My Yaw-Yaw is Zipped . . . Almost.

I read an post on the Amazon discussion threads early this morning. It pointed to a blog by Nathan Bransford, stating that there was an interesting article. I followed the link, and low and behold, there was not just one interesting article, there were piles of great stuff, useful tips, helpful advice, funny things, encouragement. The list goes on and on.

As it turns out, Nathan is a literary agent, and from what I see, a very nice one, who is more than willing to provide us writers with the info we need to get our feet in the door of the publishing industry. After spending some time surfing his site, I confess to feeling like a bit of a complainer, having blah, blahhed on about the negatives in the publishing industry. Henceforth, I shall resist the urge to spew and vent, and will work at just enjoying what I'm doing, even if that means I'm working toward the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of rejection letters recieved for any one book. (And, no, I'm not even a quarter of the way there yet). Everyone needs to get paid. Everyone needs their jobs. Yes there are problems in the publishing industry. Yes there are problems with us writers. But ultimately, there are solutions to every problem, and whining about the problem does nothing more than keep it stuck. It's much more productive to work harder, play harder, and have a lot more fun.

If you'd like to see Nathan's blog, you can find it at http://nathanbransford.com . Now pardon me for deserting you all but Hawaii's beaches are once again calling my name.

The Publishing Industry is Tanking?!

Just a short note tonight while I take a break from the b#*ch that is my pitch/query/potential blurb for the back of my book. Articles on the web abound on the fact that the publishing industry is hurting, no one is reading, and sales are slumping . . . except for YA fiction (young adult), where the demand for books is increasing.

Hmmm.

Let's examine this problem.

Ten years ago, there was a dearth of young adult fiction. As someone in my friends from Seattle writer's group mentioned yesterday, it was only a few years ago that the market for teens and adolescents changed. It used to be that if you were a kid, you read books written for a kid. Remember 'Dick and Jane'? I loved those books. Once you reached 12, or 13, though, it was on to the adult books, because aside from Judy Bloom, and the Outsiders, the choice of reading was limited. Some smart cookie in the publishing industry eventually figured out that teens wanted variety, and the dawn of YA was born. Apparently that smart cookie left the industry for a better paying job, and now we're left with the rather more dense publishers and agents, who haven't figured out that variety is the spice of life, and there's only so many Zombie/Vampire/Harry Potter rip-offs a teen can read before they bail out of the culture that is today's publishing industry.

Publishers and agents seem to be afraid of anything new, anything that doesn't fit into their smart little boxes of categorized genre. It's easier to spin off the success of something that's already been done, someone that's already had a success, rather than to take a chance on something, or someone new. And so, authors that have had one best-seller can sell a piece of crap second book, banking on their name, and their publisher's backing, and the public buys it, trusting the publisher and the author. I've done it. It did it as recently as last week, trusting the author, and trusting the publisher. I bought a piece of junk. With no warrantee. Grrrrr. I guess it's fair marketing, but it certainly doesn't inspire any faith in Jane/Joe reader. And it doesn't inspire any faith in me as I push forward, looking for an agent or publisher who is willing to take a risk on someone new, something new.

I'm a reader, and I'm tired of same old, same old. I don't want to read the next Sex and the City Spin-off. I want something different. And that doesn't mean the same sort of characters in the same place with a new set of shoes, that means something about women that's funny, but waaaaaaaaaay different. Maybe that's why I read the English and Irish markets of books as well. I'm sic, sic, sic of New York women wanting diamonds and Gucci. And I'm still waiting for the Canadian Publishers to move their heads out of their arses, as they realize that some of us in Canada aren't great literary aficianados. We want to see some Canadian spunk. Just like there was in the Olympics.

Knowing what I know now, I have no doubt that there are incredible authors out there who've been waiting 5, 10 and even 15 years to be published. It's time the publishing industry hired a few more smart cookies. It's time for them to take a few more smart risks. It'll be that, or all of us who are too impatient to wait, too determined to have our voices heard, will be taking over the self-publishing industry, and when Joe/Jane pubic finally figures out where the really interesting stuff is, they'll be following us, and the world will start reading once again.

Apparently I'm not good at the short blurb, and now you know why I've written a novel.

Waking up this morning, I just want to add that I in no way want to slam any authors who have written YA Vampire or Zombie books, or any other genre, because that isn't fair. The overflooding of anything in any market, tends to lead to a drop in followers. Us humans get bored easily, and unless something is of very high quality, we're more than happy to move along.

Thank you to those who are commenting. It is appreciated. I haven't yet figured out yet how to reply. And if nothing else, if I've stirred up some discussion, I believe that's a good thing. :)