Less short-term gimmickry - more focus on readers and words. Molly Flatt sums up the weekend's second annual Literary Consultancy conference. "These are the best of times and the worst of times," declared Robert McCrum (left). He paused, then added to wry laughter: "They are very confusing times."
Confusing, yes; cataclysmic, no. The attitude from both speakers and audience at Writing In A Digital Age, The Literary Consultancy's second annual conference, distinctly implied that the days of Chicken Licken are over; it's time to focus on action and leave the apocalypse to the journalists. In a session reviewing the past year's mergers, mistakes and mass-market mega-successes, Dan Franklin, Digital Publisher at Random House, quoted Churchill. "This isn't the beginning of the end. It's the end of the beginning."
