- Joined
- Dec 11, 2010
- Messages
- 350
- Reaction score
- 23
My biggest fear is this: My book will be something cool that a load of people would've loved, but a lack of representation in the industry (i.e. there not being enough editors around with such a taste) might result in the book failing to find a home. Then I go and self publish it with my, errr, limited resources and it vanishes into the Stygian abyss that is the "long tail"...
*breaks out in a cold sweat*
So. Is it common for there to be certain (reasonably popular) tastes that aren't present in the industry, thus causing certain books that would have had a readership to fail to get in?
What got me thinking about this was the difference between the story premises on sites like fictionpress and the premises of books on the shelves. Yes, many of the stories on fictionpress are barely coherent, but a lot of them are still very interesting. I find it hard to believe that out of all of those (often eastern/Japan influenced) writers there wouldn't be a whole bunch who'd improve enough to get their stories published.
But I don't see many polished versions of the types of stories they tell. There's obviously a huge readership online, but I can only wonder why -- despite some fictionpress books getting published -- these tastes aren't being mirrored in many physical books.
Maybe I'm reading too deeply into it...
*breaks out in a cold sweat*
So. Is it common for there to be certain (reasonably popular) tastes that aren't present in the industry, thus causing certain books that would have had a readership to fail to get in?
What got me thinking about this was the difference between the story premises on sites like fictionpress and the premises of books on the shelves. Yes, many of the stories on fictionpress are barely coherent, but a lot of them are still very interesting. I find it hard to believe that out of all of those (often eastern/Japan influenced) writers there wouldn't be a whole bunch who'd improve enough to get their stories published.
But I don't see many polished versions of the types of stories they tell. There's obviously a huge readership online, but I can only wonder why -- despite some fictionpress books getting published -- these tastes aren't being mirrored in many physical books.
Maybe I'm reading too deeply into it...