Articles on this subject appear various places from time to time. This one appeared on Behlerblog a week and a half ago. The Legion of Nitwits, who believe the publishing industry is broken, and only they can fix it by “changing teh genre” would do well to read it.
Pacione, Dagstine, Philbin, Tallman, etc. — that means you!
Lynn Price writes:
. . . how I feel about authors who use this broken theorem as proof of their defeat. Since they’ve never been published and don’t know anything about the industry, how can they know it’s broken? The natural extension of this thought is that the publishing hasn’t recognized the brilliance of their writing, ergo a broken institution. Hubris, baby.
Her blog entry from the previous day is even more pointed.
So, Nitwits . . . stop trying to fix what isn’t broken, and learn how to write more than one or two sentences in a row that don’t contain spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors.
As oposed to fixing the genre, how about we try and keep it fresh. Find ways of being inventive, surely thats what writing is all about.
Apologies for typos, I’m home alone, downing a few cans of “K” Cider before the family get back and its already gone to my head lol.
Dig the image and text put up by Daggy just now.
You’ve got to laugh.
Yeah, Daggy, “Try Trying” is fine. But when you keep making the SAME stupid mistakes and not getting any better, you have to realise that you are doing it WRONG.
Daggy forgets the wisdom of Yoda. “DO! Or do not. There is no try.”
Every time I say that Larry can’t possibly get any dumber, he does. I don’t think he actually has to try, though.
Hah! This just in from a Google alert about Nickypoo’s Amazon listings:
Two months on the market, and it’s out of print? Bwahahaha!
Inc. contributor copies and his own, perhaps thats a good 10 copies unleashed on the world! Limited editon anyone? lol.
http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/10696?page=2
It’s beautiful.
Considering Nicky’s history of welching on contributor copies, 10 might be an overestimate.
Fair point Rusty, I’d overlooked that!
I would love to complain and holler because this time around I did not get into the majors
But after my long absence from fiction, the industry changed. It did not break, it changed.
And it is changing again.
Back in the 60s, a big book was anything over 60k words. In the later 80s and early 90s, 200k words was average. Now people are wanting shorter books again.
Content changes. Fads come and go. Tastes change. Does that mean that it is broken?
Only if you think dinner is broken because you wanted tomato soup that night and got steak and fries instead. Or vice versa.
Get a load of this.
The whole finger-pointing blame game is old hat by now, but the sheer arrogance of this woman thinking she’s speaking on behalf, and representing, other writers who can’t get their literary masterpieces published is nothing short of amazing. Maybe she’s the original Nitwit?
She blames agents, editors, publishers, and readers who are too lowbrow to appreciate her awesome talent. Yet, she’s had three books published, none of which sold well, and gave two different versions of why she is no longer with that publisher — within the same comment. First, she left because they didn’t do enough to sell her books, but then she admits the publisher closed up shop.
She can’t sell more of her old books because the print runs sold out. She can’t sell them via e-book, because she doesn’t have them in electronic format, and would have to retype them all. ::rolleyes::
That shows that the entitlement generation started a long time ago. This woman is stupid.
Somewhere among the 300+ comments, Jean Lauzier left one. Remind me again how you know Jean, if you would. The name rings a bell, and I vaguely remember you mentioning her at one point. Her comment was smack-on.
Every time I see this, I want to say, “Stop ranting and starting writing.” But alas…
And yes! The industry does keep changing. I don’t feel a writer has to follow every trend, but it is important to meld the concerns and ideas of the moment into your writing, and to keep yourself “up to date” on what’s being read. And hell, why not add to or even create some sub-genres while you’re at it?
I paid Jean Lauzier $300 for a eight week PR campaign last summer and was going to keep her on retainer if she managed to do a good job of it.
She asked me to give her several pieces of stuff she could use as (what I thought was ) the basics for press release information. I was promised a “book tour” that would include 10 to 15 spots.
What I got was 6 appearances of the same material I had written unaltered on six sites/blogs that Jean was a member of. I questioned the credibilty factor (there was none in this type of thing) and got the response of “well I did not promise you sales.”
Now, credibility has nothing to do with sales and everything to do with how the author is perceived.
Why can’t you shut the hell up and get yourself a string of Swine Flu? If anyone deserved it, you’re the one that does. Bitch.
Now, now, Nicky. Go take your meds like a good little boy, and ride your spaceship back to planet Imawyda.