Whatever your political affiliation, whatever one of hundreds of passionate causes you embrace, this election season will be both virtual and geographic ground zero for making one’s voice heard. The objective as always will be to make the message attract as much media and Internet attention as possible.

As we speak, plans are surely afoot for orchestrating protests for every fervent cause under the sun. Expect to hear from every conceivable rights group — gay, racial, feminine, immigrant and animal to environmental and others too numerous to mention. What will be pro will also be anti. The atmosphere will be noisy, unruly and determined. The louder, the better. The media and the net love pandemonium.

The vernacular of protest will ring out over the land, not only in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida, where the two political parties will hold their conventions, but in every nook and cranny of cyberspace. A tsunami of indignation and complaint will sweep over America.

The competition for attention will be cutthroat. After all, what good is a protest if it does not multiply its message through the media and the Internet? The Twitter and Facebook pipelines, having reached full maturity, will be jammed with invective opinions and pronouncements. Bedlam is the coin of the realm of the relentless and ever expanding bubble of attention getting information.

Early signs of this coming season of grievance and dissent can be seen in the gathering media clouds. Accusations against candidates will stem from cyber or shoe leather research that will cover every aspect of a candidate’s life, background and schooling. Gotcha will be fair game. Contributors to parties and causes will be outed, many to be insulted and reviled. We are about to discover the darker side of political giving.

Nothing will remain hidden. Every untoward sexual episode of a candidate’s life will be uncovered and exposed, every behavioral flaw, every teenage caper, every past speech, essay, email, conversation, promise and pronouncement with the slightest contrarian view of the candidate’s present stand will be unearthed, recycled, attacked and reinterpreted to fuel media attention.

Past friendships with the unorthodox, the radical, the renegade will be exposed. The old bugaboo of guilt by association will rise with predictable accusations. An inadvertent and innocent remark, even a comical throwaway line will be labeled a character flaw. There will be little restraint on accusation, nastiness and insult.

It amazes me what guts and courage is required these days to seek or hold on to political office. It seems like an exercise in madness, especially for those who aspire to a national perch. But then ambition must trump caution, especially when it comes to the presidency. It is, after all, the gold medal of politics, the ultimate prize. Whatever your ideological bent you have to bend a knee in admiration for the aspirants for their energy, fortitude, singleness of purpose and, especially, their figurative body armor that makes them impervious to insult. As they say, it’s not a game for sissies.

There is no question that the democratic process, distorted or, some would say, enhanced by technology is no longer what our founding fathers could have envisioned. Yes, it still looks good on paper with its core ideal of power by the people ruled through candidates chosen by election. Still, I go with Churchill, who opined that it is the best of the worst formula for governing on the planet, despite its chaotic and often disordered jumble.

Yes, there have always been conflict and vituperation surrounding national elections and conventions. The last big fracas was in Chicago, circa 1968. Will it be worse this time? I certainly hope not, although the recent global disturbances point to eruptions apparently fueled by social networking sites, which now serve as conduits of public rage.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the leaders of both parties and the candidates put maintaining public decorum on the top of their election agendas? Unfortunately, in the present climate of uncompromising anger and perceived inequality and unfairness obsessing the electorate and the nervousness and fear surrounding public policy in an economic downturn, such niceties are impossible.

Am I exaggerating? I don’t think so. Even the most sober observer of the human comedy of political theater, if he tells himself the truth, is bound to come to the same conclusion.

The new ploy by book publishers is to characterize Amazon as a monopoly poised to take over and dictate terms and run rampant over those who create ebook content. That is like saying Starbucks is a monopoly because it currently dominates the coffee retail business.

As an author who introduced the SONY reader, the very first reading device at the 2007 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics show to what was then an indifferent audience, I felt certain that one day e-readers would dominate the marketplace. I thought SONY was really on to something and would one day be the imaginative leader of the ebook industry.

Soon after the SONY launch, Amazon introduced the Kindle and followed through with verve and imagination to become, as we speak, the dominant force in ebook content and sales. I was an evangelist for these devices largely because of the ease of purchase, clarity and wide variety of available content and, above all, convenience, especially for those of us to whom reading is an important part of our lives.

Barnes and Noble, a super successful big-box book chain, apparently saw the advantages of getting into the ebook business early on, created an infrastructure and then, in an act of counter-productive bean cutting, abandoned its ebook business entirely. I remember meeting Steve Riggio, Barnes and Noble’s chief honcho, at the home of the late Bill Riley, one of his board members, and politely chastising him for getting out of that business.

