Welcome family, friends, associates and cyber-travelers, to a Blog by Rochelle
A whenever-I-can rumination of what is truly important or not-so-important in writing, editing, publishing, PR, marketing, and oh, the world in general.
Rochelle Writes
Posted December 29, 2009, Vol. 3, No. 3, 11:05p.m. PST
(I’m
SO confused … and I work in the
self-publishing industry!) Oh geez, did I say that out loud? Please continue to
read anyway … though I’m biased, I think I do raise a few interesting points.
My
thoughts as they arrived during my agonizing read of the Examiner/Roberts
article:
1)frustration
that self-publishing remains vilified by the media, “elite” authors, and
mainstream publishers (who are not “slumming”*--see below for definition)
2)amazement
that lifetime, traditionally published authors can’t recognize that although
finding good independent authors is
like spotting the ol’ needle in the haystack, the average quality of their writing has deteriorated, as well
3)which
leads me off my original path to think about the general decay of modern
writing … but save that for another time, my muse – back to the issue at hand
4)pain
for new authors who haven’t a prayer of being picked up by a mainstream
house—not because their writing is bad, but because they didn’t blanket their
keyboard with magic dust before submitting their book proposal so it would glow
among the other hundred on an editor’s or agent’s desk—their passion is to publish—their DREAM is why they turn to
hopefully reputable independent publishing companies
5)sigh
… but it seems the media, elite authors, and the big houses don’t care about
dreams anymore; they’re too busy quaking in their boots at the scum rising from
the bottom of their worst publishing nightmares—that the world might actually
progress beyond their narrow minds and that enterprising and smart new authors
(or disgruntled former traditionally published authors) are embracing their
dreams and opting for action beyond wallpapering their offices with rejection
slips—IF they even receive a reply
6)get
real, people—of course, in the “all are created equal” eyes of self-publishing,
there are those whose writing does not equal eloquence … OK, don’t even equate
to bad journaling—but seriously, I’ve seen that kind of writing in
traditionally published books, too (chalk that up to bad editors and
agents???)—and there ARE very talented independent authors—but if we wait for
mainstream publishing to pick them up, we may never know they were here
And
what is “slumming”? That’s a mainstream publisher who buys/merges/whatever, a
self-publishing company but still slams it, however subtle they may try to
be—you know—like the uppity rich kid who crosses the railroad tracks to date
the poor servant girl, then brags to his friends about his conquest.
Make
no mistake about it, people … it is ALL about money. But readers DON’T CARE HOW a book on the shelf is
published—they DO care about good storytellers and informative nonfiction. Is a
book self-published? “Fine! Here’s my money, just gimme the book!”
Believe
what you want about traditional publishers, they’re not entirely stupid—they’re
going where the money and the future of publishing is—SELF PUBLISHING!!!
