Studio717,
Of course NaNoWriMo doesn't always produce 'quality' novels. Hell, I'd bet MOST of the first-time NaNo winners don't have anything *CLOSE* to readable. But then, NaNo's drive is to get the participants past the 50K-word hump at least once. Polishing comes later.
I think that is the primary job for any publisher - getting a basic story idea cleaned up for the customers. Well, that and acting as a 'gatekeeper' to weed out those stories which don't appeal to the various overworked staffers on the publisher's payroll.
I've noticed that many good stories *don't* make it through simply because they don't appeal to the (publishing house's) readers' tastes. (And this is the strongest argument for targetting one's submissions to a publisher who does similar work.) The second big wall is that publishers don't actually 'sell' the novels - except for the few they've chosen to be 'blockbuster' - and that means they rarely generate enough sales of a given title to make them interested in getting further stories from the author.
What I think is happening is that - for most of the books they accept - they use the "we'll build it, toss it out to the market and the customers will be so starved for anything new that they'll buy whatever we produce" method of marketing. IOW, no marketing strategy whatsoever.
Derek
Quote:
Originally Posted by Studio717
I'm not sure how things will shake out, of course, but I see a need for some sort of vetting of the manuscript before it gets thrown up onto the internet. Whether that happens through traditional publishing is the big question, but imo there needs to be some sort of filtering process in place.
The old stat of 80% want to write a book while 80% NEVER read books makes me shudder to think what kind of 'books' might get posted for my reading, uh, pleasure. I just don't have the time nor the inclination to wade through countless bad novels to find one I want to read. The situation now, while in many ways archaic, at least gives me books that have been through some sort of filtering process (even if it's only an agent and an editor).
I realize that much of reading taste is just that - personal taste. I also realize that what happens will have more to do with where readers put their money than any philosophical musing, but the idea of having no way to sort through the accumulating bilge is downright disheartening, especially with NaNoWriMo* just around the proverbial corner.
*National Novel Writing Month
(I mean no disrespect to NaNoWriMo coordinators or participants, but - again, imo - stringing 50,000 words together does not make one a novelist.)
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