Like the newspaper industry, the book publishing industry is being turned sideways and twisted like a corkscrew – sucked into the whirly vortex of the digital publishing black hole.

Book publishers, agents, grammar rules, and books as we know them are going the way of newspapers which are going the way of magazines… all of it leaving a sparkling crystal white Pepsodent-clean taste in my mouth as I climb toward $100,00 earnings in the digital publishing market.

I was thinking the other day, as I was writing my 2nd fiction novel, Collecther, that I must write in a way that appeals to an agent and publisher.

I don’t know why, but I still had this idea I needed to cram my thoughts into a format that every other published writer was following and had followed for decades… scores of years.

And then it fell straight out of the sky hitting me squarely on my egg head…

I’m free to write as I wish.

Why it didn’t hit me before, and why for the last 8 months when I wrote, was I  writing for others – I’m not sure. Cognitively I know that the entire industry is going ass over noggin, but I hadn’t thought about everything that meant. I’d missed this crucial fact.

We’re free. Writers are free to write as they wish – whateverthefucktheywish. Whatever format you want to write in, you can write in.

Nobody has the final say on my work – but me. On your work? You.

Grammar rules, accepted for years – go right out the fucking door and freedom takes its place. How cool is that?

See, Mike Fook didn’t get a degree in English. In high school, university, grad school – the intricacies of English grammar did nothing for me. I could write master’s level papers, sure. My vocabulary? Uniquely bedecked.

Can I keep a proper tense throughout 120,000 words? Nope.

Can I tell you when to use commas – or hyphens – or these things -> (;:)?

Nope.

Can 98% of the US population explain even ten rules of grammar?

Nope.

Am I going to worry about it anymore? Nope.

I’m writing for an audience. You are too.

Who is your audience?

If you’re writing for PhD’s then you’ll want to continue to adhere to the same style of writing your audience is used to. You must if you want to communicate at the level that makes them all cheesy, warm and gushy.

My audience isn’t that same group. My audience is a group of intelligent dudes -ettes that could give a rat’s tiny hairy one whether I used the proper tense, as long as the point got across. My audience wants to read intelligent shit presented in a way that’s unstuffy, unpretentious, un-microedited, and that flows smoothly from my fingers not unlike dripping jasmine nectar off my pinky finger into their willing mouths.

Nobody     in     my     audience     gives      a    shite      if       I       space      wackily.

Nobody cares if I use shite instead of shit. Fark for fuck. My audience wants to see new words and phrases in new context. My audience wants to try to figure out what the hell I’m saying – sometimes at least. The written word has been dead for so long. That’s why people like Keroac, Hunter Thompson, found an audience… people were ready for something real.

Two thousand ten is a very important time for the written word. Here’s why…

Any jackass that can move his mouth can be on television.  Remember Morton Downey Jr’s guests? Some could barely be said to have been speaking English – but, it didn’t matter. They had a nationwide, and even worldwide, forum. They could communicate whatever they wanted and be recognized for it.

There is no grammar test for people that are speaking on television or radio. There is a DJ in Tampa, that, years ago spoke like a hillbilly from the sticks. Guess what? He killed radio there – to a sick degree. He was way ahead of every other DJ in listenership.

Why is that?

He had a message.

The message counts on TV – always has. Have you watched any popular YouTube videos lately? There are whole flocks of idiots telling their story, in whatever way they know how – that are making bank on top of bank.

Television, video, internet, radio, walkie-talkie and karaoke radios – nobody cares about grammar except the publishing industry.

That’s about to change because the paper publishing industry is being blackholed by digital publishing.

Digital publishing, though at first glance might seem like a panacea for only the tech-literate, is actually a game leveler for writers of all types. Writers that don’t have the slightest idea how to put together a book – will put together books because they aren’t constrained by the format anymore. There is no test to pass… no agent, no publisher to get through. You write a book. You get an editor if you want (I still want), and you publish your book digitally.

Right now I have 5 books on Amazon that are selling. They’re not selling gangbusters, but they’re selling. I’m making $5 per book sold. How much would I make if I went with a paper publisher? $1.30? Hmm.

Any day now my books will be sold at the Apple iBookstore and Sony ebook store. I have worldwide distribution, INSTANT distribution, without the paper publishing industry at all. Actually, nobody even had to edit my books – I can write one in a week, edit myself, upload, and bang – I’m live on Amazon.

Are you beginning to see now how much the good lord loves digital publishing over traditional publishing?

Sure you are.

While traditional writers are banging their heads against oak writing desks, crazy over whether one of the 300 agents they sent query letters to will respond, I’m banging my head against silk-covered feather pillows banking  extra sleep while my ebooks put cash in my electronic accounts.

Where do you want to be banging your head?

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