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April Hamilton · 02-29-2008, 08:42 PM

DMcCunney wrote:
>>While people have various complaints against major publishers, they do perform a critical function: they're a filter. Getting published by a regular publisher is no guarantee of goodness, but it's at least less likely to be mind-numbingly bad.<<

I hear this argument frequently, and it's frustrating. There's lots of crummy, nowhere-near-ready-for-primetime stuff in the indie film and indie music world, but is that reason enough not to have an indie movement at all in those industries? I don't think anyone would say so, yet the same rationale is used time and again to justify stifling an indie author movement. The fact that there's *some* garbage out there does not mean that it's *all* garbage, nor that it must necessarily be a chore to seek out wheat among the chaff. My indie books are getting excellent reviews on Amazon, plus I offer free online excerpts for anyone to try before they buy. I realize not all authors do the same, but as they get smarter and realize their work must speak for itself in the indie marketplace, I think they'll follow suit.

>>Publishers make their living selling books, and at least try to pick books that can sell.<<

That is precisely the problem; now that the industry is dominated by a handful of megaconglomerates, it's all about not only what they think they can sell, but what they think they can sell in the hundreds of thousands. The midlist is all but dead, as major publishers seek out only 3 flavors of manuscripts: commercial bestsellers, prestige titles (i.e., potential Pulitzer winners) and genre/nonfiction fare that earns reliably. Lots of really great, well-written stuff has been shoved to the margins because just one person in the approval chain has had some doubt as to whether or not the book could sell in the hundreds of thousands.

Once upon a time, moving anything more than 10K copies was considered quite respectable. Nowadays, it's chicken scratch. But what of the 10K+ readers who would very much enjoy these 'smaller' books? If there's no indie movement in publishing, they're outta luck.

02-29-2008, 08:42 PM	#34
April Hamilton Fully Caffeinated Posts: 21 Karma: 418 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: So. Cal. Device: Modified ePods	DMcCunney wrote: >>While people have various complaints against major publishers, they do perform a critical function: they're a filter. Getting published by a regular publisher is no guarantee of goodness, but it's at least less likely to be mind-numbingly bad.<< I hear this argument frequently, and it's frustrating. There's lots of crummy, nowhere-near-ready-for-primetime stuff in the indie film and indie music world, but is that reason enough not to have an indie movement at all in those industries? I don't think anyone would say so, yet the same rationale is used time and again to justify stifling an indie author movement. The fact that there's some garbage out there does not mean that it's all garbage, nor that it must necessarily be a chore to seek out wheat among the chaff. My indie books are getting excellent reviews on Amazon, plus I offer free online excerpts for anyone to try before they buy. I realize not all authors do the same, but as they get smarter and realize their work must speak for itself in the indie marketplace, I think they'll follow suit. >>Publishers make their living selling books, and at least try to pick books that can sell.<< That is precisely the problem; now that the industry is dominated by a handful of megaconglomerates, it's all about not only what they think they can sell, but what they think they can sell in the hundreds of thousands. The midlist is all but dead, as major publishers seek out only 3 flavors of manuscripts: commercial bestsellers, prestige titles (i.e., potential Pulitzer winners) and genre/nonfiction fare that earns reliably. Lots of really great, well-written stuff has been shoved to the margins because just one person in the approval chain has had some doubt as to whether or not the book could sell in the hundreds of thousands. Once upon a time, moving anything more than 10K copies was considered quite respectable. Nowadays, it's chicken scratch. But what of the 10K+ readers who would very much enjoy these 'smaller' books? If there's no indie movement in publishing, they're outta luck.