Thursday, September 3, 2015

Have Books Covered Everything?



Books, whether fiction or non-fiction, poetry essay, or short-story, focus on all kinds of subjects, settings, and characters.  They address who we are and what we’ve been, sometimes with an eye on who we aren’t and where we might be going. But I wonder if books have covered everything.

Certainly there will always be books that cover new ground or offer fresh perspectives on the places and things books have already written about.  But is it getting harder to find that special something, that virgin territory that is both undiscovered and worthy of being found?

Writers write what they know, or at least from a place of knowing.  So many books are written about real-life events or are based on them.  Many are also written based on an imagination filled with wants and desires that stem from a life denied.

But in the end, we are all human, and so many books have or will cover key, relatable points in our lives – the childhood to dying cycle, issues of love, relationships and sex, stories of violence, a special year or person in your life, accomplishments and failures, etc.  Books reflect humanity and the elements of life, so it shouldn’t surprise us that many books cover similar ground, even taking similar approaches.  So when the new and unusual sprouts up in book form, there is a deep hunger and thirst that is satiated.

Where will future books focus our attention, in order to examine or unearth the different, the new, the unexamined?

·         Stories revolving around future history.
·         Books steeped in the revelations of science.
·         Stories filled with themes surrounding the latest technology.
·         Books covering global events or cultures so different than ours.

Book content may change over time but the approach to revealing it will always consist of showing how the described events impact the human existence.  So whether it’s a book with a love story, pandemic, historical accomplishment, murder, sports victory or any of a thousand other subjects and themes, the book will have to thread its story through the eyes, hearts, and psychodrama of the human mind, body, and soul.

What gives stories context or purpose is the ability of the writer to convey its impact on how one feels, lives, and thinks.  The author is always seeking to raise questions or answer them.  Humans want to feel something when they read a book.  They want to be left feeling happier, smarter, or stronger for the experience. This by no means suggests we only want uplifting books with happy endings.  It just means we want to feel like we benefited from the reading experience. Sometimes we turn to books to consume a story we could otherwise never experience or even understand if it unraveled in real life.

There will always be something worth publishing, even as we stockpile millions of books, each filled with scenarios and variables that cover so much ground. As long as your book finds a way to be relevant to how we experience or view life, it will find its readership.  You don’t need to capture a whole new galaxy of ideas or inventions – just find a way to say something that touches us.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015

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