IS E-PUBBING THE NEW SOCIAL NETWORK.

Is e-pubbing the new social network. I was having a convo with my writing partner today and we had a heated debate about editing. Now we of course subscribe to the view that a published book should be created at the highest quality possible for the reader. However, the question was, should lack of financial resources prevent one from pubbing their book? Should books be presented raw and gritty, arrogantly presented just as the author sees fit. Just like an artist who daubs a free splodges of paint on a canvass and calls that art when compared to the likes of Renoir or Monet. We do not have an answer, but we do know that the rule book for everything creative is seriously in the melting pot. No longer are the public going to be told what is art, they are deciding what art is. We pose this question therefore: Is e pubbing really now just a form of social media? If it is, the average person reading it is going to be under 30, unconcerned about perfection and entirely open to new forms of communication, such as texting, tweeting and chatrooming and cheap is now no longer necessarily tacky. The You Tube generation, is the next generation. Twitter speak is ungrammatical and uncensored, a whole legion of people including myself were not even taught grammar at school (and that was a social experiment?) and while I appreciate that for many it is very important indeed, I wonder where books are going to go next. To me writing is a form of free expression I do it primarily for the pure fun of it. I think that soon anyone who fancies writing a book will be doing it, just like they will blog, facebook and twitter their views, however unsophisticated into the ether and others will lap it up. We are now tribal. One persons rubbish is another persons Shakespeare and he did not even write with any grammar to speak of. I say this because to me it is self evident when one looks at You Tube. The talented director is now competing against young kids posting a five minute film made on a handy cam and it is by no means clear who is going to get the most hits. Now I am not saying that books should not be edited, that they should not be spelt correctly or that grammar is unneccessary. I am just posing the question. If social networking is here to stay, so I hope! are unbounded books of all types, styles and quality. Just like the people who read them. Now I have written this on an ipad. Ever tried it? IPad fingers, there are bound to be mistakes.