I’ve got at least two readers on this site who have published book-length pieces, along with at least one other who has published in literary magazines, and now I’ve learned that The Minority Militant will be publishing a novel soon (hear our podcast, excellent in content but leaving much to be desired in sound quality…). I’m glad you’re all here. We all need to support each other.
For those who don’t know, I someday hope to publish myself. You guys are all ahead of me though, so don’t stay up waiting for my book length work.
Anyway, here is a piece by James Gleick on publishing. I worry a bit about the Kindle and new forms of electronic media, and I worry somewhat about print-on-demand and how it could further pinch diminishing margins, but I think there will always be books. Right now, I’m reading Wikinomics, which is a book about the new media that is killing the book industry. Go figure.
Related posts:
A paradigm shift needs to happen before hardcover and paperback books go extinct. Aside from literary agents who are buying e-readers to consolidate the manuscript submissions they have to review, the people I know with e-readers don’t…seem to be readers. I don’t really get it, but there it is. At best, they’re reading Dan Brown off those things, not Tolstoy.
Meanwhile those who cherish literary fiction, poetry, letters as an art form and not merely as communication, still cherish the feel of a book in hand, the smell of printed pages.
I will admit, however, that for those of us getting older (and eyesights worse, much worse), the e-readers rock. I can magnify the pages to like ten times and read my books at size 24 font. =D
P.S. Maybe I’m alone on this, but the ReCAPTCHA stop spam type the words you see on the screen thing below the comment box is bothering me.
You’re totally right about non-reader thing for those with e-readers. Actually, most people I know who have one just use it for show. They often still do their reading with regular books. Go figure. I think the resolution and clarity is great, but I think one just sees more with a regular book. It’s like reading a magazine vs. looking at a computer screen.
I remember the Monica Lewinsky hearings. All that stuff was publicly available on the web, free for anyone to print. And yet the bookstores were selling out. My main concern is whether this will change if printers become better, if they can someday print and bind books.
By the way, Akrypti, what do you think of this conversation? Self-publishing? Yes or no?
Is anyone else bothered by recaptcha? It stops the bots…
I don’t think and sure do not hope that print books will ever go extinct.
But the one thing that has revolutionized in reading (besides online) are E-Books. I haven’t purchased one yet because I am still clinging to books the old-fashioned way. While it’s archaic to read print books, I find a lot of joy of looking at my bookshelf to know it’s physically there, bounded with no where to go but for my sore eyes pleasure.
Some day I might have to get out of the stone age and get the E-Book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI73MA/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=1746548141&ref=pd_sl_4usif68krl_e
books won’t die. they said movies and radio would die, but they’re still around. there is something about having a book in your hands and turning the pages. E-books just tire my eyes out much faster. I already surf the net too much as it is!
POD and self-publishing is a good thing. the saying “Freedom of the press exists only for those who have a press” is no longer valid.
Jaehwan, keep the bot-stopper thing; it’s probably good for blog hygiene, but it’s still annoying to me. =P
Self-publishing is fine, but know that the road to literary credibility is a TOUGH one if you choose self-publishing.
It’s expensive, because not only are you paying for printing costs, but you better be hiring an editor to sift through your manuscript with a fine-tooth editorial comb. Kind of like stepping into a courtroom to present your argument to the judge in a stained suit with missing coat buttons. Doesn’t per se change how good of a lawyer you are, but everybody will be taking notice of how you look as opposed to what you’re saying. And how you look will suddenly feel like it has some reflection on what you’re about to say, even if it shouldn’t.
If I were you, I’d work on getting the debut book published by a reputable publisher; then in the future, once you’ve gained a core following of readers, you can offer your work as e-books free to the public or self-publish and promote your subsequent self-published works on your own, off the beaten path.
Finally, my biggest concern for self-publishing is that there is no way to tame the author’s ego. Having free and clear artistic license to write what you will is one thing, but having no one there to stop the madness is another. The traditional route means an agent will help you edit it first, then an editor, several editors actually, and all these rounds of editing in themselves will force YOU to read your own work over at least ten times. Believe me, each time you re-read it, you’ll find new mistakes you didn’t catch the last time. If you self-publish, who is going to be there to discipline you? Yourself? Rrrright.
Hey Akrypti,
Thanks! The bot-stopper is a pain, but I think it’s the best way to go for a site that requries no registration!
