Richard Kriheli

Dear World,

Your second face is now in plain sight. Both faces as black and white as the man you snubbed. Oh, the irony.

Be ashamed of yourselves as you sit and weep for a man you turned your back on during his pleas for reasoning. Truth is, Michael was not perfect. In a lot of ways, he was sick and troubled. He was/is a case-study of a child that grew out from abuse – both physical and psychological. When he caved to pressure and made mistakes, he was lost to you. Lost because he couldn’t supersede the image of the dude dancing with zombies anymore. Instead, insanity is the label you bestowed. YOU, the smoking gun, wrecked Michael and ultimately did him in. How dare you draw on fond memories after his passing when last week he was the subject of your ridicule? Do you not see the sheer hipocrisy of your tears?

The moonwalk, as you are all familiar, is a dance step appearing as a forward step but in fact moving the dancer backwards. It appears as if your opinions and judgements are not dissimilar.

For the sake of our futures, I hope this event serves as a lesson for you all.

Regretfully,

Your Guilty Conscience.

Being sworn onto the witness stand, the publishing industry lumbers aboard and plops down. Outside the court, cries were heard, the loudest of which sounded something like “publishing is dead!” The trial has been raging on for the past few years now, but little has been reconciled since. The popular sentiment remains : the end is nigh. Sentences are about to be sentenced.

As we await for the proverbial gavel to strike, let us muse on the cause of this ruckus. Allow me to adjourn the sentencing proceedings, if you will. See, I think this is all bogus and preventable. A whole lot of fingers are pointing at Amazon, digital media and the internet for hurting the industry. Excuse my naivety, but isn’t having another place and means to sell and promote your books a good thing? Perhaps if you are doing it wisely. Am I foolish to believe that technology could be an aid rather than a scourge to the process. Granted, there are other factors at hand, but nothing seems to outweigh the obvious suspects.

Blaming the internet is for the meek. The problem, I believe, is that the publishing folks haven’t thought things through with sincere insight and scrutiny. Lets face it, the old-school folks running the publishing conglomerates are stunted in their evolution. The ancient business model no longer applies to current times, and waving a white flag now is just pathetic. Resistance to change is going to get you slaughtered in the field. Here’s the deal in three sentences (digest at will): You guys are trapped in a very flat, linear narrative – the bound book. However, this same stack of pages is no longer the optimal way of disseminating content. So what you’ve become is a group of grumpy, whiny nostalgics bound to print.

I’m not suggesting the book is over. Nor do I want to sound like I am taunting sans rejoinder. I actually have gobs of ideas on how to work towards solutions. Things that may work, things that may not. But the bottom line is, I’ve got potential propositions that may save you from the chair. But no freebies here for vultures. If anyone wants to talk shop, look me up and I’d be happy to get some discussion rolling. I’m looking your way, Random, Harper, S&S, Penguin & Hatchette. This trial will come out of recess quicker than you can spell recession (pun intended).

Book it.