September 2010 Archives

From stuff

Okay so my name isn’t actually Usher (I don’t even like Usher). However, this is in fact, my confession. After all this talk of the publishing industry, I feel I should say something. I am an e-book addict (for those of you who don’t know what an e-book is, here is a nifty little link that shall tell you). Now don't get me wrong, as a ["wanna-be"] writer, I also love print books. When I go into Barnes & noble, I get a tingly sensation in my spine when I get a whiff of the crisp smell of new books. But I must say, that I also get a similar tingly sensation when I'm able to buy a book on my iPad (it has apps for the nook, kindle and of course, iBooks....competitive pricing baby) and save $10! I'm a college kid who has fifty bucks to her name - despite the fact that she has two jobs, try figuring that one out because I honestly have no clue. So when I get to save money, it kind of makes me want to make believe I am in 'Jersey Shore' and proceed to do a fist pump. 

Now I bet you're asking "Why Stephanie, aren't you afraid e-books will put the publishing industry out of business?" And I say 'nay, my friends.' And here are my reasons:

1) Authors still need a publisher/ publishing house. Books will always need advertisement. How are readers supposed to buy your book, if they don't hear about it? 

 2) even e-books have cover art, you need some kind of pretty picture to put next to the book summary page of the kindle/nook/iPad store. I'm one of many people who passes up a book if it has the white rectangle where the cover art is supposed to be that says 'Cannot display this image.' Not to mention, THEY WILL ALWAYS PRINT BOOKS. They may not print as many copies as they had, due to the new media outlet that is the e-book reader, but there will always be readers who do prefer cuddling up with a new [print] book (you just can't cuddle up with an iPad, I've tried it and I admit it's just not the same). 

3) Authors will always need editors (whom I mentioned in a previous post, usually work for publishing houses). Even if the world switched over to using only e-books (highly unlikely), no one is going to read your book if it looks like you have the grammar skills of a third grader. 

This is a link to a video made by one of my new favorite authors - John Green. He's pretty stinkin' funny. You should watch it.  

This blog is a requirement for my writing for the internet class. This class is meant to teach us...well, pretty much exactly what the name says. We learn to "Write on the internet." We have understand and know how to utilize the internet as a new form of expression. Media is changing, we've got to  get with the times. So many amateur writers are gaining fame/ a committed following, just from blogging and tweeting! The class is a lot more fun than I had originally anticipated, to be honest. Depth: I wrote a lot. 

2) You get to make the editor hate you. Your job is not over once you sell the manuscript to a publisher. If you want to be good at what you do, you stick with your author till the end. You have to present questions to the editor who in turn will have to ask the bigwigs in the publishing firm these questions (yes, your editor is supposed to do more than just correct error mistakes). The more your author's book is on the bigwigs-in-marketing's minds, the more advertisement the book gets. It's basically a factory line of questions. [If they know what they're doing] The author asks questions of the agent, who in turn asks the editor, who in turn gets to ask the marketing team. The part where fiction comes in is, you have to remember the editor works for the publishing company, they do not want to make anyone angry because editors have virtually no power. All they can do is ask questions/ make suggestions to the marketing team in hopes that they will make a book that the author will be proud of. Which brings us to point two...

Alright, so you're a Creative Writing major, yet you have no idea how you're going to put food on the table once you leave school, right? You want to write - it's in your blood. But you are a realist; you know it's tough to get noticed in the publishing world. And you need to put food on the table, right?

 

Why not start a career in the publishing world? I had this "epiphany" when I was reading the June 2010 publication of Poets & Writers' Magazine. They have so much information about the publishing world - anything from how to be a better literary agent to listings of different writing contests you can use to get your name out there and possibly make some cash. I want to know the publishing world, inside and out (and I'm only a college student - I know I've got a long way to go). So, why not kill two birds with one stone and get your name out there as a literary agent, or an editor. That way, you've already begun networking in the publishing world. You know who to go to when you want to get published. 

 

If you think it's a cut- throat business and the hours are long, you're right. So then you are probably wondering when you'd have time to write. You learn how to write a paragraph/stanza during your lunch break. Jot down a couple lines/ a killer attention grabber while you're on the phone with your boss (what they don't know won't hurt them). 

 

I'm reading a book for my Hebrew Scriptures class, "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs (It's a hilarious book - highly recommend it). He has to live the Bible LITERALLY for a year. So yes, he goes around and stones adulterers (No worries - no one actually gets hurt too badly), wears tassels on the ends of his shirt sleeves, and even contemplates polygamy for a few paragraphs before he realizes his current wife wouldn't let him be 'fruitful and multiply' as the bible tells him to - if he went and got a second wife. Anyway, he walks around looking like a hobo - for an entire year - and still holds down a job as a writer for Esquire magazine. If he can do it, so can you. 

 

Like I said before, the publishing industry is a cut- throat business. In my opinion - if you want to make it as a writer - that's all the more reason to want "insider information."