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Author Solutions, a Penguin Random House company The Best Time in History to Be An Author The Next Indie Revolution

The Best Time in History to Be An Author

The Next Indie Revolution

4 reasons why a book is still of the utmost importance in a digital world

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As digital media has expanded at a dizzying pace and social media outlets have grown, certain pundits have suggested books would diminish in importance. Mobile devices and shorter attention spans would create an environment where books would not matter as much as the onslaught of information and innumerable choices available at our fingertips every moment. Certainly reading habits have morphed as digital options have increased, but despite these changes, books are as important as ever because their very form enables them to impact lives in ways no digital media can. Here are four reasons why I believe that is so.

A book is permanent

With so many media forms today, like Snap Chat or Instagram, the information or images conveyed are instantaneous, but soon forgotten after the next tidbit fills the feed. Not so with a book. The very form of a book means it can be preserved and revisited with ease. In fact, the presence of a book shelf in a home or an office points to the fact that books are meant to be a fixture, not fleeting. The information in a book is enduring and has a different importance than the latest click bait.

A book is transcendent

Because of its form, a book is able to cross time, geography and even language. Certainly in a digital world, blogs and Facebook have the ability to do this to some degree. But you can’t lend or give someone a blog in the same way you give someone a book. Books are carried across continents, translated into local languages, given or shipped or lent to people who the author has never met or will never know.

Author Susan Norris, who wrote the book Rescuing Hope, talks about this idea in the video below. She points out that one of the reasons she wrote her book is because if she speaks to a group of people, she impacts those people in the room. But with a book she has the power to impact people who she will never meet. Having a book drastically changed her scope of influence.

A book is a complete thought or story

Digital media is a collection of sound bites and image snippets, but a book gives you a full idea or story. And there is something satisfying about that just like it is often more satisfying to eat a meal than a handful of snacks. Books allow for authors to complete their arguments or story because they are not bound by the limits of most digital media. They can take as many pages as needed to finish the job without concern about how long the scroll will be.

The title “author” still commands respect

A number of years ago a writer said to me, “there is a certain cache that comes with being an author”. At the time, I did not fully appreciate what he meant, but now I think his statement was very insightful. While being known as a blogger is certainly something to be proud of, it does not carry the same social weight as the title, “author”. I think that is because even if we have never written a book ourselves, we respect anyone who has made the effort to finish a manuscript and put down their ideas or story in this permanent, transcendent form.

Yecheilyah says: Reblogged this on Pearls Before Swine and commented: Great posts on hardcopies vs digital. I will always be of the opinion that Authors should have hardcopy versions of their books as well. June 29, 2016 at 12:43 am Reply keithogorek says: Glad you found this useful. June 29, 2016 at 7:26 am Reply

Reblogged this on Pearls Before Swine and commented: Great posts on hardcopies vs digital. I will always be of the opinion that Authors should have hardcopy versions of their books as well.

keithogorek says: Glad you found this useful. June 29, 2016 at 7:26 am Reply

Glad you found this useful.

Kate McClelland says: Reblogged this on Kate McClelland . June 29, 2016 at 9:20 pm Reply

Reblogged this on Kate McClelland .

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