Dealing with the Beast

[degringolade]

 

Feminist Art / Yayoi Kusama/ Mushrooms

Cruising along.  Gonna be hot again so I am up early with fans in the door and the window to blow cool air in and lower the temperature of the place as much as possible before I walk out the door at 06:30.   When I leave I close all the windows and shut all the curtains to block the heat from entering.  Usually works pretty well. The place was tolerable during the last heat-spike.

Went out to GO yesterday to pick up sandwich makings.  I sure as fuck am not cooking in this weather.  

Finally making some mental progress on writing.  A general form of the book is in my head now.  It will still probably take a shitload of coaxing to get it onto the screen and onto paper.  But that is for evening writings and weekend editing in the next year.

Been thinking about Michael’s model of publishing.  Amazon itself is a rapacious monster, working hard to devour anything that produces a revenue stream.  But I have a soft place in my hardened heart for their bookstore.  I also approve of their self-publishing system that Mike used.

The reason for this is simply that Amazon has removed the constraints of the publishers from the mix should a author wish it.  While Amazon has damaged used bookstores (which bothers me), it also has made it possible for used bookstores to sell their stock .  So the used book thing is a wash.  Everyone speaks of their favorite bookstore, but usually this is a local bibliophile that runs it out of love with the bookstore being a locus of their personal taste, the gleanings of the local populations housecleaning, and a healthy dose of disorganization.  They usually don’t have to specific book that you are looking for, but damnme if I have even been able to walk out of one without buying a couple.  I would make a pretty hefty bet that anything that an individual used bookstore gets that is truly a worthwhile find will be listed on Amazon within the day.  Remember, bookstores have to pay the rent too, they will use what tools are available.

The publishers are a different story though.  In a sense, they serve a purpose for ascertaining the current trends in styles and projected sales and when they are good at it, they dip their greedy little blood funnels into the writer and the stores to ensure that they get more than their fair share.  They are above all classic middlemen, trying to pull the maximum out of both sides of the deal.  Fuck them.

Granted, there are some newer and probably struggling publishing houses trying to be decent in a rapacious industry, but they usually don’t last.

So Amazon’s self-publishing appears to be the way to go.  You can’t buy new authors' work in a used bookstore.  I don’t want to be tied to a specific publisher, regardless of their politics or tastes, self-publishing holds no value other than purchased vanity.  Amazon lets you write and publish, gives you a marketplace to sell, and takes a reasonable cut of the profits.

Even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn.