Distrusting Literary Prizes

"why are prizes so mistrusted these days? There are many possible answers, but two make, out of this many, more sense.

Prizes have become banal. There is a prize, an award, for almost every thing. And every writer that wants to sell enough books to make a living out of it, must, at least, have been laureled once or twice. The excess of awards makes them less valuable, thus also taking value from the awardee, person and book. ...

Still, awards play an immensely important part in today’s literary panorama. They tell people what to read. ... They might teach what, but not why.

In addition, creative writing courses seem to be contributing to this overall lack of literary sensibility. By slowly replacing literature graduations – that focus, essentially, on reading – creative writing courses are manufacturing more writers than readers, and therefore unbalancing the scale dangerously. This leads to the necessity of more awards to inform people of what to read. And publishers, of course, say thank you very much. By trying to perpetrate one artistic form, creative writing courses are slowly slaughtering it."

More; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/our-voices/battle-of-ideas/forget-the-booker-the-prize-every-author-really-wants-is-academic-validation-8213065.html



The Election. The Coup. The Black Vault. www.SPYWRITER.com

Book publishers confess

"Publishers confess they’ve goofed.

Here’s why: Book publishers have been very slow to realize this but gradually began to admit that they really didn’t know all that well what they’re doing.

Seriously. They don’t. And they know it. Fact: Nearly all published books – conservative estimates range between 80-90 percent – lose money. These books don’t earn out their advances, don’t have second printings, they sell in the low four digits at best, are returned from the retail accounts and pulped or recycled.

The rest have to make up for it, and often don’t. What kind of a business is that?

So as book publishers have begun to admit to themselves and even publicly that they can’t really predict what will sell or not, they’ve also realized that the old methods of selling, of marketing a book have stopped working."

More: http://blogs.forbes.com/booked/2011/06/06/good-day-sunshine-for-writers/



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What publisher does for an author

In this increasingly virtual age of open access and universal availability, it's important for readers to keep in mind what it is that a publisher does for an author. A publisher -- and I write as one -- does far more than print and sell a book. It selects, nurtures, positions and promotes the writer's work. SOURCE

Ha.
Ha.
I am overwhelmed.

Of authors, readers, and publishers

While I respect the need for publishers to vet titles for commercial potential, there’s something inherently broken about a system that rejects titles through this narrow lens.  What about brilliant long tail works with potential audiences of only 100 or 500?  The publishing industry can’t support these.  Publishers also cannot accurately predict which titles will become huge hits, and which will flop, so they routinely overlook great works.

For the last couple centuries, publishers have controlled the means of book production and distribution.  This is too much power concentrated in the hands of too few people whose business interests don’t always align with the interests of authors and readers.

MORE

Publishing advances ruin publishers

Finally, an insider sheds light on the reasons behind the troubles publishing houses are dealing with: all those layoffs and cutbacks are not caused by the opportunity presented by the "economic downturn", not by readers who don't spend $$ on books that they cannot believe could be printed in the first instance, but it is the advances paid to authors...

"[...] what I do think – in common with most of publishing – is that the whole system of publishing advances is threadbare. It’s like the Windows operating system: the programme has been stretched and overwritten so much it is cumbersome and worn out. The fact that it just about “does the job” is why it’s still used." Read more.