Where have all the books gone?

Writing in our 'digital age' can be difficult.  You have 144 characters to tweet, you have to sell a product in one short headline, your articles have to be short enough to hold the mass's miniscule attention span.  But reading is also taking a blow.

The latest example: Borders is closing it's doors.  I find this really sad.  (And I'm not the only person, some others also got choked up over Borders goodbye email.)  I liked Borders and despite it's big, box consumerist edge I also liked that books were treated as an important and desired commodity.  Now all we have left in the way of a nation-wide retailer of books is Barnes and Noble.  Not that B&N are terrible, but I just liked the vibe in Borders better.  It seemed less snooty.

Personal preferences aside though, I do not like what this seems to be spelling for the future of books (... doom?).  The email from Border's CEO cites (in addition to the economy) a changing book industry and e-readers as the reasons for its decline.  So what exactly is happening?

I have heard a number of people claim print is dead and dying.  I'm not convinced it ever will, even if I'm the only one lugging around my trusty paperback in five years.  But the 'digital revolution' is certainly changing how we read.  And changing the price.  We can read an entire novel on a screen for about $10 (or less).  Compare that to shelling out $25 for an average hardcover.  This sounds all well and good, but is this undervaluing books and authors?  I know writing and publishing books isn't necessarily the most lucrative profession, but will this make it even less so?  It shouldn't, but could this turn away some who might be thinking of publishing their work?

There's an argument that e-readers are good for the book world because they will get those who aren't reading into it.  Maybe.  Will someone who shuns any kind of book shell out $150+ to buy one a Kindle?  Unlikely.  This means that e-book sales cut into real book sales.  This isn't necessarily then end of the world.  E-readers are great for travelers who want to take a number of books with them.  They are convenient,  portable, and look cool.  But I'll be honest, I would rather lug my books.  There's a sentimentality and personal experience that goes along with reading and owning an actual book.  I can look at them on my shelf and remember the adventure I took while reading each one.  Would anyone do that while looking at a screenshot of the cover?  I'm not sure I would.

Reading, in general, has also taken a hit in the constant digitization of more corners of our lives.  Attention spans get shorter.  The Internet, movies and television captivate larger audiences.  The NEA reports huge drops in literary reading.  Are people no longer interested in getting lost in a book?  Do people not like reading, or can they just not find the kind of books that appeal to them?  I cannot really say since I am and have alway been a lover of books.  Always.  Probably since my parents read books to me as a kid.

Is that the problem?  Not fostering a love of reading in kids at an early age?  Who knows.  But maybe if we stuck a book under their nose instead of plopping them in front of the TV, we might see a change.

For now though, this most recent blow to the book world worries me about what the future will look like for the printed word.    

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

How long has it been since you wrote a letter?  Not an email, tweet, or Facebook status.  An actual letter that you hand-wrote and dropped in the mail.  Can't remember?  Neither can I.  

May be that's why Snail Mail My Email popped into existence.  

It's an art project that is going on for a month to reclaim the art of letter writing.  

However, they didn't anticipate such a great response.  Already, they've received 900 emails and they are struggling to write and mail them all out.  And since it's a free service they've recruited some 220 volunteers to write out emails.  

Clearly, this isn't something that could go for very long for free (the cost of stamps alone...), but it might prompt a written response from those who receive a letter.  And then maybe we'll all recover the lost art of letter writing and save the Post Office with our influx of business.  

Joking aside though, I have to point out how cool this is.  Don't you get excited whenever you get something in the mail?  A postcard, a package, any letter that's not a bill or sales solicitation.  I know I do.  I love getting mail.  Even if it's something I ordered online, when the package arrives there's still a little thrill in receiving something.  

Maybe this is what this art project is meant to do: remind us how connecting through a medium other than a screen can hold excitement.  It's kind of inspiring.  Excuse me, I have to go write some letters.

Caffeine is my Best Friend

I'm sure many of you know the woes of staying up too late when you have to get up early.  The morning can be a terrible time of day.  Too bright sunrises, chirpy birds, dogs that wake you up at 6:30 to be let outside.  What makes this time of day even less bearable is minimal amounts of sleep.

Usually, I am pretty good at getting my required hours of snooze time, but this week has been a busy one and my not-a-morning-person demeanor has flared into a curse-the-alarm-repeatedly crab.

