Authors' Survival Code

Authors should review each other’s books.  They must have a survival code like fishermen, who help each other when there’s a distress signal at sea. 

Authors would sell more books if they practise some reciprocity.  I review your book, you review mine.  I’ve bought and reviewed several books, but nobody has reviewed Sweetness, my novel.  I ‘ve therefore decided not to review books anymore, just enjoy them and keep the analysis in my head, and not release it to online masses.

Writers are at sea like fishermen, I guess.  There is turbulence in the horizon.  Book publishers and libraries are going out of business.  The written word on a page has been side kicked by moving images: videos.
 
Standard German, Spanish, English, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Korean, Russian, Irish and all languages in fact, have their backs against the wall because of Twitter and Facebook abbreviations that have no regard for spelling and syntax.  Ask college professors what they see in student papers.

We work on the turbulent sea with waves as high as the CN tower and low as water kissing a beach in Barbados after a long day.  Our products are under the ocean belly, millions of beautiful books, like the myriad of fish and plant life.

Oops! bought some more books today.

We should live in harmony like them.  Give each other a boost, a head’s up.  I review your book.  You review mine. The future of the written word is uncertain, and that affects all of us.  Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.