The other day, I went to the London "Book" "Fair".
The only thing that is true about the above is that it is indeed held in London.
But it wasn't about books, and it sure wasn't fair, neither in the Shakespearian meaning of the phrase, nor in the Cricket usage.
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It was nothing but a giant warehouse stuffed full with dreary box shaped exhibition modules, and these were stuffed full not with books, but with SUITS.
Men in suits.
Dealing amongst themselves on little wooden tables, with cell phones and their little lap tops, and note pads.
WHERE were the AUTHORS?
WHERE were the READERS?
WHERE were the BOOKS?
AND WHERE WAS THE SPIRIT OF THE THING?
They might as well have been trading in cotton, or in uranium slag, or in wheat, but wait a minute, I was at an international wheat conference the other day, and that was BUZZING in comparison.
I only have first hand experience of the publishing industry of the UK and Germany, and both of them SUCK.
They suck the joy, the life and everything that is fantastic and exciting about books, about words, about transmitting personal experiences, thoughts, information, insight and wisdom out of the whole deal.
These publishing industries are an old fashioned club with their own old fashioned rules and the suits rule - KO.
That has always been like that, but now, it is changing.
And the people who are changing it are WE - the new authors and readers, self publishers and web publishers, people who do the whole writing, reading and book making thing because they LOVE it, and because they think it is worthwhile way, way beyond simply counting "units in boxes".
So the suits are afraid now.
They are afraid of Amazon, they are afraid of Google. But what they should REALLY be afraid of are the new wave of authors and publishers who are using the internet to find their audiences all around the globe - and without having to go through THEM first!
The suits used to be in charge of what the public would be allowed to read about - and that is no longer the case.
That is a revolution at least as huge as when Mr Gutenberg made the first printing press and took books out of the hands of the aristocracy and theocracy, and folk learned that they could read - AND WRITE.
There are few things I am as deeply passionate about as the right of authors to be heard by audiences without some "editor" getting in the way who tells BOTH what they are allowed to read, and to write.
I am an author AND a publisher, one of the NEW publishers who has been able to reach a worldwide audience through the Internet and word of mouth.
If there are any other authors out there who want to reach THEIR audiences, and they are really out there, trust me on it, and no matter what the suits will decree otherwise, I am always glad to be of assistance, share what I have learned and think of ways we can all help each other out.
This is what we have to do - stick together against the faceless suits, and they haven't got a hope in hell to go on doing to "the publishing industry" what they've been getting away with for way too many years.
Am I radical?
Yeah.
I believe in books. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in an individual's right to be heard and to put their views to the audiences of the world.
Most of all, I believe that we all have a hell of a lot we can learn from each other and that when we do, the world gets to be a better place for everyone concerned.
Long live books, in whatever format they might be, and long live the love of books!
And DOWN with the faceless suits!
LOL
Silvia Hartmann
March 19, 2006
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