Embracing Technology – Coping Mechanisms for the Non-Techie

Fact: The publishing industry has charged into the technology arena—full speed ahead.

Fact: If writers don’t jump on that technology bandwagon, they may end up eating its dust.

Fact: Not all writers are tech-savvy, and some still reside in the medieval world of manual typewriters.

Fact: Some of us believe that “Twitter” is short for “twitterpated” (think Bambi), only birds “tweet,” Facebook must have something to do with a book cover, “Fan Pages” are just for movie stars, “WordPress” is a new publishing house, and “Pinterest” is a misspelled word.

In other words, the world of technology is overwhelming with a capital “O.” Since eating the dust of that technology bandwagon doesn’t help us market our books, we need to be creative in our thinking.

Option 1: We can forge ahead, plunging into all the above with great zeal and educating ourselves to get up to speed on the latest and the greatest.

Option 2: We can take a course—or a number of courses—at a local college to catch up on all that’s new in publishing’s technical arena.

Option 3: We can join an organization, such as Author U in Aurora, Colorado, (no doubt other such publishing groups exist across the nation) and learn from techie members who hold mini classes on all of the above.

Option 4: We can network with pros-in-the-know, the ones who seem to have been born with computer chips in their brains and who soak up this stuff like big sponges.

Option 5: We can create a team of “specialists” who each bring a different component to the table. Whatever our expertise may be, it will likely offer value of its own to others in the group.

Option 6: We can hire someone to handle the tech stuff.

Whatever option we choose, we need to move ahead with the industry if we don’t want to get left in that dust. Are you a techie? If not, how do you keep up with the ongoing changes in the publishing world?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linda Lane and her team of editors promote excellence in writing through their mentoring programs. Learn more about these at www.denvereditor.com.