COVID-19 and The Digital Future of Publishing

The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many aspects of life, but as a reader I’ve actually felt fairly little impact.

I still read eBooks on my Kindle, and was able to order physical books online. Now that local retailers and my library are operating (somewhat) normally again, I can go buy them in person again too.

So, what’s changed? I think the lasting impact that COVID-19 will have on books and readers is a bit more subtle than how we actually purchase things to read.

Publisher’s Going Online

Like so many industries, publishing had to adapt to its employees working from home. I believe the pandemic may have been the catalyst to finally get the monolithic, and notoriously slow, publishing industry to start moving more quickly. The realization that many jobs can be performed remotely, and that customers can be interacted with directly out of necessity is a sea change. Whenever we collectively decide the pandemic is “over”, I think we’ll see these publishing industry changes as permanent, like we will in other large creative industries. I don’t think there’s any going back from the industry making a change to be somewhat leaner and more agile.

People Are Reading More Books During Quarantine

Credit: Getty Images

In a (not so) surprising turn of good news, it seems the publishing industry is doing pretty well during the extended duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publishers Doing Well, Retailers OK.

While retailers like the ever-embattled Barnes&Noble took an initial hit, publishers have quietly been able to continue churning out books mostly on schedule due to the nature of their business. This piece over at Observer details how sales of books have been going up as more people turn to books for entertainment and information while being at home.

This makes logical sense to me. I’ve been reading far more in the past couple of months, even if my writing output has suffered from quarantine. I have noticed that I’ve been skewing heavily toward non-fiction books though. I’ve struggled with getting into fiction, which is extremely abnormal for me. It’s not surprising to me with all the major events happening globally in 2020 that people are seeking out information in books, and creating a rise in non-fiction sales.

Luckily for us, many retail booksellers are now open again in some capacity. That combined with availability of online sales is something we can at least be grateful for in these challenging times.

Have you been reading more during the pandemic? If so, what have you been getting into? Let me know down in the comments.

DIY Black & White Photo Development

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten any photos developed.

The lack of photo updates (or any updates, really) are due to COVID-19 and its impact on creative endeavors.

Specifically for film photography, there were a couple reasons I haven’t gotten any new pics.

1. Finances – Sending film to a lab for development is expensive, and its a luxury right now that I couldn’t prioritize
2. Lab Closures – Some of the labs I regularly use are either currently closed or have limited availability
3. Film stock availability – I’ve read about shortages of particular stock online, and after the price increases early in 2020, I’ve been dipping into my fridge stock rather than buying anything new to experiment with (See: #1)

Learning to Develop at Home

I’ve been shooting color film almost exclusively for the past few years. However, I started on B&W back in the day when I first took photography classes in high school (yes I’m old), and have been interested in getting back to it. I bought a used copy of Black & White Photography: A Basic Manual by Henry Horenstein on eBay, and it has been very inspiring. It’s available for less than $10 used, and I cannot recommend it enough. I plan to write up a full review of the book, because it’s an amazing resource.

I’m interested in coming up with an extremely budget-friendly workflow for black and white development. Most of my film photos ironically end up digital, but I’d like the final scans to be high enough quality to print on paper since I occasionally frame photos as gifts or home decor.

I’ve also been bringing my rangefinder out quite a bit lately, and everything I’ve read about the Yaschica Electro 35 says it truly excels when you load it with B&W film.

Creating The Workflow

I plan to build on this post long-term as I seek out and choose equipment to reach my goal, and I’ll try to update it with links to gear as I put together a kit. The focus will be on value, since I think a lot of film enthusiasts are on tighter budgets than usual during this pandemic. Film and photography equipment is a luxury for hobbyists like myself, but I’d like to be able to continue creating photos more regularly, in a DIY fashion instead of constantly scrimping and saving for lab services.

I’m also open to suggestions from any film photography blog followers, or film buffs who happen to run across this post. How do you develop B&W and has it made things more affordable? Let me know in the comments.

Stay tuned!

Best Software for Socially Distant Writer’s Groups

My writer’s group is finally back on track!

After a few months hiatus, we’re meeting regularly again and it feels great to have the encouragement and accountability. The only difference is we’re not currently meeting in-person due to the ongoing pandemic.

We’ve experimented with a few pieces of software for our critiques and meetings, and I wanted to spend a few minutes outlining some software we’ve been leveraging, along with Pro’s and Con’s.

A Writer’s Guide to Coronavirus Quarantine Life

Life, Disrupted

By now we realize that Coronavirus has disrupted nearly everyone’s daily lives.

Whether you are self-quarantined, or just social distancing, it can be very tough to keep your creativity and writing output up. It seems counter-intuitive. Writers all over the globe are exactly where we should be right? In front of our keyboards. But any combination of health & financial stress, working from home, caring for children, and home schooling is absolutely disruptive and exhausting. It can make you just want to curl up into a ball and not write or do ANYTHING creative at all.

I’ve been home for about two weeks now. When I received my work from home announcement, I thought whoa, so much writing opportunity! and I was completely wrong. I wasn’t even able to utilize my usual lunch breaks to get words in anymore. This combined with feelings of anxiety and even mild depression from isolation (I’m one of those weird extrovert writers) tanked my output. This past week however, I carefully managed a routine, and it has helped quite a bit. My word count is up, and most importantly, so are my spirits. Here’s what I’ve been doing. Everyone’s situation is different right now, so these may not work for you, but I hope they might help some of my readership out.