Short Circuit by Poppy Gee

 

 
How do you think the publishing industry is adapting to the "attention economy," and how do you feel about those shifts? Are books an antidote to shortening attention spans?

In the early 2000s I was the chief subeditor on Girlfriend magazine, a magazine for girls aged 10-15 years old. In our editorial meetings we used to discuss the ways that girls read the magazine. This was a hot topic, because the internet was fairly new, and phone ownership was becoming normal. (I got my first phone in 2001). When I started at the magazine in 2003, the magazine had a very successful website. In fact, it was the number one teen girl’s website in Australia. One of my first jobs as the chief sub was to integrate content between the website and the magazine. We pioneered putting weblinks on each page of magazine, and cross referencing the magazine and web content. For example, you’d read an article about TV show The OC, that included a breakout box: Which boy from The OC is your perfect match? Do the quiz at www.girlfriend.com.au and find out. 

We imagined the girls sitting on their bed, flicking through the magazine, checking their phone, doing something on their laptop, with possibly a TV competing for their attention, too. They might also be painting their nails, talking on the phone or to friends, eating afternoon tea. We created content in the magazine that would thrive in a vibrant, dynamic, multi-entertainment eco-system – short articles, snappy break out boxes, stimulating visuals, content purposefully curated so the girls could dip in and out of. At the time, this was a progressive editorial direction. 

Twenty years later, some commercial fiction authors are being similarly progressive. Thriller writer Candice Fox talks about writing short chapters that end with cliff-hangers. A psychological thriller writer friend writes strictly 1500 words per chapter, adds lots of hooks, and aims to ask a question, and answer a question in each chapter. Writers understand that many readers read on their kindle. Shorter chapters and short paragraphs work well on a kindle or an iPad. Long paragraphs are arduous to read on a screen.

This is not to say that the novel as an artform is endangered. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that people are devouring fiction in different ways.

Newspaper have long understood how people consume their product. When I was a cadet reporter, we were taught the inverted triangle style of reporting – start with the juiciest part of the new story, and then add each element, almost bullet point style, until you run out of word space. The idea is that the reader doesn't have to read all the way to the bottom to get a strong sense of the story. If they wish, they can just read the headline, the first lead sentence, maybe the caption on the photo.

The authors I know who are responding to changing consumer appetites with shorter, sharper books are not doing so because the publishing industry told them to. They’re doing it because as businesspeople, they can see that the marketplace for their product is changing.

Like the teen girls reading (now defunct) Girlfriend magazine, crime fiction readers have a lot of things to tempt them in their leisure time. Phones, of course, are a culprit, but they’re not the only distraction. There’s an extravagant smorgasbord of entertainment at our fingertips, including teetering to-be-read piles next to everyone’s bed. As readers, we must be disciplined. Books don’t get themselves read; you’ve got to set time for reading and not let yourself get distracted. And then you’re rewarded with that wonderful, beguiling, healthy feeling of I can’t wait to get back to my book, and oh, I’m sad I finished, I miss the characters. Vive les livres!