Sure, it was light cocktail chatter, but I could tell that he was contemplating getting back into ebooks. It must have soon become apparent that in order to survive, Riggio had to get into that business, and Barnes and Noble did indeed with its excellent reader, the Nook. Unfortunately, they were late and are now playing catch-up. But to dismiss the Nook as a competitor to the Kindle is to sell Barnes and Noble short. Early on, they revolutionized the book business with their big-box stores and merchandising techniques and will undoubtedly ratchet up the ebook competition.

Then there is Kobo, a Canadian company trying to earn its bones in the business. They have to be counted as a future factor in the competition. There are others, as well, trying to crack into the coming e-reader bonanza.

The introduction of Apple’s iPad gave the publishers, as they might have seen it, leverage to fix their ebook prices. You couldn’t blame them since the challenges posed by ebooks are a very real threat to the profitable print publishing business. I have a feeling they believed that Apple would, like everything they touched, eventually dominate the e-book business as well, hence their alleged collusion.

Although I am an Apple guy and a great admirer and loyal user of their products, I did not think that the iPad would dominate the book business. It doesn’t and, in my opinion, will not. My opinion is based on the fact that the tablet concept is too distractive for the customer, to whom reading is a centerpiece of their leisure activities.

Marketers use a cute term called “immersive reading.” It is redundant. All book reading is immersive and requires from its devotees time and, above all, mental concentration.

Somewhere I read that the great Steve Jobs thought that reading, meaning the content that is defined as “books,” would decline against the onslaught of other cyber activities, which he seemed to deem more important. Indeed, he must have fashioned his foray into the book business with that in mind. With a million distractions now available on the iPad, the so-called “immersive reader” is relegated to be merely one of the pack, with “book” content hardly in the same exclusive domain of a solo device.

I am well aware that Amazon is having great success with its “Fire” tablet. My sense is that it will have exceptional value to Apps Aficionados but might not to book content readers. In my view, those who are repetitive “immersive” readers of all ages will stick with the solo reading device.

What could be a worry for Amazon, Nook, and Kobo would be if Apple decides to come out with its own solo reading device.

I have not dealt with the plight of the author, the creator of the content without which the traditional publishing business would have to close its doors. What could happen is that authors might find it more advantageous to create their own self-publishing business models, which has been my choice, join together to create cooperative ventures, or throw their oar in with numerous enterprises serving authors who have the means to self-publish with all the bells and whistles of traditional publishers.

As it stands now, the publishers are busy scratching their heads and trying to come up with measures to assure their future viability. Someone, perhaps far outside the publishing box or an enterprising author might come up with a business plan that will make economic sense. We shall see.

Fear not. Readers must read. Writers must write. It has always been thus. And creative minds will prevail to eventually figure out ways to bring the two together in ways profitable to each.

Warren Adler is the author of 32 novels and short story collections. His books are published in 25 languages worldwide and several have been adapted to movies, including “The War of the Roses” and “Random Hearts.”

My latest novel The Serpent’s Bite will be published in September by my company Stonehouse Press. It will hopefully establish a new paradigm for an author of numerous novels to continue on a career path in an environment that does not favor an author of non-genre novels.

I define non-genre as mainstream novels, strong on both character and plot that tell stories that offer insightful revelations into the human condition that cannot be slotted into the traditional genre and sub-genre categories such as mysteries, fantasy, thrillers, romance, zombies, vampires, young adult, children’s books and on and on.

My hope is that following my experiment will be instructive to the vast numbers of non-genre novelists who believe their work is worthy of readership by discriminating serious readers, and who are either unknown or, like me, modestly branded but still determined to keep on writing and finding readers.

My objective is to inform, instruct and lay out what I will be doing over the course of a number of blog posts and to keep interested readers up-to-date on my progress and the various strategies to be employed. Essentially this is an experiment in marketing and although it might seem blatantly self-promotional, that is not the final objective of this instruction.

Whether or not my experiment works, to break out of the box will be largely dependent on the size of my investment and the choice of companies I have made to administer this experiment. I have incidentally experimented in other ways, having released five of my books simultaneously with Amazon exclusive, about which I have learned the hazards of multiple releasing.

For this marketing experiment and after careful research, I have hired Greenleaf Book Group for distribution, Media Connect for Public Relations and Verso for advertising. I will keep all those interested in how this is working out in future posts. As a further inducement we will be offering limited free downloads periodically of my earlier works in advance of publication and during the launch phase beginning with The Children of the Roses, the sequel to The War of the Roses. Keeping my back list viable will be an essential part of my promotion.

