Post by James Ivan Kingsley on Apr 16, 2008 3:57:31 GMT -5
WHY PUBLISHING HATES WRITERS
One of the most frequent questions I get bombarded with by from unpublished writers who insist upon “making an impression” is, Why do you hate us? “Us” referring to we, the legitimate publishing community, made up of professional colleagues, agents, editors and publishing executives. And the answer I give them is rather candid, and I feel, worthy of discussion.
We hate you because you don't make us money.
Now that may sound harsh or uncharacteristically materialistic of the publishing community. But I assure you we are among the kindest people you will ever meet outside of the office. Indeed, it is the cutthroat competition of the writing industry that sharpens our words, allowing we in the publishing industry to become surgeons of the abstract human mind. We cut, they bleed, we sow up the damage and send patients on their way. The truth is that most of my colleagues in the writing business love publishing. We often times put the love of the publishing world ahead of the emotional welfare of our own families. We love everything about our community, our brotherhood brought together for a mutual love of high literary standards.
We are the voices that matter in literature, and of this fact we are very proud. We are kind to ourselves and celebrate our emergence in this contemporary era. Whenever some poor unpublished soul laments to me that writing used to be about “the writing,” I remind him, well yes, and war used to be about racism. But times change, do they not? In this contemporary age, we, the organizers of original human thought have triumphed as the real winners. Yes, in past centuries we were held hostage and were often subjected to the most abysmal works of all time, because we fell victim to an author's almighty name. Imagine the name of one author being more powerful than an entire institution of logic.
That is what you call arbitrary rule, my unpublished friends. The publishing industry of today is a democratic entity that considers all the business angles of a book launch, not just the writing. The marketing, the advertising, the product placements and merchandising rights. You say “it's all about money” as if it's a bad thing.
This is what you call progress.
I admit that in school I fretted studying the works of Jane Austen or James Joyce. I kept thinking to myself, who would pay money to see this? If it were made into a motion picture, who would be cast as the main character and what kind of salary would they demand? It's true that Jane Austen and Emily Bronte's novels were eventually made into watchable Hollywood movies. But have you actually read some of these works? They are atrocious. These authoresses over-use adjectives and fill their prose with unnecessary descriptive language. Whenever I hear writers bellyaching that past century classics could not be published today, I retort, well yes because the traditionally published writers of today are of better caliber than Austen and Bronte. They make their point in fewer words. They use crisp and easy-to-follow language. Best of all, the writers of today help corporations to fuel a billion dollar industry. This creates jobs and feeds families. It saves on paper and the over-production of computers. I sleep at night very well knowing that my efforts in rejecting 99% of all manuscript rejections are environmentally friendly.
For all of you angry writers out there who rant about Hermann Hesse, I ask you, rhetorically, do more people read Hesse or drink Pepsi? I can assure you that most professionals in writing have not heard of Hesse. The good people at Pepsi however, have mastered the art of 20th century creative expression. And we have the soda machine to prove it!
We hate you, the stubborn unpublishable artist, because you are anti-democratic. I consider a rejected manuscript as little more than a random street mugging. You attempt to steal my money, boy, and I will pummel you.
James Ivan Kingsley
One of the most frequent questions I get bombarded with by from unpublished writers who insist upon “making an impression” is, Why do you hate us? “Us” referring to we, the legitimate publishing community, made up of professional colleagues, agents, editors and publishing executives. And the answer I give them is rather candid, and I feel, worthy of discussion.
We hate you because you don't make us money.
Now that may sound harsh or uncharacteristically materialistic of the publishing community. But I assure you we are among the kindest people you will ever meet outside of the office. Indeed, it is the cutthroat competition of the writing industry that sharpens our words, allowing we in the publishing industry to become surgeons of the abstract human mind. We cut, they bleed, we sow up the damage and send patients on their way. The truth is that most of my colleagues in the writing business love publishing. We often times put the love of the publishing world ahead of the emotional welfare of our own families. We love everything about our community, our brotherhood brought together for a mutual love of high literary standards.
We are the voices that matter in literature, and of this fact we are very proud. We are kind to ourselves and celebrate our emergence in this contemporary era. Whenever some poor unpublished soul laments to me that writing used to be about “the writing,” I remind him, well yes, and war used to be about racism. But times change, do they not? In this contemporary age, we, the organizers of original human thought have triumphed as the real winners. Yes, in past centuries we were held hostage and were often subjected to the most abysmal works of all time, because we fell victim to an author's almighty name. Imagine the name of one author being more powerful than an entire institution of logic.
That is what you call arbitrary rule, my unpublished friends. The publishing industry of today is a democratic entity that considers all the business angles of a book launch, not just the writing. The marketing, the advertising, the product placements and merchandising rights. You say “it's all about money” as if it's a bad thing.
This is what you call progress.
I admit that in school I fretted studying the works of Jane Austen or James Joyce. I kept thinking to myself, who would pay money to see this? If it were made into a motion picture, who would be cast as the main character and what kind of salary would they demand? It's true that Jane Austen and Emily Bronte's novels were eventually made into watchable Hollywood movies. But have you actually read some of these works? They are atrocious. These authoresses over-use adjectives and fill their prose with unnecessary descriptive language. Whenever I hear writers bellyaching that past century classics could not be published today, I retort, well yes because the traditionally published writers of today are of better caliber than Austen and Bronte. They make their point in fewer words. They use crisp and easy-to-follow language. Best of all, the writers of today help corporations to fuel a billion dollar industry. This creates jobs and feeds families. It saves on paper and the over-production of computers. I sleep at night very well knowing that my efforts in rejecting 99% of all manuscript rejections are environmentally friendly.
For all of you angry writers out there who rant about Hermann Hesse, I ask you, rhetorically, do more people read Hesse or drink Pepsi? I can assure you that most professionals in writing have not heard of Hesse. The good people at Pepsi however, have mastered the art of 20th century creative expression. And we have the soda machine to prove it!
We hate you, the stubborn unpublishable artist, because you are anti-democratic. I consider a rejected manuscript as little more than a random street mugging. You attempt to steal my money, boy, and I will pummel you.
James Ivan Kingsley