Dumbass Comment of the Week (If Not the Year); Or When Business Isn't

Oh, boy. Just ran across this while reading a blog entry by a self-publishing maven.

Most agents, especially those in very large firms, no longer represent authors. Those agents represent themselves, and exist to make money off writers. It’s that simple, and that disillusioning.

Uh, duh? And: WTF? OF COURSE agents exist to make money off writers (and athletes and actors and artists). OF COURSE they do. They're in BUSINESS. What the fuck? Does this person think agents (of any kind) are in business to "help" someone? Uh, no. They're in business to make MONEY.

(I should add that the article from which I took this inane quote is otherwise quite good: smart, detailed, solid. Which makes the inanity of the quote even more, well, inane.)

Lately I've been thinking about "business" in a general sense (all toward pondering my next book). I keep being surprised by how many people-in-business ascribe "noble" motives to various kinds of business people --- while not failing to ascribe those same motives to themselves or to their employers.

Eg, agents are there to represent authors, but not to make money. But self-publishing authors are there to make money. Craft brewers are supposed to represent the noble art and craft of making "artisan" beer, but the beer-drinkers who get pissed when those same craft brewers expand in order to make money are themselves interested in earning money from their own jobs or businesses.

Weird.

Jackie Collins, Queen of . . . Self-Publishing?

Ayup. Jackie Collins is abandoning (more or less) conventional publishing. (This isn't "news" exactly; I gather she announced this in February [which goes to show just how carefully I follow the career of J. Collins] {I have to be honest: I had to look her up; I wasn't sure who she was}, but I just learned about it. Thanks, Anat!) In all seriousness, the blog entry I've linked to is worth reading because she delineates all the right reasons for making the switch. Any writer who isn't at least thinking about doing so is crazy.

On Writing, Fiction, Non-Fiction, and . . . Possibilianism?

Some days the hits just keep comin' (er, um, because I'm on my lunch break??). Apropos of all the other writer-related stuff (about which I've written more in the past week than in all of the six years I've maintained this blog), this interesting interview with David Eagleman.

A couple of money quotes:

On making complex ideas accessible (something dear to my heart):

I just follow the rule I tell all my students: if you can’t explain it to an eighth grader in a way that he/she would understand it, then you don’t understand it. As a corollary, one must understand the importance of narrative. Our brains have evolved to care about story. If you want to penetrate the brain of a listener, wrap the information in things they care about.

On writing "academic texts," non-fiction, and fiction:

In academic texts there is a particular landscape of facts that needs to be surveyed. In nonfiction one chooses a particular path through that landscape, taking the reader on a special journey of your choosing. In fiction one takes off into the third dimension.

Also, Eagleman is also responsible for a "movement" (his term, not mine) called "possibilianism." Who knew?

Have I mentioned how much I missed blogging?

And Speaking of Fantasy, Literature, and Science . . .

. . . which I wasn't, but this is so COMPLETELY connected to the whole ball of wax I've pondering so intently the past few days that I've got to pass it along. A project that aims to learn about how literature influences science and scientists. As the "what this is about" note points out, typically the interest goes the other direction (how does science influence literature?). Take a look. Good stuff. Again: Do we live in interesting times or what?? (And if you're missing the connection between this, genre writing, science fiction, fantasy, the turmoil in contemporary writing/publishing, well, really: there IS a connection. At least in my mind.)

Back to work.

And Speaking Of Fantasy, Etc.

All the hoo-ha I got myself into the past week or so revolved around "genre" writing --- science fiction and fantasy in particular. So I'm sorely tempted to take this course. Sounds fascinating! Do we live in interesting times or what??? UPDATE: I signed up for it. I can't resist.

Is Cheap/Free Worth It?

I ponder that question often, and in many contexts. (Perhaps because I've been writing a book in which "cheap" features so prominently? Maybe? I don't know. I just thought of that connection.) Anyway, I'm one of those dinosaurs who believes there is no free lunch, and on that note, here's a blog post worth reading. It comes from a site devoted to "scholarly publishing" (something else in which I'm interested for a number of reasons, many of them only tangentially related to the "publishing" part). Here the author is thinking about "social costs" and "social good" but doing so in a broad context. Worth reading.

Two money quotes:

Cheapness has consequences in the long run. We all end up paying for it somehow. And cheapness has a funny way of being expensive.

And:

You can save yourself poor as a business or an industry.

Ain't that the truth. (Hey! When else will I have an excuse to use a Zappa album cover?)