I agree with the whole notion that I don't think
print is dead, by any means.
And I don't think it really ever can or will.
I do a lot of digital work and I'm very invested
in the digital, but I also do a lot of publishing,
some in conjunction with my wife with one business,
and then I have a couple of other businesses
that are completely separate.
I am really interested in when the digital can facilitate
the analog, when it can help us to do things better
in a way that can't be done otherwise.
The advances in desktop publishing
have made it possible for anybody with any sort of design
sense to put together a beautiful publication
on their own and get it out there.
It's really not hard anymore to be published.
I'm also interested in the places
where the digital confuses what it really even means
to be published today.
There's really interesting points
in just how to cite a web page.
The fact that web pages can even be cited
is pretty amazing, too, to me, as an authoritative document,
when it's something that is so in-transit.
It's so malleable and so changeable.
And I think it's indicative of that whole issue,
that the correct way today to cite a website--
you have to say when you went there.
The time.
So that if somebody goes to check you up
and it's different, you can at least say, it changed.
Which is just a wild notion to me, that all of these things
are shifting.
And I don't have the answer, and I
think it's a really interesting, one of the most exciting times
to be a writer and to be a publisher,
because of all of the analog things that the digital can
help facilitate and allow people to do,
that they were really never able to do before.
So I came I as a writer, first, and I began publishing
as a form of advocacy.
I saw that there were kinds of work
out there that were not being published,
and so I decided that I would light a candle
rather than curse the darkness.
If there's no place for this stuff,
well, there's an opportunity.
I know people are making this stuff.
I know people are interested in this stuff,
so let me get the tools and let me
start-- we started publishing.
So that's how I came to it.
And now, after maybe 15 years of publishing,
I find I am increasingly interested in solving
this problem of distribution.
Which-- give you a good example.
There's a lot of people come to me and they talk to me about--
I mean, Amazon has totally integrated
this whole publishing program where they give you
all the tools, all the templates,
and they will walk you through this thing
and attempt to sell you design services
at every step along the way.
But it's not a bad thing.
I don't begrudge them that, I mean, they're a business.
That's what they're there for.
They're not there to be a charity organization.
And it is really hard to design a good book, and at some point,
many writers may decide, you know
what, I would rather pay somebody to do this
than to do it myself.
So I mean, I see a decent balance there.
But what terrifies me about that whole structure that they're
trying to do, is, I mean, it's a closed garden.
They're intending to monopolize a situation that
is really terrifying.
From when you consider that a lot of these things that
get published can only be viewed on their devices,
and the whole digital rights management aspect
is something that really concerns me,
and they have a lot of issues with all those things.
But what I'm interested in is people are attracted to Amazon
because they think, oh my God, there's
millions of people who are going to get my book.
But they're not.
They're not going to get your book.
You're going to be there and there's a chance
that you will be exposed to some potential readers
that you might not otherwise be exposed to,
but I think it's really misrepresentative of what
it is they offer, to suggest that they are offering
broad distribution, when in fact, they
are offering the potential for broad distribution.
And those two things are not identical.
I think it's important for people to realize that.
So my efforts have been, as a publisher--
I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but--
as a publisher, one of the most astonishing things
that I learned was how few books of poetry actually sell.
You wouldn't believe it.
You wouldn't believe it if I told you.
You would believe it if I told you.
[LAUGHTER]
We all believe it.
We believe you.
[LAUGHTER]
It's astonishing.
And it's not just that people don't buy books of poetry.
Poets don't even buy books of poetry.
I mean, it's terrifying.
But again, it's something that I looked at it,
and I thought to myself, this is a problem.
How can I work towards solving it?
And so I have been doing a lot of things that are
project-based, that involve trying to generate--
trying to make projects that grow their own market, which
I think is--
will, long-term, help grow the whole market.
And so I'm looking at ways of doing projects
that either have a built-in readership,
or have unique, digitally-facilitated methods
of expanding a readership.
So I'm interested in exploring this notion of how
the digital can get us more actual distribution, and not
necessarily more potential distribution.