tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post1853206319792415988..comments2024-02-24T18:30:26.749-07:00Comments on prairiemary: CAPITALISM, MANUFACTURING & PASSIVE DISTRIBUTIONUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post-18993190316595323062008-06-27T11:59:00.000-06:002008-06-27T11:59:00.000-06:00Tim's comments are particularly relevant because h...Tim's comments are particularly relevant because he's a survivor of old-paradigm publishing (who still give him a fly-by now and then, like gold miners looking for some residue they can "heap leach" mine. He's been there, done that and has the scars to prove it. <BR/><BR/>There are two intriguing aspects to this:<BR/><BR/>1. One is that at least one really fine book (IMHO) resulted from this system: "The Boy and His Dog Are Sleeping."<BR/><BR/>2. The other is that Tim has gone to the most cutting edge possible sort of writing: vlogging, combining video of a tachistoscopic and bricolage style with personal word-dance narrative you could call poetry if you wanted to.<BR/><BR/>But, as he says, he's too uncontrollable for people to risk capital and too transgressive to get any prestige points.<BR/><BR/>I think he's new-paradigm altogether.<BR/><BR/>Prairie Marymscriverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567509503405689139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post-4753518528402735672008-06-27T11:47:00.000-06:002008-06-27T11:47:00.000-06:00MORE FROM TIM:The biggest mistake people make when...MORE FROM TIM:<BR/><BR/>The biggest mistake people make when looking at publishing is believing the rhetoric that publishing is a business and it is about the money.<BR/><BR/>Publishing is not unlike a tribe.<BR/><BR/>It is a social contrivance. As such, publishing (90% of all books fail to make money which immediately illustrates that publishing is not a business as what business could afford to lose money on fully 90% of what widgets it produces) is about a pecking order, decorum, ritual, and status. These are highly valued human motivators as opposed to the social significance of money. The terms money and business are a smokescreen. Money in publishing is a sometimes accouterment. But the reasons for the existence of this "business" have cultural origins, not business ones. Las Vegas has better odds than the odds that anyone who writes a book will make money. Status is not limited to University publishing. I was astounded at exactly how many writers I knew who eventually got published, were also people (this is not an accident) who do NOT need the money. They have trust funds, wealthy families, are very definitely representative of the American aristocracy, and as such, what we have are a group of people who were groomed from day one to uphold the scared rituals -- follow the rules. Be a team player. The Number One Rule of Publishing is: never criticize publishing. At the merest whiff of this breach of etiquette, they will wash their hands of you -- you the heretic -- forever. These are also abstract values. Thusly it's easier to subscribe to the false notion that publishing is a business. Publishing is a cultural activity that keeps the aristocracy the aristocracy. Books are a quaint idea, but they are secondary concerns. The first and foremost concern is that one keeps one's place in the social hierarchy. Monkeys do it. Birds do it. Wolves do it better than anyone. Biologists used to believe that most behavior on the part of canis Lupus could be chalked up to its behavioral association to reproduction. This has been radically modified. Sometimes, often, pack hierarchy only has a peripheral relationship to reproduction. Many, many pack behaviors have their evolution in a social status where reproduction is a reinforcement, but it's a secondary reinforcement where the immediate reinforcement of a social status affirmed and reaffirmed (six, seven times an hour) is inherently neurological, and homo homo Sapien is no different. Writers will tell you about the rush they get when they first see the book hot from the publisher. The brain -- which has been put on hold for a length of time considering the rituals of publishing -- finally gets that rush it needs to perform the entire dog and pony show again. -- TBmscriverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567509503405689139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post-56069804193623603112008-06-27T11:39:00.000-06:002008-06-27T11:39:00.000-06:00THIS IS FROM TIM: NOT ME! People get confused.Mos...THIS IS FROM TIM: NOT ME! People get confused.<BR/><BR/>Most books where the writer was paid an advance by a mainstream publisher in excess of $25,000.00 do not make the advance back. Publishers whine they have to eat this and they blame the agents. This is like the kettle blaming the pot. And then there is creative accounting. Hollywood is famous for the front end and the back end deals. Publishing, too, aspires to this but the numbers are far, far lower. Whether a book does make its advance back can be an issue open for debate. Every year I get a statement of numbers of books sold by a publisher who shall remain anonymous who lives in Boston. What is hilarious is that every year the number of books sold is the same one. Exactly the same. Down to the book. In ten years that number has never varied one iota. There is a REASON mainstream publishing steadfastly refuses to deal with writers in le flesh. You are REQUIRED to have an agent and not just any agent; it has to be an agent the publisher approves of. Why. Easy. Only the publisher and the agent and the editor can fit the threesome in le bed. A writer makes this four and four is too much even for them. I am intrigued with the term: inspired editor. WHERE, pray tell, is this rare animal. I have never met one. I have met tired editors, unamused editors, exhausted editors, drunk as a skunk editors, editors who can dance on the head of a publisher's pin, but there are two kinds of editors (who people swear are real but I do not believe it) who are mainly a mythological illusion. The curious editor. And the inspired editor. These are contradictions in terms. People get very angry with me for saying in public -- burn the books -- but I mean it. --<BR/><BR/> Tim Barrusmscriverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567509503405689139noreply@blogger.com