Another week, another round-up. Or roll. Or soup. Whatever you like to call it.
Sadly, many publishing pro blogs are suffering the same summar blahs that have afflicted the lit agent blogs. (*Knock Knock* Mr. Rinzler? Ms. Kroszer? Are you okay in there?) But, I still have plenty of intriguing stuff for you to check out!
So, let’s get right to the publishing pro links: Continue reading
In a recent Huff Post blog, author Melanie Benjamin joins the chorus of publishing-related people who are starting to speak some sense in the maelstrom of “everyone can be a writer” cheerleading.
While her main point is that aspiring writers should also be avid readers (her raison d’écrire was Tin House publishing’s decision to require a bookstore receipt for unsolicited manuscript submissions) she touches on the core of my argument that publishing is in danger of becoming a pyramid scheme.
I think that’s the problem today; too many authors, not enough readers. So many people dream of seeing their book on a front table in a bookstore; so few people actually buy books that are on front tables–or back shelves–of bookstores. So few people even know where their closest bookstore is located.
As someone who can think of three chain bookstores, two independent bookstores, and three used bookstores within walking distance of where I live (not to mention the bookstores in the National Mall’s various museums) I could not agree more.
But more importantly, “too many authors – not enough readers” is the Formula of Ultimate Doom for the publishing industry’s current toxic combination of DIY marketing and cross-consumerization of readers into wannabe writers. It’s the reason all pyramid schemes fail: not enough new recruits funneling resources to the top cats who are reaping all the rewards.
Benjamin goes on:
I have no problem with a publisher requiring an aspiring author to show proof that he’s read at least one book lately. Wouldn’t it be great if every writers’ conference required the same thing for all applicants? Wouldn’t it be wonderful–if not strictly ethical–if every literary agent did this, too?
I’ll be honest: considering some of the quirky pet peeves for which agents reject queries, I can’t see the ethical problem in asking for some proof that a writer is involved in the literary process beyond clicking send on an email, so long as the agent doesn’t require that the book be one she or her firm represented.
I have a stack of books knee-high already from 2010 alone. Bring it on!
Heck, if every aspiring author read ten books a year, this industry would not be having the problems it’s having today.
I will see that bet and raise you, Melanie. If half of the aspiring authors (specifically those for whom getting published is more for dazzle than devotion) would shift their enthusiasm for literature entirely from writing to reading, publishing would be both financially and artistically richer.
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For a similar piece by Joseph Bednarik, read “The Law of Diminishing Readership” at Poets & Writers.
During conservation work at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, built in the 1500s by Suleiman the Magnificent, workers discovered a 100-year old Turkish hand grenade in the core of the wall.
Israeli antiquities experts believe that someone stashed the grenade in the middle of the wall through some broken stone during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
But, what if there were another explanation? What if someone from our near future slipped back in time to visit the Grand Sultan during the height of Ottoman rule, making a pit stop in the Empire during World War I to pick up supplies and weapons?
Perhaps the grenade ended up in the wall as it was being built. A good writer could really build a story around that.
I am considering combining the weekly lit agent round-up with the “miscellaneous” publishing pros.
Between the blogs that inexplicably dry up — or consist mainly of their own link lists, Happy Release Day posts, or “everyone can be a writer, don’t give up!” cheerleading — the lit agent offerings have been growing thin. Maybe it’s because of this god-awful heat! What’s the summer version of hibernation?
On to the lit agent links! Continue reading
I have always been a fan of Mr. Boffo, but sadly I can’t find a periodical in my neck of the woods that carries it. However, artist Joe Martin’s sense of humor is so off-the-wall that I rarely have an opportunity to share it.
No more! Recently, this Mr. Boffo was published, explaining a new literary genre: Mystery Thriller Instruction Manual. Writers, enjoy!
Last night I walked to the National Mall (because I can) to watch the Independence Day fireworks.
In the course of my travels through the crowd I witnessed several conversations and scenes that could very easily be adapted to fiction.
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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“So why,” you ask, “do you keep alternating the name of these round-ups between ‘links’ and ‘roll’?”
“Because sometimes they are spicy and meaty, and other times just a hearty helping of carbs!” 😀
You sigh at my dumb joke, and click the link below to see this week’s awesome publishing links.
On a roll.
Oh what a week! As critics and pundits debate the merits of non-literary fiction (whatever that might be), agents and writers are debating the merits of agents shifting from a representative model of payment to a pay-per-service model.
It’s getting hot up in here! But, let’s slip quietly out the back door of this tavern brawl and just read some literary agent links, okay?
