Let's Get Dirty

   
     Clay Shirky's piece was a well written and well thought out analysis about the shifting marketplace and the ever changing state of the publishing industry. While it was all fascinating to read, I have to be honest, one question kept running through my mind as I digested the article--something that has been running through my mind since the beginning of this semester's e-pub class: Who cares?

     No, I am not being snide and no, it's not that I don't enjoy thinking about the "why's" and the "how's" and the "what the hell does it all mean's" that pertain to the industry. It's just that, the dominating thought that pulses through my brain has less to do with analyzing the state of things and more to do with figuring out how to best work my way, as a writer, into what publishing has become. 

     I've become resigned to a few things this semester. The industry is what it is. The state of flux will continue until a new stable model is found. There will be good and bad things relative to the torrent of self published writing out there. There will be more shit and more experiment. There will be greater pushing of boundaries. There will be more, more, more. We will burst at the seams and then burst again.

      Do I have opinions about it all? Sure. Are there things that I like and things that I don't like? Of course, but what I have realized is that the movement of the industry is not impacted by my opinion or yours for that matter. It is a thing that is moving on its own, shaped by the market and demand and many things that you and I have little to no control over. 

     In the new model, there will always be a means for us to put our voice into the world, but whether anyone will care or listen is another matter. This is the matter that most concerns me, because as a writer, I want my voice to be heard; I want to be part of the conversation; I want to be read and to make people think and maybe even, to change minds. I am most concerned with the best way for me to do this in the market that currently exists and then in the one that will exist five years from now. If I am going to succeed, I'm going to have to dive in to the mud pit, regardless of whether I am particularly fond of mud or not. So here's to getting dirty.