Comments on: Is piracy irrelevent to authors? http://futurismic.com/2009/07/07/is-piracy-irrelevent-to-authors/ Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001 Sat, 19 May 2012 23:03:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Darren T http://futurismic.com/2009/07/07/is-piracy-irrelevent-to-authors/comment-page-1/#comment-37787 Darren T Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:30:43 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=8089#comment-37787 I've <a href="http://www.bookmarketology.com/2009/02/26/ebook-revolution-to-bring-down-publishing-industry-from-the-top/" rel="nofollow">said it before</a> and I'll say it again: whilst some (a very few) authors will undoubtedly be able to go it alone and successfully build their niche audience via their sweat of their own brow, I think the vast majority of them will still need the support mechanism of a publisher. It's not a simple case of question of one talented author, plus one superstar editor, plus one superstar designer maketh a bestseller. There are a whole series of additional roles and requirements that will either need to be covered - and covered both well and <em>properly</em> - by an author still trying to make time for the very time-consuming process of actually <em>writing</em> their books, or outsourced to appropriate service providers. So yes, there's a question as to what form publishers of the future take. Will large corporate organisations (such as the one I work for) be able to offer the best value to the author shopping around for those aforementioned service providers? Or will authors be better off working with small / independent presses, niche publishing agencies, specialist freelancers, loose networks of talented fans, low-cost graphic design sweatshops..? Or will it be a combination of all of the above, depending on the nature of the work in question and the author's pre-existing skills? The current system is in a state of very great flux and there's a lot of re-shuffling and down-sizing affecting the industry, but also a whole raft of experimentation with those new forms and formats that Stackpole was talking about. But I don't think anybody really knows what the eventual picture is going to look like. Only that it it's probably going to be radically different to the one we've been staring at for decades. Which is why it's such an interesting industry to be working in right now... :) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: whilst some (a very few) authors will undoubtedly be able to go it alone and successfully build their niche audience via their sweat of their own brow, I think the vast majority of them will still need the support mechanism of a publisher.

It’s not a simple case of question of one talented author, plus one superstar editor, plus one superstar designer maketh a bestseller. There are a whole series of additional roles and requirements that will either need to be covered – and covered both well and properly – by an author still trying to make time for the very time-consuming process of actually writing their books, or outsourced to appropriate service providers.

So yes, there’s a question as to what form publishers of the future take. Will large corporate organisations (such as the one I work for) be able to offer the best value to the author shopping around for those aforementioned service providers? Or will authors be better off working with small / independent presses, niche publishing agencies, specialist freelancers, loose networks of talented fans, low-cost graphic design sweatshops..? Or will it be a combination of all of the above, depending on the nature of the work in question and the author’s pre-existing skills?

The current system is in a state of very great flux and there’s a lot of re-shuffling and down-sizing affecting the industry, but also a whole raft of experimentation with those new forms and formats that Stackpole was talking about. But I don’t think anybody really knows what the eventual picture is going to look like. Only that it it’s probably going to be radically different to the one we’ve been staring at for decades.

Which is why it’s such an interesting industry to be working in right now… :)

]]> By: Paul Raven http://futurismic.com/2009/07/07/is-piracy-irrelevent-to-authors/comment-page-1/#comment-37621 Paul Raven Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:45:05 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=8089#comment-37621 Valid points, SS, but short fiction of any kind is a niche market, and in a niche market you survive by finding a niche in the niche, hence the restricted styles or genres accepted. Furthermore, bear in mind most fiction sites - all but the biggest - are predominantly run by volunteers, meaning there's only so many hours a day they can spare. And you'd be amazed how long it takes to read and politely reject just ten of the most obviously terrible submissions; hundreds of them arrive every week. As for money, no one makes a living from short fiction any more, sad as that is. The market adjusts; the true miracle is that enough people care about the form enough to write it for peanuts, and write it well. If publication is the goal, then the hoops have to be jumped. I suspect the number and variety of available hoops will increase rapidly, which should help, but if there are talented writers refusing to submit to potential venues, they're only harming themselves... and if they think webzines take a long time to reply and are fussy over their choices, they should try paper-subbing to one of the Dead Tree Big Three! Valid points, SS, but short fiction of any kind is a niche market, and in a niche market you survive by finding a niche in the niche, hence the restricted styles or genres accepted. Furthermore, bear in mind most fiction sites – all but the biggest – are predominantly run by volunteers, meaning there’s only so many hours a day they can spare. And you’d be amazed how long it takes to read and politely reject just ten of the most obviously terrible submissions; hundreds of them arrive every week. As for money, no one makes a living from short fiction any more, sad as that is. The market adjusts; the true miracle is that enough people care about the form enough to write it for peanuts, and write it well.

If publication is the goal, then the hoops have to be jumped. I suspect the number and variety of available hoops will increase rapidly, which should help, but if there are talented writers refusing to submit to potential venues, they’re only harming themselves… and if they think webzines take a long time to reply and are fussy over their choices, they should try paper-subbing to one of the Dead Tree Big Three!

]]> By: Screen Sleuth http://futurismic.com/2009/07/07/is-piracy-irrelevent-to-authors/comment-page-1/#comment-37616 Screen Sleuth Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:28:25 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=8089#comment-37616 My thing with fiction publishing sites (some of which you have posted on here): They tend to take forever to review things, they don't pay much (if anything), and they tend to be real picky about what they accept, in terms of formatting, genre, etc. so it can shut out talented writers that don't want to just through hoops. My thing with fiction publishing sites (some of which you have posted on here): They tend to take forever to review things, they don’t pay much (if anything), and they tend to be real picky about what they accept, in terms of formatting, genre, etc. so it can shut out talented writers that don’t want to just through hoops.

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