The Digital Writer |
Writing and publishing are largely mind games. When a young writer experiences the print publishing system as something that holds up mediocrity and pays it millions of dollars, and marginalizes the earnest effort of a literary mind, the writer can often get crushed and demoralized. One author makes millions and the rest of them are below poverty lines. And when the young, fresh writer looks at who is promoted as "rich and famous," he gags and gasps and is embarrassed by it all. And then when the reality hits him that, indeed, it is this way and no other, he feels humiliated and whatever talent he has slinks around the campus, seething.
If a young writer, however, discovers that a new technology will come along that reverses the pyramid and, at least, will replace the print publishing system, the game gets rather interesting. The mind is lit with a kind of giddiness. The imagination and intellect break free, space is infinite again, wonderful illuminations appear.
My feeling has been that the Net presents a new, more personal way to publish. In that sense it takes us back to a better time for the literary arts. What literary type can throw his or her work against the stone, cold gargoyle known as the print publishing system and not feel demoralized? What art or literature was ever created in that environment? It's as though the Old Testament prophets had to submit their manuscripts to the clerks in the Temple. Or, Homer having to have his manuscript passed through the hands of petty officials. This does not produce great art and literature. It produces a shadow of its potential.
Of course, a great deal depends on what our values are and what outcomes we're looking for. That is the key for everything, including publishing and writing.
And, to be truthful, ever since getting on the Net I've gained more respect for the print publishing world. Neither do I feel that the Net is a clever end-around the old print system. It simply is the best place for the development of literary work. That is the bottom-line. And subscribers who remember the old Cyber Oasis know I have been crowing along those lines for a long time.
I read about the successful writer who has signed a multi-million dollar contract with a good house. What he has written is evidence of a decay, not simply in language but in the spirit of writing and books. The market, driven by the people, is so. The question I have is, if the world is this way, how will it know anything other than what it is? And if it doesn't how will it change? And if it doesn't change why will it be any different than the dark ages? And if this is the dark ages shouldn't we be a bit worried?
Idle questions perhaps but its the reason a few blokes need to step from under the dominate shadow of commercialism. And that, itself, doesn't guarantee anything but, at times, a good nights rest.
There are, of course, amazing people in print publishing. People who care about books, about writing, about how books feel and look. Whenever I come across one I am taken back to that magical moment when books were all. And the fact that they thrive in today's overly-commericliazed market is a thing to behold.
The poet celebrates anything that has not lost its soul.
He is silent about those things that have lost their soul.
If the soulless advance towards him he has a strategy. Some places that I recommend: Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association in Fort Collins, CO Small Press Center in New York. Small Press Distribution in Berkeley
David
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