What's keeping me up?  This week I'm house-sitting for my aunt and uncle who have three dogs that like to go the bathroom at ungodly hours of the morning.  The situation would not have been too bad, except I went to a musical Wednesday night, which pushed back my bedtime by another precious hour.  And then last night I had a very necessary midnight movie premiere to attend.

I know I'm bringing the lack of sleep upon myself, especially with the movie (but it's Harry Potter and I'm way too much of a dork to pass up the final movie in this series!), but do you know what makes everything better?  Copious amounts of caffeine.

I'm actually feeling not too terribly tired now and I got to work on time and can perform my duties, but it's all thanks to numerous cups of coffee and soda.  Staying up too late to go to special events is definitely not something I plan on doing all of the time, especially with the possibility of developing some sort of caffeinated jitter looming over my head and the need to take a nap or go to bed early this evening.  However, I'm still amazed at the power of caffeine.

Tidbits and Future Uncertainties

I know it's been longer than normal since my last post, apologies.  I've been working on my normal receptionist duties (mailing things, answering phones, filing) which I don't think you would find thrilling to read about.  And I've gone through another revision of my ads, however, I'll wait to tell you how they are going until after I get some feedback from the art director.  I think they're coming along really nicely, but getting an objective opinion is the real test.

I do have a funny story about trying to FedEx something.  You would think it would not be that hard for a college grad with more than a modicum of intelligence, but since everyone who usually ships things or at the very least knows how to was gone or on vacation or generally MIA on Friday, FedExing became a challenge.

Our head of new business come up to me and says, Can you ship these two packages?  Sure, I say, not realizing this will take three times longer than it should.  I fill out a form online to pay for the shipping.  A label is emailed to me.  Following a few printing-size issues, I get the labels and affix them to some generic packaging we have.  I call FedEx to schedule a pick-up.

The friendly production director swings by my desk and says, Oh, that looks wrong.  Great.  The FedEx guy comes to pick up, but since now I'm sure they won't ship as is, I let him leave sans packages.  After calling another employee who was on vacation and checking with a lady that works in the office down the hall, I repackage, relabel and print more shipping info from online.  I ask the production guy if it look right now.  I guess, he says.  I run downstairs to the FedEx dropoff area hoping they get where they need to go.

I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm assuming they did.  And if they didn't, I can better streamline my FedEx packaging skills the second time around.

Another reason I've been away from the blog is another project that I have: finding long-term employment.  This internship is nice and I'm learning and have already learned a lot.  But it will be over at the end of August.  Which means I'm nearly halfway through my internship.

Which means my dad says I should have been looking for a job.  Yesterday.

I would like this internship to turn into full-time employment, but that still remains to be seen.  As my dad says, until you sign that contract, keep looking.  Anything can fall through at any point.  Which is of course terrifying, but true.

So I'm looking for some sort of writing job.  One thing that I've learned through this internship is that advertising is not as important to me as writing.  I would be happy writing about almost anything.  Advertising is really interesting and uses my marketing capabilities and I still want to know more about it, but writing is what I want to do most.  It's a slightly unexpected revelation, but definitely something I needed to figure out.

Revising the Revision

I've been working on a few sets of ad campaigns for my portfolio for a few weeks now.  And they have gone through a number of incarnations.  

What I've had to work on the most is the big idea.  That is coming up with and expressing in an interesting or clever way this idea.  

When I first sat down and made a series of ads for, let's say, my jewelry business, they were not really related and skirted around a central idea instead of presenting it head on with fireworks, a jazz band and a ring-leading comedian.  

Here's what it looked like:

Not necessarily terrible, but without a central idea or driving emotional reason.  And it could use better art direction.

Here's the revision of that:

I started using the personal approach here.  The idea is this jewelry will match you, your personality.  This jewelry is a personal statement of who you are and it can say anything you want it to.  Pick something that matches you or have that special piece made according to your design suggestions.   

The revision needed a snappier title and maybe a little better art direction:

And when I take it to the creative director or art director, they will probably have another suggestion.  But that's how you make better and better ads, revise the idea, the copy, the art.  Let it sit, take it to someone with fresh eyes and revise again.  

Having been an English major and continuing to do work as a creative writer, this process is pretty familiar to me.  And despite it being a tough process that often takes time, it makes the writing and the ads better.