Do you believe that books should not be published?
Is that a serious question, or is it rhetorical? I don’t object to publishing, I object to the publishing industry, its orientation, and the treatment of authors. Of course I believe writers’ work should be published. In fact, in a lot of cases it is the publishing industry which prevents this—because it is too often a game of politics and capital. Most books don’t get published anyway, as I’m sure you know—making this objection a moot point. So really, if you support the publishing industry, I should be asking you this question… Well?
I’m not limiting my arguments domain to book publishing, either.
Do you also work for free?
Writing is only lucrative for a very small minority. Most writers effectively work for free, partly because their work never gets published. And for most of the rest, writing is not a primary source of income—meaning that if they had to live off writing, they would be living in poverty.
Anyway, to really answer this question I would have to get into a discussion about the merits of guaranteed income.
But if you’re really curious, and not just trying to draw me into a debate, then I suggest you start by inverting or redirecting all of your questions to the publishing industry itself. And if you want to investigate alternatives, look to the internet—which definitely has the potential to destroy the industry.
And like I said, I’m not limiting my argument to book publishing either. The internet is already destroying newspapers. You realize what we’re doing now would have had to go through a newspaper’s editorial page some time ago—with some editor picking and choosing which of our opinions to publish, and the obligatory inclusion of his own thoughts on the matter (not that it doesn’t happen here, also, as I’ve heard that comments getting deleted on OB is not as rare as we all think)?
There are also good possibilities for applications to academic journals.
Point being, the industry is a dinosaur. And there are as many reasons for it being evil as there are for perceiving it as ancient—the way writers are treated, its affect on the assimilation/dissemination of information, the way readers are treated, elitism, etc.
Do you believe that books should not be published?
Is that a serious question, or is it rhetorical? I don’t object to publishing, I object to the publishing industry, its orientation, and the treatment of authors. Of course I believe writers’ work should be published. In fact, in a lot of cases it is the publishing industry which prevents this—because it is too often a game of politics and capital. Most books don’t get published anyway, as I’m sure you know—making this objection a moot point. So really, if you support the publishing industry, I should be asking you this question… Well?
I’m not limiting my arguments domain to book publishing, either.
Writing is only lucrative for a very small minority. Most writers effectively work for free, partly because their work never gets published. And for most of the rest, writing is not a primary source of income—meaning that if they had to live off writing, they would be living in poverty.
Anyway, to really answer this question I would have to get into a discussion about the merits of guaranteed income.
But if you’re really curious, and not just trying to draw me into a debate, then I suggest you start by inverting or redirecting all of your questions to the publishing industry itself. And if you want to investigate alternatives, look to the internet—which definitely has the potential to destroy the industry.
And like I said, I’m not limiting my argument to book publishing either. The internet is already destroying newspapers. You realize what we’re doing now would have had to go through a newspaper’s editorial page some time ago—with some editor picking and choosing which of our opinions to publish, and the obligatory inclusion of his own thoughts on the matter (not that it doesn’t happen here, also, as I’ve heard that comments getting deleted on OB is not as rare as we all think)?
There are also good possibilities for applications to academic journals.
Point being, the industry is a dinosaur. And there are as many reasons for it being evil as there are for perceiving it as ancient—the way writers are treated, its affect on the assimilation/dissemination of information, the way readers are treated, elitism, etc.