Developing Novelists

[ysabetwordsmith]

Used to be, publishers understood that writing is a skill which takes time to develop.  Now they expect instant bestsellers.  You know who does that?  One-hit wonders.  Also the publishers don't want to keep expert editors around long enough to help new authors hone their skills.  And then the publishers cry and whine because they don't have a good set of talented writers.

Ah, fuck 'em.  I'll be over here coaching my favorite crowdfunding writers.  I just watched magistrate sit down and create more new, original, utterly awesome settings in one prompt session than I could find on a whole bookshelf in a store these days.  I've watched kajones_writing build up another huge bundle of settings, several of which have become favorites of mine such as Donor House, Pagans, Afterlife, and World Walkers: Quiar.  dialecticdreamer is a recent addition and already on my fave list.

Comments

Re: Instant Hits

[samuraiter]

Ooo, I can weigh in here. :-)

Twenty to thirty percent of the U.S. manga market evaporated when Borders died and took Tokyopop down with it. In addition, manga is so heavily pirated that I have no idea how it turns a profit, or even if it turns a profit at this point. I am one of the only people I know who actually pays for the stuff, and there are only a couple of series that I loyally follow (e.g. Fairy Tail and World War Blue).

Re: Instant Hits

[dialecticdreamer]

I pay for manga, quite often. I don't read much of it, just pay for my kids' habits, LOL.

Re: Instant Hits

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's really sad.

It also highlights the dangers of these megacorps -- because if one of them goes down, you don't lose just their core functionality, you also lose the hundreds of other companies they have absorbed. Borders went down, and instead of just losing the freestanding book barns in large towns, we also lost almost every mall bookstore in the nation -- which is the only bookstore that many smaller towns HAD.

Re: Instant Hits

[blitzwing]

Because the piracy rate doesn't always correspond to a set decline in sales*. Manga is one of those things where, while people will read lower-quality fan-translated scans online, a lot of them also want to buy the pretty high-quality tankoban and have it on their shelf, assuming they have the disposable income to do so.

*That is, there are mediums where such a high level of piracy/availability would have a greater impact on sales.