http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmc5xiff9_M

Here’s something to scare the pants off my author friends! I was wondering last night about the Nuss (see previous word of the day – my daughter says it should be nEss) of being an author.
How much of the desire to be an author is bound up in the physical property of a book? If books were replaced by downloads, intangible bits of data that you can’t find on a shelf in a library or bookshop, would so many people spend so much time and effort getting their first story published?

I think there is a difference between authors and writers. Writers can’t help themselves. Authors are people who have their names on books.

The author status is not the same in film or tv or computer games or the state as it is in the physical ness of being a proper book author.

The same goes for artwork. However beautiful a digital image it’s status will never compare with a real thing that you can hold or walk around. Or am I just of an older generation holding on to the old ways, while the new generation grasp new images and means of delivery without the burden of history?

If so, why, when we see something amazing on the internet, do we immediately click through to easyjet and book a flight to see the real thing?