ysabetwordsmith | Published Erotica vs. Fanfic

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Published Erotica vs. Fanfic

Prevailingly true, although there is some excellent published erotica and bad fanfic.

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So very very true all across the board.

Though I think the lower amount of consequences in the fanfic arena (as well as the restrictions imposed by traditional publish house filter) might have a hand in that.

And the reason why main-stream is so... bland.

Publishers, and their editors. "But we can't publish THAT!"

Oh well, the business is transitioning over to self-publishing nowadays anyway... yet one more reason why the dinosaur publishing houses are dying.

I love this casual assumption that traditional publishing is moribund. People have been spouting that shit for over a decade, and it's not even close to happening yet.

I disagree strongly (as someone who follows three different micropublishers and their travails), and I can tell you why in one word:

Amazon.

Actually, I take that back.

Amazon and Ingram. Two words.

If those two (and they're formally in cahoots) won't carry your stuff, you're DONE. And what with Ingram's return policies and other things, and Amazon's general mistreatment of the Known World? They're being worked around.

What we have here is a situation like we had in 1999 in software. Basically if it wasn't Windows, it *wasn't*. Today? Most people's most-used computers fit in their pockets, don't have keyboards, and don't run Windows. People get disruptive. And since all books end up existing in software at at least some point before they see ink on paper... (unless somebody is showing off a Gutenberg...)

Don't get me wrong. Microsoft is still very relevant... in the workplace. And I think traditional publishing has a long tail... but that's not where the kids are going to go with their stories, not their first choice.

But then... maybe some still will. They will think back over history and muse about The Fun They Had with old-school books and real live teachers. Hey, vinyl is making a comeback...

Well, in part that's because the publishers keep going on about declining book sales, and having to cut costs...

I dunno... books aren't going away, but it does look as if the traditional publishers are retrenching and leaving the more niche markets to others. Perhaps they're dying, they seem to act that way, but there's one heck of lot of inertia in that industry anyway. Even if they are, it's gonna be a looooong time.

I don't think books or publishing will go away, but they are unquestionably in worse shape than a few decades ago. There are far fewer bookstores. Electronic publishing is now a major competitor. Fewer people read things. Schools make reading increasingly unattractive. People have less time for reading. That's all part of the same overall problem. Poor business decisions from publishers make up just one small part of that.

>>And the reason why main-stream is so... bland.

Publishers, and their editors. "But we can't publish THAT!"<<

Well, the reason we have that problem is because a few decades ago, publishers started condensing a large staff into a much smaller one. Used to be, we had acquisition editors who put a great deal of personal flavor into what they bought for their line(s) of books. You'd never send the same manuscript to DAW as to Del Rey because, although they both published speculative fiction, they weren't buying the same kinds of stories. That's mostly gone now, and the genre has largely devolved to tits and guns as a result. Now I like tits and guns as much as the next guy, but that's not all I want to read, especially in F&SF. We need editors with individual tastes in order to maintain diversity.

That's why small presses do such a good job of diversity. But they're working at a steep disadvantage because most bookstores won't carry them at all, or only carry them with onerous expectations. That makes it hard for people to find their books.

Crowdfunding is even more diverse. There you can sell whatever your audience wants to pay you to write. \o/ But again, it can be very hard to find each other. Webcomics have beaten print nearly to death because they have several huge and well-designed clearinghouses. Fanfiction has those, but crowdfunded original fiction does not, nor art, let alone a general hub for all of cyberfunded creativity. The closest we have is Patreon, which has always had a lot of problems compared to the really good shit on those comic sites.

>>Oh well, the business is transitioning over to self-publishing nowadays anyway... yet one more reason why the dinosaur publishing houses are dying. <<

Leave us not forget that after they canned the line acquisition editors, they went after the actual line editors and proofreaders, degrading the quality to a point that makes me turn up my nose in disgust. I'll overlook typos in free fanfic if the story is good enough; I am much less tolerant when paying for a paper book. Fucking hell, people, have some professional pride. >_

I'll give you two words in response: John Scalzi. There are other, bigger names I could mention, but Scalzi is the one I'm familiar with. Tor gave him a multi-million dollar book deal. That's not something a company that's struggling can afford to do. And as he himself has said, they wouldn't have done that if they didn't expect to get back a healthy profit on it.

Self-publishing has definitely come a long way from the days when it was practically a slur, and that's a good thing. It's also seriously lowered the bar for people who write for a niche market, and that's an even better thing. But it's never going to completely replace traditional publishing, for one very simple reason: this is not a zero-sum game.

Some people take to self-publishing like ducks to water. Others want the benefits that come with going thru a traditional house. There's always going to be demand for both, and in the long run the result is going to be the two models existing in parallel, and both thriving. Obviously, there will be adaptations from both sides. But when you talk about traditional publishing dying off, you sound exactly like Republicans talking about the effects of the unregulated free market. Anyone with eyes can see that your prediction doesn't fit the reality.

I don't think that traditional publishing will go away entirely. I do observe that it is performing much worse today than it has at some other times in the past. Perhaps it will do better in the future. But right now, it's making a lot of mistakes and the product quality is dropping as a result.

Bluntly: if I walk out of a megabookstore with empty hands, the books suuuuuuuuck.

I remember Dave Sim as one of the champions of self publishing, and also as one of it's warnings.

He loved the idea and concept - he also had some toxic, misogynist ideas, and really could have used an editor and publisher who'd bring him back to earth once in a while. "Yes, *you* feel this way. A *lot* of men feel this way, as do some women. But a lot more *paying customers* would appreciate it if you toned it down some. Now, I'm not telling you we *won't* buy this next installment, but if you'd do a little bit of editing, there'd be a bigger advance and likely more in residuals... interested?"

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