Authors Then & Now

Twocky61 · Post by **Twocky61** » May 6th, 2019, 7:08 am

I've often wondered, are there as many authors nowadays than back in history?

Pre radio/TV & definitely the Internet, people had little to do, other than read & write. Also play musical instruments, at family gatherings & procreate lol

That's why there was a baby boom during the war lol

But anyway

What do you all reckon? Is writing books on the decline nowadays with so many other distractions?

realisticspeakers · Post by **realisticspeakers** » May 6th, 2019, 7:42 am

I think there are more writers today than yesterday. There are a plethora of books on the writing process and they sell well, which merely a statistical indicator, tells the tale...so to speak. Many people "blog", and this bares fruit more than a stack of unseen first drafts as well as providing impetus for those who would be less inclined to write. Screenplay is merely a hundred years old. And you can find a host of self published books which was all but impossible a few decades ago.

Post by **mightyfelix** » May 6th, 2019, 10:06 am

Yes, I agree. There are also far more people now than there have ever been who are literate!

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » May 6th, 2019, 11:16 am

Not in the UK there aren't!!!

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » May 6th, 2019, 12:09 pm

I'm currently editing a first book by a college student. It is a collection of his best tweets. The job is more difficult than I expected, even though most of the chapter titles are: 'Where r u?' or 'Pizza?'

So, to the point: Is 'dood' the correct spelling? My author insists it's 'dewd.'

lymiewithpurpose · Post by **lymiewithpurpose** » May 6th, 2019, 12:18 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 12:09 pm I'm currently editing a first book by a college student. It is a collection of his best tweets. The job is more difficult than I expected, even though most of the chapter titles are: 'Where r u?' or 'Pizza?'

So, to the point: Is 'dood' the correct spelling? My author insists it's 'dewd.'

I'm gonna say 'dude'. That's how I've always seen it written. However, a google search showed up that 'dewd' is an alternate spelling of 'dude'. I have never seen 'dood' but that's not saying it's not a thing

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » May 6th, 2019, 12:30 pm

lymiewithpurpose wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 12:18 pm
KevinS wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 12:09 pm I'm currently editing a first book by a college student. It is a collection of his best tweets. The job is more difficult than I expected, even though most of the chapter titles are: 'Where r u?' or 'Pizza?'

So, to the point: Is 'dood' the correct spelling? My author insists it's 'dewd.'
I'm gonna say 'dude'. That's how I've always seen it written. However, a google search showed up that 'dewd' is an alternate spelling of 'dude'. I have never seen 'dood' but that's not saying it's not a thing

You're obviously most sophisticated. (Probably not a member of our target market.)

lymiewithpurpose · Post by **lymiewithpurpose** » May 6th, 2019, 12:31 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 12:30 pm You're obviously most sophisticated. (Probably not a member of our target market.)

Ha ha ha. I mean I am a high school student so I don't know if I'm too far off

. But honestly, I would read a book no matter how they spelled the word. As long as I got the meaning it would be fine to me

Post by **mightyfelix** » May 6th, 2019, 10:17 pm

Haha, ok point taken! Yeah, being able to read and write academic English seems to be on the wane, but all I meant to say is that more people globally are now actually receiving or have received instruction on how to read and write. It just doesn't take as well in some as in others.

Campbell, you and I are different in how we read, then, I think. If I find a lot of misspellings and incorrect grammar in a book or article, I really struggle with it! For one thing, I find it hard to take the author seriously, even when their arguments show that they know what they're talking about. Some kind of bias there, I guess. But also, it's just really hard for me to follow when there are lots of errors like that. I keep having to reread and ask myself what it means.

Twocky61 · Post by **Twocky61** » May 6th, 2019, 11:29 pm

Oh; & another thing

Every time I log on here LibriVox forum there are no more than six at the very most logged on

Aren't there many members here then?

Shame if that's the case

Post by **mightyfelix** » May 7th, 2019, 12:05 am

It fluctuates. I've sometimes seen as many as a dozen logged in at one time. It all depends. Bear in mind that there may be some members who are logged in but choose not to be visible. Also bear in mind that our volunteers are spread out across the world, so we're all working on wildly different time clocks. (It's actually the middle of the night for me right now.)

As to how many members we have, it's extremely hard to pin down. You can see from the latest monthly stats that we've had over 9,000 readers. But that also includes each person who recorded one thing 9 years ago, for instance, and then disappeared and was never seen again. Some people become active for awhile, remain active, and then disappear. Maybe later on, when their lives calm down, they suddenly reappear. I don't know if there's really a sure way to figure out how many active members we have at any given time. Whatever the number might be, we have enough volunteers that we've been able to consistently produce over 1,000 projects each year (on average), so I think that's not too shabby.

Twocky61 · Post by **Twocky61** » May 7th, 2019, 12:09 am

Thanks Felix

Post by **annise** » May 7th, 2019, 12:21 am

I think the number of writers of books is increasing. It's much easier to self publish than ever before and if you include things without hard copies, even more, are available. Yes, some of it is what was called pulp fiction but that has happened for a long time, there are mentions of street sellers of printed material ever since a larger % of the general population could read

Anne

Twocky61 · Post by **Twocky61** » May 7th, 2019, 12:32 am

Another point

Which is more popular?

Books (audio or print) or eBooks?

Obviously, power cuts favour the good old book, when the eBook battery needs charging

Which do you prefer?

For me?

The book every time

The good thing about eBoks it introduces people to reading who otherwise wouldn't think of reading a book

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » May 7th, 2019, 3:43 am

mightyfelix wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 10:17 pm Haha, ok point taken! Yeah, being able to read and write academic English seems to be on the wane, but all I meant to say is that more people globally are now actually receiving or have received instruction on how to read and write. It just doesn't take as well in some as in others.

Campbell, you and I are different in how we read, then, I think. If I find a lot of misspellings and incorrect grammar in a book or article, I really struggle with it! For one thing, I find it hard to take the author seriously, even when their arguments show that they know what they're talking about. Some kind of bias there, I guess. But also, it's just really hard for me to follow when there are lots of errors like that. I keep having to reread and ask myself what it means.

I agree entirely - and it's the same with speech, if someone sounds illiterate then I can't help thinking of them as illiterate. Of course, some people are educating themselves, and this is admirable. Self improvement is always good. In my case serious education started after I left school, a long time ago. (Some might say when I was in the Dark Ages ...)