SELF-PUBLISHING CHALLENGES "LITERATURE"

There has been a firestorm of reaction sparked over the viewpoint expressed by Good E-Reader's Editor in Chief, that "Self-Published Authors are Destroying Literature."  An outrage from independent authors weighed in on the inconsistencies of the editor's incendiary opinion.  What followed has been expression in a wide range of indie validating angles and inspired observations.

In fact, despite a condescending gauntlet cast by the Good E-Reader editor, inspiration may be found in this re-examination of what the e-book revolution means to traditional Literature. What lasting effect will this self-publishing paradigm swing have, to the overall quality or literary lifespan of The Book?

Taste is highly subjective, and in publishing, more a reflection of individual editor or company parameters, than being emblematic of public consciousness. Even with 'educated taste,' classic rejections from the gate-keepers of traditional publishing, have at times, nearly blocked some of the most worthy novels from ever reaching appreciative eyes of the reading public...

During the e-book revolution, Michael Prescott's "Riptide" was passed on by 25 publishers, so he gave up on the traditional houses and tried self-publishing his dream...achieving a successful 800,000 e-books sold. Vince Flynn wrote "Term Limits" and other political thrillers that had been rejected 60 times. Showing the tenacity to generate success in self-publishing through a strong marketing plan, Flynn caught the attention of Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster, winning a lucrative publishing deal.

What if the authors of these ground-breaking novels, never transcended the blocks of traditional publishing:

"Johnathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach was rejected 18 times. "Could a story about a seagull that flew for the joy of flight, find an audience?" "Animal Farm" by George Orwell was almost blocked from Literature because an authority deemed the writer's allegory to be critical of Stalin, apparently a figure beyond reproach at the time.  Jack Kerouac waited through a stretch of 6 years before "On The Road" proved publishable.  C.S. Lewis suffered 800 rejections before "The Chronicles of Narnia" established his literary credibility.

All-time best-seller, Stephen King, was rejected more than 30 times for his breakthrough novel, "Carrie" and the horror author even tossed his manuscript into the circular file before his wife resurrected it.  Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" is a literary classic that almost never was, having been rejected 38 times, while "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Persig was turned down for publication, 121 times.

Consider Darcy Chan, whose unpublished manuscript, "The Mill River Recluse," had been completed years before. Chan's so-called 'e-book experiment,' uploaded her novel to Amazon's Kindle Store, then a website, a Facebook author page, and opened up a Twitter account. With first profits, she channeled into having Kirkus Reviews consider her book...a positive review that got her noticed by Ballantine Books. The previously unknown Chan was signed with a deal to write 2 more books in a series.

And now...my own thoughts on this subject of Self-Publishing vs. Traditionally Published Literature...

THE 5 MY INDIE BOOK POSITIVES OF "SELF-PUBLISHED LITERATURE"

1.  SELF-PUBLISHING REJUVENATES CREATIVE VITALITY OF THE IDEA POOL:

When publishing only comes down to readers through the established channels, the world of ideas becomes a funnel of limitations.  Much creativity is lost in this mill process, never funneling down. Many would-be-writers of worthy material are blocked, never to express.  Never to be known.

Genre, in the selections of publishing houses, has much to do with marketing, but becomes limiting in the promotion of books that do not fall neatly into the boxes. In my experience with indie authors' books, I have found a pattern of hybrid genre writing...it seems that the most creative writers enjoy a mixed cocktail, in the outcome of their efforts. I believe the highest creativity comes from the sophisticated blending of genres to discover that bite-of-the-fresh, some treatment of familiar themes that is perhaps, a couple degrees left of expected...so as to seem unique.

In self-publishing, our most creative blends do not go unnoticed, our efforts do not become subverted to better fit an established mandate box. When we are not dominated by a publisher's insistence, we may take risks for the love of daring to be different, because our motivations may not lie in trying to fit into a mold.

When we scrawl outside the lines, we come across expressions on old themes that haven't quite been read before, because of an innate wildness in writing e-liberty.  New ideas are born in the new freedom to upload.

