I
like that there are so many televised debates of the presidential candidates –
and that people are watching them. Sure
the political season is too long and done way too far in advance of the
national election, but still, the notion that our leaders discuss major ideas,
issues, and problems and engage in dialogues to bring about solutions is a good
thing. I wish there’d be such debates by
authors and those in the publishing industry, and I wish such debates would be
televised nationally and widely reported by the media.
·
How
far should we go with the First Amendment?
·
Will
e-books replace printed books?
·
Should Amazon open up physical stores?
·
Who
is the best author of our time?
·
Should
publishers change how they compensate authors?
·
Is
it fair The New York Times doesn’t
review self-published books?
These
are but a handful of the many topics and themes authors,
editors, literary agents, promoters, publishing executives and others could
address.
Debates
for president, of course, have a lot at stake, such as who will lead our nation
to address life-death and quality-of-life issues. Authors and publishers have important things
to debate, but they seem secondary to global politics. Still, a lot of important issues plague the
world of books today.
I
think a panel of publishing experts should gather, more to brainstorm and
collaborate than to debate or compete. These discussions could look into
generating new ideas and identifying best practices on things like:
·
What’s
being done to battle piracy and copyright law violations of published books?
·
How
can self-published authors compete with those of the Big 5?
·
What
should the industry do with Amazon?
·
How
do we ensure books aren’t censored, banned, or boycotted?
·
How
do we improve literacy?
·
How
can communities help grow their libraries?
·
Can
books help society fix its problems?
The
presidential debates get attention from the media, and rightfully so, because
they are important and people perceive them to be relevant to their life. If people place a similar value to books and
debates about them, we could create a strong theater of ideas.
Maybe
the book industry needs its own political party. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and the
Bookish Party. Imagine having a
candidate champion books and the role they play in our lives. Imagine a candidate who spoke out for all
things books. Why not? Why not have a political spokesperson for
books on a grand stage? I’d watch the
book debates. Would you?
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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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