Live Stream: Literary Writers and Digital Disruption

In What's the Buzz by Hannah Johnson

Live from The Muse and the Marketplace 2014, (Grub Street’s three-day event for aspiring writers), you can watch this year’s Town Hall Debate event, “What Every Literary Writer Needs To Know About the Digital Disruption.”

Tune in on Friday, May 2 at 1:30 pm EST. Watch the livestream below:

From The Muse and the Marketplace 2014:
What Every Literary Writer Needs To Know About the Digital Disruption: A Town Hall Debate
1:30pm-3:30pm EST on Friday, May 2

While we cheer on great self-publishing genre writers, and revel in every author’s new ability to take control of his or her own career, we ask ourselves this quite urgent question: what will become of the writer of literary fiction in the digital age? To help answer this question, Grub Street has gathered a group of industry figures who, along with the audience, will debate this question in a vigorous, unique town hall format moderated by publishing journalist and consultant Porter Anderson, former CNN anchor and senior producer. We will discuss why we don’t hear more about literary authors charging ahead on the force of digital’s self-directed energies, and what literary authors can learn from genre writers in this area; whether literary fiction can cultivate its audience in social media as readily as other genres; whether digital distribution supports literary as well as it does romance, mystery and historical fiction; whether there’s more that our great digital publishing platforms (Amazon, Kobo, etc.) can do to support literary fiction and its writers; how agents can work as partners with literary authors; how much literary authors themselves must embrace the digital realities. In the town hall format, the audience is as much a part of the debate as the presenters. Together, we will engage in a room-sized debate set “in the round,” actively engaging audience members to share their ideas, questions, concerns, manifestos and challenges.

Town Hall Participants:

  • Eve Bridburg, Grub Street
  • Jon Fine, Amazon
  • Christine Munroe, Kobo
  • Rachel Fershleiser, Tumblr
  • Steve Almond, author
  • Jane Friedman, Scratch Magazine
  • April Eberhardt, agent
  • Ben Samuel, Electric Lit
  • Matt Cavnar, Vook
  • Kathy Meis, Bublish
  • moderated by Porter Anderson
The Muse and the Marketplace

The Muse and the Marketplace

About the Author

Hannah Johnson

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Hannah Johnson is the publisher of international book industry magazine Publishing Perspectives, which provides daily information and news about book markets around the world. In addition to building partnerships with international cultural and trade organizations, she works with the Frankfurt Book Fair to organize and support a number of its overseas initiatives. Hannah has also worked as the managing editor for an online media company, The Hooch Life, focused on craft distillers and cocktail experts. Prior to that, she worked as a project manager for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office, managing various business and marketing activities.