Today, I was reminded by Facebook of an article about Mary Dolan that I published four years ago and then shared on social media three years ago. The images had all disappeared! Why? Because respecting the work that another person put into copying pages from Marie Dolan's passport onto the web, I linked to that site for the images, rather than copying them outright. Now that site is no longer there, and the only image I was able to save was the one I had copied onto Pinterest.
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| Mary Dolan's passport |
Why? What ever happened to that thing that they told us on Hubpages: that we would get residual income forever off the work we did today? Was that all a scam?
I look at my books on Amazon, and whereas they were supposed to be just like any other books, now they are showing a delay of four days to order them. What will happen when Amazon goes bankrupt someday in the not so near future, after I am dead? Can I seriously expect that my books will not be permanently out of print?
By all means trust the internet for the short term, but in the long run, you want to have a hard copy of everything. Hardcopies outlive the publishers and the civilizations that spawned them. The internet is way too flimsy to trust our immortality to.
While my new year's resolution is to write and publish less and publicize more, I do plan to publish more of my articles and other minor contributions, so there is a hardcopy to refer to in the future, even as the internet fails us. If you want immortality, you do the same!
Many websites thought they would last forever, like Hubpages, and even Examiner. They the larger media corporations noticed someone with a little blog could do well, and so they wanted Google to do something about it. Google Panda does not mean the quality of content is better. Just like everyone was freaking out about fake news stories and wanting to get rid of these a few weeks ago, there are stories on mainstream sites that are not verified. Apparently, someone was upset an article in the Guardian said Freddie Mercury was of Iranian descent, and the research for said article came from Wikipedia. About 800 or so years ago Freddie Mercury's ancestors came from what is modern day Iran to India, but the writer did not dig very deep. Of course the same can be true with small blogs, sometimes people delete a blog and the images are gone. I am not sure that there is guaranteed immortality on the web, but I think your own website and YouTube is a way to keep things more permanent. Videos on your own YouTube account will probably be there for years to come. Your own website is also another good option, although if it is a paid hosted link someone will have to pay for it after you pass on. I have thought about this, too. But even writing a book does not guarantee a person will have immortality. Certain books that were popular twenty years ago had notoriety at the moment, but are now out of print. I think sometimes only die hard fans in future years will be the ones to keep somehting going. This is why I have tweaked my thinking a bit and do not think I will ever be wildly popular, and not sure how gratifying that is in the long run. I think it is more fulfilling to write something you care about, like you do, and take steps to help it outlast your motral life. Nothing is guaranteed, but I think the way forward is spending less time on following all the mainstream trending news. It seems to want us to feel upset and bickering with each other. I think focusing on our own projects and doing what we can to promote these is more fulfilling.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the fake news scare. I even wrote about it on LibertyBuzz. I realize that most books that are in print today will not outlive their authors. It's just that those books that _do_ outlive their authors need to be in hard copy, so that new readers can discover them, long after they are out of print. I am not thinking that my books are the average book. I am thinking that if they do get lucky and outlive those that are bestsellers now, they need to be preserved for the long run. Ancient books still live today, because somebody discovered a hardcopy. This can happen even when nobody speaks the language, anymore. I have always aimed high. That is what I am hoping for. I try to do the same for other authors that I feel that way about, like Mary Dolan.
DeleteYes, a hard copy will help a book outlast the author. I think your books will still have relevance years from now. I also think appealing to a niche in this day in age will be the way forward. We do have one advantage over past civilizations, and that is tecnology. Even though websites come and go on the Internet, there is a way to archive things. The way back machine allows us to see what a website looked like years ago, even if PR people clean it up, etc. The hardcopy is definitely good for future use as you say, but I would not completely give up on the Internet. As long as there are no natural disasters, I do believe having people who truly follow what you do is best. For instance, in your case people are interested in liberty, and that will not go out of style. It will not appeal to all people though, most topics just never seem to, but I do think there will be people who will find your content in one form or another online in years to come.
ReplyDeleteHi, Julia. Yes, I think appealing to a niche is good, but it's not going to be necessarily an existing niche that somebody else has already defined for us. Not even "liberty" is a well-defined enough niche so that everybody in it is going to want to read my books. It has to be even more specific than that, I'm afraid. But at the same time, I think it needs to be more broad. Some left leaning people do seem to enjoy Our Lady of Kaifeng and Vacuum County, so those two seem to have more universal appeal. In the end, if people of all sorts do not like a book, it will not become a classic.
DeleteThanks for reminding me of the way back machine. I wonder if they still have those other images from the article on Mary Dolan.
I am so tired of left, right, and center. Can I just be a tree. It just seems that some people on one side say "hey I am the best, but those people over there are the worst". Then the whole freedom of speech thing and how the one group wants it for themselves, but gets their nickers in a twist over what the other group is doing. I know this is going off topic, but seriously, why give so much credence to certain things if people do not like it. Why not just leave the squawking bird alone and not treat everyone else like they are five. Do I really need a sign in Walmart telling me I should not leave my chidlren behind.
DeleteThe whole left-right division is pretty useless, I agree. I have friends and readers in all corners of the spectrum. And freedom of speech means we all get to speak, not just those who agree with us.
DeleteOn a happy note, though, thanks to you, I found those lost images on the Wayback Machine and restored them to the pub on Mary Dolan.