J. A. Konrath, whom I’ve heard of, only through facebook constantly recommending I friend him because so many of my friends are his friends, responded to an interview with a person from a publishing company–that interview I didn’t see, and don’t really need to–he shot down any and every argument the person offered for the validity of publishers. Naturally, he along with hoards of others, believe the publishing industry is completely unnecessary in the brave new world of paperless publishing. He makes a few valid points, from my perspective. One, that authors shouldn’t need to pay so much for their publisher’s overhead, if that were not in play, the cost of a writer’s book could be discounted and sell better. And some other business oriented views are interesting. However, the general feel of his response, in my opinion, said “e-publishing is the ONY way” to go, and if you disagree or think that self publishing isn’t fabtastic, then you are dragging your feet in the medieval centuries of illuminated texts and monk scribed bibles. And I am soooooooooo tired of that wilted mantra from those who are fervent believers in the paperless world.
Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean it is the best course of action. Just because technology can produce something new and exciting, doesn’t mean it’s a good or desirable thing. We as humans managed to produce a bomb that can wipe out the universe. Hey, the technology was there–we had to move ahead, who wants to remain back when gas was used in trenches? Cloning is a reality– we need slews of duplicates to use for organ parts when ours start to fail–the original person could live forever this way!
Excessive, extreme, and silly–yes, what I just compared e-publishing to is all that. But it should make one pause, if only for a second, to ask, is going completely paperless, really really desirable? And if so–to whom? Obviously to the writer who believes they are good enough to be published and shouldn’t be bothered with being vetted by professionals–they totally benefit. The established author whose previously published works are out of print–they benefit, and thank goodness! Because this is an area where e-books are a fantastic boon to living authors, whose publishing houses were either eaten by other publishing houses, or whose titles have lost a huge audience but through e-books may find their audience again. And current established authors benefit, I guess, from their titles selling in digital form. And, naturally, those individuals who really like reading a computer for pleasure, they benefit, and amazon, god knows, benefits, and everyone who makes the e-readers benefit.
Who doesn’t? Me. And millions like me, more than you’d think. And what I read somewhere, which of course I can’t pull up as proof– younger generations are more likely to want to hold paper in their hands to read. That surprised me–with all this talk of ‘it is the future’ and ‘no one will ever want a book in physical form again,’ I had visions of teenagers and those in their 20s marching in lock step with a nook in front of them, scrolling scrolling in unison to the beat of “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” When in fact–it’s people my age and older who are jumping on the e-book craze, and let’s face it–we won’t be around much longer to continue purchasing! LOL.
Apparently, J. A. Konrath is a guru of the self pub world. I get this from the devoted swains who responded to his belligerent treatise. Ok, there were a couple of individuals who pointed out that he had gained notice first from a legit publisher. He did the grunt work of promoting his title in tours and book signings set up by the publisher, and he separately blogged, so both succeeded in creating a name for him before he self pubbed his later 2 titles the ones he claims are making millions and millions–ok, not millions, but plenty to live on, without a publisher horning in. Publishers are completely useless, senseless things, like an appendix–no longer serves a purpose, but it’s still there and can cause trouble. And oh, do the ‘newbies’ eat his mantra up! Because what better news to an individual who thinks they’ve written the next great opus than someone telling them they needn’t bother with all that rewriting, fine toning, honing of their craft before being at the point of publication? Sure–write, publish! All there is to it. You could have an entire book full of What To Do Lists–presto bango–you’re a published author!
Konrath doesn’t promote exactly that–but close. He insists that one writes, sends it out to an editor, finds some kind of artwork for the covers–of the paperless book?–and voila! Book! With great earning. For each and every newbie out there. Go ahead–follow your dreams, saturate an already saturated market with whatever dreck or genius you’ve written, because this is the future, and that’s all that is necessary to know–that it can be done, so it should be done. And the reader? Well, there’s always amazon’s bright reviewers–those people with so much time on their hands they spend hours telling others how bad or good a book is, whether or not they’ve actually read it, because, you know, no oversight is practiced in this area. I mean, why should someone who reads as part of a skillful job tell me what is good or not? Irma the hair designer knows just as much as Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times, in her 30 or so years of experience.
Here’s a taste of Konrath’s thinking:
“Ms. Raab said, “Some authors are climbing the Amazon list but, when a publisher approaches them, more times than not, they choose to go with a publisher.”
Which authors? Inexperienced, newbie authors who have never been traditionally published. They still have the stereotypical Author Dream: book tours, interviews, seeing their book on a bookstore shelf or in their local library, being validated by a major publisher. Many of them, even if they are bestsellers, can benefit from working with a professional editor.
But I haven’t heard of a single experienced author who has re-signed with a legacy publisher after finding self-pub success. I know dozens of authors who have had a lot of books published by New York, and they won’t ever take another Big 6 contract since they’ve gotten a taste of the freedom, control, and money self-publishing offers. If I was offered a million bucks to sign with a New York publisher, I’d laugh at that. I made $150k on my own in the last two months, and ebooks haven’t even become widely adopted in the US yet. What happens when there are as many ereaders as mp3 players? What happens when ebooks become a global market? Why would I give away 52.5% of my royalties to a publisher?”