Beyond that will be the subject matter, style and interest in the novel, which is completely unpredictable and in the end, will decide its sales fate. In my case, I write only what interests me with little thought to its marketability until the book is finished and awaits public exposure.

Everything will be transparent and designed to instruct those who will hopefully profit by my experience or discover its flaws. There is no way to assess whether or not it will succeed or fail.

Below is the present reality that is the fate of the self-published non-genre novelist.

There are thousands of books being published every day, both by traditional publishers large and small and a growing band of intrepid self-publishers. The fiction category is dominated by genre novels.

Among the most successful are “factory” books, published under the name of branded authors who “supervise” and no longer write their books like Patterson, Cussler and many others, some acknowledged, many not. Yes, your favorite author may be a gaggle of ghosts.

The young adult category influenced by the astonishing success of the Harry Potter books and romance fiction aimed at women is currently in vogue for publishers, both traditional and self-published. Vampire and fantasy books are particularly strong.

In the non-fiction category, note the number of best-selling “authors” who flack their largely ghost written or committee written books daily on their own television programs.

Such books by authors branded by other industries, particularly entertainment, politics, finance, news and discussion TV personalities, are now the primary sweet spot for commercially minded publishers. This is why you see so many books by television personalities like O’Reilly and novels by Gingrich, et al, many of them out of context with their day jobs. That kind of “free” promotion is eagerly sought by publishers.

Books by celebrities, mostly ghost written, in categories like children’s books, memoirs and biographies are also the fare of choice by many publishers for their brand recognition sales potential.

The fact is that traditional publishers are reluctant to invest in promoting non-genre novels, especially by non-branded novelists, although they are attempting to brand a very limited number of first time authors hoping for a breakout. Many are quickly abandoned if their books don’t sell.

Even well-known novelists are falling off the sales cliff because of the revving up of technology, the reading tablet distraction factor, the shortening readership concentration spectrum and the swiftly widening generation gap. Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame has been reduced to fifteen seconds.

Add to this the reality that big box bookstores are imploding at a fairly rapid rate, with Borders gone and Barnes and Noble struggling and shifting to their Nook device and beginning to sell products other than books in their stores. Amazon, relentless and creative with its own publishing company, is eating the traditional publisher’s lunch.

Beyond all this gloom and doom meandering is my belief that there is still enough of a robust market out there for emersion reading, for books self-written by serious novelists who wish to engage with serious readers, who look for compelling stories that provide insight into the human condition, excite the psyche and offer a parallel world for people in search of meaning to explore and enjoy.

Serious novelists who self-define themselves in such a category are, of course, opening themselves up to discourse by peers, critics, and academics who believe themselves to be the expert arbiters of such interpretations. But then, that has always been the case. Such folks, who consider themselves keepers of the canon have strong and influential opinions and may look askance at the self-published and ignore their work.

So what is a serious novelist to do to gain readers in the hurly burly unpredictability of this revolutionary phase of modern publishing?

For those who are determined to stay or enter the non genre fiction arena and have exhausted the shrinking traditional publisher route, the only course of action is self-publishing. A giant industry has arisen to guide self-published novelists through the technical shoals to launch their work into cyberspace. This will give the novelist the possibility of discoverability in the huge open landscape of cyberspace.

Finding readers for even the genre self-published novelist is a tough slog. For the non-genre self-published novelist it is like scaling a sheer cliff without climbing equipment. Indeed, the list of free e-books is the fastest growing category of books, offered by writers trying to get a foothold into the reading public.

There is a huge cottage industry promising miraculous sales but in the end, those who have aspirations of self- supported economic independence will most likely be faced with financial disappointment.

Self-published authors will, of course, receive great psychic rewards e.g. the ability to be recognized by peers as an authentic novelist, join groups of common interest with other writers on the vast number of websites where writers with similar yearnings can share conversation and experience, widen one’s circle of readers through book signings, book club discussions, attract local media, and, if really really lucky, generate a following of loyal fans that will provide recognition, favorable feedback, some reviews and personal satisfaction. Not too shabby for hours spent in isolation pursuing one’s artistic bliss.

This is the reality for the self-published writer. My goal will be to help others transcend this outcome, increase their chances of greater visibility and sales and refine ways in which the present and future non-genre novelists will be able to increase their odds of success. In the end, of course, content rules and whether or not, once discovered, the novel connects with the reader will always be the wild card that will determine an author’s success.

Stay tuned.

Download a FREE copy of The Children of the Roses.

