Episode 19, Part 1: The King and I
Almost 600 years ago, with single stroke of genius, Johannes Gutenberg birthed the information age. His movable type printing press ushered in an era of knowledge and enlightenment; mass-produced books made the worlds of philosophy and science available to kings and paupers alike.
As a writer, I believe the invention of the printing press may have also wrested some power away from the writer. Before Gutenberg, I imagine the ancient writer as a revered artist, a rare bird who produced unique masterpieces. At the behest of The Sovereign, monks, by candlelight and quill, produced handwritten copies of his (or her) manuscript to permit dissemination to a wider audience—the ultimate tribute to an author. But that all changed with the arrival of the printing press. From then on, writers would vie for the opportunity to have their manuscripts made into books. The publisher had become King of the Realm.
None of this was on my mind in March of 2011 when Judy handed me a flier announcing that a publisher had scheduled a local workshop for writers. I had been working on the manuscript for about 8 months. Inside I knew that it would be difficult to land a publisher, but I wasn’t really interested in attending the seminar. I put the flier aside both on my desk and in my mind.
The day before the seminar, Judy, who was out of town on business, called to remind me to go. I still didn’t want to attend, but I reluctantly admitted it would be a good idea to gain some intel on the publishing world, especially since we would eventually wish to have the manuscript printed. So, Saturday morning, March 19, I walked into the workshop with about a dozen other authors and author-wanna-bes, all wanting to hear how we could be the next Rowling.
The workshop would turn out to be a letdown for every author, except me. If my date with Helen in Jan 2008 was the first step in the Death Of Online Dating, this seminar would turn out to be the second step.
Click here for Episode 19, Part 2: No One Sells A Million Books
The Death of Online Dating 
Omg, great blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you make blogging seem easy. The overall look of your site is
fantastic, not to mention the content!
Thanks so much. You’re too kind. It’s a standard layout, but I know html so I’m able to do a bit more with it. Obviously, I haven’t been blogging on this story for some time, but I’ll get back to it one day. The story actually continues to this day in the Death of Online Dating. We’re just about to enter the final launch phase in the next month or two. Cheers! t