Nov 8, 2011

Rape or Be Raped? House-slaves?

Those are some pretty loaded groups of words. So loaded in fact, that one might assume any logical individual would be aware that by using them to describe something as unremarkable as different methods of publishing, they were going to cause a stir.

And who wants a stir?

Surely not a self published author who is responsible for marketing his or her own work without the help of a large publicity department. Why would they use inflammatory language if they knew it would lead to a bunch of people talking about them and posting links back to their website? The same website that they use to sell books. I just don't get it.

And futhermore, in the off chance that a self published author wanted people to find their way back to his or her blog, it would require that author, someone whose entire means of living is dependent on his or her ability to string words together in a manner that evokes something in the person who reads them, to be capable of picking words to generate a specific reaction. Impossible, right?

I really hope you see where I'm going with this by now.

Much like the Westboro Baptist Church, the best way to stop these people from saying "irrational" things is to stop paying attention to them when they do.

And if you're having trouble doing just that, may I suggest Unpossible by Daryl Gregory or The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin as a better use of your time.

How do I know they're worth reading? They came from REAL publishers.

;-)

4 comments:

  1. By the same logic, scorning all non-trad publishers as not being "real" publishers and not being worth reading is not the best way to connect to your (potential) audience. Writer's blogs are just as often read by other writers than by readers, after all.

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  2. The only part of that that I really disagree with is the assumption that because a book came from a traditional publishing house then it's worth reading. Because wow, have I ever seen some books that make me wonder if the agent, editor, and everyone else was really stoned the day contracts were signed, or who the author had to provide sexual favours for in order to get their work published. You may get a lot more misses with self-publishing, but that doesn't mean that every traditionally-published book is a hit.

    But yeah, when self-published authors(or any author, really) starts causing a big commotion and throwing hissy fits, their readership goes down. The level of respect people have for them goes down. And in the case of self-published people, their website may get increased hits while the hubbub is happening, but they cause themselves a wound from which it's hard to recover. It's a foolish move. An easy one to make, but yeah, when you're your own marketing team, it makes more than just a little sense to market yourself positively instead of as a moron.

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  3. I thought that the "winky face emoticon" would be enough to designate that last statement as being sarcastic. It was my example of being inflammatory for the sake of being inflammatory.

    To be clear: I DO NOT believe that all books published by big houses are automatically good. Likewise, I DO NOT believe that all books that are self published are automatically bad. I've seen beyond terrible "big publisher" books and I've seen absolutely incredible self published books.

    And in the case of UNPOSSIBLE and THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY, there are probably 50 ways I know they are worth reading before who published them comes into question.

    @Bibliotropic Regarding your second point, I don't know if I agree. If you use inflammatory words in an otherwise logical article, it can be a way to draw more people in. They come expecting a shitshow but instead find a argument which is hard to refute. Oh, and the "buy my books" is right over there... Sure, some will be turned off by the word choice but the total net gain in readership compensates for it.

    Now I'm not sure if that is the case in this particular instance. I didn't get to deep into their actual argument, that's just what they want. I just don't like the use of clearly objectional language to sell more books.

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  4. The hordes of self-published authors will descend upon this blog and unleash their hate.

    Have fun with that :)

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