2.  A 'NEW SCHOOL' OF WRITING ALWAYS ENHANCES THE TORCHES OF BEFORE:

It has been said that writers write to express understanding of the world in which they live in...and with each generation, this world of observations become increasingly different.  The world that Voltaire found satirical, is vastly different from the one which Henry Miller romantically vulgarized, which did not resemble the beaches that Alex Garland traversed.

What I mean is, we need all the writers.  Nobody replaces anybody, as we are all part of the humanistic tradition. If self-publishing means that the sheer volume of writing available, expands with the dreams of all those authors who would never have had a chance with the traditional system's blocks, then so be it. This reality of a saturated creativity, is far more desirable to me and the tradition of Literature, than a reality in which the system was declaring that "Reading is Dead." That was what was popularly thought, a mere few years ago, before the e-book revolution rejuvenated excitement in the publishing industry.

Now, a unified passion to absorb fresh material, to blog about books, and to continue self-publishing this new freedom of expression, has created an undying continuance of the written word; truly, the self-published word links together, with the human need to validate experience, with eloquent and self-earned illumination.

3.  FREEDOM TO SELF-PUBLISH LIBERATES LITERARY TRADITION FROM ELITISM:

Fitting into the publishing world entails fitting into the clubs, one club or another.  Who are all these people?  I assume, regardless of personalities, that they all have some relationship to books; however, despite the universality of book love...clubs as gangs, have predominant ideas, predominant preference for certain kinds of ideas, and if there be ideas that are 'too out there,' or several degrees 'too different,' such protagonists of writing may find themselves left out in the cold, from the clubs of acceptable ideas.

I have a problem with this kind of creative embargo.

I understand that refusal and rejection often begets character, or so the wisdom goes.  I also think that publishing selection may be fickle and limited.  The combination of these challenging factors, may be too stringent in judgment to allow room for risk-taking ventures of the previously unknown design.  I feel great empathy for the vast, lost legions of unknown writers, whose brave efforts (that may have furthered the honor of creative writing), have been cut adrift in the purgatory of publishing rejection...never to set sail and be read in their lifetimes or any others.

Nowadays, with the well-documented process to DIY, the self-pub packages offering reasonable rates to convert into all platforms, the small presses...no writer need succumb to the lost legions ever again. At the very least, one may sell meager numbers of exposure to their book across the random continents, and in the most...maybe become best-selling rebels, market-proven enough to court movie deals. Happens all the time.

4.  EXPRESSING THE RIGHT TO READERS' DIVERSITY OF IMAGINATIVE SELECTION:

Why do readers read?  Sometimes, readers read to learn about another time and place.  Sometimes, readers  hunger for some great expression of genius observation. Then there are those readers who want to be transported in flights of sheer imagination.

The excitement of e-book discovery in these past few years, is that at the tips of one's fingers, one can skim across a random universe of online, or e-reader, creative dreams.  If clusters of indie stars are many and sometimes flaring with less than the brilliance expected, there is an amplified joy in discovering the incandescent flash from some obscure author coming up like a meteor streak!

Voracious readers and bloggers want to experience the flights that their hearts are inspired by.  If reading books have survived a form of death in this highly distracted world, it is because the books are now transmitted e-accessibly light...and diverse as ordinary dreamers who now realize the new forms.

5.  EXPRESSING THE RIGHT TO SELF-PUBLISH A WRITING SOUL'S POSTERITY:

Although Sylvia Plath placed her own head inside a gas oven for more reasons than the rejection of publishing...I can't help but conjure her image of self-despair.  How many generations of writers have walked an edge of their soul's abyss, only to plunge into oblivion?  Negation of the soul's impulse to matter, has destroyed many a promising artist.

Protecting the purity of Literature's standards is so petty, when readers may discern for themselves, what the caliber of a novel is. What are established authors afraid of, that their rarefied statuses will somehow become diminished?  And who is qualified critic enough, that they may render the final word on the worthiness of ALL self-published authors, as somehow being beneath the bar?  Whose bar?  Such condescending speculation actually does more damage to the reputation of Literature, than does the entry of fresh and varied voices, reinvigorating the writing endeavor.

Someday, we will all be dead and gone.  Time itself, will sort out the ultimate value of one book from another, beyond standards or opinions or judgments.  Whatever one believes this challenging existence to be, all souls have the right to write their own wedge of immortality.