The publishing business is hurting so badly right now, I suppose it's only fair to remember that it is a business and needs to make money. It's sad, but I can understand the reluctance to publish an experimental work by an unknown author. I guess the good news is that experimental literary works do get published...maybe by writers who have already proven themselves a bit to an agent/editor? Either that or by writers who have the colossal luck to break the rules at the right time in the right way, and submit to the right place at the right time with the further luck of having their manuscript read by the right chain of people. One thing I do know is my own personal "luck" hasn't served me all that well up until this point.
Ah, but ONE way we're all lucky is to be writing when e-publishing is taking off. I certainly don't know a whole lot about it, but from I understand there's a lot more creative rope regarding content and length when it comes to e-publishing. I know people are still resisting the idea, and saying they don't want to give up the paper versions and the experience of holding a book, but after living through the same sorts of arguments when people resisted going from vinyl to disc, then disc to electronic files in the music industry I personally am extremely excited to be writing at this particular moment in history.
I'd say my favorite ~emotional/thinker~ sort of novels were written in a more unconventional, "literary" style. Many of my favorite comfort novels, or the ones so compelling that I stayed up all night (for several nights running, sometimes) reading were genre/entertainment novels. The world needs both! Yes, write what you (you=general you...I'm working through all of these same issues myself) love. But there's no shame in loving books with engaging characters and plot elements that are woven around formulas, and were written to entertain. Just make sure you're writing in a genre that has the potential to entertain YOU, or all's lost ^___^
Thanks so much for wading through these replies. I'm on the verge of shelving my current project for awhile and writing a mystery using the book The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery, and these exact issues are the ones I've been struggling with.
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Date: 2009-08-16 03:35 pm (UTC)Ah, but ONE way we're all lucky is to be writing when e-publishing is taking off. I certainly don't know a whole lot about it, but from I understand there's a lot more creative rope regarding content and length when it comes to e-publishing. I know people are still resisting the idea, and saying they don't want to give up the paper versions and the experience of holding a book, but after living through the same sorts of arguments when people resisted going from vinyl to disc, then disc to electronic files in the music industry I personally am extremely excited to be writing at this particular moment in history.
I'd say my favorite ~emotional/thinker~ sort of novels were written in a more unconventional, "literary" style. Many of my favorite comfort novels, or the ones so compelling that I stayed up all night (for several nights running, sometimes) reading were genre/entertainment novels. The world needs both! Yes, write what you (you=general you...I'm working through all of these same issues myself) love. But there's no shame in loving books with engaging characters and plot elements that are woven around formulas, and were written to entertain. Just make sure you're writing in a genre that has the potential to entertain YOU, or all's lost ^___^
Thanks so much for wading through these replies. I'm on the verge of shelving my current project for awhile and writing a mystery using the book The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery, and these exact issues are the ones I've been struggling with.