The fouler stench of the Grim Reaper lingers around the publishing industry as he prepares for a mighty cull. He doesn't wait for me, I am waiting outside. Surely after he has rampaged and created carnage, a wall will come down. And as is standard with these operations, applying to leaders of states and corporations alike, they will blame their advisers.
Once movies packed theatres and music was produced by those expressing their art. A time when albums such as 'Bridge over Troubled Water' and Thriller' had their time on the chart measured in years.
Then came the gurus and the coaches with the message. "You are welcome to express yourself as long as you do the way we say." Pop music turned into 8 bars of this followed 16 bars of that, and was crap; requiring so much promotion that even a #1 single represented a financial loss. All hope was pinned on album sales. Movies followed the same pattern, 18 minutes of this, followed by 54 minutes of that. They were crap, and required Sharon Stone and other actresses to show their beavers and other body parts in order to get people to watch the film. It seems paying Demi-Moore $20 million dollars to bare her breasts was preferable to using a decent original script.
They did not understand – Painting by numbers, is not art.
Two industries sunk. The publishing industry proved a tougher nut to crack, all that history and tradition. But they succeeded, and the Macdonald's paperback was invented. To be read, shelved and forgotten. Each the same story within certain parameters, the instant hook, the three acts and the positive end. As the mp3 came to destroy the guardians of Sony Music. The ebook will be the nemesis of Random House and Harper Collins. Take your laptop, turn it sideways – what does it look like to you? Soon a book will be an electronic facsimile of it's current form and publishers will be all those with an internet connection.
And as digital subscriber lines carry away yet more corporation profits will anarchy ensue? No Way. A time is near when the contents of your inbox will be listed on your tax return, probably.
It's been several days since my last blog. Nothing to report. The Devil's in the Details got a big remix. And Frank and Forthright is certainly a new direction.
Other than that the future's greyish, with some greenish bits in the corner.
In other news.
A man with a weakness for adverbs would write a story about his cat. After 32 submissions and 11 rewrites he does not realise 'cats' as subject matter are wholly unfashionable. Surely common sense would dictate he put the manuscript aside and write of a helicopter; a tale full of adjectives.
I fear he is obsessed with editing towards a moving target. As a man cutting off table legs to prevent a slight wobble; without a guide he will trim down to nothing. Does he not realise all he need do is wait for cats and adverbs to come into fashion? He may well learn during this process of editing but he is chasing a shadow. Between the time he puts his manuscript in the post and the editor begins to read, a rule or two will have changed. Cats are in, adverbs are good but third person is so last season (week).