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His point is that success as an author is not a state function: what works for Joe Konrath (or any other established author) will not necessarily work for a new

His point is that success as an author is not a state function: what works for Joe Konrath (or any other established author) will not necessarily work for a new author. If we want new authors to succeed at self-publishing, we need to give them good advice, and Joe Konrath's advice is like an experienced cliff-diver telling a bunch of strangers with no experience: Come on! I just jumped off this cliff and it was awesome! You should do the same!" There is far, far more to becoming a successful author than building up a critical mass of fans. I completely agree that, with middle-men eliminated, the number of readers required to support any given author is much lower, but even to get to that lower number you have to achieve a certain level of proficiency as a writer, and right now there are no mechanisms in place to safely build up to that point outside of the traditional publishing industry. This is a quote attributed to Jim Baen by Eric Flint, editor of Jim Baen's Universe (original emphasis): "Eric, almost no first novel is worth a thin dime, in cold-blooded money terms. Most first novels lose money for the publisher. But publishers--smart ones, anyway--aren't really buying 'first novels.' What they're really doing, when they pay an advance for a first novel, is taking a gamble that the author will someday be writing books that will bring in a lot of money. It's an investment in an author's future earning prospects, not the purchase of a book..." Along with the payment for that first book (to help put food on the table), freshman authors also get a lot of mentorship to help them grow. More importantly, they get good editing so that their first novel won't be so disastrous that it destroys their reputations as authors and handicaps all of their future work. An incredibly talented first-time author will probably succeed no matter what. Likewise, a bad author will never succeed, no matter how much he tries or how much help he gets. I'm concerned about the authors with potential--the ones who aren't great yet but have the potential to be great. If they start out in traditional publishing, they will get the help and support they need to realize their potential. If they start out self-publishing, they will encounter economic failure and, more importantly, will establish reputations as mediocre authors, reputations which will be incredibly hard to overcome. I'm sure it's possible to separate the "grow new authors" aspect of the publishing industry from the "gatekeeper" aspect, and I'd love to see it happen. Unfortunately, right now there is nothing out there to serve that purpose.

pedrocr 15y ago
and right now there are no mechanisms in place to safely build up to that point outside of the traditional publishing industry This is the bit that is still in [citation needed] in all this discussion. Maybe the new world order is that more people try, more people fail, and more people succeed. It seems self-publishing electronically is being judged by the standard of the print publishing world. "Oh you don't have an editor to mentor you, you'll never succeed". There seem to be plenty of successful authors that started self-publishing electronically. Maybe now authors aren't helped as much but they get easier distribution access and direct access to readers. Self-publishing doesn't have to beat publishing houses point by point for every author. It just has to win on average to kill the publishing industry. I'm also skeptical of the continuing value of these great editors. Unleashing experienced editors on new authors probably reduces variability in writing. You get less amazing new stuff and much less crap. This might have been needed when there was a physical limit to how many books humanity could produce. That has now been lifted, so let people publish. The web has developed plenty of crap and comparatively few great things, and we've been great at figuring out what's what for ourselves.
- lucasjung 15y ago
  As I said before, the truly great will succeed no matter what and the truly bad will fail no matter what. I'm concerned about the "late bloomers." I want a system in place that will help them realize their potential. There are plenty of authors who are now considered iconic, who had very rough starts and only realized their potential because someone in the publishing industry spent a lot of time and money helping them develop. Frank Herbert is a prime example of this. Despite all of the mentoring he got from experienced editors, he certainly broke a lot of new ground, so I'm really not all that concerned that "unleashing experienced editors on new authors probably reduces variability in writing." Mentoring is all about helping other people develop, and part of being a good mentor is understanding that you're there to facilitate growth, not direct it. We might get a little bit more uniformity from having editors mentor new writers, but I think that's far better than losing great works because they are never written when new authors have no choice but to jump right in to the sink-or-swim world of self-publishing. Consider an author who has great potential, who will, given enough development, write bestselling novels. Unfortunately, he's still too inexperienced and his current work could be described at best as mediocre. If he tries to self-publish, his books will be (rightfully) criticized as being not worth reading. He will not make any money, and will likely be forced to give up writing and take up another profession. If he is especially persistent he might try again, but without a mentor his skills won't improve very quickly, and even if they did he still has to fight against his well-earned reputation as a second-rate hack. On the other hand, if he sends his work to a traditional publisher, there is a chance that someone will see the potential in his work, pay him for the book, and work with him to improve it to the point where people will want to read it. Then he'll get a crack at a second book, and the help he needs to make it better than his first. In this way, he has a chance to grow into a truly great author. As long as there are publishers who are able to successfully identify and develop such diamonds in the rough, and unless someone comes up with a different way to perform this task, the traditional publishers will not go away. Even if they lose all of the authors who are good enough to jump right into self-publishing, that still leaves them with a significant role in the market, growing great authors. I strongly suggest that you check out Baen's Universe: all of the issues are electronic and DRM free, and since publication has ceased, you can buy every issue ever for $30 (+ $6 for the very last issue). Every issue has at least one (usually more) article about the publishing industry, usually focused on copyright and DRM. The first issue includes an article explaining why the magazine was started, and it was to provide exactly the sort of development opportunities to new authors that I've been talking about here: http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/editorial_one http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/editorial_one The last issue includes an article explaining why publication was ended (in short, the magazine had served its purpose): http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/So_Long__and_Thanks_For_All_the_Fish http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/So_Long__and_Thanks_F...

