Going into this post I have to admit that what I have to say may be terribly subjective because my perspective about publishing/self publishing is evolving quickly. I feel as though this last year has involved a quantum leap. Self publishing the first book was difficult and required tenacity as I found my way through resources and essential steps. By contrast the second book was a breeze.
That little preamble leads me to my reaction to this year's Book Expo in DC. So get out your salt shaker and take this with a grain of salt for what it's worth. But as a psychologist I'm also used to sifting the experiental sands. And my experience of BEA this year left me with the feeling that the climate of the publishing industry has changed yet again.
Last year I felt fear in the air as it became clearer that the changes in the industry are huge and unpredictable. For example, agents were striking out verbally at Google as they saw Google's new programs threatening their income stream. The circus atmosphere on the floor seemed undirected if not random.
This year my overwhelming impression was of confusion. If the fear has subsided somewhat then it has been replaced with quite simply not knowing what to do. In one session about blogging they franklty admitted that while the title of the session was about blogging 2.0 no one knew if there was a 2.0. Yet.
It is tempting to say that this perceived change at BEA might be predictable. Oh, sure. Easy for me to say. But maybe the fear can't be sustained when you have to go back to work even if you don't know where it is all going. But you can continue to be confused. Being confused is less draining than being fearful. So, is it a step in the right direction? Probably not. We are waiting for clarification, a light at the end of the tunnel or even Godot. In the meantime we scrap it out until the new world emerges.