RARA-AVIS: Re: Are unpublished novels best left unpublished? YES!

From: Jacques Debierue ( matrxtech@yahoo.com)
Date: 17 May 2007


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> Many have claimed that publishers are looking for what will sell. It
> has also been pointed out that a lot of good writers, while published,
> have been dropped by their publishers for lack of sales and that some of
> the bestselling authors are not very good writers. So are the
> publishers to blame or book buyers?
>
> Yes, this is a bit simplistic, ignoring promotion and advertising,
> chasing short term profits at the expense of slowly building an
> audience, etc, but can we really complain about publishers publishing
> crap that sells without passng at least some of the blame on to those
> who are buying the crap?
>

The responsibility is totally with those who buy the crap. The writer is a worker, and if he writes crap that sells, he cannot be blamed for doing his work (good work, according to sales). I could lace this with a desire that more good stuff be published, etc., but I don't think that desire has any relation to reality. If I were a publisher, I would want to sell. And authors, too, want to sell. That's why they write, mostly. Even if money were not a consideration (the author is already rich), any author wants to be read.

Best,

MrT



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 17 May 2007 EDT