Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
I don't see any other institution being to fill this essential role of a publisher, and unless someone can come up with an alternative , I for one am rooting for the continued existence of the major publishing houses.
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Well, J.K. Rowling famously lived on the UK equivalent of welfare
and some sort of arts grant while writing her early novels. So the government could step into the patronage role (as happens in Canada, as we have both federal and provincial funding for supporting our promising artists while they produce art).
Of course, this is not practical for large numbers of potentially unpromising persons, so something new that might happen in greater numbers is the fan-patronage solicitation such as
Lawrence Watt-Evans uses for his new books in popular but apparently no longer commercially-viable-to-the-big-publishers series.
Both of his old publishers (Del Rey and Tor, IIRC) dropped his Ethshar fantasies about 8 books in.
But he has managed to be fairly successful at writing new Ethshar tales by doing them as online serials with chapters released after receiving a particular donation goal from his interested readers via Paypal to cover his expenses while writing, and the finished book is taken to his backlist re-publisher, small press Wildside, which then produces a print and e-book version to sell in stores (but is small enough they can't pay what LWE considers a sufficient advance to cover his costs upfront for writing a brand-new novel while he has other Big 6 writing commitments going on).
And the donating fans who give over a certain amount are considered subscribers and get a free print copy of the book once it's published (and an e-copy as well, I believe).
He's managed to do fairly well, with three new Ethshar novels funded and completed this way thus far. I missed out on donating to the last serial while it was running because I wasn't really reading him at the time, but I'll certainly do the next.
In a similar fashion,
Barbara Hambly writes new novellas set in her now-considered-unsaleable-but-with-a-good-fan-following fantasy worlds, in between keeping up her writing commitments for her new mystery novels (and teaching history at the local community college).
She does not offer them on a subscription basis like LWE does, but once she has a finished story, she sells it on her website for $5, which is a little pricey for a casual reader, but worth it for the hardcore fans. I am hoping once she has enough related stories she offers discount bundles for ones set in a particular "world", the better to introduce new readers to her old works (which are now happily almost all available in e-reprint).
So far she has produced 6 new tie-in novellas in the past year or two, and they seem to be doing well as she thanks the readers for their response and support of the stories.
I am not arguing about the fact that traditional publishing house have advantages re: advances and editing and such. In fact, many of my favourite authors were published and thus nurtured for many years by specialty imprints that either were or later became absorbed into the Big 6 and were able to build the fanbase which sustains them now that they've gone semi-solo.
But there are increasingly viable alternatives, IMHO.