Outdated Novels

An author can't continue to market an old book. Because it's old. I wouldn't be surprised if my novel contained outdated references, and it's only been on the market for 13 months.

Some people still read the classics, but rather than scoffing at terms they don't recognize, they love the historical nature of them. Thirteen months is too new to be considered historical. What this means is, fifty years from now, my novel will be a must-read.

Including any references to technology is a gamble. I've been writing for so long that my first novel featured a character who refused to answer her phone and instructed everyone to text her instead. At the time, I didn't own a cell phone and had no idea how texting even worked. I had to research it. 

With the novel I still intend to revise, although I haven't had the drive to start yet, the main character lives a double life---respected professional by day, internet criminal by night. I wrote it based on the technology of the day, but is it even relevant anymore? I'm skeptical. 

I now believe a writer can't and shouldn't include plotlines that require "looking things up", unless those things are only incidental to the story. It's akin to when I worked as a trainer. One can explain how to do it, but unless the trainee gets hands-on experience, all the instruction in the world is useless. 

But that's only half the story. With Running From Herself (I'm not linking the title anymore, because...futile) I naturally detailed the experience of cutting a record. I haven't recorded music in about a decade, and everything about recording has probably changed.

It's almost impossible, though, to write a contemporary novel and not reference technology. It's what people use. All the time. I chuckle to myself when I'm reading an older book and the main character rushes to find a phone booth. What's a phone booth? Of course, using a pay phone was a lot cheaper than today's monthly cell phone plans, so not everything old was worthless. 

The risk with being "unhip" is that it'll take the reader out of the story. "That's not how it works!" they'll mutter, before heaving the book across the room. An author has enough problems getting readers without sabotaging him/herself. I felt confident writing my novella, Find My Way Home, because it was set in the late sixties to early eighties. Nothing to research! Prove my facts wrong! That time period may have been less convenient than now, but it was simpler, at least. The technology advanced like a 🐢.

I would never/will never go back to my first novel and update it. But if I finally work up the ambition to revise my third, I'll take a look at the way I laid out my MC's online maneuvers. Unfortunately (?) I'm not familiar with the internet's dark underworld, so I still may need to "look things up".