Oh, yeah, who wants that crap–interviews, book tours, a book on bookstore shelves and libraries? When they can see a printer chug out their glorious words one copy at a time? No fanfare, no reviews, that’s right–who needs validation from a publisher? Do electricians need some certificate proving they know their stuff? Nah! Do school teachers need some kind of degree proving they meet requirements to feed children’s brains with facts–of course not–they can take a cursory look about what they need to do online-why should they have to go through any kind of validation? You think these aren’t comparable? Think again.
Why should I, as a reader, be subjected to various and sundry degrees of professionalism via e-books, with no way to tell the difference between good, mediocre, and crap? If every newbie in the world, including me, had so called published books, with nothing, no standard to refer to, what a sea of dreck one would have to wade through, just to find the gems. And while we are swimming around aimlessly, we are paying to do so, paying to find out that what I thought sounded professional, interesting, and compelling, is some 90 year old’s reminisces of childhood days in Mayberry USA, complete with misspellings and poorly edited paragraphs? Or a 20 year olds idea of wisdom and sagacity, only to find every other sentence filled with–‘and ya, know, like, so I said, like, well, you know, like–‘
And, I want a list of well established published ‘right this minute’ authors who turned their backs on that world to self publish only. Not that I’m skeptical,no, I’m incredulous. Tell me James Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark, Harlan Coben, any of them, quit publishers, and I’ll take a second look. If he’s talking about successful mid list authors–again–give me names. All the authors I know, except for those whose publishing contracts disappeared, wouldn’t dream of leaving their house to self pub. Maybe that will change with time-but currently, no.
I’ve heard all the arguments about ‘what’s published now is dreck’, and ‘just read the first paragraph, you can tell if it’s a good book or not.’ YES. I agree. Publishers have a quota of dreck. A quota. They also have published the likes of Ruth Rendell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dennis Lehane, and John Steinbeck. I am adamant in believing that publishers with well established editors, proofreaders, publicists, marketing directors, dust jacket artists, and most of all manuscript READERS, are better equipped and trained to produce more outstanding works than millions of people typing words on pcs believing theirs to be the best thing since sliced bread and thereby flooding the market place so that anyone who wants to find the next Michael Connelly, or Alice Hoffman, will never be able to.
As for reading the first paragraph–how many first paragraphs would I need to read before finding a good book if everyone everywhere are publishing without standards?
Mr. Konrath has found something that has so far worked for him–naturally, after the original publisher threw in a few bucks and assistance. And like an evangelist, he preaches his religion on blogs all over the internet. Which doesn’t hurt him in the publicity department. And in some of his reasoning, he may be right. But he may also be a very big exception–maybe he’s one in one hundred who are actually good at what they do. But to tell the other 99 that they too can become a great author in one easy step, is like selling snake oil to a desperate village full of smallpox–everyone who is eaten by the writing disease wants a quick cure. And his dismissal of publishing paper books, gives them one.
I’ll take my chances and pick up a book that is not only paper, but boards, dust jacket, and glue, and smells of professionalism.
A footnote–many self pubbed people love to point out the exceptions to the dictum of publishing houses by listing writers who did pay for some publishing in their careers. There will always always be exceptions to any rule–but what is noteworthy–most of those authors went with publishing houses when able.
Konrath article:
Though I certainly don’t agree with JA Konrath’s idea that publishers are unneccessary, I also don’t agree that self-publised novels – even vanity press novels – are necessarily bad. If you asked me three years ago, I would have answered quite a bit differently. But things are changing in the publishing world, and I think booksellers need to be adapting with them.
I’m in a unique position. While I’m in the planning stages of my bookselling business, I also write novels (as yet unpublished). So I follow publishing news and social media from both sides.
And yes, there are a lot of bad self-published books. More than a lot. There are tons of bad self-published books. But there are also good ones, professionally edited, with professionally-created covers (yes, even the e-books). Authors do know that the public just isn’t going to read garbage. And new gatekeepers – such as book bloggers – are stepping in to help cut the dreck.
With the big publishing houses giving less and less of their time (e.g. publicity, marketing) to newer, mid-list authors, and advances sinking with the economy, I can understand why many authors are deciding not to give the big houses a cut, and instead going their own way. Would I go the self-publishing route myself? No. Or, at least, not yet. If you had asked me this one three years ago, the answer would have been NO WAY. Ask me three more years down the road, and who knows? After all, saying “self publishing” or even “vanity publishing” doesn’t leave the icky taste in my mouth as it did only a few years ago.
So what does this mean for traditional booksellers? I wish I knew. All I know is that self-publishing and e-books are sucking up part of our industry, and perhaps traditional booksellers need to embrace them somehow to stay relevant. After all, I plan to have my brick and mortar bookstore, by hook or by crook (or by e-book? Ick).