The AUTORPRENEURS and their era..

“Literature” has, in both form and way it reached the readers, evolved during its course of history. The long dramas of Shakespearean Era refuting the dogmas and structure of the erstwhile Elizabethan Era, the emergence of various forms of poetries and establishing certain conventions in the usage of symbolism and appreciation of beauty of the Romantic Era, the rise to prominence of the ‘novel’ genre in the Victorian Era (which still continues as one of the foremost genre), cite only one thing- that Literature, like any other thing in the universe, follows the only constant thing “Change“.

With the evolution of lifestyles, has evolved our literature. There was a certain time writing was seen as a non paying profession. Unless the current time when some writers who by employing certain celluloid-inspired methods to promote their books, garner greater readership and hence make huge profits in this “dying business”. They treat their book as a “startup” or business and go on to profit from it. This group of authors who run this enterprise are known as “AUTHORPRENEURS”.

These authorpreneurs have given a new dimension to modern literature. We can find many a newcomers taking up writing as a profession. The authors who reach the level of stardom can boast of having readership equivalent to that of fans of any superstar.

Why do we need authorpreneurs?

Often there were instances of many good books never see the light of the day or even upon doing so, they barely reach beyond a handful number of bookshelves. These authorpreneurs take it to themselves to make it reach satisfactory number of readers. The number of bestsellers has increased, so did the number of readers. His is certainly a positive sign for those taking up writing as a profession. They no longer have to worry about money to some extent.

But how far does commercialization of literature help literature?

As a matter of fact literature was never bereft of commercialization. Shakespeare never out rightly opposed Elizabethan beliefs so as to maintain the number of audience visiting his theatre. Dickens began serializing his novels to keep the readers always in want of the complete story.

In the current times however obtaining better profits from books has become more prior to coming up with better books. We know how a product rightly advertised sells irrespective of its quality. So will looking at a form of art as a product mean the decline of its quality imminent? Well to some extent it does so. Many writers without putting in much research and hard work bring out their novels.

This situation gives rise to two different segments of readers. On one hand we have selective readers (the class) who settle for nothing less than good, on the other hand, we have the mass, who give in to popular fiction without considering about literature. The readers of belonging to the class feel low towards the mass and look down upon them as mere less educated. This causes dissent to the writers of the mass. This gives way to “LITERAL DISCRIMINATION”.

Moreover the business these books do currently in the market has no indication whether it would go down in the history as “classical”. Whether our era of authorpreneurs will be regarded of as highly in future as the erstwhile eras are? Well it will be better to leave these questions for time to answer.

As it has always been difficult to identify something as black or white distinctively for everything is to varying extents “grey”. We have to accept the two sides of the coin. Being literal about literature, if thorns could be appreciated in spite of bearing thorns, we must all see the good about our era thus adjusting ourselves to the thorn. We as readers, pivotal to the whole scenario, must understand the difference and appreciate the good. We must not allow someone to take advantage of our aloofness and misguide us towards having a bleak conception about literature.

Hope to see better days in future. Keep reading, keep loving.