There's a lot of change going on in the world, gentle readers. Your MatchGirl means big change. She means little change. She means jobs being gotten on the power of a blog. She means dictatorships falling on the power of a tweet. It's a whole new world when it comes to the written word and, in the end, it all can fall like dominoes.
Your MatchGirl is of two minds when it comes to digital books. (Seems like a tangent, but bear with...)
One the one hand, I love my neighborhood
bookstore. I love the people that work there. I love their involvement in the community. I love going to book club once a month and talking about books (ones I might not have picked up on my own) with my friends and neighbors.
On the other hand, I recently downloaded the Kindle app on my Android. I haven't bought a book yet, but I've downloaded a couple of free ones. I like that I can have a book with me at all times - on my phone. I like that even in my smallest handbag, if I'm waiting for Boyfriend at the bar or stuck on a crowded train, that I have literature at my fingertips.
And while I know that some eReaders support your indie bookstore (thinking about getting a Nook, truth be told, since I could still buy Google books through
Word), I'm still not 100% sold.
All that said, I believe in the power of the written word. I believe in the power of the written word to change minds and to change society. I believe that today's Twitter revolutions are a direct evolution of
"Common Sense". And I believe that the standard rules of publishing - of distributing the written word - are changing.
I recently joined the
Street Team for
The Domino Project -
Seth Godin's newest brainchild, destined to change the face - the "how" - of publishing. While I'm not sure exactly what the Street Team is all about just yet, I'm honored to be amongst such amazing people (seriously, you should
check out these people). And as someone who has been putting thoughts and calls to action in this little space for the past two years, I'm excited about the possibilities that involvement can bring.
Does it mean I'll write a book? I dunno. A bunch of people have said that I ought to.
Does it mean, if I follow that path, that I'll self-publish? Or does it mean that I will try to go a more traditional route and look for a publisher who might like what I have to say? I have some
friends who have followed that path. I can't say.
It does mean that I'm open to all sorts of possibilities. It means that I'm open to seeing how this movement can change other people's minds about books, about publishing. It means that I'm putting into practice one thing that I have known for a long time - word of mouth, especially a referral from someone whose opinion you trust, is everything when it comes to something new - a book to read, music to listen to a movie to see in the theater - to experience.
There are a lot of changes, dear readers, in my life right now. What I do know is that I am excited to meet the people involved in the Domino Project, to soak in what they have to say, to gather inspiration and support from them.
And I am most certainly excited to see how the dominoes fall...
