Re: future of publishing

Brenna,

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that all NY
houses always put out better books than the indies or
ebook folks. Both forms of publishing can release
wonderful books alongside crap. My assertion is that,
in general, the standards are higher from print than
ebooks. I think this disparity is due to what I was
talking about in my last post. Anyone can publish
ebooks, regardless of resources and
education/training. Sure, anyone can also open a print
pub house, but the investment involved usually keeps
out those without the requisite training/education.
And when those without these qualifications open their
doors, they either fold or get extremely lucky. The
lucky ones tend to get serious quickly and hire
professionals, again, bringing in the skills needed.
This is not the model with epublishers that I've seen
as yet. As much as the internet tends towards
equalization, I'd still rather have an expert. It's
the old saw about taking your car to a mechanic rather
than someone who's read the manual.

There is still the severe hurdle of print pubs looking
down on epubs. This carries over to many of the
professionals in the industry. When the pros don't
want to work for the ehouses they have a hard time
building a skilled employee base. Print publishers
don't consider an ebook as being "previously
published" when dealing with authors, print pubs also
don't consider working for an epub as relevant work
experience. Just like SF is the ghetto of genre
fiction, epub is the ghetto of publishing.

Trial and error is fine, but only goes so far.
Admittedly, each few years gives the ehouses a chance
at the college grads who are more interested in
ebooks, but that's a whole lot of catch-up. And again,
there's the lack of respect from the big boys. If you
get out of school and work for years with an epub, the
prints might not hire you because you don't have
"real" work experience. It's harsh I know, but until
the epubs ratchet up their standards, there's no end
in sight to this cycle.

In relation to the "publish then filter" idea, I
cringe at that. Even with how much filtering goes on
in the print industry, crap still gets through. That
leads to the conclusion that there needs to be more
filtering before, not less. The filter should be
changed though from the "blockbusters only" to "good
fiction only".

Chris.

--- Brenna Lyons <[email protected]> wrote:

> >
> >  In my vision of a perfect world, the editorial
> >  standards of the big print publishers will
> transfer
> >  over to the ebook publishers, but the absolute
> need to
> >  "publish only blockbusters to cover the cost of
> >  printing" mentality will vanish.
> 
> Oh, Chris... I have to agree with you that a
> standard of good editing,
> good formatting, good covers... All need to be
> addressed, and I
> BELIEVE the standards and ethics are being discussed
> over at AIDP?
> Liz? That's your domain, not mine.
> 
> At the same time, please don't assume that NY has
> some high standard,
> across the board. They don't. You're going to find
> spotty quality in
> edits and art there, as well. I've seen some truly
> atrocious covers
> from NY and some edits so bad that the book was
> nearly
> unreadable...from the SAME publisher and line, no
> less, that put out
> something wonderful.
> 
> Brenna
> -- 
> http://www.brennalyons.com
> http://www.myspace.com/brennalyons
> Fairy Dreams is the best bar none fantasy romance
> that I have ever
> read! The action is non-stop; the deep abiding love
> so well portrayed
> that you feel as though you are experiencing it
> yourself. Regina for
> Coffee Time Romance
> 



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