In the last twenty years technology has totally changed the way information is exchanged and books are published. Gone are the days when only printed books and magazines were the only means of sharing information.
Now information can be published and shared using the powerful internet and social media properties like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The latest in information sharing is the explosive growth of video. More and more authors are producing videos and films rather than writing long books. However let me tell you that book publishing is not dead by any means. It will continue to be a useful media for many decades to come.
What is amazing is the fact that now books can be accessed using small hand held devices and phones. The mobile technology growth has resulted in growth of devices like blackberry, android, iphone and several gadgets. Best demonstration of this technology is the Amazon Kindle. Can you imagine, now web sites get created such that they can be viewed from these hand held devices.
The resources offered by new technologies provide the agility of online journalism, new formats of newspapers and magazines and the combined efforts of various media to ultimately serve the reader, listener and viewer.
Today we have so many resources available to socialize knowledge. This is great opportunity for the reader as well as the writers. However for some of the writers who for long only understood the print media, learning new technologies and computer skills is proving to be difficult. On the other hand young writers are having a great time because dependency on others like publishers, book stores , distributors etc is totally removed and therefore they can come up with new electronic books extremely fast.
So the message for book writers, both old and new, is to leverage the new technology to the fullest by learning skills to uses computers, operate hand held devices, make videos, use social media and other new technologies to publish books for online as well as offline customers.