Contemporary Fiction

[jd]

I don't deny that it could be a substantial resource, you're right
about that.  It's just that without some sort of editor in between the
writer...  well, I wouldn't want to see Vollmann without any kind of
editor whatsoever, nor really any writer for the most part.  I think
it's sort of like blogs in that there is quite a deluge of very poor
material, which might be the precursor to a deluge half-assed lulu
books (half-assed even when compared to the half-assed books put out
by big companies today).  Even if there's a genius blog out there,
it's very hard to find as a reader / hard for a blogger to market /
etc and generally it will become a blip on the radar, if it doesn't
entirely fly under it altogether.  Look at DeviantART, for example.
Every once in awhile, if you try hard enough and spend enough hours
plodding through it, you'll find something interesting to look at.
More often than not it's crayon furry drawings and photoshoppers
enthralled by the magic of the lensflare - hardly (generally, not)
worth sifting through to find those one or two good pictures.

I feel that it's a rather grim assessment to think that that's the
future of literature, and I hope it's not.  It's hard enough to make a
living as a writer as it is, almost akin to winning the lottery.
Perhaps time will change this, but what, exactly, can a writer do to
convince someone to buy their lulu book, or even simply download it
for a cheaper price?  What can be done to rise above the
furry-and-lensflare crowd and the people who come to the site
expressly for that level of art?  To, in a sense, reach a "serious"
crowd?

All, of course, without the marketing budget of a publishing company,
nor the connections that such a company will have with outlets such as
PW, NY Times Book Review, successful authors to write blurbs, etc?
Have PW or NYTBR ever reviewed a lulu book?  And then there's the
bookstore / Amazon crowd who won't get the "People who bought ____
also bought (your book)" or see your book on the "new on our shelves"
displays.

Think of it this way.  If we'd never heard of Thomas Pynchon, and he
posted GR to lulu yesterday, how would we hear about him even if we
were aware of Lulu?  Would we even bother holding any hope that
sifting through all that fanfiction and third-rate horror stories
would result in anything worth reading?  Would we just let it slide
by, unnoticed?  I'd say it's quite likely.

My argument here is regarding the current incarnation of
self-publishing, and not necessarily what it might become.  Again,
time may change all this.  But as it stands I think the lulu /
deviantart correlation is apt and to help e-publishing rise above it
might be necessary to have an intemediary to sift through the slush
for us, an e-editor, shall we say, and then we're in the same place we
were before.  Or, at least, we'd have to break away from publishing as
we know it and throw people wholly into the self-published market,
instead of having them weigh the merits based on an online blurb
between a professionally edited book on Amazon on the one hand versus
some no-name on a self-publishing web page like Lulu.



On 9/14/06, pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- 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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