In a recent Salon.com piece, Laura Miller ruminates on the increased challenge of finding quality work to read when self publishing exponentially increases the available options. Read her piece here. While reading unsolicited work (aka slush) can be a trying experience, as Miller vividly attests, it also provides an unfiltered view of the eccentricities and preoccupations of regular people who for whatever reason feel compelled to publish their work. Now that self publishing opportunities proliferate, it will be interesting to see how the landscape changes.
Today is Bloomsday. If you are looking for an opportunity to celebrate Ulysses with other Joyceans, there are celebrations being held throughout the country and the world. Here is an article from today’s LA Times you may enjoy.
Recently Garrison Keiller published the New York Times Op-Ed piece “The End of an Era In Publishing” which discusses how self-publishing will irrevocably change the publishing industry. His somewhat tongue-in-cheek assessment prompted Minnesota Public Radio’s MidMorning program to devote an hour to discussing the topic of whether or not book publishing as we know it is dying. Both are worth checking out, although anyone who has followed the industry and the supposed demise will already know the basic trajectory of this argument. Taken in context with recent articles like “The Math of Poetry” (see our May 10 post called ‘Do the Math’ for a link to the article) it is clear that an underlying concern is the disparity in supply and demand. The number of aspiring authors far exceeds the number of readers, in part because writers are not readers. This, along with the diminished role of editors makes for a free for all that can be liberating but also creates a huge spectrum of quality. You do the math and tell us what you think. We are listening…
