Quote:
Originally Posted by David J. Guyton
Yeah I totally agree. The old ways are dying and thank God for that. I was so fed up with the catch-22 of no agents considering writers who haven't already had something published (for fantasy anyway...not sure about other genres).
I don't know what to do about this problem yet either. I just wanted to make sure other authors and readers knew it was happening. So far I have written letters of complaint, but I'm sure they will go unread or whatever.
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The publishing industry is failing, and at a rapid rate, its only a matter of time before it adapts or is destroyed completely. Just check out the coverage of the recent SXSW conference, where publishers showed just how out of touch they really are. Twitter roundup here:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23sxswbp
This is the perfect time for new authors disilussioned with the old system to step up and do it for themselves. Every day there are new avenues to go down, new communities that love reading where readers and writers can come together. If you've got a story to tell and you want it to be read, then for the first time in a long time you can do it with very little expense, and best of all, a lot more fun during the process. None of us (unless we're exceptionally lucky) will ever make it rich, but to me that's about as pointless a goal in writing as is slanting to a market. What we might gain in the future are loyal readers, spurred on by recommendations and authors being available instead of barricaded behind the walls of publicists and publishers.
I'm ranting now, but have you tried
http://www.smashwords.com as another route to sell your book? They have a completely open policy on pricing, you can even give away your book for free if you'd like. Plus they support all the major e-book formats and some more besides. It's just another option in the many that are becoming available to us 'unpubs'.
Good luck
Here's some footage from SXSW