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There's the old fairy tale about the young man who unwisely opened the bottle and, inadvertently, set free the genie. The problem then - for him and everyone else - is to get the thing back in the bottle before it does any damage. It's not usually easy. In fact, in most versions of this ancient story, there's often a lot of time, effort and energy put into finding a way to trick the genie into getting back into the bottle of its own accord. Because, quite frankly, once the genie is out of the bottle, then often, that's the end. That's it. It's out, for ever, and there's no going back. In the case of internet publishing 'the genie' is an idea. It's this. 'Maybe', the internet author says haltingly to themselves, 'I can make a future for myself as an author right here, on the internet. Maybe I don't need Traditional Publishers at all'. That's a shattering idea. It's world-changing. Of course, for most people, the concept doesn't even occur to them. For many, the idea of getting your book published by some kind of internet-based publishers is very much a 'stop gap', something to put up with temporarily, while you're waiting for the deal to come through from a 'real' publisher. You know, one of those firms with an existing reputation and big offices in the city, and lots of staff, and advertising departments and unlimited budgets. After all, Traditional Publishers are what we in the web-world call 'bricks and mortar' businesses, ie they have a physical presence out there in the real world, not just in the virtual life of computers. Certainly that's the way that Traditional Publishers see themselves. For years and years - and as far back as anybody now ensconced at a desk can remember - they've been the only game in town. If someone writes a book, then, sooner or later, the aspiring author will come knocking at the door of the publishing firm, looking for an offer. That's the way it's been and, as far as people with a limited vision and no imagination are concerned, that's possibly the way it will always be. Unfortunately, for those already in the business, authors are exactly the sort of human beings who are blessed with vision and imagination. They are the people who look into the future and see a different place. They can see themselves in twenty years time looking back at a successful publishing career and imagining how they got there. It could be 'straight down the line' of Traditional Publishing or, well, it might not. It might have come about through a completely different route. And, just to make matters worse for traditionalists, writers are precisely the sort of dreamers who might have read the life stories of other writers during their young and formative years. That means they know - yes, know, with certainty - that the fairy story of publishing success is very rarely true. Established writers come into the business through all sorts of different paths, using contacts, friends and neighbours to find a way through the obstacles and over the hurdles. Knowing that, new authors are primed to be looking for 'another way', since the reality of writers' lives is actually so very different from the primrose path outlined by the self-serving publicists of the established publishing world. And then there is harsh reality. That's when hopeful creative writers send off their first manuscripts to Traditional Publishers and have to face the daunting slap in the face of their first rejection letter. And their second. And their third. Even if they were a bit unsure at first, this is the time when putting a book up on the web starts to seem like not a half-bad idea. You discover a site like Lulu, read how easy it is to upload your story and get it into print, and for nothing like the investment that you'd been misled into believing by well-meaning but misguided 'advisors'. You try it, the outcome is pleasing, so you go there again. Now you have a book in your hands - written by your good self - and still you're getting rejection letters from that other outlet. That's when the genie puts his head out the bottle and whispers, 'Maybe this is all you need'. Here's a prediction. In the future, ie very shortly indeed, the number of people going down the road of Internet Publishing will rise and rise. Concurrently, the number of authors bothering their pretty heads about the punishing route of Traditional Publishing will start to slide. After a few years the decline will become a landslide. At some point, maybe later, someone will stick their head out of the bunker and realise that the world has changed, for ever. That's when the world of Traditional Publishing, as we know it, will start to disappear, slowly at first, but gathering pace. For writers and publishers it will be a whole New World. The reason it will work, of course, is that, at the end of the day, neither of that group matters much. The people who really matter are Readers, people who buy books and enjoy them. For that lucky group there won't be much difference. They will be able to go to on-line bookstores and browse for the sort of story they like - just as they do now. They will be able to buy what they want and have the books delivered to their door, just as they do now. They won't care that a revolution has happened in publishing. No, the only people who will worry are the highly trained and bureaucratic people who are left to search for new jobs, now that Traditional Publishing isn't the gravy train it once was. And authors, the hundreds and hundreds of new writers who previously were ignored and sidelined, who will then be benefiting from having their work in print for the first time. buy uk essay
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