Contemporary Fiction

[pynchonoid]

--- jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:

> Do you think that there's any chance in hell of
> getting any sort of
> readership / recognition through lulu?  

Yes, if you spend enough time and money to market the
book. I wouldn't count on lulu doing it.


>I hadn't
> heard of blurb.com
> til your email.  But while I like the idea of lulu
> it seems kind of
> like "giving up" almost.  


A real longing for legitimacy among new authors out
there, undeniable. Being published by an established
house - even better, to be discovered by an editor,
nurtured along into a literary lion - the romantic
dream dies hard, but that's the 20th century, history.
 That circuit still exists and still plays a huge
role, but a lot of stuff is bubbling up from below,
authors using the web to connect with audiences; lots
of junk and mediocre stuff but some gems pop up, too. 
Look at the way a web site like Boing Boing, to name
one I know a little bit, helps to promote authors,
especially those outside traditional circles. 

That's why I have  hopes that great new literary work
can emerge. Compared to the likes of Pynchon, Roth,
and a few others, the young writers seem a bit weak to
me so far, but what is it the theorists say, get a
million monkeys typing and one of them will write
Gravity's Rainbow.




>Have never heard of a lulu
> book being
> discussed or even read.  I wish there were more
> opportunities for a
> wider readership in the self-published sector, but
> in the mean time
> using it seems to rank about at the level of
> fanfiction from my
> perspective (but as I've said I don't have a lot of
> experience with
> any of the books that are published through it).

Each to his own, of course.  These services look like
an excellent and inexpensive way to publish - what
happens to the book after that, I guess that's up to
the author.

When you consider how expensive and difficult it used
to be to get a book published - if the author were
outside the agent/editor/publisher loop - as well as
how difficult and expensive it used to be to
self-publish or start a small press, imo these
services represent a substantial resource for authors.

Add the capability to use the Internet to find
potential readers/book purchasers, the tools at least
are in place for a Golden Age for authors. 



> 
> On 9/14/06, pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > >the preterite stuff
> >
> > Comic books, graphic novels, fan fiction, zines,
> > reader-contributed editorial elements in online
> > communities, writer self-help groups,
> self-published
> > books at sites like Blurb.com and Lulu.com (more
> on
> > the way, making it easy & cheap for people to
> publish
> > novels)...
> >

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