On the Future of Books: A Discussion with Seth Godin

On the Future of Books: 

A Discussion with Seth Godin

This is the title of a post by Leo Babauta at zenhabits, recommended by Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian in his always meaningful "Monday's Link Roundup."

I have yet to listen to the full 26 minute interview between Leo and Seth, but I will, for future reference. To start our discussion "On the Future of Books" I want to start with something that came to my mind as I read Leo's post and the summary of items they discussed.

As I read the list, the thought that popped into my head was: The changes happening today (and this decade or so) are as much about "authors" as about "books." Here are a couple of the highlight sentences that I assume I picked up on:

• Why you don't need that many followers/friends as an author
• Why the willingness to fail is so important, with so many options available to authors
• The horror stories of Pulitzer Prize winning authors
• Deciding to publish your best ideas on your blog vs. your book

In years past, particularly in 'literary circles', there was a big distinction between a 'writer' and an 'author.' To be an 'author' you had to be published by a 'publishing company.' Is that true anymore? Does it matter? Is a book published by an 'author' any better or worse than any other 'book?' What is a 'book' these days? Is it even relevant? Is being an 'author' relevant except to a very few persons in the 'literary' field? Is it not the 'content' that prevails? Or, is it the 'marketing' that counts?

Have you given this any thought? What are your thoughts? What is your perspective? Share your comments with other readers… I do have a comments section. And, I will post this on both Facebook and Google+ for further discussion; so, be sure to check in there, if you don't already.

Happy reading and writing!  ;-)