The Online World Expands and Expands

By Bob Hughes - Dec 11 , 2012

In case you had any doubts about where publishing was heading – you know, the paper-vs-digital trend – a new infographic from 3D Issue, a developer of software for print publishing, makes it very clear. Not only has digital magazine circulation doubled in a year, but 23% of adults get their news from two digital (or online) sources, and 75% of the total population will be online by the end of this year.

There’s pretty much no turning back (unless we have one of those end-of-the-world blackouts, as in the television show Revolution or, if you’re given to apocalyptic frames of mind, if the world ends on December 21, as per the Mayan calendar).

But for you, as someone who is creating a platform for your ideas, and are either writing a book, marketing a book, using your platform to build your business and attract customers, what’s important is the growing strength, prevalence and necessity of online communication.

It’s the rare writer or entrepreneur who can afford to choose not to be connected. Many authors, especially literary ones, still don’t have websites. That’s their choice, of course. You don’t have to live in the digital universe. Such authors exist, perhaps, on a higher plane than the rest of us. But since you’re going to be using your platform, and your book, to build a business, then you want to b able to communicate with people in the way that more and more people will want to communicate: digitally.

This doesn’t mean that paper books will be going away. A market for them will remain, and bookstores will, I hope, still be around for years (you just know that every time a bookstore closes, a branch of some faceless bank will open there, dehumanizing a neighborhood).

So the graphic from 3D Issue is, if not an eye-opener, further evidence of where you need to concentrate: online.