In the run up to the Baltimore Book Festival, I answered some questions emailed by a reporter from the Baltimore Sun. In browsing their website today, I see that the article is up and I am the third person in the slideshow!

I sound sooo self-important in these questions. For example here’s one where I talk about the future of the written word:

Moving pictures and recorded sound are powerful mediums, but they contain too much noise: they don’t convey information as clearly as the written word does. Until we invent an information-retrieval method that is clearer and faster than reading, I think the written word will be fine. In fact, with the economic prosperity and rise of literacy in Asia, there are probably more people reading more books than at any other time in human history. However, I do expect that e-book piracy is eventually going to severely decrease the profits of the publishing industry (and those of authors like myself), just as it has done for the recording industry. In the future, there will be many fewer paid authors than there are today and they will be paid less than they are now. However, this is not necessarily a reason for readers to despair. Great art will still be produced. Although musicians make much less money today than they did 30 or 40 years ago, more good music is still produced in a single year than you or I could listen to in ten lifetimes.

I know, right? Anyways, don’t hate. Whenever I answer any kind of interview question, I always default to this sort of pompousness. It’s just my authorial persona.

If anyone wants to see me at le festival, I listed my schedule a few posts back