Randoms

[usullusa]

• The Wall Street Journal has an article on the future of publishing in a world of e-books and self publishing.
  This sort of thing worries me a lot. I know that a lot of writers are thrilled at the idea of not having to jump through so many hoops to get published. Now they don't have to deal with those pesky editors or receive rejection letter after rejection letter. But unless the world of self-publishing does some major growing up and develops ways of filtering the stream of untried manuscripts, then it is doomed.
  Here's the thing: agents, editors, they are all good things. The reason is two-fold.
  
  They are good for the reader because they are the barriers between every crummy, first-draft novel that people crank out and the bookshelves. Maybe some of those first-draft novels can be really good with work, but they almost never are from the get go. There is a reason why 98% of what gets sent to agents gets rejected. Because it's not good. A lot of the times it's not even a matter of fixing it. The manuscripts that need some sprucing up are the ones that agents take on. It's the other ones, the ones that don't have a grasp of the English language, or are Twilight rehashes, but twenty times worse, or are by people who are simply delusional-- those are the reason we have this elaborate system in place. So you know that even if everything on the shelves of the bookstore isn't fantastic, or your cup of tea, it passes some standard. Imagine if only one of out every 100 books in the store was any good, forget something you might like. Nobody would buy books. It would be too much work finding one you want. Literary agencies and publishing houses do this work for you.
  
  They are good for the writer too. Remember what I said about how agents and editors take on the books that can be good with some sprucing up? (It's very rare to find a manuscript that doesn't need some work. Not because every author is bad, but because writing always requires edits and more than one set of eyes, and that level of work and dedication generally requires somebody else pushing you.) Agents and editors are the ones that help writers take their book from "Eh" to "Ohmygodyou'vegottareadthis!" They are there to tell writers when a character is flat, when the fight scenes are incomprehensible, when the sun rises three times in one day, and when they misspelled "subconscious" and left out the word "a" in the sentence "I'm having a baby!" They, along with copy editors, the marketing staff, the people that design covers, and the rest of the village it takes to create a book pour time and effort into making a book into the best it can be and marketing it. They know what indie bookstores want to do an event, they know where to put up ads, they know who to solicit for reviews. They know how to make a book a success.
  I won't say they are perfect. A lot of the time they are picky about taking on projects because they only wants the one that will make them money, but they're also picky because they pour so many resources into writers and their books that they want to make sure they're worth their sweat and blood and tears. And yes, they are often just as invested in books as their authors are.
  
  E-book and self-publishing? Want to throw that all out the window. Now writers can throw up their NaNoWriMo novels online on December 1st for free, or almost no cost at all. I find that alarming to say the least.
  I don't think that self-published e-book from non-brand name authors will harm the traditional publishing industry much. Who will buy them when there's thousands of them and nothing to make them stand out and no backing to promote them? If anything, it will be existing publishers making books they've bought available in e-book format or famous authors of Stephen King caliber circumventing their publisher and self-publishing that really harm the industry. But nonetheless, it's worrisome.
  
  Plus, and this is a completely personal thing, I will always take a physical book made with paper and ink over a screen. I want a bookcase filled with dog-eared book, not a machine that fits in a purse.
  
  
  
• Postcards from the early 20th century about gender roles. Fascinating stuff...
  
  
• A Gay in the Life. A blog collecting the stories of LGBTQ people, both to have them collected somewhere and to prove we're real human beings with real feelings.
  
  
• I have been writing a lot in the past few days. What the hell even.
  
  
• Ahhhh apartment search begins. It's really nerve-wracking being all the way over here on the west coast trying to get an apartment in New York. But my trusty roommates over there are on it. Still. (If anybody has any tips on apartment hunting, they would be much appreciated. This is my first time doing this.)
  
  
• It's raining oil in Louisiana