Will Amazon Change Our Taste for Words?



It’s no great revelation that the ways in which we consume media and entertainment have changed over the last two decades.  In the music industry, the concept of an entire album listening experience died several years ago at the hands of individual song downloads. This has led to a prevalence of artist creating albums full of HIT singles in place of albums comprised of songs that form a cohesive whole. The days of high concept story albums—think Pink Floyd’s The Wall album, where the individual songs don’t necessarily stand on their own, but when listened to as whole become something essential and even beautiful—are mostly over. Sure, intrepid musicians will on occasion create ‘story’ albums, but the experience is lost on the average listener who shops from the iTunes top 10 singles list.

Similarly, Hollywood is a machine driven by consumer demand, and that demand is for bite-sized entertainment. Modern blockbuster movies are long commercials aimed at no one and everyone. They are designed to engage a broad audience from moment to moment, as opposed to engaging an individual from beginning, middle, to end. The handful of films that dare to start a story in the beginning and take a full 2 hours to finish are labeled as high concept and, if they’re fortunate enough to snag a big name in the lead role, might win a few awards.

Please don’t misinterpret this as a shot at consumerism or some heraldry for ‘the good old days’. While I enjoyed the good old days as much as anyone, I also like the freedom of being able to watch and listen to what I want, when I want. The ability to do that is directly tied to the trends in media consumption I mentioned above. Furthermore, I like a good popcorn flick and lord knows I’ve got my share of top 10 singles on the old iGadget.
    
My point is that just like how we learn to enjoy different foods from childhood to adulthood as our flavor palette broadens, I think we (as consumers) have learned to ingest our media in different ways as technology has changed. We all have to accept that when change comes for a visit—no matter how welcome it might be—it’s always going to bring along a few ugly cousins. In the end, there really isn’t much else to do but give them a comfy sofa to sleep on and hope they don’t steal the good silverware on the way out.

I’m thinking about all of this lately, because I see changes happening in how we consume written media, and I’m left to wonder if it’s going to similarly alter our taste for it. Amazon’s recent announcement of a sub-$100Kindle and a sub-$200 tablet reader have sent trimmers through the reading world.  With the tablet, Amazon has clearly put readers in their sites, similarly to how Apple put listeners in their sites with the advent of iTunes/iPods. You see this tablet is going to be all things Amazon in terms of their video content offerings, music and eBooks. A veritable buffet of entertainment options.

At first blush, it might not seem like such a big thing. After all, we have computers, iPads and other doodads that marry all forms of entertainment onto one device. However, Amazon is certainly one of (if not THE) the top book retailers in the world (both paper and electronic) and up to this point no one has really attempted to give books equal space at the table with video and music downloads.  Couple this with the rumor that Amazon is contemplating a book rental service akin to Netflix where Kindle owners pay a flat monthly fee and are able to download as many books as they care to read, and you’ve got the makings of full out assault on the book business.

In the effort of full disclosure, I’m mostly concerned with all of this from the standpoint of an author looking to build a seaworthy business model (ship) prepared to navigate the unpredictable waters of modern-day publishing. Many have theorized that the future of publishing is going to gothe way of short stories or serialized content as more and more folks turn to the instant gratification/entertainment offered by all of these ‘connected’ gadgets. That certainly makes sense, especially in light of a giant retailer pushing written content right alongside its other electronic cousins (music and movies). Plus let’s face it; the attention span of the average person just isn’t what it used to be. Consequently, the idea of giving readers shorter reading experiences that can be digested quickly makes some sense.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to do a couple of more blogs on the topic, specifically thinking about what a ‘Netflix’ model might mean for authors, and what impact it might have on storytelling.  I’m going to try to answer questions I’m having, like: Is there a place for long-form fiction in the future?  I hope you’ll come back and add your thoughts. This is exploratory in nature, and I certainly don’t claim to have the answers. As always, I’m just one guy thinking aloud.

More near in this blog’s future, in an attempt to get into the mind of modern day authors, I’m going to begin running interviews with various independently published authors. Folks who are daring to carve their own path to publication, paths that many of us may be following in the years to come. I think you’ll really enjoy hearing from these authors, both as readers and writers. They’re all super-smart, engaging and (most importantly) dedicated to the craft.  The first interview will be this Wednesday with author, Kimberly Mullican, so please stop by and say hi. Also, if you’ve published a story and would like to do an interview or a guest-post here on the Open Vein, please drop me a line in the comments, via e-mail or on Twitter and we’ll try to make it happen. I’d love to hear from all of you.

