The Year of Prime and the Gatekeepers to the World of Publishing

Doom, fangs, bloodsuckers that seep the life out of our words and dreams ... all in greedy hands. This isn't a paranormal, fantasy, dystopian world, this is publishing. Right?

I often hear remarks about how agents and editors don't take risks; publishing houses only want hack writing; and they're all money-hungry ogres ready to dash our words aside, chewing the quality prose to spit it back out. That, and, of course, they'll steal our original, one-of-a-kind idea, make millions, and leave us living lives of bitter misery, writing in a closet on a manual typewriter (since we can't afford a computer). (Unless we're willing to sell our souls for cash and a commercial project. Nothing of quality ever gets published, right?)

I also hear that there's no book that's "right" for kids, teens, pre-teens -- nothing suitable.

And writers ... sheesh, we're pigeon-holed into being either dupes, drunks, game-players, or just plain lucky.

It makes for a great soapbox. It makes for even more interesting movie characters. The sleezebucket agent, drunk, half-crazy, soul-selling writer, gold-digging publisher, and desperate editor make for a pretty cliche cast.  Think: Adaptation, Barfly, Deconstructing Harry, Barton Fink. Hell, I'll even throw Misery in there. See what happens when you write what you've dreamed of writing? You get kidnapped by a crazy fan and get your legs chopped off. That'll show you.

I hate to be a downer, but the world of publishing from the perspective of a writer through that of an editor, marketing director, library team, design team, illustrator, agent and publisher is WAY LESS DRAMATIC. (I know. Can't make a cool movie out of that, can we?) This is WAY closer to my reality ...

(Okay, okay, I have my occasional glass of wine or beer, and copious amounts of coffee ... that cliche probably holds true for most in this business.)

The thing is, everybody who works in this business does so because they love words. Yep. They love great books, great words, great perspectives, a new take on an old idea (all ideas are old, just the perspective changes). And, at the end of the day, these horrible, awful people spend most of their time making sure great words get out there. Sure, some slip through the cracks -- "bad" writing is published (Ahem, I won't name those.) and great writing isn't guaranteed to get published. I get that. But it's not as big as a crap shoot as we'd like to think.

Those "crack-slippers" probably sell a load so that other books can be out there, on the shelves -- a book one editor fought for at acquisitions and publishing house backed; a book an agent knew would sell, even after double-digit rejections; a book an author put everything into, not because she wanted to sell her soul, but because she had a story to tell.

And to get these books out on the shelves, lots and lots of people work really hard doing something they love -- reading, writing, and weeding through slush -- they read it all -- because in slush, they'll find gems like: 

SPEAK and  A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. (The editor actually read the latter because the mother begged him to after her son killed himself. Then it won the Pulitzer.)

So these gatekeepers are actually the ones with open doors -- ready to find their next favorite author, work with someone they know has potential, someone they know will get there. 

And that person might as well be you, right? (Just lay off the whiskey ... And don't drive on curvy roads during winter in remote areas, either.) We might not LIVE those movie characters, but we sure can learn from them.

The Year of Prime and the Publipocalypse

Border's has filed Chapter 11.
Publishing houses have performed tectonic-plate like shuffles of imprints and editors.
E-books are out-selling paperback and hardback books.
Even Snooki hasn't gone into a second printing. (Maybe she has. I don't know. The whole Snooki thing kind of depresses me.)
The printed word is an endangered species ...

We're DOOOMED!
Okay. At least it gave us all an excuse to have early cocktails this week. (Umm ... you did have yours, didn't you, while toasting to the end of the era of literature and the beginning of a world in which we'll be forced to watch reality TV on a twenty-four hour feed?)

Here's the thing that's pretty great about human beings. Reinvention. And something that books haven't really had to do since, well, Gutenberg. Think of what the Egyptians would've said had Gutenberg been around when they were. They'd have had a slew of unemployed stone chiselers.

I have no idea what will happen in the next ten years. Hell, five years ago I wasn't addicted to Facebook and Twitter. Mubarak probably never thought social networking would be all that interesting. Who knew?

The world IS changing. How cool is that! There's no way to know what will happen to books, bookstores, and the general business. But there are a few things I am certain of.

As long as we have a world ... (that one's up in the air, too, I guess)

1. The world will always need stories.
2. The world will always need storytellers.
3. The world will always need people who hunt for talent in the slew of storytellers.
4. The world will always need people to help storytellers tell their stories better.
5. The world will always need people to promote storytellers, spread the news of storytellers, find ways to make stories of storytellers more appealing ...
6. The world will always need people to sell the stories of storytellers.


Basically, we'll all be here, changing, no doubt, worrying, no doubt, and writing. We'll be creating worlds with words, inventing futures that probably aren't  as far away as we imagine (Fingers crossed it's not the Hunger Games), believing in princesses and fairies, ghosts and vampires, battling the drudgery of day jobs and high school existential angst, hoping for that first kiss in the rain (since all good kisses happen in the rain, right?), crying over someone we've loved and lost -- all with words.

And our publishing houses, editors, publicists, marketing directors, library team, design team, copy editors, and book reps will bring our stories to librarians, schools, bookstores (like Border's that will find their way back in the world) via print, e-books, and whatever medium we can get our hands on because we need stories.

So writers, don't despair. Keep writing.
We need stories. Fiction will always be an essential part of who we are, as people, as human beings. 
It reminds me of something Gabriel Garcia Marquez said:

Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.

So what story do you want to tell? (And try to make sure it's not a tall tale for you wife. That Jonas one is so overused.)