Chicken Scratchings

Last Saturday I presented a workshop at the Toastmasters District 15 fall convention. I called it Every Speaker Needs a Book. It is the truth; every speaker does need a book. If someone is going to stand before you in the capacity of “expert,” don’t you have the right to know that they are qualified?

We are living in a new age of publishing. We are seeing the rapid rise of the self-publisher. I liken it to the changes in the music business during the 1960’s. It started with Rock and Roll. This new music hit the music industry so quickly and so hard that the entrenched establishment couldn’t wrap their minds around it. Then came the Beatles, and the British Invasion. Every album the Beatles cut redefined the genre. Music experienced an era of creativity pushing up from the grassroots (no pun intended for the band called Grassroots). Every high school in the country had at least two or three starry eyed groups practicing in their parent’s basements or garages.

60's World Shakers

I try to imagine myself in the position of a record executive. Music is flooding in from everywhere. Groups with strange names, strange sounds, and strange behaviors are climbing the charts. What do I do? I can get on-board or try to wait out the insanity. The problem is that I don’t have any point of reference. There isn’t a definition of Rock and Roll. Almost anything goes. So, what do I do? I shrug and open the studios to just about everyone, hoping to find something the boomer kids will buy.

Today the floodgates are open in publishing. Why? Big changes in book print production have created this new era. In the past traditional publishers held all the strings. The cost for an author to go it alone was prohibitive to anyone but the rich. If someone decided to self-publish, their efforts were tagged  with the derogatory title of vanity publishing.

The rise of computer’s word processors and the development of digital printing have made it so reasonably priced that almost anyone could get in the game. Furthermore, there are e-books, and audio books. Finally, the Boomer Generation has grown up and there are millions, upon millions of people that think it would be groovy to write a book. As a boomer myself, I can tell you that our generation loved the spotlight. We marched, we rallied, we protested. We got our pictures in the paper when we did something completely egregious. Boomer was probably the right name because we were loud, intrusive, and obnoxious.

The boomers are the right people to lead the publishing revolution. We have never been satisfied with status quo. We are self-reliant, and don’t really trust the establishment. We know how to organize. The tribe of boomers is enormous and powerful.

If you get the idea that I am in favor of this revolution, you are right. I am in awe of what is transpiring. The Internet, Computers, Alternative Publishing methods, have breached the dam and I’m sure this is just the beginning.

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