Re: magazines to websites

**D* G* <g*@gmail.com>**

I wondered if anybody would respond to this but I don't share Gene's
surprise that it was left to wither.  It's a moving target and often a
tough one to pin down for even a brief moment.

Teri - you did bring up several points though and let me respond to one at
the beginning.

That is about promoting your works.  I have no problem with folks promoting
new books, awards etc.  It's about celebration with friends for me.  But
we're supposed to be professional writers - or act like it :-)  here so
promoting having sold an article or posted a blog (which nobody thankfully
does) - the stuff of our everyday life doesn't have a place.

My rule of thumb for reading - If you're celebrating an accomplishment -
share it!

The Net is an interesting publishing and communication story and it's a
never-ending one.  Think Game of Thrones only faster without the wait for
new books. ;-) Let me give you my quick take on this kind of thing.

No form of communication ever dies but it has a life cycle -  from
invention growing to mass market and then a new technology comes along to
push it out of the mass market causing it to retreat to lesser status and
then to art form.  Think illustrated manuscripts that were the form of
communication and publishing. Pushed out of the market by the printing
press, they retreated to become an art form and I'm told you can still find
hand done books.  They didn't die then and won't die now.

Same for books and magazines - the industry won't die but they will morph
and change. Or the nimble survivors will.

The printing press was responsible for a great many changes including the
Reformation and all the changes we're seeing now with the computer and Net
are simply mirrors of what happened after Gutenberg's invention changed his
world.  The only difference is one of speed - the electronic medium is
simply faster than the printing press.

But the increase in communication and the resulting social changes - from
religious strife to gender bending to war - mirrors the changes in the
fifty to one hundred years after 1450.

We are simply living through a revolution.  A fast one but one which will
continue and won't be stopped.

As creators, we get to be nimble or we get to take a job.  For example, the
data has been clear for some time now that young people are not using
Facebook for communication.  Facebook itself finally released numbers about
this last week.  They have accounts, they simply don't use them.  Instead
they're using Youtube or apps on their phones such as WhatsApp (a "voice"
instant message service) or SnapChat (sharing pictures that disappear
rather than stick around) Kids want to talk in private rather than posting
stuff for the world (and their parents) to see. What a surprise! :-)

But our target market (older gardeners) is on Facebook. So we're there. But
if you're marketing to young people (and garden centres will need this
demographic in another few years) then you need to know where they are. And
to make it even more interesting - by then, this group will be using
whatever form of tech has yet to be invented.

That's the short form.  Stuff changes and will change.  The 600 years of a
relatively stable publishing model are done.

I don't think it's better or worse.  In my mind, it's just different.

Gene says, "Some are managing to make money I am told."  I'm told the same
thing. :-)

Hope that's clear.

Doug

-- 

Doug Green
Head Weeder
http://www.douggreensgarden.com/about.html <http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com>
https://www.amazon.com/author/douglasgreen
https://google.com/+DougGreen
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https://twitter.com/douggreen
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