Sunday, February 7, 2010

Riddle me this: What's the opposite of 1984?

I have been thinking a lot recently about the future of books in terms of the publishing industry. What are we going to do about DRM? Is apple going to rename the “unicorn” (a.k.a iPad) so that it doesn’t sound like a feminine hygiene product? Is Amazon going to put the “buy it now” buttons back on Macmillan’s pages? The funny thing is, though all of this contemplation— the writing and reading and talking about books, I have not given a whole lot of thought to the books I would like to see on the shelf in the next few years. Then I came across this question on a site: What book do you think will be on the NYT bestseller list in 2020?

This is a rough draft of a submission I am working on. It is supposed to be a one-paragraph answer. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

The year is 2020. Chelsea Clinton has just been voted the first woman president of the United States America. We are 3 years into the analogue revolution. The great internet epidemic of 2017, known by the survivors as the blue screen of death, has led to communities of people with common interests meeting face to face, relying entirely on word of mouth. With the fall of the internet came the rise of the “outernet,” a place where you must be present to purchase goods, and you have to send a physical, handwritten card to your aunt Mildred instead of texting her "hpy brthday." For 12 months the #1 New York Times bestseller is Say it to my Face: A Survivor’s Guide to Life After Facebook. It is printed using recycled house paint on “paper” made from fused-together, post-consumer plastic grocery bags. It is available exclusively through the publisher’s bookstore.

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