Over here we
have PLR, which is the money an author gets each time somebody takes a book out
the library. There’s also the ALCS - the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, ( it's also Advanced Cardio Vascular Life support but that does not concern us here, hopefully) and they pay
authors when material has been used elsewhere.
Many years ago, it was their 30th anniversary, I think they might have had their 40th anniversary since then. ( They were set up in 1977 and it's now 2025, I think...) I came across a little book of quotes they had published to mark their 30th birthday. Various industry professionals were asked what they thought the challenges and the opportunities would be over the ‘next thirty years’. Which takes us up to this moment in time or thereabouts.
As I skimmed through it, looking for good quotes or interesting thoughts, I did notice no comments about social media and none about AI specifically.
I thought you might like a look at some
of their answers, in no particular order.
The advent of a viable e-book.
The challenges and opportunities of
digital technology but hoping that it would introduce writing to more readers.
Will it be easier or more difficult to
give up the day job, to become a full time
Writer?
Publishers and book shops are dominated
by people who work in marketing. And
marketing people tend to assume that
those with the purchasing power have
little brains and a lack of taste.
There will always be a need for stories
but, the methods of telling that story will
probably change.
I’d like to be really optimistic but it’s really difficult.
There’s a constantly changing marketplace
for writers so, if you’re not writing on
trend now you could be in a couple of
years. And let’s face it it’s never been easy
to make a living as a writer.
Some writers despair at the decline of
the picture book. If you think crime writing
is difficult to make a living, try
working as a writer illustrator!
Most people say that the most important
thing has been the advent of the
computer. But for every one that does,
there’s another lamenting the loss of dog
eared photocopies with comments scribbled
in hand in red pen in the margin.
Somebody comments that the crime novel is
now regarded as serious fiction
whereas before maybe it was not. Other
genre’s may rise and fall and rise again
but crime fiction always holds its place.
A few writers complain that increasingly their
life orbits around the computer screen with
emails, websites and questionnaires.
One writer says that the obsession with
celebrity books will soon pass. ( Errrr???)
One contributor in three expresses
concern for the future of the author and the
author’s income.
But I think I will leave the last word with Stephen Fry who said there will be endless changes.
Water may dry up, stories and language will not.
Caro
Your graphic story board gave me hope. The rest of the world not so much. We shall persevere.
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