The past is a nice place to visit, but I don't want to live there
The past is a nice place to visit, but I don’t want to live there.
I celebrated my 70th birthday a few months ago which means I have been around for a long time, and I have seen many changes in this world—some good, some bad. The most significant change for me is the paradigm shift that has occurred in the way we communicate.
paradigm shift: a time when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something changes completely.
For those who can’t remember what life was like 60 or 70 years ago, we had telephones, newspapers, magazines, and books. The latter three used ink on paper, and the phone was tethered with a cable that kept it in one spot. I remember those years fondly, walking to the ‘bookmobile’ to find something to read, sitting on the kitchen counter while talking on the phone for hours, but I prefer the world of the 21st century and the ease of the internet.
One memory that stands out is walking home late one night (around 1970) and looking through a window that showed a large computer room and one lone figure still working despite it being the wee hours of a new day. I remember it because I was considering changing careers. Working with computers might be an interesting choice, I thought, but after seeing the night-owl working on those computers, I looked someplace else. I had spent some of my electrical apprenticeship working a midnight shift at Simpson Sears. It was memorable but not a way I wanted to spend my nights. I also remember the incident because of the irony. I spend the last 30 odd years of my working life in the IT field working with computers. There were many late nights, but I loved it. I experienced the communications paradigm shift, hands on, as it occurred.
Maybe because of my work experience, I find myself ready to accept the communication paradigm more easily than my peers. Over the last few years I have become a writer, and I appreciate the changes I struggle to make to support being an Indie author. Despite my IT background, making use of social/digital media as marketing tools is a foreign concept. Today I bought an ebook by; Barb Drozdowich called The Author's Guide To Working With Book Bloggers, because my next attempt at marketing involves book bloggers. In her book, Ms. Drozdowich makes this point;Marketing practices that work well to sell shoes or hamburgers don’t work well with books. Book sales are more personal. They are sold on word of mouth. They are sold on recommendation by a friend. What do you say to someone reading a book? “Is it any good?” “What do you think?” If you’re a fan of the author, you might ask, “Is it as good as the rest of their books?” It is often said that selling books is a relationship business.
Word of mouth today means reviews. I write reviews, sometimes. If a book has hundreds of reviews I don’t bother, but in most cases I review books I read because it is important to the author and other readers. It is the modern equivalent to telling someone about the book you read, and we all like to do that, but I have to assume that many people don’t see it that way. I liken their reluctance to my feelings about writing a critical review. I never know how to do that. I want to help the author to make the work better, but that entails getting specific about problems and a review is not the place to do that.
For me, not writing a review is like living in the past. So, for those old peers of mine, remember Ms. Drozdowich’s words and leave a review once in a while. We writers appreciate them.
I celebrated my 70th birthday a few months ago which means I have been around for a long time, and I have seen many changes in this world—some good, some bad. The most significant change for me is the paradigm shift that has occurred in the way we communicate.
paradigm shift: a time when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something changes completely.
For those who can’t remember what life was like 60 or 70 years ago, we had telephones, newspapers, magazines, and books. The latter three used ink on paper, and the phone was tethered with a cable that kept it in one spot. I remember those years fondly, walking to the ‘bookmobile’ to find something to read, sitting on the kitchen counter while talking on the phone for hours, but I prefer the world of the 21st century and the ease of the internet.
One memory that stands out is walking home late one night (around 1970) and looking through a window that showed a large computer room and one lone figure still working despite it being the wee hours of a new day. I remember it because I was considering changing careers. Working with computers might be an interesting choice, I thought, but after seeing the night-owl working on those computers, I looked someplace else. I had spent some of my electrical apprenticeship working a midnight shift at Simpson Sears. It was memorable but not a way I wanted to spend my nights. I also remember the incident because of the irony. I spend the last 30 odd years of my working life in the IT field working with computers. There were many late nights, but I loved it. I experienced the communications paradigm shift, hands on, as it occurred.
Maybe because of my work experience, I find myself ready to accept the communication paradigm more easily than my peers. Over the last few years I have become a writer, and I appreciate the changes I struggle to make to support being an Indie author. Despite my IT background, making use of social/digital media as marketing tools is a foreign concept. Today I bought an ebook by; Barb Drozdowich called The Author's Guide To Working With Book Bloggers, because my next attempt at marketing involves book bloggers. In her book, Ms. Drozdowich makes this point;Marketing practices that work well to sell shoes or hamburgers don’t work well with books. Book sales are more personal. They are sold on word of mouth. They are sold on recommendation by a friend. What do you say to someone reading a book? “Is it any good?” “What do you think?” If you’re a fan of the author, you might ask, “Is it as good as the rest of their books?” It is often said that selling books is a relationship business.
Word of mouth today means reviews. I write reviews, sometimes. If a book has hundreds of reviews I don’t bother, but in most cases I review books I read because it is important to the author and other readers. It is the modern equivalent to telling someone about the book you read, and we all like to do that, but I have to assume that many people don’t see it that way. I liken their reluctance to my feelings about writing a critical review. I never know how to do that. I want to help the author to make the work better, but that entails getting specific about problems and a review is not the place to do that.
For me, not writing a review is like living in the past. So, for those old peers of mine, remember Ms. Drozdowich’s words and leave a review once in a while. We writers appreciate them.
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