Absolutely. Listen to your work aloud! As I was writing my novel, The Janus Paradox, I found text-to-speech apps that gave me a new perspective on my writing. It let me pickup grammar errors and plot holes my eyes missed. Plus I could listen from my phone while jogging or walking my dog, so editing—my least favorite part of writing—went much faster.
Of course, the issue was that I could never remember the errors that I heard when I got back to my computer. As a writer/tech guy, I took a year off from writing the book to create the mobile app Edit Out Loud. I used it to listen to my book on the go, add comments, and then sync those comments back to a word doc I could edit when I got home. I never actually expected to get thousands of authors using it.
I absolutely love to create things. I used to play in bands and writing the lyrics was always my favorite part. As I got older, I became a tech guy who founded many startups from a social Ping Pong League to, most recently, a mobile app that lets authors edit their work out loud... called Edit Out Loud, believe it or not. The theme in all of those things was a focus on creating something from nothing.
Writing a novel was an amazing way to scratch the creative itch, without any of the baggage that comes with starting up a company... Though, promoting and editing definitely have some "baggage," writing The Janus Paradox has been one of the biggest creative outlets I've engaged in.
For The Janus Paradox, I had an amazing cover that a paid an artist to create. Then I polled several cover/author communities and learned how much people really do judge books by their covers. To my great chagrin, I ended up giving the cover the treatment you see today. Don't get my wrong, I think it looks great, but there was something about the raw painting the artist created that I really loved. At least I get to keep the canvas hanging in my office.
Absolutely, I had an early lesson in my life about write and wrong. I was going to commit what seemed like a victimless offense that there was no way anyone could ever catch me for. When I told a family member, he advised me that I should not do it. When I asked why he said, "because it's wrong." For some reason that stuck with me and I've always evaluated right and wrong in my decisions... It's in the Janus Paradox. Give it a read, see if you can find it.
I think those things make books more accessible, but like TV streaming services, they also create more content and allow reader attention span to be spread thin. I think this makes it tougher to break through the noise.
One big tech trend in books that I think really will catch on, is Audiobooks. I'm a huge fan. I know I'm in the minority now, but I believe this method of taking in content will pick up a lot of steam.
