I Could Never Sell

Film-makers watch “rushes” at the end of each day as they translate script to film.   Then they disappear into the editing room for weeks.  Then they test market early cuts of the film, and go back to the editing room.

I expect that one day soon we will see all four of those steps repeated each day: shoot, watch, edit, test market.  Over the Internet, that is.   We will be invited to comment and vote on scenes as they emerge each day or week or whatever.  We will subscribe to filmmakers and films in the making the way we now subscribe to a few of our favorite blogs, and comment and vote on them.

Books will be written in much the same way, with daily or weekly rushes.  Blog entries, that is.  Books of the future will begin as blogs, I’m guessing.

True, many blogs never become books.  Many movies never get to the screen, and for much the same reason.

Movies are shooting more footage, more running time, as rushes come out.

Books are different there.  Books can change thoroughly over time without getting longer.  Shooting and editing are different steps in movie-making, but writing is mostly rewriting.   Here’s an example, an essay captured as it emerged at the keyboard, and then replayed.  The do-overs make you dizzy.  Maybe movies do something similar while shooting.  I once watched Woody Allen reshoot the same scene a dozen times in Riverside Park.  Did you ever say a word over and over until it sounded like Swahili or Finnish to you, and you couldn’t make out its meaning?  I felt for those actors in Riverside Park.

Not only will books of the future begin as blogs, I’m guessing, but they will be delivered the way we already deliver software.   You’ll get updates to a book at regular intervals, optionally or automatically, after six months of blog entries have been packaged into a book.

Before, blog entries are dated, and followed by reader comments.  After, book updates will carry versions and release numbers, and if you read reviews of the book, or write your own, you’ll have to include the update number, and do another round of reviews when the book gets a major update.

Here, for instance.  What if you vote on a blog entry, and comment on it, and pass the link around with your recommendation or condemnation, and then it changes, and gets steeply better or worse?  A date isn’t enough on a blog entry.  In fairness to all, we need numbers like you get with software.  Version 3.11.02543, say.

It’s happening now, without waiting for us to catch up at naming it…

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