Beam My Books Up, Scotty!

When you have a book published, maybe several, what are your thoughts, for the future? Is the book something you hope will be found and read, in 50 years? Or do you know, going in, that you may become out of print, a thing of history...or forgotten? What is your hope?

Do I hope my book will be found and read in 50 years? Heck, I hope my books will be found and read next week! I’m a writer and, to me, it doesn’t really matter when someone discovers my work (as long as they discover it eventually!).

Honestly, I don’t think about where my books will fit in the future. I’ve got bookshelves full of books fifty years old, so I assume my books will be collecting dust someplace fifty years from now. But will they be more than placeholders on a shelf and actually be read? If I’m lucky. After all, that’s why I wrote them—to be read (and hopefully enjoyed) by other people.

I certainly don’t expect that I’ll have a thriving readership decades from now (although I suppose it’s possible). But I can’t let my future dreaming affect how I feel about my writing today. I’ll just keep trying to churn out the best work I possibly can and leave my bookwise “legacy” to those who care about such things.

Of course, as my previous blogmates have noted, “books” may never really go out of “print” any longer. In fact, digital copies of my book might just be around for the colonists on Alpha Centauri to read. I’d have to admit, that would be pretty cool.

*****

Going to Malice Domestic (which starts tomorrow)? I'll be moderating a panel, "Putting the Fun in Funerals: Balancing Humor and Murder," on Saturday at 2:00. Join me and my fantastically funny panelists Donna Andrews, Brad Parks, Helen Smith, and Nancy G. West for an entertaining time!

(This entry is “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds.)