digital age. It started as a way to have a place for reviews of books I and my friends wrote and for publicizing books from small publishers and independently published books. It was abundantly clear even then that there were big changes coming in publishing. The number of outlets for book reviews was already plunging. Many of the great print newspaper book pages have folded, as have many of the great newspapers. In their place, we have multiple small, specialized literary blogs, and a plethora of literary newsletters, as described in an interesting article in Wired. The article asserts that the "futurebook" is already here. The future of the book is here, says the article, and it's a plain old paperback or a Kindle that looks the way Kindles have looked for years. In other words, the future has already happened, and the object we read from is less changed than the steps leading up it-- print-on-demand, indie publishing, etc. The article also talks about major changes in related technologies like audiobooks listened to on smartphones, e-mail newsletters, and more.
Books for Readers Newsletter now has a pretty solid mailing list of just under a thousand-- not an enormous number of people, and they don't all open every issue, but they tend to be writers and readers, and it pleases me to know they are taking a look.
Please do tell your friends about it--it's free, and you can always ignore it if you're not in the mood.
So Happy Issue # 200, and Happy 2019 to all. Send me your reviews, announcements, lists of favorite books, lists of least favorite books, links to your work online, and links to things you think other people would enjoy. Join the conversation! Read more here....
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