| One of the biggest lies that Traditional Publishers | | | | deserves publishing', they declare. No, that can't be |
| peddle to would-be authors is that things 'have | | | | right! That's the cry of the patron. Hundreds of |
| always been this way'. That's historically | | | | years ago, well-to-do and titled gentlemen would |
| inaccurate. What we call 'publishing' is a recent | | | | pay the printing bill if they considered that a work |
| invention. It didn't exist before the development | | | | was worth sharing with the world. So why, I hear |
| of what we now call the novel, long fiction pieces | | | | you ask, would modern-day publishers recreate |
| that involve either an omniscient author or a | | | | the same philosophy? The answer, in my opinion - |
| psychologically aware narrator. That happened | | | | too much education! Most people who infest the |
| around the middle of the 1700s, and when the | | | | world of publishing have been massively educated, |
| form became very popular with readers, some | | | | usually well past Degree level at University. They |
| businessmen saw the possibilities of producing | | | | know too much about literature. They don't look |
| large numbers of these books for a wide | | | | at books like tins of beans, or parcels of |
| audience. They commissioned printers, arranged | | | | hamburgers, (as they claim to do). They still have |
| distribution and worked to find new authors. (Bear | | | | romantic notions of what makes good reading, |
| in mind that 'distribution' wouldn't have been | | | | probably gained during long years in the classroom. |
| possible in a place like England before the Toll | | | | The result? They can't help acting like the patrons |
| Roads were built either, around the same time.) | | | | of old, committed to putting the best of all |
| Before this, there were printers and - usually - | | | | current writing in the hands of an un-eager but |
| patrons. Printers sometimes commissioned work, | | | | deserving public. |
| where they saw a money-making opportunity, | | | | It confuses matters. If Traditional Publishers really |
| such as in the popularity of Broadside Ballads, | | | | were the business people they claim to be, then |
| songs and lyrics printed on enormous single | | | | we would all know where we stood. We - the |
| sheets of paper, (usually about topical events, | | | | writers - would know that money is king, and only |
| such as local crimes and hangings). More normally, | | | | books that sell are worth looking at or - to be |
| printers limited themselves to a small selection of | | | | strictly accurate - worth writing! The bad news, |
| classic and every-popular books like the Bible, and | | | | for us, is that publishers aren't anything like as |
| other work where it had been commissioned by a | | | | consistent as that. They also harbour strange, |
| 'patron'. Shakespeare had one, that's why his | | | | esoteric ambitions. They like the idea of |
| plays made it into printed form. If he hadn't, he | | | | discovering a potential Nobel Prize winner. Would |
| never would have been able to afford it for | | | | the guy sell books? Dammit, it doesn't matter, |
| himself, and there weren't any middle-men at the | | | | they say, as long as he wins prizes. This is |
| time who could take a chance and get some | | | | confusing, to say the least. Who are we dealing |
| copies run off in the hope they would be sold. No, | | | | with? Hard nosed businessmen or dewy eyed |
| that's a different game. It's called publishing. | | | | lovers of top 'quality' fiction? |
| These days that's all there is. In plush and | | | | The answer, of course, is both. In these days, the |
| extensive offices in all the major capitals of the | | | | early years of the 21st century, ambitious authors |
| world sit men (and a few women) in smart | | | | are being faced with the dilemma of trying to |
| clothes, who pore over newly typed manuscripts, | | | | launch their wares with people who can't decide if |
| looking for gold. The mission they are about, (they | | | | they live in the present day or would rather be |
| would have you believe), these be-suited and | | | | the Lords of Ladies of 250 years ago. It doesn't |
| well-educated fellows, is to find gems of rattling | | | | help. That's why I keep advising struggling authors |
| stories that they can arrange to print and | | | | to turn to the internet, where we can all get our |
| distribute - for a profit. At least, that's what they | | | | books printed, bound and posted off to |
| tell you. When they're feeling disingenuous. 'It's a | | | | customers at no expense to ourselves. Then, |
| business', they say, as though that explained | | | | when we're more certain that we want the life of |
| everything. If you are an author, and have a | | | | the commercially rewarded writer, we can turn |
| work to submit, they want to know that it can | | | | back to the confusing world of publishing and try |
| be printed, put in bookshops and sold. That last | | | | to find the ideal publisher for us, out of the |
| one is the most important. Any book can be put | | | | squalling morass. At least then we will have been |
| on a shop's shelf. The magic is to see it walking | | | | past the thrill of seeing our precious story printed |
| off the shelf to the till, where money changes | | | | in book form; way past the lure of 'vanity |
| hands. It's necessary, these transactions, in order | | | | publishing' and the subsidised market; and much |
| to make the world of publishing work. No money, | | | | more capable of coping with the flatteries of |
| no more books. That's what they tell you. | | | | publishers who can't currently decide if they are |
| Unfortunately, publishers have another string to | | | | commercial or not. In fact, whether they are here |
| their bow. Whenever they're stuck for a decision, | | | | and now or living in the past, as patrons, in the old |
| they resort to an earlier ethic. 'This book | | | | sense. |