How Publishing Has Changed In 20 Years!

I still find it hard to believe how far publishing has come, technologically, in this digital age.

Just 20 years ago I was still writing my articles with a typewriter, putting them in the mail to magazines and waiting up to 90 days for a yea or nay.

When I began a weekly column in a Nanaimo newspaper I’d post them by priority post or, if the deadline was really becoming tight, by courier!

This meant the hassle of going to the post office, not to mention the expense.

All the while, a friend was trying to convince me to buy a word processor (almost $1000) so that I could edit easily without having to use ‘white out’ or an eraser to correct typos or revise my manuscripts. A 1990s word processor, by the way, was an electronic typewriter that worked with a 300 dpi dot matrix printer. Crude, yes, but head and shoulders over a typewriter.

Then I ‘leased’ my first computer, a used PC with very limited capabilities by today’s standards, from another friend. It changed everything!

And, history buff that I am, I wouldn’t turn back the clock to my pre-computer days to save my life.

Fast forward 20 years and here we are in the digital age. I now have my books printed digitally by so-called print-on-demand instead of by offset printing press. To print with ink meant an elaborate paste-up of text and photos (which had to be screened into dots so as to reproduce well), all of which took time and some skill. Not to mention having to order at least 1000 copies so as to break the unit cost. These, you stored in your spare room or basement until—if—you sold them.

Then along came desktop publishing which allows us to print a single copy or 1000s. Now virtually anyone can type their manuscripts, format them into book form, insert photos and any other artwork, then submit the finished product by PDF to a digital printer. Two weeks later, the finished product is delivered to your door.

It’s absolutely painless—other than paying the bill, I mean.

So here I am, writing this post for my www.twpaterson.com. Again, 20 years ago, blogs were unheard-of. Now, according to the latest stats, there are millions of them, all of them allowing individuals to speak to the world.

So I want to thank my readers who find me by Googling or by word of mouth on social media. I sit in the comfort of my library office and punch away at the keyboard and, voila, within minutes I can be published online to a possibly global audience.

I still write and publish books and I shall continue to do so as long as I’m able to. I’m also committed to my blogging which allows me to speak more informally (more like I speak in real life) than in the more formalized structure of a newspaper or magazine article or column.

For which, of course, I need readers!

I mean, if I went on writing volumes of historical content but no one ever took the trouble to acknowledge my efforts, I likely would lose heart. But, the fact is, I receive almost daily feedback from my readers, either of my columns or my website or from readers of my weekly Chronicles in the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

No, I can’t take those compliments and warm wishes to the bank (dang it) but in terms of morale boosting we’re talking real riches. I truly appreciate those people who take the trouble to approach me to say how much they enjoy reading the Chronicles, or to ask me where I find all these great stories, and those of you who comment here at www.twpaterson.com.

To all of you, my warmest thank you. Please keep reading. For my part, I shall continue to research and to write about British Columbia’s rich and colourful past, as I have been doing now (with one eight-year interruption when I was working 16-hour shifts in my print shop) since I was 14.

As much as I hate to admit it, that’s a long time!

But I can assure you I’ll never run out of material. In fact, I have more in my files now than when I began this journey, and more comes in almost every day. I just have to watch or read the news to find “new” stories that have historical provenance.

So, again, thank you all.

And please feel free to contact me at any time by commenting on twp.com. Or by email at firgrove@telus.net. Just remember that I’m a one-man band and I already receive 50-plus emails a day, all of which I must at least scan if not read and file.

Which is kind of ironic, don’t you think? Twenty years ago, I relied on the postman; today it’s email. The difference, besides time and convenience, is that I was lucky to get a letter a day back then and an ordinary letter from Europe could take six weeks if it wasn’t sent airmail. Now it takes me at least an hour daily to go through my email, 95 per cent of which arrives by invitation (I subscribe to numerous informational websites), 24/7/365.

So feel free to write and I shall make every effort to answer you as soon as I can.

In the meantime, please keep following the Chronicles (you can read them online at www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com and here at www.twpaterson.com.

PS: Right now, my post on the Great Vancouver Island Forest Fire of 1938 is drawing 100s of viewers daily. East of me, here in the Cowichan Valley, Maple Mountain is on fire. To the north, on Nanaimo’s Mount Benson, a raging blaze has placed some homeowners on evacuation alert, as is the case elsewhere on the B.C. mainland.

Here’s hoping that this summer heat wave comes to an end soon before there’s a chance of history repeating itself from 80 years ago this month.

I may love history but I don’t want to relive it.

Cheers, TW