Eric Danton
Digital Dust Jacket: The Review of Independent Fiction
23/03/09 18:30 Filed in: Work
Rocker
John Mellencamp recently published an op-ed on the Huffington
Post, detailing the ways
he feels the record industry slowly destroyed the spirit and
quality of the music biz. To make a long story short, music used to
sprout from grass roots efforts and work its way up 'til it
warranted the attention of the labels and was catapulted into the
stratosphere. Now he feels songs are built from the top down,
frequently at the signing of the record contract, all with an eye
set on pushing the final product. I think this is happening in the
publishing world too. While all this has been going on, music acts
that want to get their music out there and spread to the masses via
word of mouth, much the way the Dave Matthews Band did in the nineties, still produce their own
records and sell them at shows. Best of all, there seems to be no
stigma attached to this long-held tradition. Interestingly, as
self-publishing, or as I prefer to call it, independent
publishing is fluorishing,
the taint of the long ago vanity presses still lingers like a cheap
perfume, seemingly keeping potential readers at a distance. As Eric
Danton pointed out in a January 2009 article, readers don't seem to give the unknown outsider
the same chance music fans tend to lend unsigned musical acts. More
than ever, it seems readers want that publisher-annointed stamp of
approval. Ironically, the publishing business, which is shedding
jobs at all levels faster than the Dow Jones is nose-diving on Wall
Street, seems to be more closed off to new talent than ever.
Therefore I ask, what is a talented writer to do? As a professional editor, I know all too well that writing is a unique skill set, and not every key tapper is a solid writer (though all the guys I work with most certainly are). As an independent publisher, I also know there's a lot of good writing out there that isn't getting recognized. Despite what Zadie Smith might say, there's more powerful writing being written than there are eyes to read it, or publishers to promote it (or even flip through the manuscripts). For all these reasons, starting today, I will be running an additional website called Digital Dust Jacket. The site will have one purpose: To review and spotlight the best independent fiction I can get my hands on. It's my hope that in some small way, I'll be able to lend some clout to the skilled writers out there who have thus far been blocked from the major presses, and are fighting to overcome the stigma of independent publishing, as they try to get there work into readers' hands.
Please check out Digital Dust Jacket for information on submitting your reader copies for review consideration.
Therefore I ask, what is a talented writer to do? As a professional editor, I know all too well that writing is a unique skill set, and not every key tapper is a solid writer (though all the guys I work with most certainly are). As an independent publisher, I also know there's a lot of good writing out there that isn't getting recognized. Despite what Zadie Smith might say, there's more powerful writing being written than there are eyes to read it, or publishers to promote it (or even flip through the manuscripts). For all these reasons, starting today, I will be running an additional website called Digital Dust Jacket. The site will have one purpose: To review and spotlight the best independent fiction I can get my hands on. It's my hope that in some small way, I'll be able to lend some clout to the skilled writers out there who have thus far been blocked from the major presses, and are fighting to overcome the stigma of independent publishing, as they try to get there work into readers' hands.
Please check out Digital Dust Jacket for information on submitting your reader copies for review consideration.