It's another meeting of the IWSG - Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
The awesome co-hosts for the August 6 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Natalie Aguirre, Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen, and Olga Godim!
Hi dear insecure writers of all types and makes,
I was gone for the last two months. Well, no, I wasn't gone, but I wasn't in my usual mind (which is, come to think of it, pretty unusual). So I didn't post in June or July. I continued to edit and revise Butter and Snow, but a lot of things I just didn't do. Sometimes I wish it was Victorian times so I could wear mourning clothes and so on - I wish there was a way that people could know that I'm grieving without me banging on about it all the time. It has been six months since my best pal of 48 years died, and three months since one of my other closest friends died. Sometimes I feel very ordinary, okay even, enjoying my garden and the hummingbirds and hanging out with other also grieving pals. Sometimes I feel truly crazy, like I have no regulator on my emotions and have to stay home for awhile. On the whole though, I think I'm coming out of the worst of it.
August 6 question - What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
This month's question is well worth looking at. Let's take it apart and see what we find.
First up the word unethical - Meriam Webster says it means 'not conforming to a high moral standard: morally wrong: not ethical - illegal and unethical business practices and immoral and unethical behaviour.
Okay . . . now let's look at the publishing industry :
Wikipedia says : Publishing is the process of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free .
Encyclopedia. com adds :The publishing business often operates under the tension of highly divergent interests. An author's creative works or specialized knowledge may not meet the market values of profit, popularity, and standardization.
It is quite interesting that if you google the publishing industry (and try if you are me to ignore the stuff generated by AI) you often see articles pointed at writers being unethical. The unethical practices about the industry highlighted are those to do with vanity presses and so forth. I feel like the small scale unethical practices can be incrementally more harmful to the average writer, just trying to get his or her work out there. In Canada some publishers who debut authors get grants, which may keep the company looking for fresh writers rather than building a stable of writers that produce more than one work. I also find it unethical for publishers to make a contract for a work and then come up short on their part of the deal. If I'm expected to do all the promoting, and set up tours and talks, as well as constantly monitoring the distribution of the book, well then I think I'd rather self-publish. I can sell the same amount of books as my first publisher did and after paying my editor, book designer, printer and possibly a distributor of my choosing, I will still make more per book by a hefty amount than I did with that arrangement. The practices I'm talking about aren't illegal but they are certainly not conforming to a high moral standard. Of course I'm sad that young (or old) new authors may get scammed by vampire presses pretending to offer what they can't, but let's face it, most writers are so thrilled that someone will offer them a deal that they don't read the fine print. I had a heck of a battle getting my rights back on my first book - something I had to do in order to bother trying to sell a second in a series. And to what end? The publisher wasn't trying to sell my books so why care if I own the rights? I know everyone is suffering under a radically shifting industry, and believe me, my eyes are open wide, but when did it become okay to become deceitful and dishonest? Maybe I'm deluded but I do think it is important to protect the works of writers - they existed long before publishers did, and their work is the lifeblood of the publishers. Maybe AI will take over and publishers won't need us pesky whiny types. And before I get slammed, I do believe that it is just a few that tarnish the whole industry. I know lots of ethical, hard-working fair publishers. The other ones make it doubly hard for them to make a living. Let's clean up this industry!
I didn't think I had anything to say on this topic. Yikes!
11 comments:
I'm so sorry for your losses. Give yourself the time you need to grieve. Hospice offers great support groups to help us cope with the pain of grief if you feel it would be helpful.
I guess it's hard to avoid scammers and liars in any industry but yes, eager new authors would probably take what they think they can get. But you're right, there decent publishers who are doing proper jobs but not everyone is lucky to get them.
Have a lovely day.
It's beginning to seem to me that the losses of loved ones are the most lastingly painful events of our lives. I dont know why it's taken me so long to realize that! I've yet to lose a dear friend, but in the past two years ... four family members, and very nearly my younger sister. These kinds of losses dont appear to be ending anytime soon, judging by what's happening around me right now. We really do walk in a "vale of tears." My heart goes out to you. And to all of us.
Sorry you are still struggling. Death is a cheater.
There have been so many answers today - so many unethical doings!
That's the way of grief, eh? It comes, it goes, it strikes in the middle of the night, while at the store, when everything seems good... But it's beautiful in a way. Without its devastation, would we appreciate the day to day beauty? Eventually?
I'm wishing you peace in this season, but let it take you where you need to go. Just make sure to come back -- like you did today.
That logic of trad vs Indie--that was persuasive to me, also. The marketing etc becomes a break from writing so not too bad. And Once you've learned the ins-and-outs, that also isn't too bad.
Grief changes us. It makes us different people, and I don't know if we ever get used our new personas. Good for you for self-publishing.
I'm so sorry for your losses. You've described it so well of how you can sometimes be just going along doing a regular thing and then it just hits you. You made such a good point about how much traditional publishers require of authors. I can see why you decided to self publish.
Sometimes making a huge mess get things moving toward the clean-up phase. Fingers crossed. :-)
Anna from elements of emaginette
So sorry to hear about your loss! I had a loss in my family this year, and it's been tough. Honestly, it's hard to see the appeal of traditional publishing when they pretty much make you do all your marketing. That's so frustrating.
I'm sorry for your losses. The more I read today's posts the more I think that indie publishing is the only way forward.
Post a Comment