Having spawned e-books that are now eating up into the sales of printed books, will the digital revolution also ultimately destroy the fruitful professional lives of 21st century authors? In particular, will the novel as an art form survive the onslaughts of e-books?
Tom Chatfield sought answers to these questions in “Do writers need paper?”, an article he wrote for the October 20, 2010 of the
Prospect Magazine in the UK. Chatfield had spent the last few months talking to authors, publishers and agents about the future, and his article makes it clear that the fears of authors about the adverse impact of e-books on them are widespread and not entirely ill-founded.
He reports: “E-books now account for at least 6 per cent of the total American market, a number that’s sure to rise steeply thanks to the huge success of both dedicated e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle and multipurpose hardware like Apple’s iPad, which is currently selling a million units a month. What this means for publishers, readers and writers is the transformation not only of the context within which books exist, but also of what books can and cannot say—and who will read them.”
Chatfield also points out that that the number of significant roles played by books—and the scale of the roles that authors themselves can play—are declining. Indeed, he quotes Per Wästberg, president of the Nobel committee for literature, as having acknowledged this likelihood about the demand for books: “There will always be people for whom literature is a necessary bread, the lifeblood of intellect and emotion. But I think it will shrink.”
Read Tom Chatfield’s “Do writers need paper?” in the Prospect Magazine now!RELATED READING:In “An academic question,” an article she wrote for the October 12, 2010 issue of the
Prospect Magazine, Jean Seaton observes that universities in the United Kingdom—once highly cherished—have grown so many in number and have become so unloved. “The fact that universities do not speak with one clear or convincing voice makes it hard for them to hold off the reformers,” Seaton argues. “Universities have also failed to articulate any sense of national purpose or responsibility—even though much of what they do enriches our private and collective lives immeasurably.”
Read Jean Seaton’s “an Academic question” in the Prospect Magazine now!