We had time on our hands, since there was little to do once our talks were over, and would sit around discussing our careers and how we saw our future projects. I told him about the eleven stories that Viking had just published titled “The Sunset Gang.” The president of Viking at the time, Tom Guinzburg, had given the manuscript to his mother to read and he reported that she was so taken with the stories that he just had to publish them.

The fact was that these stories were based upon my own mother’s experiences as a resident of Century Village, a huge community created in West Palm Beach for middle class people like my parents. Many of them were people who were either immigrants or had come to America as children as part of the mass migrations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century from Eastern Europe. They were mostly new residents who had retired to Florida and were bonding together late in life.

After the short story collection was published, Linda Lavin, a superb actress looking for producing projects, was taken with the stories. She had a retired Dad living in Florida and, as a consequence, related to the material. The project was quickly sold to the Public Television Networks and three of the stories were shot on location in Florida. The first of them is titled “Yiddish,” but, although there is an ethnic twist to the trilogy, the stories apply to seniors of all ethnicities.

In my conversations with Larry, I told him about this upcoming project and he reacted by suggesting that we take the material and, using our mutual talents, create a musical. We wrote nineteen songs. Larry wrote wonderful music and I wrote the lyrics and the book. The musical, developed in a number of showcase events, was put on by the Jewish Repertory Theater to full houses and ecstatic audiences. It is now making the rounds of producers. Our hope is that it establishes itself as a classic about how the senior years can be creative, fruitful, and filled with excitement and romance.

The three episodes of the acclaimed trilogy of the Sunset Gang are now online. I will be posting them soon for your enjoyment.

This is one of my favorite songs from our musical collaboration: WE ARE THE SUNSET GANG

Theater Companies, both professional and amateur are welcome to request both the script and all the songs. Inquiries on production of the musical should be directed to Catherine Crow at Catherine@warrenadler.com.

Warren Adler

Once the gatekeepers of the printed word, the power of the publishing community has been severely diminished by the indifferent scythe of technology. The e-book intrusion on their vaunted system of cultural filtration has been breached and they are now forced to compete with anyone who believes they have something to say that will add to our knowledge, entertainment and cultural advancement, once the exclusive purview of the publisher-chosen printed book.

For fiction authors who are published by traditional publishers and rely on advances and royalties for their living, the future is dim. There will be exceptions of course, especially in those books that attract youthful, computer-savvy genre readers and in certain categories, like romance fiction, which a largely feminine audience gobbles up like popcorn and currently represents a large chunk of the e-book consumer market.

But the destiny is in the numbers. There are presently multi-thousands of books published every week. This number is sure to rise now that the ease and cost of entering the marketplace has shrunk affordably. A growing portion of these books are self-published by mostly genre fiction authors. Many are priced at 99 cents and still others are given away free by self-published authors hoping to gain reader traction in the process. So far, there is no metric to determine the success or failure of such giveaways.

The best rule of thumb for the marketing of trade books is that 50 percent of readers are persuaded to purchase by publisher advertising and promotion, if any, and the other fifty percent by author familiarity and word of mouth. It is a purely arbitrary number since no one really knows the answer and the variables are legion.

The endurance rate of author popularity will most likely shrink rapidly in the forever-spinning universe of cyberspace. So called “Best Sellers” will have a much shorter lifespan than before. Entrepreneurial authors will proliferate in cyber space, especially in the genre fiction field.

The traditional publishers will probably continue to publish the non-genre authors, especially the serious novelists to whom writing is an artistic calling, as a matter of prestige and devotion, but the advances will, by economic necessity, continue to shrink. But then, serious novelists have always been on the bottom rung of the author income chain and yet continue to pursue their calling, despite the slim odds of making a living, by creating their brand of immersive reading.

Publishers and authors are now scrambling to find the magic bullet that will propel books sales. The process is bound to get hotter now that pricing has become a wild card. There is still, however, some robustness left in the traditional book business. But the changes that are occurring are swift and profound and what’s ahead is, to say the least, challenging.

Unfortunately, the traditional publishers either did not see it coming or did not react fast enough to their changing fortunes. Their reaction comes a bit late in the process as e-books have begun to take hold. Their agency ploy strikes me, with its secrecy and collusion, as a desperate act that they knew would fail.

My guess is that more and more authors will opt for their own promotion and depend on creating circles of interest that could proliferate and help to increase readership. Like everything else, what was once mass has now becoming splintered and fractionalized. Success may soon be measured in more modest terms.