~EJW~

18 comments:

  1. Very interesting. I had no idea about the Netflix concept of book sharing. Not sure how I feel about that. But then again, can't people "borrow" ebooks from the library?
    I love the variety I have on my iPod, but I do sometimes miss the days of listening to a CD over and over in the car and knowing just what song will play next and ending up loving the most obscure songs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I'm hearing the refrain from your last post..."We're not dead yet!" LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry, I'm with a publisher, or I'd take you up on the feature.
    Times are changing.
    And I still download a full album.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a great post to get us writers thinking about where we're going and how times changes-- market wise, publication wise, even media wise.

    For sure we need to think about the changing trends and how our audience will receive our work, but at the end of the day, we're still the storytellers and our job is to entertain, and to do it well enough to keep them coming back for more.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some interesting facts here. Sure made me think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You raise some very interesting questions--the kind that don't have easy answers.

    Looking forward to the interviews! :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. ...it's a "sign 'o the times," and as writers, it appears as though we've been given the ultimatum of jumping on the bandwagon, or be left floating on our own.

    Thanks E.J, definitely some interesting points to consider.

    El

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'd like to see what will change as well. I'd be first in line for a Kindle Fire except they're not international. Yet.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have mixed feelings about the Kindle - definite pros and cons - and thus far I have not purchased one. But I have to admit, with a sub $100 price tag, it just got a lot more tempting to at least give it a try... We'll see :)

    These are all very interesting points to consider, E.J. As a picture book author, the whole concept of books as apps is also very much on my mind right now. I think the new media has a lot to offer in terms of enhancing children's reading experience, but I'd hate to see books become little more than video games. It's going to be very interesting to see how things develop.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is a very important subject. As a writer, I don't want the legacy model to change, however as an avid reader, lower cost and instant gratification are very seductive. I think the legacy publishers must adapt or die. (My mind changes on what will happen weekly.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Interesting post, EJ! My first thought when I read about the Amazon Tablet was the same as what I've felt about e-readers in general, that I still will never want to read books that way. But then I remember I felt the same way about the Ipod at first, I was sure that I wanted to stick to CDs. Now I can't imagine not having my Ipod and I love the freedom of being able to pick and choose songs on Itunes instead of having to buy a whole album. I have to wonder whether at some point in the not so distant future I will feel the same way about reading choices.

    I honestly hope that there will still be a future for long-form fiction as I love it, but there's no denying the future is uncertain. I'm looking forward to your future posts and interviews on this topic, very thought-provoking!

    ReplyDelete
  12. As someone who wrote and posted serialized fiction way back in the day (the late '90s), this form of entertainment would not be foreign to me at all. I do agree that attention spans are shorter than they used to be, and that perhaps shorter fiction or serialized fiction might not be such a bad way to go.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Serialized fiction reminds me of the way some classic literature was first published... as chapters in a magazine.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Remember the Volkswagen sized microwave? Things change over time. Considering how fast the rest of the world changed, it was just a matter of time before publishing followed (and they certainly held on as long as they could.)

    I certainly agree with you, but at the same time, I was very disappointed when I downloaded a Baldacci book that was only a few pages long. Especially after I paid $5.99 for it!

    I look forward to our interview!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I honestly don't care what Amazon does to the book business. I write because I'm compelled to write and right now, based off of what is in my bank account, I'm not a rich person and making nothing off of any books. So if Amazon changes thing and somehow in the future I'm still able to make more than nothing now...then all the more power to them. If they drive people who are in the business out of it because they can no longer make millions, I say let them go. For the most part those formula fiction millionaires wrote mass-produced garbage anyway. And if you want to get up on a box and say "What about J.K. Rowling". Honestly, E.J.... I think the amount of money J.K. has made is obscene. A billionaire? Come on. Ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Very unique points here. You have a talent for making the readers think outside of the box.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I didn't know a lot of that, things sure are changing fast! I love your similes btw :) I can't seem to write anythign longer then 10,000 so mayeb this might even benefit me lol. I'm not into e-readers yet though, just prefer a real book.

    ReplyDelete

“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.