readers of literary fiction and poetry are also writing their own or wanting to?? It’s been a read/write art form for a long time I reckon…
You can see the full transcript archived at our site: Bloggers' Brunch hosted by Chris Meade.
He also stopped by our indie press fair, Page Parlour, and had a few words to say about how independent publishing will be affected by the digitisation of our media here:
Lisa Dempster is the Director of the Emerging Writers Festival.The 2010 Emerging Writers Festival ran from May 21st to May 30th. If you would like to become a festival pen pal for 2011, go here.
Subscribe to our RSS feed
Follow us on Twitter