Blogging Toward the Singularity

Technology is changing the face of writing almost every day.  Some changes are monumental in scope,  and alter forever the landscape of what it means to be a writer, like not having to physically rewrite something in order to revise it.  (A change that is not always for the better.)  Others are minor:  having the old writer advice of "save news clippings of everything interesting you ever find in a file folder next to your desk," that so many old-school writers absolutely swear by, has become more of a file of bookmarks online.  Some are absolutely trivial: being able to carry around an iPod Touch with a voice recording app instead of a little pad of paper and a pencil or a tiny tape recorder.  Some aren't quite here yet, but are so close that we can taste them: voice recognition software that will mean a writer may no longer be on a countdown to arthritis.  But all are changing the ways in which a writer can interact with the world around them.

And many of them are scary to the old guard.

Perhaps the biggest change of all is happening right beneath our feet even as we struggle to string words together and dream of scratching out a living.  Computers are altering how a writer can monetize their efforts--and not just a little bit.  No longer must they face a gauntlet of gatekeepers to make money or even to achieve fame, and self-publication is now a tech savvy move that need not carry the stigma of vanity press.  The publishing industry hasn't altered so much since the Gutenberg printing press and the curmudgeons who think this is a flash in the pan are fooling themselves.  Everything is starting to defy hundreds of years of tradition...right now.

Control What People See When they Google You  (Part of my Mission Statement, but good advice.)
There's Gold in Them Thar E-Readers
The Choice No One Made Ever (E-readers vs. Books)
Three Bits of Insight from Mark Lawrence's Reddit Interview
Traditional vs Digital Publishing