Pyramid scheme?  Is that an unsigned writer standing by a publishing bridge with a lighter in one hand and a can of kerosene in the other?

Believe me, what follows is not intended as an accusation of any sort.  I have the greatest respect for literary agents, editors, and publishers, who slog through piles of manuscripts that would make me cry like only a grown man can cry: masked in anger and empty threats.  I have suffered through enough truly awful writers’ group submissions to know that I could never do what these ladies and gentlemen do on a daily basis.

So, this isn’t about questioning anyone’s integrity.  And, it’s not about protecting or promoting my own interests as a writer, which the last few paragraphs will make clear.  It’s about trying to help the literary community as a whole by connecting dots that are as yet unconnected, showing how several recent trends in publishing are converging in a very, very bad way through a natural and largely unintentional process of business evolution.

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