I totally hear you. It definitely is a credibility issue for literary writers. It’s unfortunate, but I pre-screen books through that as well. I’m a lot more likely to pick up a book if the author/book has street cred, either through recommendations, some sort of authority, or publication by a big house. There’s just too much out there, and I think we all make our decisions about how to invest our time based on how other people rate.
Plus, I agree with you on the editing. It never looks the same to the writer as to someone else who reads it. Incidentally, that’s why I like the blogosphere–instant feedback!
I think it’s probably right for certain people/fields. It’s the perfect outlet for James, for example, who teaches bodybuilding. It gives him total license to share whatever news he has, and because he has a decent following on the web, he has his own distribution channel. If, on the other hand, you’re launching what Larry calls a battle “for the soul of Asian America,” I think you need to get out to Americans, and you need both the distribution and know-how of the people already in the industry. So you’re right; it’s not for literary writers like (hopefully) me.
The unknown issue, of course, is whether or not those in the industry might change your story into something undesirable. Who knows, maybe originally Min Jin’s book had Korean Unu as the stud and Whiteboy Hugh as the dork?
Have you read the Epstein book yet? I was surprised because he was a hotshot publisher in the industry, but he actually is ambivalent about the self-publishing thing.
Yeah POD/self-publishing is best for niche markets. If your subject expertise is very narrow and you can easily target your niche market, then POD is the way to go.
POD is very virtually free. There is no start up costs other than buying your copy of your book (which is reduced in price for you anyway), but you easily that make up with your first sale.
Your book, however, still has to be compelling for people to want to buy it. This is why I write articles and blog: many of my readers enjoy learning from my articles so much that they buy my books. They get a sense of what my book would be like from my articles.
regardless of whether you self-publish or get a publisher’s blessing, your writing and your story still have to captivate and move people right from the beginning.
P.S. Three great APA fiction writers made it onto the 100 Most Notable Books of 2008: Nam Le, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ma Jian. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3
In non-fiction, that book Factory Girls got in and Fareed Zakaria’s Post American World (a good read).
James,
Thanks for the advice! I may have mentioned that we may have a need for a non-literary POD project. It’s great that you’ve done this, and I totally commend you on the publication of your books.
Akrypti,
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve read Lahiri, and I loved her work. I’ve also heard good things about Nam Le. I’ll check out Ma Jian.
(I’ll be finishing Wikinomics in the next few days, and I just started Supernanny–I love that show! I need to get back to fiction soon…)
The book by Ma Jian that made it is more or less “historical literary fiction,” but the problem is that the author’s politics are bursting through the seams of this novel, and in a way that distorts the historical accuracy of what the book seems to be implying (or do nothing to refute) as hard fact.
Self-publication means more ideas and more variations of those ideas are being put in the stream of commerce. That also means more noise, static. What information that you’re reading can you rely on and what can you not? You think you should be able to pick them apart from one another, but these days, it’s getting harder and harder.
I don’t think books are going to go extinct, but it IS a VERY sad comment on our society that books are going the way of all things elitist. It’s become this factor that allows book-readers to feel better than non-book-readers. With that said, non-book-readers are missing out on a LOT. They’re diluting their brains with all this immaterial media, frying their visual senses with the boob tube and their critical thinking abilities (because I don’t know about you, but I have never ever done any “critical thinking” after watching Boston Legal or Lipstick Jungle, but I HAVE after reading a good book). … Or… is that last comment made by me just an offshoot of my elitism as a book-reader? I really don’t know.
We spent centuries trying to distribute books to the masses. It was our way of empowering the nation. Once upon a time, unless you were a monk or a court scholar, you couldn’t even have access to books. Gutenberg (actually, some Chinese inventor, but I grew up in the West and regrettably am not schooled in Chinese history, but I DO know it was actually some Chinese inventor first…) allowed the working class to become literate.
During the cultural revolution, what was cherished underground? Books. During any form of political oppression, the first thing the Big Government wants gone is the books and the first thing the passive-resistance wants to get their hands on is the books. I don’t agree that the Internet replaces the channels of information distribution that books provide. The Internet is quite organic, constantly changing, and it’s a heck of a lot easier to take down a website or delete an e-book than it is to BURN a book. Plus, the act of burning a book itself is significant, one that cannot be replaced by any other act, e.g., taking down a blog.
I don’t know where I’m going with this. It’s early morning here and I haven’t had my coffee yet, but my point, if it was somehow lost up there, is that I fear we’re entering a new political era, one of Big Governments, one where the masses are now effectively dumber than before (making them easier to control by said Big Government), not so much because they aren’t empowered with information, but because they don’t know how to distill and use all the information they have access to. And a lot of this state of affairs can be attributed to the downfall of books.
