Random Chat on Publishing

[StevenSavile]

I figured I would set up a small thread for anyone who wants to ask about the business side of life -

So go on, you know you want to...

[I, Brian]

What do you think are the best and worst aspects of publishing as an industry?

For example, do you feel it is intentionally trying to stifle innovation as some aspirants may claim? Or is it as fully supportive as it can be so long as the work is done?

[StevenSavile]

Egads, talk about opening up a can of worms here...

I'll direct folks to this article from the Independent on Sunday for a glimpse into the realities of a writers life:

Independent Online Edition > Features



For me, a fan of instant gratification AND money the sheer glacial pace of things can really become frustrating. I mean folks are just getting to read what I wrote two or three or even four years ago, and everytime I get a compliment I think, well, hell, you ought to see what I can do NOW, because that stuff... old hat.

As to creativity, I was just interviewed by the UK SF Book News website and this kind of came up - in that because I work within not only my own worlds but other Intellectual Properities (IPs) I have a pretty individual view of how things work. We have fads, of course, look at Scott Lynch's excellent Lies of Loche Lamora, or China Mieville's Perdido stuff, or any of these new weird writers, they appear on every bookshelf and to the average Joe on the street would be the landmark of what is HOT in the genre right now, no? Yet if you look at Bookscan and other sales recorders, traditional High Fantasy still blows these out of the water - because readers themselves actually have pretty simplistic tastes.

What we have on the internet is a skewed view of things - we have a vocal minority who have a lot to say, but in truth most folk who do read never visit sites like this, never comment about books they enjoyed, and frankly read for simple escapism - there's a reason Forgotten Realms and Warhammer books sell so amazingly well, and contrary to what a lot of people would have you believe it isn't solely because of the games they are based upon.

We sneer down our noses at David Eddings and Terry Brooks, but the truth is people vote with their wallets, and for all the abuse on the messageboards, their sales dwarf the current fashions... so who is doing the stifling here? The publisher or the readership themselves?

[John Jarrold]

Welcome, Steve!

[dustinzgirl]

1. What makes writing good?
2. How did you get 'there'
3. What do you do once you are 'there?'

Welcome! I have not read any of your works but I am diligently working through the authors on Chronicles! Nice to meet you!

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by StevenSavile

We sneer down our noses at David Eddings and Terry Brooks, but the truth is people vote with their wallets, and for all the abuse on the messageboards, their sales dwarf the current fashions... so who is doing the stifling here? The publisher or the readership themselves?

A lot of people don't want to hear this, Steven, even if it is true. (As of course it is.)

[andrew.v.spencer]

That's a great point Steve. We do see vast sales of Eddings/Brooks/Jordan, all of whom are as you say sneered at on dedicated sites like this.

I suspect it is the intra-genre parallel to the inter-genre sneering one sees towards SFF (and other genre/commercial fiction), from readers and writers of literary fiction.

[StevenSavile]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

A lot of people don't want to hear this, Steven, even if it is true. (As of course it is.)

Hi Teresa - no kidding. There is a need in most of us to believe that 'the cutting edge' is where it is really at, we look at New Worlds by Moorcock et al as pioneers of their day, pushing back the boundaries and dragging us out of the comfortable cozy sf of the golden age into the dystopias that followed, and we look at your new weird, which is pretty much the same as the old weird, and all of these excellent storytellers really pushing the limits of their creativity and assume that the readers will follow...

Truth is readers en mass are a fairly conservative group, a lot of noise is made by a vocal few, championing the new, but if I look at the best sellers of last year, with Tad Williams, Stephen Donaldson, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Terry Pratchett, and David Eddings still right up there nothing has really changed since I started reading fantasy back in my teens.

I was talking to John recently about the impact of new fantasy, and he mentioned how it was widely trumpetted that Terry Goodkind would be the last of the major traditional fantasy blockbuster authors - I wonder if they were right in that assertion?

In the UK Trudi Canavan has pretty much blown that supposition out of the water, I think, and Steve Erikson hasn't done so bad, either. So what this tells me is that there is still a core readership that is hungry for traditional fantasy - and judging on serious sales, it is bigger than many seemed to think. If Solaris continue to have the success they've kicked off with Gail Martin's The Summoner, you can bet Gollancz, HC etc will open the doors again in search of the next great fantasy blockbuster...

[Zakari]

It does seem that the Blockbusting series is resurging - The Malazan Series is my personal favourite, and other Trilogies are appearing too. It always distinguished the Fantasy Nerd from other readers - having book 4 of some series on your bookshelf.

Eddings? Still got them in my loft - great escapism. No matter how much publishers or the media try to alter our tastes to new trends - it's just not the same as Fashion - we read what we like and we lik what we read. (to abuse a Yorkshire Quote).