The words of my book nothing, the drift of it every thing,
A book separate, not link’d with the rest nor felt by the intellect,
But you ye untold latencies will thrill to every page.
– Walt Whitman, 1865

With these words, we are launching a new blog devoted to providing writer’s resources and exploring the evolution of publishing. Join us for a lively conversation! What topics would you like to see us cover?

Full disclosure: I am not a certified publishing or marketing guru—since “guru” implies miraculous results and wisdom. However, I do know a great deal about building good books. I am a practicing professional writer, editor, production manager, and publisher. Like an ecologist, I see the connections between diverse subjects, ideas, and resources throughout the vast Internet environment. And I remain an unabashed idealist in the face of multimedia information overload, believing still that well-crafted, passionate words can and will help make your dreams come true and in the long haul save the world.

Even the definition of “publishing” is evolving. The DNA of publishing is adapting to comprise authors and audience, production and marketing, the message and the media. Writing and publishing are dramatically evolving before our eyes in four fundamental ways:

I. Traditional publishing is dead. The first metaphor that comes to mind is King Kong. He is enormous, powerful, and dangerous. He is also a romantic, and he knows he is the last of his kind, that he is already extinct. We are now witnessing the melodramatic fall of Traditional Publishing – the old industry known for its domination by a handful of monster-sized corporations; large, risky print runs; thousands of great titles serving only as background wallpaper to feature big-name bestsellers; authors begging for scraps at publisher’s doors; and small presses helpless to be heard through the marketing din. Old-school publishing shares ol’ Kong’s fate. Only the publishers and their authors who can adapt and evolve will survive.

Let’s share an open and opinionated conversation about the evolution of publishing as we are experiencing it this moment. News of traditional dinosaurs falling (return policies), new traditions and innovations (ebook apps), love of sweetly musty books (enduring comforts), and tracking the debate throughout the realm.

II. We can be storytellers and teachers interacting directly with our audience and students again.
Not so long ago, an author fought an arcane system to get published at all. A writer had to woo an agent or editor to score that mythic contract and see words in print with distribution and publicity attached. Next, the author struggled to find and attract an audience, even after publication.

While competition for the blockbuster book deal is tougher than ever, if an author’s main goal is to share a message and a story, now the goal is at hand. The audience may be only a Google-search away. Self-publishing, social media, and multimedia technologies bring us back to the campfire circle, onto the plaza, into the kiva together again.

Here we’ll connect/reconnect with our audience. We’ll find them and seduce them. We can invoke the storyteller muse, unafraid of Web 2.0 opportunities. And let’s remember our teachers who enthralled us and learn to do the same for others.

III. Writing is still a refined craft, and publishing is still a difficult business. Here, at least, no one will argue with the basic premise. Yet, when anyone can publish what they write, face it folks, a lot of crap gets published. And when everyone fashions themselves publishers, the merciless mathematics of business will crush a lot of dreams. Though the platforms and demographics and scope of publishing are rapidly changing, success in the business of publishing—whether individual author, small press, or major house—requires new resources, best practices, and, as always, fierce stamina.

We can share the never-ending quest for better writing together. Bring us inspiration from the masters, and join in the perspiration of the wordsmith work. Take your business savvy to a higher level with links, tips, news, and networks. Then, we have to be a nimble new species to survive the changing habitats of production, presentation, and promotion of our publishing endeavors.

IV. More than ever, writers and publishers need to collaborate and share resources. With the advent of decentralized publishing and the growth of social media, authors can and must interact directly with other authors and audiences. We all  benefit from sharing resources—the living search engine called Twitter is a dynamic example. Writers and publishers need to raise the barn together more than ever before. How else can we keep up with the evolution of the market, the needs of the audience, and the magic of the words?

A primary mission of this blog and the Confluence Book Services site is to provide an ever-burgeoning bucket for author and publisher resources. Check back often, contribute where you can.

Thus, The Evolution of Publishing as the theme for this blog. I hope to distill and share what I have learned and continue to discover about the publishing endeavor. These four topics weave an integrated mandala together.  And I trust that this theme will lead us ever deeper into a lively, interactive, provocative, celebratory, and inspiring conversation. You are warmly invited to join me!