What I’ve seen
As a technical writer and editor, illustrator and publisher, web developer and promoter, I’m often the only person in the company who does what I do. Everyone else is a scientist or engineer, analyst or technician, doctor or developer. And since I’m everyone’s best friend but no one’s brother, I have a unique perspective in these organizations into their politics and social dynamics.
They can be strange.
I have worked among sexist dinosaurs who blatantly harass the pretty young things and fully expect the younger men to laugh along. I have worked among people still suspicious of computers, email, databases, and conference calls. I have seen the condescending dismissal in the boss’s eyes when you try to explain how the new technology, which is free and already used by Fortune 500 companies, will save time and money.
There are all sorts of dinosaurs: sexist, racist, agist, Luddite, and many more. For some young professionals, especially those who are freelancers or who work at very modern little companies, it can be hard to imagine that these creatures continue to survive after 1989, but they do.
Dinosaurs
They’re afraid. They’re afraid of the future because the future is a very foreign land where the dinosaurs no longer rule. Imagine for a moment that you are an actual dinosaur with scales and talons and big pointy teeth. You’re enormous and powerful. Nothing threatens you except for the rare dinosaur who is even bigger. You live in extreme security that you are safe and superior and always will be because you always have been.
But then a big rock falls out of the sky and suddenly you see your fellow dinosaurs are starving and choking and dropping dead all around you. Everyone like you is suffering, but you notice who isn’t suffering: the rats, the possums, the furry little rodents you used to step on. They’re doing just fine. In fact, they’re doing so well that they’re not afraid of you anymore. And they’re getting bigger.
The death of publishing
People have been talking about the death of publishing for decades. Everything was going to kill the novel: films, TV, the VCR, audio books, video games, and of course the Internet. The great thing is that the novel is doing just fine and has begun transitioning quite effectively to the digital world with ebooks and ereaders. So now, the only things that might die are the giant companies obsessed with paying seven figures to Jerry Seinfeld’s bulldog for a cookbook written in paw-prints.
(Sorry Jerry, I needed a celebrity name.)
And I understand that when you get promoted to run a multi-million-dollar operation, people expect you to go on making millions. So you don’t really experiment, and you don’t really think about changing the design of the Titanic. You just keep steaming along, hoping that iceberg doesn’t show up on your watch.
Well, the iceberg is here. Successful authors like JA Konrath don’t need publishers anymore to make a living as a novelist. Unknown authors like Boyd Morrison land in print after succeeding on Kindle first. Karen McQuestion, another unknown, simply put her books out on Kindle and success found her, and all she had to do was write good books.
What’s to fear?
All authors are just nobodies, just regular working stiffs who spend their evenings writing instead of…whatever normal people do. And for the entire twentieth century, the countless thousands who wrote were funneled through agents and editors and editorial boards, and with what result? Some published books are wildly popular, but most aren’t. Some are commercially successful, but most aren’t.
That’s some track record you’ve got there, Publishing.
But it didn’t matter. The Big Six still controlled the means of production and distribution, so collectively they could decide what is “art” and what is “good” and with no competition, that was the end of it. The joys of socialism. Financial safety and security forever.
The digital revolution, however, has created infinite and free means of production and distribution (called Amazon.com and Smashwords.com), which means the novel has finally entered the capitalist era.
And capitalism would scare the toothiest tyrannosaur.
Life after fear
I do feel bad for all of the people who have built their careers around the traditional publishing industry. Well-intentioned agents, editors, artists, and marketeers. They’re all going to be looking for work when the big companies begin folding divisions like paper cranes. (You fold paper cranes to wish for recovery and good health. I wasn’t sure about that simile. Did it work for you?)
The good news is that many of them will have jobs waiting for them. Thousands of writers-turned-authors are going to be looking for editors and illustrators. So as long as those folks are willing to work freelance, the work will be there.
And the world? The world will look exactly the same, except the writers will be a little less miserable and the old men in the shiny offices will be in early retirement. Some books will be popular, but not most. Some books will make a lot of money, but not most.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And if it’s familiar, well then, it can’t be too scary, can it?
