LS: Several years ago, new technologies available to consumers made irreversible changes in the way music was bought, sold, and ultimately, created. What similarities do you see between that and the current state of publishing? What differences? Do you think there is anything we can learn from this?

Jason Pettus: The fabled “iPod for Books” is coming, and in fact is almost here. As the Kindle and Sony Reader prove, the technology itself is with us already. We need a series of small industry and mindset changes: a loosening of DRM obsession from the major presses and Amazon. A better way for basement presses and self-published authors to get their work on these devices too. A way for customers to add whatever customized content they want.

And especially important, a common technological standard for formatted electronic text that all interested parties can agree to. Even if this needs to be created from scratch by some government-sponsored inter-company committee, and all the publishing companies and tech groups start all over again from step 1 with all their existing books in this format.

In fact, I’d love to see the topic taken on by this supposed “Department of Technology” that President Obama will apparently be establishing.

One way or another, though, such a fabled device I just describe will be appearing in society within the next five to ten years. Then everything changes for the publishing industry, and changes for good, just as profoundly and swiftly as the MP3 combined with the iPod combined with podcasting changed the music industry. Anyone in the publishing industry would be a fool to ignore this. They should start making plans for it now.

Debbie Bennett: I think that e-readers will become more prevalent. Especially in places like the US, where many people live great distances from bookstores or libraries. There’ll be less of an impact in the UK. It will be interesting to see if books ultimately sell the same way as music – but how do you “showcase” a book online? It doesn’t have quite the same impact as a music video on Youtube. Clever marketing is the way forward. Perhaps writers need to get more web knowledge?

Max Dunbar: The whole Napster/MP3 thing changed music forever because people could download and exchange music for free. I can’t see a similar thing happening with books because the physical book is so well loved in literary culture. Have you tried to read a 100,000 word novel on a computer screen?

But as I’ve said the net does feed into new fiction, through weblogs, and online magazines, and new technologies available for writers to promote and showcase their fiction.

Alexander McNabb: People like the hardware of books. The generation behind us might not be quite so attached to books. The generation behind that probably won’t be.

I was involved in the first generation of digital music creation and recording, back in the early 1980’s. None of us even remotely foresaw what was to come. But we’re 28 years later and, honestly, remarkably little has changed compared to what change could have taken place. There are huge vested interests that embraced the agents of change and held them tightly to their corporate chests where they couldn’t get away and cause much trouble. I think authonomy might be a similar reaction to changes in publishing. But I don’t have a clear vision of what evolution awaits publishing.

Paul Fenton:  I think it’s hard to draw parallels between music and publishing. Music is more of an aesthetic product – it appeals to the senses and the emotions, and can be judged in seconds. Books require an intellectual and time investment far greater than that of music. Readers are consequently more risk-averse than music listeners, and are less likely to take a chance on a book that hasn’t been “validated” by the industry.

Carl Thomas: New technology has paved the way for huge losses due to piracy. I’ve heard a few people complain that ebooks are still expensive. Books, like films and music are also available for download free of charge of Torrent sites. Takes a lot longer to read a book than it does to watch a film or listen to music, so I doubt it will have the same impact.

Simon Forward: Unfortunately the two art forms aren’t so easy to equate. It’s far easier to listen to a song on MySpace, for example, than it is to make yourself sit down and read a chapter or two of a book off the computer screen.

And you might pay 79 pence for a downloadable track, but are you going to pay 79 pence for a portion of a book? No, I don’t think so.

However, there are some lessons to be learned.

My motto – or mission statement, if you like, in life – is to involve, inspire and illuminate readers with my stories. None of us can do that if our books are left to gather dust on virtual bookshelves or in cupboards at home. All credit to Harper Collins for setting up a new platform, but something more needs to be done to launch books off that platform and into readers’ hands where they belong. Technology is all very well and good, but a PDF is definitely no substitute for the feel of a good book in your hands.

Erik Hare: The most important lesson is to not fight it. New technology can and eventually will empower writers to take control of their own craft. We have to focus on making that happen. And getting paid – we have to get paid. For once.

This concludes the first series of Writers Discuss the Future of Publishing. You are welcome to add your thoughts – we’d love to hear from you.

Erik Hare

Erik Hare is the Internet Marketing Consultant for Scarletta Press, a small publisher in Minneapolis. He’s also a grant writer and a consultant for non-profit companies. He previously worked as a research engineer for ChemE.

Erik is currently working on his first novel, Authenticity, about “the middle class fantasy life falling desperately in love with the reality it can never have.” He says that writing is a hobby, and he does not plan to quit his day job. He keeps a blog, Barataria, where he posts essays about culture, politics, art and more. You can find some of Erik’s work at erikhare.wordpress.com.

Jason Pettus

Jason Pettus owns and operates the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. He has been involved with self-publishing and basement presses for 25 years, since he was a teenager in the early 80’s, Midwestern punk/zine scene. He spent ten years writing, publishing, and marketing his own novels, creative nonfiction, and slam poetry.

CCLaP released its first original book in November 2008, a story cycle called Repetition Patterns by local author Ben Tanzer (www.cclapcenter.com/patterns). This is an electronic book, released on a “pay what you want system” inspired by Radiohead, and Tanzer will be touring after the holidays to promote it.