Since we’re talking about self-publishing and e-books, here’s a site for self-published writers:
http://www.authonomy.com/
Copied and pasted from Authonomy’s “About Us” page:
authonomyTM is a brand new community site for writers, readers and publishers, conceived and developed by book editors at HarperCollins. We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around – we’re glad you stopped by.
If you’re a writer, authonomy is the place to show your face – and show off your work on the web. Whether you’re unpublished, self-published or just getting started, all you need is a few chapters to start building your profile online, and start connecting with the authonomy community.
And if you’re a reader, blogger publisher or agent, authonomy is for you too. The book world is kept alive by those who search out, digest and spread the word about the best new books – authonomy invites you to join our community, champion the best new writing and build a personal profile that really reflects your tastes, opinions and talent-spotting skills.
The publishing world is changing. One thing’s for sure: whether you’re a reader, writer, agent or publisher, this is an exciting time for books. In our corner of HarperCollins we’ve been given a chance to do something a little different.
Akrypti,
Have you seen this New Yorker article?
Twilight of the Books
It talks a lot about a “secondary orality” in the video age, which I think is similar to what you’re saying about the solidness of books. I agree with just about everything you said above. The internet is just an entirely different beast. The government could come and shut the entire web down, and then where would we be? Bloggers would forget everything! But with books, we remember. With books, we think more deeply. With books, we truly explore deeper issues in life.
Have you read Al Gore’s Assault on Reason? I recommend this book to everyone. Gore talks about the political process and how the important issues of our day all come down to who can buy the most 30 second ads. It’s insane, but he’s totally right.
Thanks for the Authonomy link. Harper Collins? Hmm… Do they do literature?
I just saw this on Minority Militant’s site. Looks like everyone is hurting today, even the book industry.
I don’t know much about the self-publishing industry, but I think it’s good that there are media networks developing outside the publishing establishment. To be honest, I don’t really shed any tears whenever a mainstream media outlet goes into decline or even out of business.
If the corporate media is losing influence and even legitimacy, it will create more space for alternative media outlets and allow voices that have been marginalized and silenced by mainstream gatekeepers to be heard. This has obvious implications for Asian American writers and cultural producers.
In terms of news outlets, for instance, I think more people are tuning their back on the dominant media for news and looking elsewhere. Hopefully, this trend will occur across the spectrum from Hollywood to publishing to the music industry.
“I fear we’re entering a new political era, one of Big Governments, one where the masses are now effectively dumber than before (making them easier to control by said Big Government), not so much because they aren’t empowered with information, but because they don’t know how to distill and use all the information they have access to. And a lot of this state of affairs can be attributed to the downfall of books.”
We actually were addressing this issue a bit on the Thymos e-list.
In addition to Al Gore’s book that Jaehwan mentioned, the article below addresses this dumbing down phenomenon. It’s about the movement from a print-based to image-spaced US society and its broader political implications.
America the Illiterate
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21239.htm
I wonder if corporate media is really losing influence. I saw one stat that over 50% of people still get their news from TV broadcasts despite the growth of the blogosphere. Obviously this number has fallen since the invention of the blogosphere, but I wonder if it will continue to fall. People sometimes prefer to go with the path of least resistance, and it’s easy to just flip on the TV. As an Asian American writer, of course, I agree that we need to get around that old marginalization by the mainstream gatekeepers.
Anyway, Larry, I may post an article about this sometime soon. My PUA piece is coming out in a few days. I’m thinking of ditching the “Internet Communication” piece; I figure that those who believe me already do, and I’m probably not going to change the minds of those who prefer to stay exclusively on the web.
The Epstein Book Business book came in the mail today!!
Sweet! It’s a fast read. Tell me what you think when you’re done. Looking forward to discussing!
“I wonder if corporate media is really losing influence. I saw one stat that over 50% of people still get their news from TV broadcasts despite the growth of the blogosphere”
Do you remember if that figure includes cable news? But also I think that a lot of people listen to the broadcast news at 6:00 or 10:00, but then vet, or receive commentary, on what they’ve heard through their favorite websites or blogs. The broadcast news might be their primary source, but it is filtered through several “new media” secondary sources. This may still break the kind of information lock the big 3 networks had prior to the explosion of the internet.