Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
There is too much poorly edited (and poorly written) junk out there, and filtration will always be needed. In addition, any writer who wants a national (let alone international) presence is going to need resources far beyond what an individual can muster, especially those just starting out.
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Let me address this particular point, because it's made so often by so many different people. I believe the publishing companies are directly responsible for the amount of terrible writing that is self-published, and why? Because they publish so much garbage themselves. The absolutely worst written dreck is a the top of the best-seller lists, and all the while the publishing companies foster the grand lie that everybody can be rich and live the life of a best-selling author - how many times have you seen that on a book 'NYT Best-Selling Author'? That tagline is about as meaningful as tagging the book 'Breather of Oxygen.' But it serves, along with all the books on writing, to reinforce a false vision of what a writer is, or what a writer might become. Most damaging of all - what a writer can get away with. That barrier is very low now. Lower than it's ever been.
Our culture is only what we allow it to be and shit rolls downhill, not up. We can still see in through those gates, and what we're seeing is a compost heap for the most part. How can anybody expect greatness, or even competency in the self-published world when we see so little of it in the ivory-towered publishing industry? How is anybody supposed to take the book publishing industry seriously when it gives six-figure advances to TV chefs and silicon-enhanced bimbos while real writers have to work second jobs just to make ends meet?
/end rant
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/Thinks he might be turning into Harlan Ellison/