This is a really interesting piece - thank you very much for drawing my attention to it. Alas, I am not convinced my manifesto will bring sense to those steering the doomed ship, but I have to have to hope, otherwise what's the point? Without hope I might as well just turn my computer off for good and get a job in a supermarket. Saying that, while I have little faith, my hope has grown since I formed my Twitter account, more so since I published my first substack about the Society of Authors. The number of authors who've reached out to me privately via DM has been astounding. I honestly felt like I was alone in my bewilderment and anger at the madness of it all but there's an army of other authors out there feeling exactly the same way. Some have been far braver than me and are now speaking out openly.
One last thing before I toodle off to my current ms - Joanne Harris might still be atop her perch in the SoA but there's no guarantee she'll remain there in the long-term. All the formal complaints made about her behaviour means she's being investigated by the SoA for breaching its code of conduct. Whatever the outcome, I'm guessing her perch must be feeling a little bit wobbly.
This was so good I almost read the whole thing. Thanks! Here's the conclusion I've come to vis-a-vis the mythology of the publishing industry:
"In the last sixty years, my writing has been "rejected" in one way or another almost a million times. The more it's rejected, the better it gets. The only writing that gets published (with rare exceptions) is writing that an agent, editor and publisher all agree will make money. They call it, "Do well." If your work is published (and hyped) by a "reputable" publisher, you can be almost absolutely sure that it's vacuous, avaricious shit. Do you really want to write puerile, woke-ass, groveling crap and be "accepted" and get "glowing" reviews and win nonsensical "prizes" and make some money and die and rot and be forgot? I prefer to write things that don't make me want to barf, things I'm proud of, things worth reading...and writing...and watching...and listening to. Which kind of writer would you rather be? Nobody will know how good your stuff is because nobody will ever get to read it but so what? You'll know how good it is."
Hi James, LoobyLou here.
This is a really interesting piece - thank you very much for drawing my attention to it. Alas, I am not convinced my manifesto will bring sense to those steering the doomed ship, but I have to have to hope, otherwise what's the point? Without hope I might as well just turn my computer off for good and get a job in a supermarket. Saying that, while I have little faith, my hope has grown since I formed my Twitter account, more so since I published my first substack about the Society of Authors. The number of authors who've reached out to me privately via DM has been astounding. I honestly felt like I was alone in my bewilderment and anger at the madness of it all but there's an army of other authors out there feeling exactly the same way. Some have been far braver than me and are now speaking out openly.
One last thing before I toodle off to my current ms - Joanne Harris might still be atop her perch in the SoA but there's no guarantee she'll remain there in the long-term. All the formal complaints made about her behaviour means she's being investigated by the SoA for breaching its code of conduct. Whatever the outcome, I'm guessing her perch must be feeling a little bit wobbly.
This was so good I almost read the whole thing. Thanks! Here's the conclusion I've come to vis-a-vis the mythology of the publishing industry:
"In the last sixty years, my writing has been "rejected" in one way or another almost a million times. The more it's rejected, the better it gets. The only writing that gets published (with rare exceptions) is writing that an agent, editor and publisher all agree will make money. They call it, "Do well." If your work is published (and hyped) by a "reputable" publisher, you can be almost absolutely sure that it's vacuous, avaricious shit. Do you really want to write puerile, woke-ass, groveling crap and be "accepted" and get "glowing" reviews and win nonsensical "prizes" and make some money and die and rot and be forgot? I prefer to write things that don't make me want to barf, things I'm proud of, things worth reading...and writing...and watching...and listening to. Which kind of writer would you rather be? Nobody will know how good your stuff is because nobody will ever get to read it but so what? You'll know how good it is."