Publishing, Two Problems With
Two problems with publishing, both of which are as old as Gutenberg.
Problem 1 - Nobody knows anything. Nobody, be they author or publisher, can consistently pick books that will be financially successful. Mark Twain, for example, founded a publishing business, had a huge hit with Grant's memoirs, then ran said company into the dirt and damn near lost his house.
Problem #2 - Celebrity. Books written by famous people (for any value of famous) sell better than books written by nobodies. A nobody who writes a best-seller becomes (for a time) a celebrity, at least for purposes of selling books.
Results
Writers have been whining about poor treatment from publishers since forever. I'm sure there was some guy running around with a sheaf of papers pigeonholing people and complaining in High Middle German about what a jerk that Gutenberg was because Gutie hadn't recognized his manuscript as the Pure Genius (tm) that it was.
As printing technology changed, the author's options increased. So now, anybody with a modicum of time and skill can create a professional product out of their spare bedroom and get that in front of a sizable group of people. Given problem #1 above, sometimes the product catches fire. Sometimes it doesn't.
Problem 1 - Nobody knows anything. Nobody, be they author or publisher, can consistently pick books that will be financially successful. Mark Twain, for example, founded a publishing business, had a huge hit with Grant's memoirs, then ran said company into the dirt and damn near lost his house.
Problem #2 - Celebrity. Books written by famous people (for any value of famous) sell better than books written by nobodies. A nobody who writes a best-seller becomes (for a time) a celebrity, at least for purposes of selling books.
Results
Writers have been whining about poor treatment from publishers since forever. I'm sure there was some guy running around with a sheaf of papers pigeonholing people and complaining in High Middle German about what a jerk that Gutenberg was because Gutie hadn't recognized his manuscript as the Pure Genius (tm) that it was.
As printing technology changed, the author's options increased. So now, anybody with a modicum of time and skill can create a professional product out of their spare bedroom and get that in front of a sizable group of people. Given problem #1 above, sometimes the product catches fire. Sometimes it doesn't.