The headline above could easily be the headline of a New York Times article. There is truth in it. There is no shortage of media coverage on just how bad the times are today.There is plenty of evidence to show that cosseted children demand rather than obey, and, a quick scroll of the New York Times Best Seller column shows an endless list of recently published books, enough to keep you up to all hours of the night reading or listening to audible versions of your pick.There is plenty of fiction and just as plenty if not even more, books on the events of the day and biographies, authored by historians, news personalities, politicians and celebrities.
What if I told you that the headline is not one of today but of a long time ago?
“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, philosopher and a prolific writer. He was born, lived and died in the Last Century BC, 106 – 43!
That is over two thousand long years ago!
Has nothing changed?
A lot has happened in those two thousand years:
- Many wars have been fought including two that were supposed to end all wars forever
- We survived the the difficult times of the Medieval Ages
- We thrived during the Renaissance Ages
- The Industrial Revolution shifted manufacturing of goods from craftsman to machine, from shop to factory
Along the way man has made many technical advancements, some minor, some major but the sum total of those advancements is that they both improved systems, products and made our lives more comfortable.
I had to smile though when I read Cicero’s quote. A lot has happened in those two thousand years but it also seems that there is a ring of truth in the old saying that the more things change the more they stay the same. Throughout history, during good times or bad, someone will always be having a bad time; children disobeyed then and will continue to do so, it’s a rights-of-passage thing; and everyone is writing a book.
But two thousand years ago? Who knew?
While Cicero’s “everyone” may have been an exaggeration spoken to make a point, the point hits closer to the mark today as an increasing number of people do indeed write books. For one, writing, publishing and distribution is much easier now and readily accessible to anyone who wants to write a book.
A quick review of book writing between Cicero’s time and today may give us the short answer.
For one, the times are different. We are now living in the Information Age
“The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age…)is a historic period beginning in the late 20th century and characterized by the rapid shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy primarily based upon information technology…” Wikipedia
Back in Cicero’s time writing a book was a laborious and exacting task, it really was putting pen to paper. Books were written on sheets of papyrus or parchment 50 feet long, which was then rolled up and put into an oblong wooden box for safekeeping. That was what a book looked like. No hardcover, no paperback, no eBook, no audible.
The tools needed to write the document were cumbersome by today’s standards and the making of them required skill. Ink was made of soot, mixed with burned resin or pitch. The writing tool was dipped into this mixture and the writer would proceed to make marks on the papyrus. Calligraphy became an art form practiced to perfection by the intelligentsia, the rich and the powerful.
If not mixed to just the right consistency, the ink would either run, splotch or clot and an expensive piece of papyrus was ruined. The most common writing tool was a quill, fashioned from the quill feather of a goose, swan or other large bird. It had to be softened, then hardened then the point had to be cut at just right angle so that it would hold enough but, not too much ink to write with. The writer had to dip the quill into the ink frequently. Extreme care had to be taken to avoid making mistakes as there was no way to correct an error.
It was difficult, tedious and time consuming
And yet … everyone was writing a book!
Gutenberg Printing Press
The art of writing improved during the Renaissance era when the Gutenberg Printing Press was invented. This invention combined movable pieces of metal type that could be reused with a press that could produce sharp impressions on paper over and over again.
Prior to its invention books were copied by hand, page by page. Monks who had mastered the art of calligraphy, were the main producers, and monasteries, the publishers of books at the time. The printing press made it possible to produce books and other texts quickly, in big numbers and inexpensively. Historians credit the invention of the printing press with increasing literacy and making education available to the middle classes.
The printing press still called for accuracy in placement and arrangement of the metal pieces of type on a wooden plank, applying ink to the pieces, laying a sheet of paper over the type, then pressing the two together for each page. Each page repeated for as many copies as were needed.
Much faster than hand copying page by page, but compare that to the ease with which we can write, collate and publish documents and books at will today. The Gutenberg was the early forerunner of today’s computer.
HAVE COMPUTER – WILL PUBLISH!
No wonder “everyone is writing a book” today!
As mentioned earlier, I would venture a guess that Cicero’s “everyone” was a tad of an exaggeration as it still is today but not as much! What is interesting about the difference between then and now, is that now everyone can write and publish, and many do.
With author friendly publishing companies such as Amazon, authors are able to self-publish their work and instantly have it available for sale online. When Amazon introduced KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) self-publishing, authors flew at the opportunity to have their works published. Quickly new books began to fill Amazon’s virtual shelves, sales began to take off and a new breed of author was born – the “Indie” or independent author. Romance, paranormal and thriller fiction did particularly well.
While wolves, spies and erotica drew an ever-increasing audience, a new type of book writer emerged, one who wrote nonfiction on areas of their expertise. Good, valuable information written in layman’s language and aimed at an audience that would benefit from the content. Nonfiction has stealthily crept up the ranks as growth industry.
From an article in Forbes Magazine:
“ In the publishing industry, adult non-fiction revenues are soaring above fiction revenues and have been widening the gap for the past five years … 2013 was the last year that the adult fiction category beat non-fiction in revenue (at $5.21 billion in revenue to non-fiction’s $4.82 billion … in 2017 non-fiction revenue was $6.8 billion, easily outperforming declining fiction revenues of $4.43 billion for the same year)” … full article
These are not door stoppers. They are typically short books ranging from as few as 30 pages to 100, seldom hit the #1 New York Times bestseller list but, what they do do, is help authors to grow their primary business by expanding their market reach, increasing the business owner’s social profile, and contributing to their bottom line.
Next: The Rise of Self Publishing and The Independent Author.