The year is 3947. It is a Sunday and you’re meeting your parents for breakfast. Everyone in the sky you pass is swathed in multi-colored cloaks projected from their imaginings (no more shopping malls), everyone is athletic and racially vague (those problems solved too), and each person flies using a veiled telepathy that make jet packs seem brutally stupid. You’re speeding because you’re late. You feel a vibration and hear, “Where are you? Is something wrong? Has something happened?”

It’s your mother. Some things never change.

But what was that device that vibrated? Is that an iPhone?

Yeah. Right.

But this is exactly the genius of another invention. So perfect in its simplicity, its design, and its overwhelming usefulness that it has survived almost unchanged for 2000 years. It began even earlier with papyrus. Sometime during the age of dynasties humanity decided to scroll. Then pages were bound together; and quietly, modestly, books outlived nations, religions, and a gazillion gadgets. Sure, there were fits and starts. We gained lithography and inexplicably lost scratch ‘n’ sniff. And what happened to illuminated manuscripts?  So, yes. Some progress has been backward.

Which brings us to the e-reader.

Do we really need to turn pages on devices that have no pages? Given what we’re accustomed to on our phones and iPads, e-readers are like telling a child she must eat the cardboard box before reaching the chocolates.

But oh, those delicious chocolates. For years, people have been bemoaning the death of publishing. Books? Who reads books? And closer to my own heart, who reads fiction? (A decreasing number of women, Jews, and creative writing students, if you want the American truth.) But nothing. Nothing beats the power of someone whispering a story in your ear—in your own voice, no less. Anybody who convinces you a reader’s imagination can be trumped, in any art form, is a very good liar.

The problem that publishing faces will never be the stories. Great stories will always be great. The problem is how they’re being conveyed. Even if you dismiss e-readers, you can’t ignore that technology is evolving at breakneck speed and, well, that printed page is still just sitting there, gathering dust as his buddies on the shelves collectively mock you when you need to move apartments.

But where should publishing be moving?

This was exactly the question I considered when I finished writing a novel. Now that any person in any country can instantly read a writer’s words the moment they enter the ether, I think publishing has a long way to go to return to its original and ever-so-simple ideal: conveying ideas and, yes, entertainment to as many people as possible, in the easiest fashion, cheaply. Publishing’s predicament is hardly new. Technology forces lots of industries to pull the brakes. Reassess their business models. Redesign.

Being part of an otherwise extremely well-run industry has enormous advantages. But I decided if I did this alone, I could create something that exists closer to how we live, and hopefully get closer to the heart of why we read. This is why I bought a book on coding and devised interactive sites that could be read on any device (phone or tablet preferred, but computer or anything with Internet access too).

I won’t list every benefit of digital publishing and the downsides of losing super-smart publishing folks, but the main advantages are global reach, easy word of mouth, and the ability to take advantage of technology as it evolves. There are those who say adaptability is bad for books. Books should be edited and then permanent. I disagree. But not because technology is bullying us. Rather, I think it’s reverting us to a better ideal. Whether sitting around a dinner table or standing on a crate in a town square, every master of a good yarn would say stories benefit from each telling. And eventually you have, not because of a lack of vision, but because you can see your audience react, a better tale. You pull bits. Insert bits. You hone. Your responsibility is not to your sense of self-importance; it’s to your audience and its well-being. And with the technology we’ve been given by other hard-working folks, we should be using it to enhance our stories, rather than simply slinging the same shit at an e-reader window.

So. Have a look: www.someplaceunknown.com. What I’ve done is obviously just a start. Simplicity seems best for now. But it will evolve. More important, hopefully other bright and young folks will find their own way toward a finish.

And I’ll end this soapbox rant to the audience. To you. The next time your wireless device vibrates. Imagine that it’s not your friend. Or your mother. It’s technology. “I’m right here,” it’s saying. “And I’m amazing. Make use of me. These e-books are like lousy dates. Give me something stellar. Together we can make our lives best.” 

-AJ Hanks’ book can be found at www.someplaceunknown.com. This is his first novel.