Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Previously, I talked about how the Book Wars, leading to many new
technologies and methods, meant anyone could be an author. I now want
to look at one way this can affect upcoming media.
I think we may see the return of Pulps (fun-but-trashy/slick fiction) and of serial fiction.
BOOK WARS: RISE OF EVERYONE
You've seen a lot on the changes in publishing occurring in this blog, every few days, if not more often, there's talk about e-readers, e-books, Print on Demand, etc. I could sum this up in many ways (including "oh, gods make it stop, it's confusing), but to put it simply:
Now, this basically means people can read more and authors can get their stuff out easier. I have several books in the works and am pretty sure most if not all will start as Print On Demand with e-book options. I see no reason not to embrace the new technology.
There's another side to this that often gets missed. Yes, more ways to get more books in more formats. We can guess that, we've heard about it, we know it's a given.
You're probably amazingly literate in computer software and the internet.
To some of you reading this, you wonder if I've had my morning Red Bull because you've done a lot of boneheaded things on the computer. You accidentally erased files, you just had your far more tech-savvy neighbor redo your security settings after the virus incident. You don't feel too competent, and you STILL don't know where your vacation photos went.
But you're a fan. You're obviously wired enough to be on-line to read this. I'm betting you've got a lot more software knowledge than you've realized. You may geek out more over bishounen than technology, but if you're your average online fan, you have a lot more knowledge than you may realize.
This of course means a few things:
1) you may want to reassess your resume because you have a lot more technical ability than you realized.
2) You may want to rethink some career options as perhaps you like the technology you work with, you just aren't sure you're too good at it – but if you like it, training can make up for ignorance.
3) You may want to reassess what you're doing in your current career as you may be able to do more than you thought, or may be able to improve your skills more quickly than you thought.
So ask yourself just what you know?
* DId your fanfic writing help you get to know a Word Processor?
* Did doing the budget for a convention make you better at Spreadsheets?
* Were you able to use visio to chart out how to get that cosplay done?
* You were editing a fan-wiki,learning all the markups and ins and outs.
You probably know more than you think, software-wise thanks to your fandom.
Keep that in mind. Maybe give your resume or your career a once-over and ask what you know that you've missed. Also ask how you can improve it.
– Steven Savage