One of my buddies told me
yesterday
that she couldn’t wait
until
‘things got back
to normal.’
I didn’t have the heart
to tell her
that the old normal
no longer exists.
We’ll never get back to it.
That doesn’t mean
the new normal
will be what we’re experiencing
right now.
It merely means
this crisis
has changed us
and our businesses forever.
I write Romance Novels,
for example.
These stories, characters, settings
are fictional.
Most of my stories are also
set in the far future.
Yet I know
my business will change
forever
due to the crisis
we’re now facing.
I can’t write about
a pandemic
ever again
and have it be
an unlikely i.e. less traumatizing
experience for readers.
Big New York Traditional Publishers
will finally stop fighting
the sales of eBooks
as those will be the sales
that blossom and
keep our businesses solvent
during quarantines.
We will all be preparing
for another pandemic.
Going forward,
pandemics
will be part
of our emergency plans.
There will be many other
changes
in my industry
I can’t yet predict.
If this is happening
in the Romance Novel Industry,
an industry that is slow to change
and based on fiction,
I suspect these shifts
are happening in your industry also.
There is no going back
to the way
the world was
four months ago.
Look toward the future.
Keep your eyes open
for possibly permanent changes
in your industry
and adapt to them.