tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post8259605704700095581..comments2024-03-09T05:53:59.542-05:00Comments on Oz and Ends: The Admission Price for AuthorshipUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-75138461340104922332009-03-11T18:29:00.000-05:002009-03-11T18:29:00.000-05:00"...it reflects how writing has never meant riches..."...it reflects how writing has never meant riches for most people."<BR/><BR/>I was about to raise that point. Or that question. Isn't the belief that the average writer can make a living writing a recent development of the past quarter century or so? Wasn't the stereotype in the past that most writers had other jobs--teaching, journalism, publishing, selling insurance? It wasn't that they had independent wealth. They worked to support their writing. <BR/><BR/>Have we been unrealistic in expecting to make a living writing? I wonder if the handful of mega-bestselling authors have raised expectations.Gail Gauthierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01673131515563387968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-17524591864621983302009-03-11T09:43:00.000-05:002009-03-11T09:43:00.000-05:00Another apropos story I've heard is a college stud...Another apropos story I've heard is a college student telling a professor that he planned to be a writer, and the professor replying, "You'll starve."<BR/><BR/>"So I'll starve," answers the student. "I'll still be a writer."<BR/><BR/>"In that case," says the professor, "you will succeed." <BR/><BR/>Quite possibly a myth, but it reflects how writing has never meant riches for most people.<BR/><BR/>I think the namelos people are in the same boat, many of them having worked on the literary side of corporate publishing, written, and taught writing for a long time. They're trying to make a living, too, in an industry that may not value their work well.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-6260477543913742592009-03-11T00:47:00.000-05:002009-03-11T00:47:00.000-05:00One of my professors at Yale had a saying about th...One of my professors at Yale had a saying about the financial viability of being a theater designer: <BR/><BR/>"You can make a killing, but you can't make a living."<BR/><BR/>Seems to apply to all sorts of arts professions these days.<BR/><BR/>The Namelos model sounds ghastly. Given the collapse of brick and mortar bookstores, digital publishing, and now this it's hard to see what service a big publishing house has to offer. <BR/><BR/>It's the young, beginning writers who often most need a firm hand, a strong voice, to tell them, "no, that doesn't quite work," who are gonna be told to find their own editors. If the writer hold the purse strings over editors, well, it kinda sets up a possible conflict and has the potential to remove some objectivity.<BR/><BR/>ah well...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-3422332629286375052009-03-10T11:53:00.000-05:002009-03-10T11:53:00.000-05:00The root of "publishing" is the word "public," and...The root of "publishing" is the word "public," and that's the essence of what publishers do—they bring an author's work to the public. <BR/><BR/>That means paying for a book's production and printing (even if the publishing company pays others to do that work). That means publicizing the work. And that means distributing it to hundreds of retailers. <BR/><BR/>In the world of digital media, authors and readers can handle the production, printing, and distribution of books. But publicity is becoming an author's biggest challenge. There are more and more authors competing for about the same number of readers. <BR/><BR/>For most readers and nearly all reviewers, publishers are trusted gatekeepers, vetting work and making sure it meets certain standards. The fact that a large corporation expects a significant number of people will be interested in a book, and is willing to invest money in it, is a valuable sign of its likely appeal.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-75978345713541765062009-03-10T11:30:00.000-05:002009-03-10T11:30:00.000-05:00I think a spread of the Namelos model would accele...I think a spread of the Namelos model would accelerate the trend towards self-publishing, online publishing, etc, because it takes away a lot of the value of publishing via a publishing house for an author. Assuming more effective methods of marketing and distrubuting via non-traditional publishing houses evolve, which seems likely, then if the publishing houses also aren't editing, shaping, and shepherding books, what <I>are</I> they doing?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com