Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
What? You mean MARKETING doesn't work? 
How could it be, the entire economy is built on it. 
And what of history?  |
The economy isn't built on art, which is notoriously difficult to quantify economically. History gives us numerous examples of art which has gone unappreciated for years-decades-centuries, artists who were forced to depend on rich patrons to survive (regardless of their talent or artistic quality), and great artists who quite literally starved for lack of money or support. Out of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of artists of one sort or another down the ages, we only really remember a few hundred, and only a few of those lived comfortably.
That's the history of art.
Traditional marketing doesn't work on art, either, since it is such a personal subject; only exposure to the right people sells art, and that's basically a crap-shoot.
Literature has been largely divorced from Art for over a century now; it has been redesigned as Product. It is marketed as product, handled as product, and sold as product. Its evolution to digital files hasn't changed the public perception of Books As Product. People
can read literature, but overall,
they buy and read Product.
I suspect it's going to be a long time before people come to think of books as anything other than product; even now, as some ebook enthusiasts try to convince others that books are a "fundamental Human heritage" that ought to be available to all, with the only arsenal in their argument being the fact that they don't want to part with their hard-earned money to obtain things.
Of course, if you don't want to participate in the rendering of your work as Product, you have the right to do with your work whatever you want... no one's stopping you. The present (digital) landscape will probably make it easier for you to disseminate your work further than it could have gone 20 years ago, literally worldwide. Go for it... and ignore those who are only interested in literature as Product.
(Trust me: It'll only make you crazy otherwise.)