So far, the ebook deal seems to be a good one for publishing in general. I still prefer real books and I will continue to almost exclusively buy paper books from most publishers. I shudder to think of a world without bookstores.
I will, however, buy some ebooks from small presses. I've landed some really good books from small press publishers in ebook format and have enjoyed most of those books immensely.
I continue to boycott all self-published books. I have yet to read a self-published novel that wasn't a piece of shit. I will not buy any more of those damned things and I will not download any more free self-published stinkers.
Face it. If you can't find even a small press publisher who likes your work, then you really aren't producing anything worth reading. You losers are all a bunch of pimples on the ass of commerce. Stop it, please. I'm still hoping to see you all back on the unemployment lines looking for work again at the earliest opportunity. The fad is, I hope, fading away and we will soon see this all as a very bad chapter in the history of publishing.
Robert, that's just silly and you know it. I self-published BANISHED, a novel, on Kindle and I guarantee you I could have sold it to a publisher instead. So that's a bunch of guff. Come on now.
ReplyDeleteExceptions to every rule.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to get this out of the way, as I've said here and elsewhere, I'm not talking about the re-release of books whose rights have reverted to the original authors, for which I am willing to give a pass.
However, not even the most professional writer can deny that the markets are glutted beyond filling with self-published garbage and that the flood of this...well, there's no other word for it but "crap"...is harmful to publishing and to those writers who care about their craft.
(I've even heard that Terry Goodkind decided to move toward self-publishing. So it goes.)
As for me...I don't want to be associated with the ebook/POD self-publishing movement which, I dearly hope, will prove to be short-lived and which will historically, I am convinced, be shown to be a most harmful period in (and to) American literature.
In the final analysis, it boils down to a person's ability to self-promote what is very likely to be (odds-on) utter crap.
There being, as I said, exceptions to every rule.
And I was not talking about any of my e-books that were re-releases from rights that were reverted to me from traditional publishers. I was talking about an original novel, never before in print, that I self-published. See, that's the problem with blanket statements--they do not lend themselves to the exceptions and I see many more exceptions to your argument than you do. On this I hope we can agree to disagree.
ReplyDeleteYep. I didn't say that BANISHED was a reprint. I understood that it's an original.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/BANISHED-ebook/dp/B006GEQLJ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1342485295&sr=8-2&keywords=banished+billie+sue+mosiman
I just thought I'd mention the re-release of novels that have reverted to the author's possessions as one more exception to the rule. Another thing that I have said is that there MUST be good novels being self-published because of the sheer numbers of the things. However, I'm not going to dig through the piles of feces looking for a garnet.
The easy ebook/POD self-publishing format is a curse and I still hope to see the fad go completely away at the earliest opportunity. I will continue to avoid all self-published novels as I don't want to encourage the larger group of no-talents who have access to a system that is polluting the world with their garbage.