But while my clairvoyance meter has run pretty high when it comes to e-books, I cannot discount the creative imagination that rarely fails to choose a wayward path to another, more satisfactory outcome. The fact is that immersive reading is a powerful motivator and important human need. It has proven its resilience time and time again.

There are certain bedrock givens that continue to stoke my optimism. Stories are created by the author and, however delivered, they are the very essence of human communications. Their value to culture and civilization is immeasurable. A way will be found to fulfill this need and what is important to the human condition will find its way to be profitable.

Perhaps, being steeped in the irony of my profession as a novelist, I am getting paranoid. I have discovered that I am developing a kind of shell, an armor, that is trying to protect me from manipulation. My level of distrust has expanded exponentially as I grow older. I find I am resisting all manner of attempts to persuade me about anything. As a result, I have discovered that I am subliminally blocking out all forms of commercial or political attempts at manipulating me to act in the manner that serves other people’s agendas.

When I see or hear the word “free” or “sale,” for example, I feel the symptoms of nausea. Nothing is free and a sale is either a come-on or a method of dumping products that never sold. Celebrities who hawk goods strike me as an inside joke. Are there really idiots out there who believe them? Did Ronald Reagan, whose ubiquitous advertising posters were plastered all over the subways of my youth, really believe that Chesterfields were good for you? And did nine out of ten doctors prefer… was it Camels or Chesterfields? Considering how much lung cancer has killed people and inflated the pockets of some doctors, one must pay attention to the laws of unintended consequences.

Speaking of doctors, there is something obscene happening today where we, victims in the patient pool, are being persuaded by massive advertising to try this or that prescription drug by pushing our doctors to prescribe it. Somehow, it seems that it should be the other way around. The doctors should be telling us what drugs will benefit us. There is even more subtle persuasion going on here, since the advertising is also directed to those who buy these drugs online from websites where no prescriptions are required.

Never mind the illegalities of such ventures. Indeed, even the word “illegal” is taking on new connotations. Take the cases of illegal immigration for examples. Crime used to be defined as breaking the law. “Crime doesn’t pay” was the mantra of my youth. By today’s standards some crimes actually pay pretty well.

As a group, advertising people tend to be brilliant and cunning persuaders (pardon the bit of self-flattery here. I once was a member of that gang). They have researched us down to the atomic dust in our brains and they really believe that they know all our secret urges and alleged needs.

Advertising people will tell you that what they are doing is trying to get your attention and hopefully get you to buy the product they are charged with hawking. It takes great knowledge of the craft of manipulation to dip into the mind of an indifferent public besieged by competing products and motivate them to part with their cash and choose the one they are pushing. The objective is to create a need in your mind, to seduce you into believing that this or that product or idea will satisfy an urgent or latent desire, to entice you to believe in what they are selling. It isn’t an easy job since the competition for your attention and your bucks is fierce.

“Caveat emptor,” we are warned. Let the buyer beware. I am not knocking the process. Consumption lies at the heart of our capitalistic society and often the product being hawked might, just might, really improve our lives. There is a vast army of inventors and entrepreneurs who are perpetually innovating, creating and embellishing various products that do indeed improve and extend our lives. Our judgment of the efficacy and usefulness of these products can be swift and sure. You buy it, try it, and you evaluate it. If it doesn’t work for you, you reject it.

Behind every effort to persuade us is the vast network of focus groups, pollsters, and analyzers, who track what they have broken down into bits and pieces of what they allege is your psychological profile, your habits, and your predilections. They hope to dig deep into your heart, mind, and soul to determine your preferences so that, as the fly fisherman says, they can “match the hatch,” hook you and reel you in for their own purposes.

Indeed, they believe in their results and have, so it seems, an excellent track record in predicting outcomes, but always with the caveat that their predictions can be a few percentage points off. They allege that they have worked out their tactics with scientific precision and can break you down into broad labels, like liberal and conservative and then slice you into unlimited categories with the precision of an algorithm. Politicians and all sorts of commercial enterprises employ these professionals, whose results and determinations form the basis for their marketing ploys.

Yet, despite the fact that their conclusions are often chillingly correct, I feel quite resentful that I can so easily fit into a pigeonhole. It strikes to the heart of my individuality and mocks my own worldview and my sense of my own uniqueness. Are we so alike that we can so easily be categorized and labeled? Is our place in the culture so predictable? Are we so unified in opinion that we can be put in little lock step compartments? Such determination seems anathema in a so-called free society.

I can’t stand the idea of being categorized, dubbed a statistic, tucked away in a demographic. I hate the idea of being targeted to persuade me to buy a product or an idea based on my gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, appetite, or whatever.