CCLaP plans to put out another book this year, then four more in 2009, when Jason will also publish CCLaP’s first book on paper. More information is available at www.cclapcenter.com.

Max Dunbar

Max Dunbar is the Manchester Regional Editor for Succour, a new UK journal of fiction, poetry, and art (www.succour.org) that is now looking at submissions for its 2009 edition.

Though he has a background in policy and regen, Max has also done bar work, warehouse work, call centre work and other “drifting-writer type” jobs.

Max’s short fiction has appeared in print and web journals including Open Wide, Straight from the Fridge and Lamport Court. He’s written articles on politics and religion for Butterflies and Wheels. Max is currently seeking representation for his novel, Professionals, “a tale of chaos and corruption in local government.” He blogs at maxdunbar.wordpress.com.

Debbie Bennett

Debbie Bennett has been involved in the UK small press scene for many years. She has edited and published magazines, newsletters, and anthologies on behalf of the British Fantasy Society. She freelances for a small UK independent publisher, doing order-processing, occasional slushpile reading, and editorial work.

Debbie’s short fiction has been published in the small press, in women’s magazine, and has won several competitions. She is now shopping two novels. Hamelin’s Child, “a thriller set in the seedy world of London’s drug rings,” was long-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award. The other book, Edge of Dreams, is a young adult contemporary fantasy.

Debbie’s past and colorful day jobs include tax inspector, debt collector, drugs investigator, and brewery controller for UK beer duty. She now works in IT for the Police. You can find her on the web at www.debbiebennett.co.uk or www.debbie-bennett.blogspot.com.

Alexander McNabb

Alexander McNabb is the group account director at Spot On Public Relations, working in the Middle East markets, particularly in telecoms, media and entertainment. He’s been in PR for twelve years, and has spent over twenty years writing as a journalist, editor, and publishing director of a Middle East magazine publisher. He lives in Dubai, having moved there “to escape the rain, the dole, and the tea” in England.

Alexander’s body of work includes news stories, features, white papers, and other research work on computing and telecommunications, as well as features and columns for newspapers and lifestyle magazines. He has worked with pop stars, celebrities, and ICT industry leaders, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and King Abdulla II of Jordan.

Alexander is shopping two novels. Space, “Innocent man pitched into desperate race across Europe against unfeasible odds to save world from shadowy cabal. Except this is darkly, wickedly, scabrously, relentlessly funny.” And Olives, “Paul Stokes must decide whether the woman he loves is a killer or an innocent. But he must betray her, regardless.” He blogs at fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com.

Simon A. Forward

Simon A. Forward is a professional writer living in Cornwall. He is the author of two Doctor Who novels, Drift and Emotional Chemistry for BBC Books, plus a Telos Novella Shell Shock and a number of other Doctor Who works, as well as (under a pseudonym) the first two books of Puffin’s Fright Night series. Before this, he worked as a computer programmer and a part-time lecturer.

Simon is currently shopping two novels: Evil UnLtd, a sci-fi comedy, and Kip Doodle, a kids’ fantasy adventure series. You can find him on the web at www.simonforward.co.uk, or blogging at prefectjournal.blogspot.com.

Lexi Revellian

Lexi Revellian is a writer and a self-employed jeweller/silversmith living in England. She received her Masters from the Royal College of Art, and has previously held a job organizing the distribution of a free magazine.

Lexi is currently working on a novel, Catch a Falling Star, a romantic thriller. You can find her on the web at lexirevellian.squarespace.com/welcome/ or blogging at lexirevellian.blogspot.com.

Paul Fenton

Paul Fenton is a “corporate hooker” in the UK – in other words, he’s in banking.
Paul has previously published a few short stories in zines. He is now shopping a novel called Punchline, “a black comedy about plagiarism, paranoia, and the sticky mess that results when the protagonist tries to solve the mystery on his own.”

Elizabeth Jasper

Elizabeth Jasper lives in Spain. Her professional background is with UK university administration, as well as UK National Health Service (NHS) administration.

Elizabeth is shopping a novel called Lying in Wait: “1974. The decisions made by a naïve young Irishman in Dublin devastate the lives of a womanising Northumbrian dairy farmer and his family.” You can find details and some of her other work at www.elizabethjasper.com.

Carl Thomas

Carl Thomas lives in the UK and works in IT/Sales. He’s published one copy of a small press magazine, which published horror fiction and book reviews; most of which were from Harper Collins. He’s a voracious reader. You can find some of his work at www.goodreads.com/story/show/28909.Dark_Dreams?chapter=1.

Hannah Davis

Hannah Davis is a British ex-pat living in Spain, and a former English teacher in Central America and Madrid. She has worked as PA in a top UK literary agency, Casarotto Ramsay (repping film/tv writers & directors), and a freelance reader for Robert Fox & the Almeida Theatre. Her job was at ICM, London office, as a PA.

Nowadays, Hannah is a freelance offering manuscript critiques, and she co-owns an ex-pat magazine in Spain. Her first novel, The Voices of Angels, is YA supernatural story: “Lizzie Fisher is an ordinary girl with an extraordinary gift. She can see when people are about to die.” Hannah blogs at streamwriting.com/blog.