Don’t Panic
Don’t Panic
Dec 09You’ve probably already heard about Houghton Mifflin’s cutbacks, and the big news, that they plan on not accepting new manuscripts. There’s also some speculation that Borders may not be able to keep their bookstores open. Ouch!
I heard it on NPR on my way home the other evening, and my first reaction was to wonder how any publisher can survive without new books. I’m not sure I’ve gotten my head around that yet, in fact. Of course, the media reaction amounted to lots of gloom and doom with a touch of panic thrown in for spice.
Yes, I do find it disturbing that a major publishing house is laying off workers and suspending buying of new manuscripts.
No, I don’t think it’s the end of the world for publishing or for writers.
I think a lot of people, me included, are falling into the panic-trap of this recession, and the truth is, the more people in general panic, the worse the recession is likely to get. I think that’s a little scary, don’t you?
I don’t know what will happen to the publishing industry, but my point is, no one else does either. All the pundits who are saying this and that on the news, each being more negative than the other, don’t know what’s going to happen either. My solution? Don’t listen to them. Oh, and write!
Maybe publishers will lay off or cut back. Maybe some of the major houses will go under. Maybe POD and e-books are viable options, even for traditional publishers, since there’s less outlay of cash up front. Who knows? I still believe that good writers will attract readers. As writers, I think it’s in our best interest to focus on being the best writers we can be. I know it sounds naive, but I believe that if we do that, everything else will fall in place.
And what am I going to be doing? I’m going to finish the novel. Yes, it’s coming along quite well (almost 60k words right now). I’m going to shop it around to some agents in a couple months. If nothing comes of that, then I’ll explore using a POD publishing instead. In short, my plans haven’t changed. I’m working on writing the best novel I can and I’m trusting that there will still be readers out there for it. And no matter what happens to “publishing,” I feel safe saying people will still be interested in reading.
Reading may be all we have left. Poor Borders — I do love them so. Sigh. I think the price of books, like everything else, was starting to get out of control.
We do need to keep our libraries open. I actually have enough new books that I could be kept busy for a long time. I have a hard time walking away from them in the store.
Walking in the book store now just makes me want to cry because I really can’t afford to be there. But, I can still touch them and smell them! OMG, what’s my problem?!? A nerd has become a good thing to be.
I’m in the process of writing a novel myself and I was thinking about giving it away as an e-book for free. I figured the whole purpose of writing is to let other people read it and what better way than through the internet.