0 thoughts on “Points of Reality in Publishing”

1. What about the point that no one seems to be talking about this year–that more books are actually being sold, despite the economic downturn. I’m not sure if that’s a sustainable trend, but it does seem to go oddly unnoticed.

   Re. #3, I agree in principle, but am not sure it can ever work out too much in practice, especially regarding fiction. I may not be the most typical of readers, but my experience is quite different. If I start a book, and it becomes clear throughout that it is an honest, genuine work of love, I’ll be likely to buy the book and recommend it to friends even if it’s not the exact book I might’ve wanted written. If it’s targeted at a group of which I happen to be a member, but in a methodical, reader-servicing manner, then in the best case I’ll enjoy and forget the book and in the worst case I’ll simply become bored.

   So in that sense, when the rubber hits the road I write the type of book I’d want to read in the hope that others will be similarly affected. Or on rare occasions I write for those close enough to me that I really know them–my wife, mostly, but sometimes my closest friends.

   Serving the reader is a great prime motivator, I’ll admit, and a good antidote to authorial egocentricism. But as a practical matter, I think “those who might read my published work” is just too abstract a category to really drive the creation of powerful and vital literature.

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