Where next.

[Olly Buckle]

Mist Wolf posted this link,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...lps-big-moment

It is a reasonably long article, but interesting and it kept me reading right through to the last sentence, that was the one which prompted this thread. It seemed to imply that publishing has finally arrived somewhere, and this is it, here we stay.

No, life is always moving on, things change. This current pandemic is going to change things, there will be people working from home far more. Even if things get back to normal more I have spoken to several people who say "It has opened eyes, why should the company spend £100,000 a year on premises they don't need?" Selling books from news stands could go the way of many bookshops.

How about his for a scenario, a YouTube type channel presenting shorts free to listen to, by various authors, with links to download their longer works as audio books? Cheap to produce, no need to carry big stocks or front a premises for sales. You could get readers to rate the shorts, 0-5 stars and provide reviews to the books. The shorts would make a nice break if you were working on the computer all day, and in manufacturing people doing mechanical work like something different from continuous pop music sometimes.

What is the next big way to sell a story?

[Taylor]

I like the idea that surfaced in another thread on new genres, that explores the possibility of fictional stories with underlying educational non-fiction that is part of a university curriculum. Where would you sell it? To Wiley, Random House and other text book publishers.

[bdcharles]

I got page 404. But the New Yorker - hmm ... it seems like more of an opinion magazine. Interesting, not entirely unadjacent, but not definitive.

[escorial]

You can't eat money an computers won't feed you...words yum,yum .

[MistWolf]

What is the next big way to sell a story?

https://www.audible.com/

[indianroads]

https://www.audible.com/

I think so, and looked into it several years ago - the cost was over the top for me. Maybe if they get better AI voices the price would go down.

[MistWolf]

I think so, and looked into it several years ago - the cost was over the top for me. Maybe if they get better AI voices the price would go down.

If they switch to AI voices, I'll quit buying them.

[indianroads]

If they switch to AI voices, I'll quit buying them.

Cost of someone to read and record it is high.

[MistWolf]

Cost of someone to read and record it is high.

But well worth it. I listen to Audible books everyday at work. The narrator will make or break a book. A good narrator can save a poorly written book, but a so-so narrator will destroy even the most interesting story.

If you're ever in a position to have an audio book produced, don't settle for just any narrator. Hold out for someone that will breathe life into it.

[Olly Buckle]

Regarding the OP, what will be the next big development in publishing? Not 'what will be shut down?'

I kind of agree with Mist Wolfe that audio is a way to go. I think there is a future in writing for audio, quite often when reading I find things that are redundant when they are obvious from tone of voice. I suppose some sort of directions to the reader would be in order, as in plays.