pedrocr 15y ago

and right now there are no mechanisms in place to safely build up to that point outside of the traditional publishing industry This is the bit that is still in [citation needed] in all this discussion. Maybe the new world order is that more people try, more people fail, and more people succeed. It seems self-publishing electronically is being judged by the standard of the print publishing world. "Oh you don't have an editor to mentor you, you'll never succeed". There seem to be plenty of successful authors that started self-publishing electronically. Maybe now authors aren't helped as much but they get easier distribution access and direct access to readers. Self-publishing doesn't have to beat publishing houses point by point for every author. It just has to win on average to kill the publishing industry. I'm also skeptical of the continuing value of these great editors. Unleashing experienced editors on new authors probably reduces variability in writing. You get less amazing new stuff and much less crap. This might have been needed when there was a physical limit to how many books humanity could produce. That has now been lifted, so let people publish. The web has developed plenty of crap and comparatively few great things, and we've been great at figuring out what's what for ourselves.

lucasjung 15y ago
As I said before, the truly great will succeed no matter what and the truly bad will fail no matter what. I'm concerned about the "late bloomers." I want a system in place that will help them realize their potential. There are plenty of authors who are now considered iconic, who had very rough starts and only realized their potential because someone in the publishing industry spent a lot of time and money helping them develop. Frank Herbert is a prime example of this. Despite all of the mentoring he got from experienced editors, he certainly broke a lot of new ground, so I'm really not all that concerned that "unleashing experienced editors on new authors probably reduces variability in writing." Mentoring is all about helping other people develop, and part of being a good mentor is understanding that you're there to facilitate growth, not direct it. We might get a little bit more uniformity from having editors mentor new writers, but I think that's far better than losing great works because they are never written when new authors have no choice but to jump right in to the sink-or-swim world of self-publishing. Consider an author who has great potential, who will, given enough development, write bestselling novels. Unfortunately, he's still too inexperienced and his current work could be described at best as mediocre. If he tries to self-publish, his books will be (rightfully) criticized as being not worth reading. He will not make any money, and will likely be forced to give up writing and take up another profession. If he is especially persistent he might try again, but without a mentor his skills won't improve very quickly, and even if they did he still has to fight against his well-earned reputation as a second-rate hack. On the other hand, if he sends his work to a traditional publisher, there is a chance that someone will see the potential in his work, pay him for the book, and work with him to improve it to the point where people will want to read it. Then he'll get a crack at a second book, and the help he needs to make it better than his first. In this way, he has a chance to grow into a truly great author. As long as there are publishers who are able to successfully identify and develop such diamonds in the rough, and unless someone comes up with a different way to perform this task, the traditional publishers will not go away. Even if they lose all of the authors who are good enough to jump right into self-publishing, that still leaves them with a significant role in the market, growing great authors. I strongly suggest that you check out Baen's Universe: all of the issues are electronic and DRM free, and since publication has ceased, you can buy every issue ever for $30 (+ $6 for the very last issue). Every issue has at least one (usually more) article about the publishing industry, usually focused on copyright and DRM. The first issue includes an article explaining why the magazine was started, and it was to provide exactly the sort of development opportunities to new authors that I've been talking about here: http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/editorial_one http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/editorial_one The last issue includes an article explaining why publication was ended (in short, the magazine had served its purpose): http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/So_Long__and_Thanks_For_All_the_Fish http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/So_Long__and_Thanks_F...