Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Lets Start a Revolution in Literature

I just read an article about how all authors, 10 out of 10, who do not go the traditional publishing do not do it because they were unable to meet the high standards of writing required by agents and publishers; the result being a poorly written book.

I wanted to just scream at the computer screen. First of all, who is to say what is good or bad writing? The agent? The CEO of the printing house? Or the author. There are many crappy novels throughout the brief existence of novels that are considered master pieces. The traditional publishers don't touch experimental literature with a ten foot pole because they might not make very much money from it. This leaves our world the sadder for it. So, people like me who are not trying to make a bazzillion dollars and who have written something that agents and publishers hope never to have to deal with again (vampires) to publish on my own. This is not a reflection on my talent.

And the people of this world NEED to purchase more books from places like LuLu.com so that authors can eat and pay rent. Read experimental literature, damn it. If we don't support the art, it will suffer and die.

Use the reviews at places like Amazon and seek out unknown authors. They may suck, but when was the last time you bought a book at a bookstore and it sucked? Ya.