Contemporary Fiction

[jd]

Just to drive a point home, let's look at the only two fiction books
in the top 20 bestsellers on Lulu:

http://www.lulu.com/content/99523

http://www.lulu.com/content/54918

and note that Luciferian Witchcraft ranks at #15.

The only other fiction on the top 100 seems to be:

http://www.lulu.com/content/102550

which toutes that it was accepted by a Traditional Publisher, which
means it is CERTAIN resonate with an audience!

Amazon's Top 100 isn't necessarily a list of mind-blowing writing, but
I'll say that the fiction selections on it seem to at least attempt to
retain more depth than "omg timetravelling to christ zombie
apocalypse!"

I suppose that this says more about the audience than the content on
the site in particular, but a writer writes for an audience, and if
this is the audience of the self-published sector, well...  hrm.

On 9/14/06, jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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>