Writers Embrace the Digital Age

There was a time when the writer's staple was to sit at a large desk with a pencil and foolscap, penning the latest bestseller. However, it would seem as if major changes are afoot, having been led by the onset of the world wide web. Whilst PC's have long afforded us all to make the most of Microsoft Word, the availability and speed of the internet has allowed publishing to break free of its old shackles and launch itself online.

Authors such as JK Rowling, Bernard Cornwell and Stephen King have had impressive websites driven by large publishing houses for a number of years, but no longer is such practice reserved for the elite few.

Take the example of Midlands Author Daniel Cure, whose latest historical novel, The Silver Knight, is set in the Wars of the Roses. For such a tradition category of novel, one would have previously assumed any related promotional activities to relate around traditional press, however, this is far from the case. Carl Chinn, another Midlands author is the same, with an extensive profile on a number of Web 2.0 encyclopaedic sites. If these two examples stand out, then one only has to go further down the chain to recreational writers and even schoolchildren, whose work is often immediately presented online in some guise or other.

It seems as if almost every self-published author now has a blog, video content, or at least some form of online presence and, with the advent of Twitter, YouTube and My Space, it seems as if that trend will continue.

How things have changed!