Publishing in Crisis

[ysabetwordsmith]

 ... is business as usual.  But this essay takes a wonderful look at why publishers often suck and why people are less interested in buying their books these days.

Comments

To sum up--

[dialecticdreamer]

Book publishers are feeding people swill and massaging (or faking) numbers to create "Bestsellers" and hyping various "bestseller lists" as summer must-reads, while simultaneously decrying their ENTIRE PURCHASING BASE, i.e., readers, as stupid, or slaves to the cult of PC-speak, AND diminishing readership isn't their fault because there's so much /other/ media taking people away from "their good books".

Basically, they're treating us like crap and then BLAMING US for walking away from that treatment.

Hm. Sounds like it /needs/ to have a few bastions sunk and their leadership RIGHTFULLY drummed out of business for bad practices to me.

This is definitely NOT the way to win /move/ or worse, win /back/ readers.

Re: To sum up--

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yes, exactly.

Fortunately we have crowdfunding now and they've lost their bottleneck. This is broadening representation and inviting some excellent exploration of new ideas.

Re: To sum up--

[zeeth_kyrah]

Sounds like an aggressively dominant person who's losing control of something they enjoyed for a long time. Unfortunately, it's also the behavior of an abuser whose victim has decided to leave.

Re: To sum up--

[ysabetwordsmith]

Most businesses and governments behave like abusers. Consider that America's infrastructure is falling apart while people fool around with wars of aggression. It's like the bad husband who blows the rent money on booze and whores.

[onyxlynx]

[Safari froze last time.]

I'd take that assertion a bit more seriously if it weren't Sarah Hoyt, who nibbles at the problem but whose hobbyhorses then take center stage. If she wants to believe that Hillary Clinton's book not selling (if it is not selling; it's only been out, what, a week?) is the sign of the Death of Publishing, that's her prerogative; if she wants to believe that (what she thinks of as) "political correctness" is repelling readers, that's her delusion. (And she can have it, and I need a hot shower now.)

Probably the consolidation of several publishers and the MBA mentality (which she does mention) are more to blame, but those reasons don't have a horse's head on a broomstick fit her prejudices.

[corvi]

She says readers aren't buying books because the big publishing companies are selling too many books with feminist sensibilities? I would like to shop at her local bookstore, please. :)

[zeeth_kyrah]

I'm not so sure when she says "PC" or "feminist" or gives descriptions of feminist-friendly literature that she is actually talking about feminism so much as she is the bandwagon behavior of large, conservative groups who want "the same thing that worked last time".

[mdlbear]

Maybe a little too friendly to Amazon -- I'm not sure their dominance is all that good for the indie/self publishing industry, no matter how well-earned it may be.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I don't think Amazon is very good. They started out more civil than they are now, though.

publishing and other medians...

[(Anonymous)]

Sighs. I'm in agreement with the author of this article... And I've sat through enough seminars about the publishing world (and done enough private research)that I know just how painfully accurate the writers assessment of the situation is. My opinion about writing (and all media really) is this, if I can't find what I want via the traditional means of publisher firms/houses I simply go through alternatives like crowd funding, fanfic, ect... Mainly I use the former due to funds but its a sad state indeed when very few traditional books can even turn my head and what happens in that author's bookstore scenario happens to me regularly in the library as library's seem to be little more than mirrors of the store chains.

Out of curiosity has anyone else noticed that trend? The libraries mirroring the chain stores and what not? Perhaps that's only here...

Its a shame really, because I like the feel of traditional books, the scent, the sensations associated with physical books are more immerse than those I get while using an electronic device.

Grumbles.

The straights that face incoming authors also remind me of what I know of the gaming industry, and I'm half a mind to wonder if those circumstances have contaminated the movie, tv, and other medias as well. That might explain why a lot of the traditional entertainment medians are so... samey. It'd explain quite a bit.

Re: publishing and other medians...

[zeeth_kyrah]

Since most media companies are actually owned by money-management groups, what you're seeing is the treatment of human passion with the same conservative dispassion of people who have made a job of regularizing and standardizing the movement of large amounts of money. And since money isn't people, the media has all gone "flat" like soda left open on the counter. That's what happens when you regularize and standardize passion to make it behave like something controllable.

Re: publishing and other medians...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Exactly. And then consumers don't want to pay for it, because it's a waste of money. They look for alternatives. It ceases to be profitable.

Re: publishing and other medians...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> My opinion about writing (and all media really) is this, if I can't find what I want via the traditional means of publisher firms/houses I simply go through alternatives like crowd funding, fanfic, ect... <<

That's what I do too.

>> Mainly I use the former due to funds but its a sad state indeed when very few traditional books can even turn my head and what happens in that author's bookstore scenario happens to me regularly in the library as library's seem to be little more than mirrors of the store chains. <<

I'm frustrated when I go into a bookstore wanting to buy books, and can't find any worth taking home. That's like not being able to sell catnip to a cat. 0_o Often these days, I walk out fuming, and come home to write things like P.I.E. some of which is directly inspired by crappy urban fantasy.

>> Out of curiosity has anyone else noticed that trend? The libraries mirroring the chain stores and what not? <<

Yes. Also the bookstores are all alike now. Used to be they were regional, so if you traveled, you saw some books that were nationally distributed but a lot of new ones that were local. *yawn*

>> I'm half a mind to wonder if those circumstances have contaminated the movie, tv, and other medias as well. That might explain why a lot of the traditional entertainment medians are so... samey. <<

Entertainment is now run by businessmen, not entertainers. Thus it is mean to make as much money as possible, and is no longer very entertaining.