On Writing and Self-Publishing: Part 5 - Page 2

The fact is that the whole world of books is a living ecosystem. Whereas nature moves toward a greater diversity in order to protect life—all her eggs are not in the same gene pool—the corporate hierarchical structure of the book business pushes toward consolidation, less diversity, and greater exposure to calamity. Many years ago the publishers made most of their sales on the midlist books, which allowed for greater diversity. Now everything hangs on blockbusters and clones of blockbusters with fewer and fewer viable publishers. It is a system with no flexibility, adaptability, dynamism, or life.

Within the ecosystem of a colony of ants, their organizing principle is to promote ant life. In the present ecosystem of the corporate book world, the organizing principle is not the promotion of book life, but rather to extract money. Books are not viewed as or promoted as repositories of cultural symbols and wisdom as much as they are viewed as a means for extraction of profit. As such any shit can do.

A rediversification of the book world needs to happen in order for some new vigor to come to the fore. I could see a larger publisher creating a great web of relationships with quality small independent publishers. The larger publisher would limit their exposure while the smaller publishers, who usually occupy their own niche, would probably take more risks to find quality writing. The small publisher would have the benefit of the larger publishers clout in marketing and connections. I could even envision a sort of network on the web as a source for analyzing new work and funneling the best work to the appropriate small publisher. Maybe there could be a bounty, a finder’s fee, for the good work. Of course a referring source’s reputation would begin to count for everything, so those sources would have to become literate and intelligent. What we would have is a nutrient network that begins to feed the whole system. I know there can be other solutions, but I hope to stimulate some real thinking.

I’d like to skip to the other end of the spectrum, to the writer. For writers of fiction, narrative non-fiction, and poetry their ancient roots lie in the storytelling mystery at the fire. Most of us don’t treat writing with awe any longer, don’t treat it as a means to contact one of the muses and tell a story with roots in the other side. If writing is held in awe, then language becomes a living delight that threatens to part the veil of existence. These moments of living delight fall within the realm of art. Bringing them to the world involves craft.

Article Author: John Spivey

John Spivey is a writer and furniture maker who lives in Santa Barbara, California with his family. His personal blog is called Nature, Craft, & Soul. He can be contacted here.

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