WEBVTT

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I agree with the whole
notion that I don't think

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print is dead, by any means.

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And I don't think it
really ever can or will.

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I do a lot of digital
work and I'm very invested

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in the digital, but I also
do a lot of publishing,

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some in conjunction with
my wife with one business,

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and then I have a couple
of other businesses

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that are completely separate.

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I am really interested in when
the digital can facilitate

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the analog, when it can
help us to do things better

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in a way that can't
be done otherwise.

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The advances in
desktop publishing

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have made it possible for
anybody with any sort of design

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sense to put together
a beautiful publication

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on their own and
get it out there.

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It's really not hard
anymore to be published.

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I'm also interested
in the places

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where the digital confuses
what it really even means

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to be published today.

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There's really
interesting points

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in just how to cite a web page.

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The fact that web
pages can even be cited

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is pretty amazing, too, to me,
as an authoritative document,

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when it's something
that is so in-transit.

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It's so malleable
and so changeable.

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And I think it's indicative
of that whole issue,

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that the correct way
today to cite a website--

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you have to say
when you went there.

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The time.

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So that if somebody
goes to check you up

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and it's different, you can
at least say, it changed.

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Which is just a wild notion to
me, that all of these things

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are shifting.

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And I don't have
the answer, and I

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think it's a really interesting,
one of the most exciting times

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to be a writer and
to be a publisher,

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because of all of the analog
things that the digital can

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help facilitate and
allow people to do,

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that they were really
never able to do before.

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So I came I as a writer,
first, and I began publishing

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as a form of advocacy.

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I saw that there
were kinds of work

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out there that were
not being published,

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and so I decided that
I would light a candle

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rather than curse the darkness.

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If there's no place
for this stuff,

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well, there's an opportunity.

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I know people are
making this stuff.

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I know people are
interested in this stuff,

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so let me get the
tools and let me

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start-- we started publishing.

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So that's how I came to it.

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And now, after maybe
15 years of publishing,

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I find I am increasingly
interested in solving

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this problem of distribution.

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Which-- give you a good example.

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There's a lot of people come to
me and they talk to me about--

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I mean, Amazon has
totally integrated

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this whole publishing
program where they give you

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all the tools,
all the templates,

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and they will walk
you through this thing

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and attempt to sell
you design services

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at every step along the way.

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But it's not a bad thing.

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I don't begrudge them that,
I mean, they're a business.

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That's what they're there for.

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They're not there to be
a charity organization.

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And it is really hard to design
a good book, and at some point,

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many writers may
decide, you know

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what, I would rather
pay somebody to do this

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than to do it myself.

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So I mean, I see a
decent balance there.

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But what terrifies me about that
whole structure that they're

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trying to do, is, I mean,
it's a closed garden.

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They're intending to
monopolize a situation that

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is really terrifying.

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From when you consider that
a lot of these things that

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get published can only be
viewed on their devices,

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and the whole digital
rights management aspect

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is something that
really concerns me,

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and they have a lot of
issues with all those things.

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But what I'm interested in is
people are attracted to Amazon

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because they think,
oh my God, there's

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millions of people who
are going to get my book.

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But they're not.

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They're not going
to get your book.

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You're going to be there
and there's a chance

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that you will be exposed
to some potential readers

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that you might not
otherwise be exposed to,

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but I think it's really
misrepresentative of what

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it is they offer, to suggest
that they are offering

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broad distribution,
when in fact, they

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are offering the potential
for broad distribution.

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And those two things
are not identical.

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I think it's important for
people to realize that.

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So my efforts have
been, as a publisher--

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I'll probably get in trouble
for saying this, but--

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as a publisher, one of the
most astonishing things

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that I learned was how few
books of poetry actually sell.

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You wouldn't believe it.

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You wouldn't believe
it if I told you.

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You would believe
it if I told you.

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[LAUGHTER]

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We all believe it.

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We believe you.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It's astonishing.

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And it's not just that people
don't buy books of poetry.

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Poets don't even
buy books of poetry.

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I mean, it's terrifying.

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But again, it's something
that I looked at it,

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and I thought to myself,
this is a problem.

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How can I work
towards solving it?

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And so I have been doing
a lot of things that are

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project-based, that involve
trying to generate--

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trying to make projects that
grow their own market, which

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I think is--

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will, long-term, help
grow the whole market.

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And so I'm looking at
ways of doing projects

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that either have a
built-in readership,

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or have unique,
digitally-facilitated methods

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of expanding a readership.

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So I'm interested in
exploring this notion of how

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the digital can get us more
actual distribution, and not

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necessarily more
potential distribution.

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