HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, is back in the glorious setting of Hay. It takes place in the first ten days of June including both the postponed May and Jubilee bank holidays. 410 events, 6 stages, 165 speakers, 10 days, 150 bands. And I’ll be there on June 7, talking on this panel:
‘Six Billion Authors in Search of an Audience’
(Caroline Smailes, Ewan Morrison, Scott Pack. Gabriel Gbadamosi chairs)
In an age of self publishing and writers’ workshops, the idea that we all have a novel inside of us has become commonplace. But how essential is writing to individuality? Has the Internet facilitated one of our most deep-rooted desires, or has it opened up the false hope of a readership, a performance without meaning?
Critical theorist, writer and commentator Ewan Morrison, blogger and experimental novelist Caroline Smailes, and HarperCollins publicist and Me and My Big Mouth blogger Scott Pack consider the impact of the internet on a new generation of writers.
Tickets can be bought on the website.
I’m very much looking forward to spending the day at the festival.
6 Responses to “Has The Internet Made You Into A Pretend Writer?”
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This is so true and the worst of it is that we all get tarred with the same brush. It used to be that there is a wall around the publishing industry, and there still is. If you don’t know someone you won’t get in. There are too many safe bets for the established publishing industry to take a punt on something genuinely new.
The same thing has now happened with the new industries that have grown around self published or independent authors. We all need promotion and publicity and that is largely done through blog reviews and the like. However, so many of these reviewers are flooded with truly appalling writers that they seem to be permanently closed to new writers unless they come with some sort of intro. Once again it’s a case of who you know.
The Internet is a new frontier and there are new fronts opening up within it all the time. However, each of those new fronts soon develops the characteristics of the wider world. The Eagles said in 1977, “there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here.” (That’s not really relevant but I there is probably a connection somewhere.
I agree to some extent, but I would say that the writers that are really making a splash are those try to be different. Blogs are now a standard, but what about forums, or pinterest or even advertising on GoodReads. If you can make any of these work for you, then you may well find an avenue that has real value.
It is disheartening to know that, ‘if you don’t know somebody you won’t get in’. As it is, it’s a scramble to write a ‘good’ novel, get it edited and proofed, and then get together all the material to upload the book to- the online publisher you choose.
Thanks to Gary’s newsletters, advice, and handy free downloads, I’m taking a chance. I’m not an expert at using my pc and, at times I wonder if I’ll ever get things done. Anyhow, I’m going to try.
Lilian - This is a new world for all of us. I feel that if you are taking steps to ensure what you are doing is the best it can be, then you have a fighting chance.
Hey, thanks for posting this, especially since I took you up on the offer to subscribe and get the 20 page writing ebook. I always take the opportunity for free advice and this time it really paid off. It was such a revelation reading your book that I wrote a blog post about it. I’ll be posting a link to my twitter tomorrow, but you or anyone can always follow my link here to the site. Thanks a bunch. I wish I could go to the conference - this panel and the whole festival looks awesome. Oh, and as far as any woes about publishing, I took publishing into my own hands in the 90′s and everything has gotten better and better as time goes on. This is the best time to be a writer or a reader!!! Enjoy!