Impact of Technology on the Author
Posted On Thursday, March 10, 2011 at at 7:51 PM by Dianne Kennedyi M listening to the Margaret Atwood Keynote presentation, “The Publishing Pie; An Author’s View,” on YouTube. Atwood provided a very thoughtful presentation and a complete counterpoint to the excitement about advances in publishing technologies that I usually report on.
This was the best attended session of the Tools of Change Conference in February and certainly one of the highlights of the conference. Ms. Atwood did not speak about or demonstrate any new “wow” technology. In fact, she marveled that she had been invited to speak at all as she was a mere author and not a technologist. In contrast to other keynoters, Atwood did not even use PowerPoint slides and had no fancy animations or videos. Her slides were hand drawn, which made them not only unique, but potentially quite valuable as individual “works of art”. Atwood took us on a journey through her publishing career and the attrition of the author’s share of the “Publishing Pie”. She is one of only 10% of authors that make their full time living from writing and that is significant. According to Atwood, it is difficult to make a living as an author, and getting more difficult each day.
Atwood’s career began with a single, hand drawn and lettered edition that she created as a child. By 1961 she had a fairly large “print” run of 220 volumes of poetry that she handset and created the cover using linoblocks. Her regret is that she hadn’t held on to more of that very limited edition publication, as today each volume is worth quite a pretty penny to collectors. In those early publishing ventures the author retained the majority of the publishing “pie”. Atwood went on to discuss the changing business models for book publishing and how that provides (or doesn’t provide) enough “grilled cheese sandwiches” for an author to live on.
While eBooks are wildly popular, Atwood tells us that authors actually receive far less income from an eBook than they do for the printed edition of the same book. Will the advancements of reading technologies eventually cut a writer’s income so much that they can no longer survive? Perhaps the future for authors may be a return to the past where authors make a viable living from small, collectable limited edition print runs. Alternatives proposed by Atwood included the idea of authors banding together to regain control of their rightful portion of the publishing pie.
Dianne Kennedy
While eBooks are wildly popular, Atwood tells us that authors actually receive far less income from an eBook than they do for the printed edition of the same book. Will the advancements of reading technologies eventually cut a writer’s income so much that they can no longer survive? Perhaps the future for authors may be a return to the past where authors make a viable living from small, collectable limited edition print runs. Alternatives proposed by Atwood included the idea of authors banding together to regain control of their rightful portion of the publishing pie.
Dianne Kennedy
