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Jul. 10th, 2003 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clayhornikTwice this week I've dealt with people who want to get published. Today, thankfully, it was someone who understood all the crap you have to put up with to actually get the book out... the writing, the submissions, the rejections and agents... everything. Usually, it's somebody who wants to get published NOW. This means someone who's going to go through some Print On Demand publishers. These POD's will pretty much publish anything as long as you pay them. The stuff that comes our way through POD is usually poorly written, badly edited, coarsely presented. AND PEOPLE PAY FOR IT.
Of course, the people who pay are the authors. Occasionally, there's a reader, after a positive blurb in the paper, or they've built up some word of mouth, mostly, POD stuff doesn't sell.
There's a new subgenre in African American fiction, that does sell, tho, and it's what's referred to as "gangsta lit". This stuff sells and it's selling quickly. There are some gems among all the stuff that's flooding the marketplace, but mostly it's variations on themes explored long ago with authors such as Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines. What bothers me about all this is that *important* African American writers, such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston, are getting ignored. People read Morrison when the almighty Oprah told them to, but lately, people are more interested in reading Gangsta rather than Beloved.
As I was writing the above paragraph, I realized something. I've seen the publishing phenomena before... black and white comics. Lots of small publishers popping up like mushrooms in a cowfield after a summer rain... eventually the market is going to go bust. The authors of quality are going to get picked up by larger houses, leaving their nests behind, flying ahead. What the smaller publishers need to do is consolidate, to something like Publisher's Group West or something. That will enhance their distribution network as well as, hopefully streamline their production quality. That's what I'm hoping for someday anyway. In the meantime, we'll be getting stuff from the growing hordes of publishers that are emerging on what seems like a daily basis.
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If you've read this far, you deserve a reward. Click here: * .
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Journey is being used in car commercials. Agh. Ok, they weren't high art, but my AOR orited youth has certain memories associated with some of their songs, and automobile advertising just... bothers me.
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On the flip side: Faith & Disease has a new album out. That pretty much more than balances any ewww I might have as a result of bad car commercials.
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Got a couple of pages done today. Not as much as I'd like.
Work wasn't hell, so that was a good thing. Got my vacation days worked out. Time in August, time in October. And we got a shelf talker for Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things today. I plan on snagging it as soon as we no longer need it. Which may be sooner that later, since we're almost out and the company doesn't seem to be replenishing out stock. Which is a shame, because it's a fun book, cooler than Harry Potter for sure.
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Of course, the people who pay are the authors. Occasionally, there's a reader, after a positive blurb in the paper, or they've built up some word of mouth, mostly, POD stuff doesn't sell.
There's a new subgenre in African American fiction, that does sell, tho, and it's what's referred to as "gangsta lit". This stuff sells and it's selling quickly. There are some gems among all the stuff that's flooding the marketplace, but mostly it's variations on themes explored long ago with authors such as Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines. What bothers me about all this is that *important* African American writers, such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston, are getting ignored. People read Morrison when the almighty Oprah told them to, but lately, people are more interested in reading Gangsta rather than Beloved.
As I was writing the above paragraph, I realized something. I've seen the publishing phenomena before... black and white comics. Lots of small publishers popping up like mushrooms in a cowfield after a summer rain... eventually the market is going to go bust. The authors of quality are going to get picked up by larger houses, leaving their nests behind, flying ahead. What the smaller publishers need to do is consolidate, to something like Publisher's Group West or something. That will enhance their distribution network as well as, hopefully streamline their production quality. That's what I'm hoping for someday anyway. In the meantime, we'll be getting stuff from the growing hordes of publishers that are emerging on what seems like a daily basis.
--
If you've read this far, you deserve a reward. Click here: * .
--
Journey is being used in car commercials. Agh. Ok, they weren't high art, but my AOR orited youth has certain memories associated with some of their songs, and automobile advertising just... bothers me.
--
On the flip side: Faith & Disease has a new album out. That pretty much more than balances any ewww I might have as a result of bad car commercials.
--
Got a couple of pages done today. Not as much as I'd like.
Work wasn't hell, so that was a good thing. Got my vacation days worked out. Time in August, time in October. And we got a shelf talker for Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things today. I plan on snagging it as soon as we no longer need it. Which may be sooner that later, since we're almost out and the company doesn't seem to be replenishing out stock. Which is a shame, because it's a fun book, cooler than Harry Potter for sure.
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