More writers than readers?
I don't want to be tagged as an elitist when I say this, but I do feel that the writing quality has gone down because as my mom used to say, when your quantity increases, your quality can go down a bit. So I think what's a more important question to ask is what kind of writing are we looking at? Are we encouraging? Writing has become a vanity proposition where people want to just write because they can, publish because they can
Deepti Menon
@deepsmenon_7 · 4:31
Part of a crowd that is out there writing, yes, but not writing well. This happens in every language. It's not only in the English language, even in the vernacular. You have good writers, you have outstanding writers, and then you have substandard writers. What do you do? How do you sift the chaff from the drain? I think that is a very difficult task
Creating a new breed of writers. So creating and publishing an ebook, for instance, costs literally nothing. And people who may have once dreamed of writing a book now find that all they need, all the resources for every step of the process is readily available to them. So while that is a very good development, we also need to address the elephant in the room, which you both have addressed so beautifully. What about the readers out there?
Aayan B
@aayanisms · 4:54
Unfortunately, where we stand today is the marketing of the book is about 70% and writing the book is only about 30% as compared to say the previous years where writing of the book was probably about 60% to 70% of the effort. And 30% would be probably going to publisher seeking some feedback, editing and then the publisher would publish it
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 4:58
One is giving you very lyrical dialogue and it actually ended up defining a genre. So I'm guessing the literature value of it speaks for itself and the other gives you an insight into who the author is centuries, centuries after her death. So I think I think we, as good citizens of the publishing ecosystem ov two writers, amateur and otherwise, to be not so judgmental and not so close minded when it comes to gatekeeping what is and isn't good content
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 0:03
However, unless we give writers the right tools or we give aspirants the right tools to understand and to articulate their ideas, then they will not be able to make their writing easy for people to digest and to read. For instance, I have seen a lot of books come out with faulty grammar. Like they will talk about a article. I mean, they will write an article, they will write weird, bad subject, verb agreement. So I'm talking about these basic things, these basic syntax
And once upon a time, I mean, we have such phenomena and definitely one can definitely cut through the cluttershire. Talent can never be stopped. And I, for one, I'm a dreamer and I'm a proud dreamer. And I can tell you that someone who wants to write and someone who wants to make their dreams come true will cut through anything to make it happen. And I am always, always in support of dreamers and writers
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 5:00
Noted. It's good to know that you support dreamers. What I was catching, and that was mostly my fault I was catching similar language. I have heard from senior editors when they talk down to writers, and I think those of us who have have minor seniority in terms of people who are coming into the ecosystem, if you have one book or two vocal things like that, that makes us slightly more senior than the other writers. That's the kind of dynamic I'm referring to
Binati Sheth
@Binati_Sheth · 5:00
People started reading I think it began with the penny dreadfuls and then they started reading more of the poetics that were political pieces that were distributed by journalists like Jean Palmrod and transcripts of lectures by Australia and whatnot. People started reading this stuff and they started discussing it amongst each other and that is where the overall multiplicative aspect of writing kicked in, right? And anybody and everybody started writing this is before and around the point where let them eat cake happened, right?
Deepti Menon
@deepsmenon_7 · 5:00
I enjoyed what I was doing, but writing has always been part of my makeup in my genes. However, I would love to say that, oh, it was so wonderful to be written and appreciated. That was not the case. I wrote a number of manuscripts and I sent them out to the top publishing houses, the very top. And let me tell you, not one of them, not one responded or wrote back saying they accepted or rejected my manuscripts
Deepti Menon
@deepsmenon_7 · 3:52
As writers, all of us are sensitive about our writing. When we say something, we say it because we have felt it in our hearts. When we write something, we want others to appreciate it. We may be criticized, that's fine, but give us criticism that is true, that is real, that is honest. Don't criticize for the sake of criticizing. I think that is really very sad. That holds true for all of us who have come up the hard way
Arif Makhdoomi
@maddy007 · 4:39
The only thing is that he should be able to understand what is in his heart and he should be able to communicate that through writing. And again, there's a lot of mysticism into it. That how you write. When you write, are you allowed to write? So it's a very vast topic. We'll definitely like to share the details sometime more as a reply or maybe as a post, but still giving. Thank you for giving
Ruskin Bond a few years ago said the same, that India is in danger of having more writers than readers because more people want to just spill out than take in. So there are more people who want to just speak than listen. And that's something which has been observed not just in terms of writing, but also in terms of our impatience in understanding others and accepting other people. We all want to impose our own belief systems