Worse, I am appalled by the idea of being labeled, right, left, center, liberal, conservative, or whatever, as if I am locked into a particular ideology and my ideas are fixed in intellectual cement. I try valiantly, perhaps futilely, to resist this attack on my individuality. I read and view all media content with, searching zealously for signs of manipulation and trick filters.

When it comes to politics, I admit I listen carefully to each candidate’s words and try to determine what they really mean. I have found that my own interpretation is very different from what I know they want me to believe. I am immediately suspect when I see staged political rallies. Remember those brilliant films of Leni Riefenstahl that depicted the rallies of Nazi hands heiling in ecstasy as the evil mass murderer Adolph Hitler strode to the rostrum? It takes an enormous effort of will to resist such mass persuasion.

As a live participant in such rallies, it is almost impossible to be indifferent to the heady excitement and hysteria of such seductive crowd enthusiasm. Even observing it secondhand on television and on film inspires your participation. The soaring rhetoric that is an integral part of these carefully staged rallies makes me immediately suspect. I know exactly what the political manipulators are doing.

But it is one thing to know you are being manipulated and for what reason and quite another to resist the invasion of your mind. The brutal fact is that you need the information, however packaged, to make a decision on anything. You can’t be part of the real world by ignoring the avalanche of information coming at you. The best you can do is filter it through your own anti-pollutant mechanism.

Information, you see, is like oxygen. It is the life’s blood of the decision-making process. Human behavior is about making choices, fulfilling real or imagined needs, responding to your inner urges. Sometimes, you have to take the path well worn, or as Robert Frost suggested, it might be better to take the path less traveled.

Perhaps it is the political season that prompts this call to arms against the persuaders. After working your way through the clichés and occasional nuggets of wisdom, consider this little rant a warning label from an old hand and former practitioner of the art of manipulation.

If only there was a way to vote “maybe.”

For many who had hopes and dreams of obtaining authorial credentials by being taken on by the publishers who controlled the marketplace and the distribution chain, the prospects were grim to nil. Publishers and agents relegated their manuscripts to what the industry referred to as the “slush pile” and most, if not all manuscripts, were returned unread by clerks who inserted printed rejection slips and returned the manuscripts in self-postage ready envelopes.

For many, those days are over. The “Vanity press” has morphed into “self-published,” now a reasonably respectable process that allows anyone who writes a book to be digitally “shelved” with those authors who have passed the filters of the traditional publishing companies. The stigma that once relegated the army of “rejected” authors no longer applies.

The motivation to write has not changed. In fact, the new technology has encouraged people who held off pursuing their dreams of authordom for fear of rejection and humiliation to get into the fray, pursue their creative muse and live in hope that somehow, someway, their work would find an audience.

As a pioneer in e-books, I have been astonished by the vast avalanche of authors that have now published outside the well-trod path of the traditional publishers. I should have known. The desire to write, to communicate, to become known, to pursue fame and fortune, however illusive and almost impossible, is something deeply embedded in the human psyche. It is the same impulse that has made Twitter, Facebook and social networking in general an international phenomenon. Notice me. Watch me. Follow me. Here I am.

There is obviously a crying need for people to be seen and heard, to be known, to tell their life story, to chase the goddess of celebrity, to be understood, loved and admired. Millions want their thoughts and experiences to be preserved through the written word, to tell their stories, whether true or imagined, to offer others their point of view, to educate, instruct and elucidate. The urge to communicate is a universal impulse and in a literate society, the most personal way to do this, beyond face to face interaction, is through the written word.

This is not to denigrate other ways of communication through music, art and performance, but the written word is universally available and the means to disseminate these words and package them through technology is simple and affordable. Indeed, a vast network of commercial companies have sprung up to further simplify the process of bringing a manuscript into a respectable product, not unlike those books being published by traditional publishers.

That said, producing a book, whether an e-book or a physical book, is only one part of the process. Since a book is a one-on-one communication system, if it does not attract a reader, it is merely a static artifact. A reader must have a reason to take the time to immerse him or herself in an author’s production.

The obvious task of an author is to produce his or her work and, by using modern technology, make it available. Beyond that, he or she must figure out how to make it discoverable in a pool of millions of available books. Of course, the book must offer something to benefit the reader for his investment of time, whether it be knowledge, insight, entertainment, self-help, a compelling story or something else of perceived value.

In the area of fiction, there are well-worn genre paths. Even children and young adults, stimulated by the extraordinary success of Harry Potter, are getting into the publishing game on their parent’s dime. Why not?

