__ James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941), Irish novelist and poet, was considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century.  Joyce moved to Trieste, where this sculpture is located, and taught English there.
He remained in Trieste for almost ten years. 
Photo by Stefano Costanzo on Fotopedia

_ The exploding number of digital books on the market is not a sign of the demise of traditional print. The same titles are available on Kindle, Nook and other e-outlets that can be found in print as well. The majority of them, however, will not be found in libraries, schools, or even bookstores, which are losing readers who would love to browse and buy the books from them but are forced to turn to other sources. The problem isn’t the future of books but of publishers, libraries, schools and bookstores. It has several causes:

1. The great majority of today’s independent authors can’t get their manuscripts past publishing agents; the response to their queries, if they get one at all, is often negative, but they will mostly get a total rude silence. This is perhaps because potential publishers like to bet on proven money-makers or on celebrities, regardless of the literary value of new writings. As a result, more writers are abandoning the traditional publishing route and are self-publishing.
2. The next hurdle is provided by the bookstores themselves, even the so-called independent ones: They will not accept books of independent authors, regardless of their merit, unless they have a publisher. 
3. Writers are thus blocked from public view by the subjective judgements of agents, publishers and traditional bookstores as to what they think will sell, rather than as to the literary and cultural value a book might have.  Authors then go into self-publishing and the public has a choice to read them in digital or print form, but the books must be visible to succeed, and  this forces authors to become marketers.
4. The avalanche of self-published books creates a problem of legitimacy. Therefore, a group of us, authors and editors, is now forming a nonprofit organization, The indiePENdents, with the purpose of establishing standards and promoting independent writers. We will try to enlist the support of Amazon, Barnes&Noble, LuLu and mainstream publishers in creating standards and awards.

Authors write books. They represent the future of books. The indiePENdents want to give the creativity of the self-published authors an imprimatur, so to speak, in order to achieve the respectability and credibility that they are not presently given by the industry. The nascent basic standards for the indiePENdents will require cogency and a minimum of good English, as well as that each book be professionally edited. The reviewed books will be considered for awards.

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