As each year passes, the need to adopt certain technologies becomes increasingly important.
Want to get paid? You’ll need to arrange for direct deposit into some sort of banking account. You’ll need to log in to it and manage it somehow.
Want to pay bills? You’ll need to log into a mobile app or online service to do it.
Sure, there are holdouts to the old ways; but at some point soon, there will be no choice.
If you want to publish anything by any method, you will need to embrace a certain level of technology. If you don’t want to, either because you don’t like it or for some altruistic reason, then I would suggest moving to an Amish community and taking up churning butter, as there are few or no opportunities for someone who prefers low-tech or no-tech solutions. The entire communications industry is embedded in technology, and it will only become more so.
In the book publishing world, at some point, you will need to submit a manuscript, formatted properly, in a recent edition of MS Word. For most publishers, it’s a contractual requirement.
You will need to learn how to upload to an online file management system and manipulate the document. You’ll need to learn how to edit a PDF, insert comments, respond to comments, accept changes, and save changes.
At the end of the writing/editing process, you will do most of your promotion using technology-based methods, from video chatting to interacting online with readers.
There is no way around this. Authors need to adjust to publishing methods, not the other way around. Do not let something like a way to transmit files derail your writing.
With artificial intelligence, many future publishing processes will not involve humans. Therefore, it is best to adapt now so that you won’t be surprised later.
Making sure your computer is up to the task is also essential. This includes the software.
It may be wise to have a Microsoft 365 subscription and pay annually to ensure your software versions are up-to-date. Maybe get an Adobe subscription as well to handle other file types.
There are certain basic skills every writer should possess to get along, but there is an ever-expanding next layer of tech skills you need to be developing throughout the publishing process. Expectations of any publisher (traditional, hybrid, or author-published services) are that the author is aware of this; so if you need to improve your skills, start now.
If you are a writer, you are a small business; and that business needs tools that work.
There’s no going back to a simpler time. However, if you knew all the work that went into getting a book to market 30 years ago, a case could be made that today is the simpler time!
UNRELATED (SORT OF) HISTORICAL NOTE: One hundred seventy-five years ago this week in 1850, the United States Navy eliminated the use of flogging, a brutal and merciless disciplinary process that did nothing but cause pointless pain and needless damage on the “floggee.”
But never fear, it was just thirty years ago this year that Amazon.com implemented online product reviews, effectively reversing the Navy’s decision, allowing reviewers to inflict pointless pain and needless damage on authors who thought they wrote something enjoyable or helpful.
Have a nice day!