Note I am making no judgments on the quality of these offerings and the demand they fulfill and I am ignoring the value of talent and skill in organizing and creating the manuscript.

The given here is that the urge to write is profound and that there are millions of people worldwide who desperately want to fulfill this need. I suspect that anyone who writes a book, especially novelists, believes in their gut that their book is an important and durable contribution to the genre or the literary canon. I’ll leave such judgments to others.

With fifty thousand books published every week in every category and no self-published books ever going out of “print,” there will be shortly millions upon millions of books of every category available to readers. How will a reader find and choose a book? How will an author get read or recognized? If there was ever an example of the old chestnut, finding a needle in a haystack, this is it.

For the self-published author with no visible track record, no public platform, no branded name, however small, the odds of making a readership dent are long. This does not mean there won’t be psychic pleasures, like being recognized as a genuine author, being given the opportunity to speak at book signings and book clubs, perhaps being interviewed for one’s hometown paper or being asked to a local radio and television show to showcase their book.

For many, that might be more than enough satisfaction. Indeed, there is surely destined to be some self-published author who breaks through every barrier and is lauded and lionized and well rewarded commercially for his achievement. After all, someone does win the lottery.

But beyond the writer’s hopes and dreams, beyond ambition and the secret craving for artistic respect or the thirst for recognition and commercial success, is the personal satisfaction inherent in scaling the toughest climb of all, writing the book in the first place. Just accomplishing that mission alone is certainly worthy of an enthusiastic high five.

Warren Adler’s latest novel “The Serpent’s Bite” will be published in September.

In search of this definition, I am tempted to discount all of the various genre novels, many of which are well written and exemplary, but they do suggest formula and have been slotted by common publishing practice to fit a category that does not suggest “literary.”

Thus, I assume that mysteries, romance, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, zombie, vampire and various young adult categories and numerous others might be considered out of contention.

Well then, in what category will we put the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories? I’m sure there are other examples.

Most definitions of what constitutes a literary novel stress that the subject matter is strong on character and irony, with lesser emphasis on pure plot and offers more serious explorations of the human condition and is, therefore more meaningful and more philosophical.

Clashing opinions among intellectuals and academics are fiercely subjective and often open to bitter contention. Publishers have timeworn, fixed definitions that they adhere to and propagate as gospel truth. So-called “high brow” readers insist they know it when they read it.

Others will dismiss popular and commercial fiction as non-literary, especially if they are mainstays on best seller lists.

Some will say it is the author’s style, which they will often describe as “lyrical,” that is a key determinant and clue to the literary definition. Others will cite the use of metaphors, similes and references to classics, myths, and symbols as the ultimate marker.

Many point to the so-called “experimental” novel as a prized example of what is literary, which opens up academic questions on literary theory and various academic offshoots that deeply study trends and movements to determine how literature impacts thought, history and civilization.

One might point to James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake as the prime examples of the literary novel. In the case of the latter novel, the issue of accessibility comes to mind. Does this mean that a novel that is as inaccessible as Finnegans Wake available to a handful of ardent readers is a prime definition of a literary novel? Is obscurity another marker for a novel that is literary?

As an English major, I understand the wonders and joy of literary scholarship as a lifetime pursuit and have enormous respect for those who live in this splendid world.

Still, the definition is illusive. In terms of the novel, it is easy to dismiss what is popular at the moment as not worthy of being defined as “literary.” Still, some novelists have been enormously popular in their time and well beyond. In the English realm, we have numerous examples, like Dickens, Thackeray, Hardy and others. Then there are those authors that were less popular in their time like the Brontës, Jane Austin, George Meredith and others who have climbed into the literary canon.

Other books have been lifted from obscurity to world wide literary grandeur like Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, which barely sold a few dozen copies when first published. There are numerous other examples, but I will spare readers the historical literary analogies. They are endless.

The definition gets even murkier when time frame makes its entrance. Does durability, for example, constitute an important definition of what is or becomes a literary novel? How does a novel become a classic? Who determines what becomes a classic?

If a novel is studied in schools and has relevance to its time, does that make it a literary novel? Is, therefore, To Kill a Mockingbird a literary novel? It is certainly popular and studied as part of many school curriculums. But then, so is Huckleberry Finn, which has been lauded as the seed from which all American novels spring. Was it conceived by Mark Twain as a literary novel? Is subject matter by itself another clue to what is a literary novel, especially if it deals with human rights or other hot-button issues of our era?

