Get me rewrite? With books evolving into digital texts, authors could go back and change stories from years ago. But would they?

By Alex Beam , Boston Globe Columnist / August 5, 2011 

Books are evolving from print to digital media, and reading is evolving, too. But what about writing? With texts going digital, it becomes alluringly simple to rework, revise - and profitably republish - earlier works. In theory, a writer could download his or her first novel onto a laptop, give it the thorough polish it deserves, and have it back on the real and/or e-bookshelves in a matter of days.

Tempted to revise and expand (or contract)? I asked a handful of writers for their thoughts.

John Banville, author of “The Sea,’’ and several mystery novels under the pen name Benjamin Black: “This is an interesting question. My first thought is that of course I could revise a book on paper and republish it - Auden revised many of his poems and reissued them. So I don’t think the new technology offers something that was not possible before, although I suppose it would make a revision much simpler and cheaper.

“For my part, I could not bear to revisit old work. I have said many times that my Banville books are a standing affront to me, and perhaps this gives a wrong impression: As we all know, my books are better than everyone else’s; they’re just not good enough for me. All I see in them are the faults. I’m after perfection, which is not available. As Beckett says, ‘Fail again. Fail better,’ and that’s the artist’s lot. So I’ll keep failing as best I can, and leave my past failures to posterity.’’

Jane Smiley, author of “A Thousand Acres’’: “I remember in college, when we were told that William Butler Yeats rewrote and improved his poems all through his life, that I thought what a shame that was, because I wished that his poems would supply a true record of his growth and development. I still pretty much feel that way - a novel attests to where you were at a certain point in your life, and later novels show whether or not you changed or learned. So I wouldn’t rewrite any of them. But I would correct the typos!’’

Read the comments of other authors at The Boston Globe.


Footnote:
NZ author Witi Ihimaera has of course already rewritten some of his earliest work and without the aid of modern technology.