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12.
AOTW: What do you think the Internet has done for authors?
Amy Berkower:
The internet has been a great tool for authors. Authors like Nora Roberts have been
using it for years to research their books and to communicate directly with their
audience. It's a relatively inexpensive and efficient way for authors to market themselves
and to find out more about their readers. It will I hope continue to give authors more
control over the fate of their work.
Linda Mead:
The Internet has created communities for authors, and it has made many authors more
informed.
Lisa Swayne:
It's opened up a whole new venue for direct marketing, for sharing their work with
their fans and other writers and --- for better or for worse --- tracking sales.
Stuart Krichevsky:
We tend to focus on the sale of e-books and other forms of online bookselling, and
then on author web sites --- but I’d be willing to bet that the greatest benefit of
the Internet is that it’s a fabulous research tool for writers. You can get answers
in seconds to questions that would previously have required hours of library research. For
authors and their readers, of course, online booksellers helps make hard to find titles
available, and even to keep them in print. And it allows authors to carry on a dialog with
their readers and to keep them informed of new work, personal appearances and other events
--- in other words, to build relationships with their readers in a way that publishers are
unable to do. It’s one thing to know (as publishers do) how many people bought an
author’s last book, but it’s even more valuable to know who they are (as
Internet savvy authors are now able to do) and keep them informed of future work.
Maria Carvainis:
The Internet has great potential for writers. It has allowed a direct connection
between writers and readers with the emergence of author websites, a most valuable tool
for the promotion and marketing of books. And, it has taken some of the loneliness out of
the writer's life. The jury, in my opinion, is still out on the viability of original
publishing on the Internet simply because we do not have a mature market place.
Loretta Barrett:
I think the Internet’s effect on authors has been minimal to date. In terms of
book distribution, though, Amazon and such other companies have profoundly changed the
book world, so in this way the Internet has been very important to authors.
Jane Dystel:
It’s given them more access to information --- both as a source of research and
as a means of communicating with agents and publishers. Writing is a less isolated
experience now, and I think that’s great.
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