When I was in my late teens, I was in thrall to Thomas Wolfe and gobbled up his books with alacrity and deep devotion. I felt certain he would be celebrated forever as a truly great novelist of the literary variety. Today, he is dismissed by the so-called establishment as over exuberant and wordy, his books overwrought, overblown, over praised and overrated. At some point, I will revisit him and make my own assessment.

John O’Hara was another of my contemporary literary idols. Once popular, he seemed to have fallen over a cliff to obscurity. Would his novels and short stories pass the test of what is “literary”?

On the other hand Hemingway and Fitzgerald seem to continue unabated, both seemingly assured a place as literary icons well beyond their lifetime. Not so Faulkner, who seems, arguably and certainly undeservedly, headed to obscurity.

Perhaps I am straining too hard and put too much emphasis on durability and less on contemporary judgment, which adds to my own confusion on the definition of the literary novel. Does the Nobel Prize for Literature qualify to identify a literary novel? Or does enduring readership? Who but a small coterie of academics remembers Henrik Pontoppidan, Romain Rolland, Anatole France, Salvatore Quasimodo and numerous others? Am I being unfair by going back too far? Probably so.

After all, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, Saul Bellow, and numerous other once popular writers were among the Nobel winners. Does such an honor automatically confer literary immortality?

My instinct is to opt for durability as essential to the definition of what is literary. To me, it is the master test and, unfortunately, may take many lifetimes to come up with a truly definitive answer. Indeed many a contemporary, hardworking, serious novelist secretly believes in his gut he might one day make the cut.

Which reminds me of that great quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth:

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak to me.”

Beyond the general however, is the harsh statistic that India contains one-third of the impoverished people on the planet. This, despite a surging Indian middle and upper class that has burnished the reputation of India as a place where democracy has proven its worth and created an economic transformation which has made India a power player on the global chessboard.

Boo focuses on the lives of people living in the rabbit warren of a slum called Annawadi, which is adjacent to the glittering showcase airport of Mumbai and a “Glimmerglass” super luxury Hyatt hotel, but is hidden from view by a large outdoor advertising sign, “Beautiful Forever,” touting Italianate floor tiles.

She tracks the lives of Abdul, his family and his neighbors. Abdul is an entrepreneurial ambitious slumdog teenager who survives by picking through the garbage of the airport and the hotel, and selling it for a pittance to recyclers.

Boo gives us a thoroughly rounded inside glimpse of the thoughts and actions of these people and their hopes and dreams of one day breaking out of their economic imprisonment and finding a better life.

Most are uneducated and refugees from the failed agricultural communities of this vast subcontinent, who have come to the big cities in search of the illusive leg up the economic ladder. All of the families portrayed by Boo are dysfunctional and it is no wonder. They live under the most appalling conditions with little privacy, where early death through suicide, disease and neglect stalks the population who seem to measure their success by how much better off they are than their slum neighbors.

They are plagued by alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, bad health, mental problems and are, in effect, one step from living on the sidewalk. Boo does not spare us these observations, although there is no escaping her love and compassion for these people. Her eagle eye searches above all to illustrate their humanity in the face of staggering poverty and neglect.

While the government, in its alleged wisdom, offers these people some dubious handouts and seems sincere in trying to bring this underclass into some semblance of economic security, one gets the impression that despite their efforts, the culture of corruption that pervades India is the ultimate roadblock to the hopes and dreams of these unfortunate slum dwellers.

Still, according to Boo’s acute observations and thorough research, many of the residents seem to truly believe in the possibility of rising from the horror of their situation by dint of shrewd manipulation, and working through the cracks in the system. The obstacles for such an outcome seem enormous. Nothing moves without bribery. The police are corrupt. The judicial system is corrupt. It is endemic, a way of life.

Somehow, one discovers through Boo’s observations that many of these people, who live like maggots on a decaying corpse, have been convinced that the possibility exists of one day realizing their hopes and dreams. Perhaps, Boo seems to say that for some tiny percentage of these slum dwellers despair is not a final option.

Perhaps Boo, despite her recounting of the appalling circumstance of these people, is crediting the human instinct for survival and a strong belief in the power and resiliency of the human spirit for holding out the possibility that somehow, by some miracle, a few lucky souls will break the chains or this horrific existence and join the economic miracle that some, at least, are enjoying in modern India.

One comes away with admiration for these people whose lives she recounts. But I could not shake the contention that despite all the government of India has tried to rescue this vast horde of impoverishment that lives within its borders, the chances of creating an environment for these people to participate in the good life is not very promising.