Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A Case of the DTB's!


“Keep your mind open
to change all the time.
Welcome it.
Court it.
It is only by examining
and reexamining
your opinions
and ideas
that you can progress.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 —Dale Carnegie

It’s not something you come down with quickly, this case of DTB’s. Rather, it develops over years.
I have a case. I suspect you have a case. And although we love our DTB’s, somehow they’re getting an image problem.

DTB’s—Dead Tree Books. Yup. That’s what the Kindlers and other e-reader fans call our beloved leather bound books. And don’t even ask the Green Team what they call the zillions of paper pages that line our mahogany bookshelves.

On my last blog I wrote about the increasing rapidity factor in dialogue, scene and plot delivery. Now let’s look at our world and the entertainment industry.
‘Stop the presses!’ no longer means  there’s breaking news. Today the presses just stop. Two-newspaper cities are almost obsolete. Magazines have either folded or acquiesced to the demands for a complete online presence. Cable and satellite companies are scrambling to be the quickest provider of instant-download movies. Is a nanosecond too slow?
            And Amazon made the announcement just this week. With an original goal to outsell all other booksellers in the world, it seems Amazon itself might have been surprised that they are now selling more digital print books than hardcovers.
            Here’s what Jessica Strawser, editor of Writer’s Digest, has to say about technology in general:  “Regularly, WD Interview subjects debated in earnest the merits of the pen versus the keys. Eventually, they skeptically began to ponder the invention of word processors. Later, they wondered whether this new Internet thing might be here to stay.”

Here is a link to the Amazon story in the New York Times:


And for writers, here’s a Wall Street Journal cover story about digital printing success:

What does this mean for you and me?  It means we have plenty of good books to read!

Today I wish you time to read.

2 comments:

  1. I don't think we'll ever see the end of paper books, but I totally think we'll see more and more digital material. I love my Kindle and covet an iPad. But there are still some things I want "traditionally" rather than fast and easy.

    The times, they are a'changin'.

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