Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
In my library, I see a strange thing.
Almost every author, except some, have started writing in the 90's, especially fantasy-authors. Some even only turned out their first book when they were way into their 40's. When I look through my Calibre listing, I see some stuff from the 70's, something from the 60's, some classics.... But it's all dwarfed by the newer stuff, starting at around 1990: *BOOM!* Most of the books I've read at this point have been written between 1985 and 2010, and I've been reading since childhood.
It just looks like as if in the 90's, half the English speaking world decided to start writing; at least is does for me. Some (fantasy) authors are writing so fast that I'm actually starting to question if I should keep following them; turning out 2-4 books of over 450 pages a year can't be good for quality. Maybe I should start reading some of the older stuff again, from a time where a 450 page book took 4 years to write instead of 4 months.
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Welcome to the PC revolution.
The 90's were when the technology of publishing changed for the first time (in modern times). The Personal Computer became readily available, and the process of authoring got much easier. No longer did one have to type a manuscript on a typewriter, it could be edited on the computer. Changes didn't involve retyping entire pages, only the passages that changed where changed.
The process of authoring went from being one where only driven people (masochists) did it, to one where anyone who had the desire could get over the process-being-difficult hump fairly easily.
And the size of the books has increased since then. Before the PC, the mechanical process of authoring required a lot of work, post-PC the mechanical process got much easier. This allowed authors to develop more longer and complex books.
The electonic publishing revolution has been going on for 25-30 years.