I’m glad someone finally had the balls and determination to expose this scam. There’s one aspect about the querying system I’d like to bring up, though: it doesn’t thrive despite the authors, but because of them. Just take a quick look at any query critique forum and you’ll see plenty of writers stepping into the agent’s role, and taking pleasure in doing so: I couldn’t connect with the MC, this subplot needs more development, why does X choose Y instead of Z? what does X mean?
The authoritarian design of traditional publishing has writers not only accepting abuse but embracing it. It goes beyond Stockholm syndrome; the Stanford prison experiment has nothing on what I just described above. It took me long enough to see it, but I guess it’s harder when you write from an honest place, one that simply loves the craft. After ten years of rejection and abuse, with two DFW-esque novels rotting on the shelf, I'm done. Traditional publishing is dead; let them promote crap like The Silent Patient or The Housemaid and drown in mediocrity.
This is why I went indie. I may not make much money, but at least I got some books in the hands of some people who like some of it. That feedback process has fueled and guided me to write better over these last 4 years. Continually running into a brick wall isn't progress, it's self-harm.
"Continually running into a brick wall isn't progress, it's self-harm."
Well fucking said.
Traditional publishing runs on the same principle as the lottery—the what-if, and the FOMO. But the lottery is honest about the odds (they're published) whereas TP has everyone believing they're one query letter away from a major book deal... then beats the shit out of them until they're willing to accept $5,000 and no promotion, LOL.
What pisses me off is not that it's hard to get published—of course it's hard; it should be, because few people write that well—but that, unless you can tap into a favor network, you won't even be _read_. The query system is just there to sell false hope—it's total bullshit, and thanks to my J16 study, it's now proven.
Unfortunately, I don't know what the fuck to do now. Traditional publishing takes up most of the oxygen, and the percentage of people who have the resources to properly self-publish is not high.
I’m glad someone finally had the balls and determination to expose this scam. There’s one aspect about the querying system I’d like to bring up, though: it doesn’t thrive despite the authors, but because of them. Just take a quick look at any query critique forum and you’ll see plenty of writers stepping into the agent’s role, and taking pleasure in doing so: I couldn’t connect with the MC, this subplot needs more development, why does X choose Y instead of Z? what does X mean?
The authoritarian design of traditional publishing has writers not only accepting abuse but embracing it. It goes beyond Stockholm syndrome; the Stanford prison experiment has nothing on what I just described above. It took me long enough to see it, but I guess it’s harder when you write from an honest place, one that simply loves the craft. After ten years of rejection and abuse, with two DFW-esque novels rotting on the shelf, I'm done. Traditional publishing is dead; let them promote crap like The Silent Patient or The Housemaid and drown in mediocrity.
This is why I went indie. I may not make much money, but at least I got some books in the hands of some people who like some of it. That feedback process has fueled and guided me to write better over these last 4 years. Continually running into a brick wall isn't progress, it's self-harm.
"Continually running into a brick wall isn't progress, it's self-harm."
Well fucking said.
Traditional publishing runs on the same principle as the lottery—the what-if, and the FOMO. But the lottery is honest about the odds (they're published) whereas TP has everyone believing they're one query letter away from a major book deal... then beats the shit out of them until they're willing to accept $5,000 and no promotion, LOL.
What pisses me off is not that it's hard to get published—of course it's hard; it should be, because few people write that well—but that, unless you can tap into a favor network, you won't even be _read_. The query system is just there to sell false hope—it's total bullshit, and thanks to my J16 study, it's now proven.
Unfortunately, I don't know what the fuck to do now. Traditional publishing takes up most of the oxygen, and the percentage of people who have the resources to properly self-publish is not high.