Digital Fatigue

Is it real? Is there such a thing as digital fatigue? More and more people spend their work day using some kind of tech device. It might not be a computer. It could be a tablet or a smartphone. Then our recreation time is turning ever more toward using our phones and tablets. We read the news on them. We watch movies and sports on them. We play games on them, communicate with videos and chats. If our leisure time is spent in much the same way as the work day, is it really relaxing?

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.–Oscar Wilde

There is some evidence, that readers are the first to rebel against the digital takeover of their leisure time. Young people lead the pack for abandoning their tech when they want to just read for pleasure. Publishers Weekly uses digital fatigue as one of the links in the anchor chain that has dragged down eBook sales numbers. Though many see the resurgence in print sales numbers, others claim only the coloring book craze brought about that little bump.

My local group had our monthly meeting this past Saturday. As usual at our first on the year meeting, we spend some time talking about the state of the industry. A surprising bit of good news was shared by a member. After being writing a number of books for a 'digital only' imprint of one of the big publishers, she and a few others received contracts to headline a new mass-market imprint. Not too many years ago, publishers were claiming mass market was dead except for 'big name' authors. Most print was trade-size paperback. Nearly all POD books, like most small presses use, are for trade-size. But lots of people don't want to spend the $10 to $18 that bookstores ask for the trade size. Hence, the popularity of the $7 to $10 mass market.

All this makes my head buzz. I'm so glad I work with a publisher rather than trying to make it on my own as in indie author. Trying to keep up with the twists and turns of the publishing industry exhausts me. I'm rather sure no one really knows what the new, shiny thing is going to be.

“He loved books, those undemanding but faithful friends.” 
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

I love reading 'real' books and I love reading on my Kindle. I love the ease of purchasing an eBook and I love browsing in a book store. I love thinking of a book I've written sitting on a bookshelf in a store, but I also love knowing I'm making money from people downloading an eBook.

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?–Henry Ward Beecher

The good news about the digital fatigue is that many have seen a resurgence in bookstores, especially indie bookstores. I've even heard B&N is doing a bit better. They plan to close some of their huge impersonal stores and open smaller 'book's only venues. That sounds good for writers.

Any good news on the writing front from your point of view? Do you take a tech-break at all? Does you job require lots of 'screen' time for you?