You are insignificant, we are too important to acknowledge you
If you submit a piece of writing to a small website, chances are you’ll be thanked for your contribution. If you do the same to a major publication, you’ll either be ignored or sent the generic, “due to high volumes, we cannot respond individually…” message.
I understand that popularity increases demand, what I don’t understand is why that suddenly reduces the importance of people in the eyes of the popular.
Have you ever tried sending a piece to the New York Times, the Readers Digest or the Huffington Post? We’ll if you didn’t think you were worthless and uninteresting beforehand, they will quickly teach you the valuable lesson that that’s exactly what you are. You will be ignored or sent the generic, “due to high volume…” response. Never mind that you have a great ‘scammed’ story or a pertinent angle on Obama, they’ll never know, because chances are they won’t bother to read it.
So, as writers, how do we rise out of the dark and establish a name for ourselves? One sure fire way is to do something incredibly and publicly stupid, like flight attendant, Steve Slater, who insulted a plane full of passengers before loading up on beer, pulling the emergency slide and leaping off the plane. He certainly won’t have trouble finding an agent to publish his memoir. Never mind that your memoir may be way more interesting, you can expect Steve Slater’s agent to dump you in the agent slush pile and send the generic, “due to high volume… get lost” response.
The bottom line is that publishers tend to be very frugal when promoting first time authors who have yet to prove themselves as a lucrative commodity, because the publishing industry has little to do with good literature and everything to do with money. I certainly wouldn’t blame you for going postal with a sawn off shotgun, just for the privilege of writing your memoir in jail and knowing it will be published. Check out some great jailbird memoirs here on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Criminals-Specific-Groups-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=2438. Be careful though, where you commit your crimes, as the UK is currently considering placing a ban on such sordid, yet lucrative, literature http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/samleith/3563901/Government-plan-to-ban-criminal-memoirs-is-moronic.html
I’m not saying that infamy is the only way forward, of course you could go the honest route, spend a fortune entering and trying to win short story contests, spend a fortune on writing courses, spend a fortune establishing an online presence using web designers, learning SEO and submitting your site to honest or dishonest directories claiming to increase traffic, but who will instead spam you into the next universe. You might also wear yourself out using the traditional route of trying to get your articles published in reputable papers, only to receive the generic “due to high volume…you are so worthless you might as well jump off a bridge” response. Or better still you could get bent over and properly shafted by the vanity publishing industry.
It’s a sad fact that less than 1% of writers ever get published by a reputable publisher. Not because less than 1% of writers can write, but because, in today’s world, due to high volume of demand, your value as a human being has decreased to pretty much zero.
Sure there are terrible writers out there, but due to high volume, you have no way of finding out where you stand. Which is sad because, if a piece of work is of good quality, then it is worthy of recognition whether it is the only one of its kind or there are millions just like it. Quality is quality!
One great thing about the internet though is that it allows everyone the opportunity to be judged by the world, without having to beg an arrogant, uncaring jerk for that opportunity first. Just publish your stuff online (Triond, Broowaha, Ezine Articles, Helium etc) and if it’s good it will be read and if not, at least you'll know with certainty that you need to keep your day job.
And failing all of that, aim a gun at someone famous and don’t forget to ask for pencils in jail…
If you submit a piece of writing to a small website, chances are you’ll be thanked for your contribution. If you do the same to a major publication, you’ll either be ignored or sent the generic, “due to high volumes, we cannot respond individually…” message.
I understand that popularity increases demand, what I don’t understand is why that suddenly reduces the importance of people in the eyes of the popular.
Have you ever tried sending a piece to the New York Times, the Readers Digest or the Huffington Post? We’ll if you didn’t think you were worthless and uninteresting beforehand, they will quickly teach you the valuable lesson that that’s exactly what you are. You will be ignored or sent the generic, “due to high volume…” response. Never mind that you have a great ‘scammed’ story or a pertinent angle on Obama, they’ll never know, because chances are they won’t bother to read it.
So, as writers, how do we rise out of the dark and establish a name for ourselves? One sure fire way is to do something incredibly and publicly stupid, like flight attendant, Steve Slater, who insulted a plane full of passengers before loading up on beer, pulling the emergency slide and leaping off the plane. He certainly won’t have trouble finding an agent to publish his memoir. Never mind that your memoir may be way more interesting, you can expect Steve Slater’s agent to dump you in the agent slush pile and send the generic, “due to high volume… get lost” response.
The bottom line is that publishers tend to be very frugal when promoting first time authors who have yet to prove themselves as a lucrative commodity, because the publishing industry has little to do with good literature and everything to do with money. I certainly wouldn’t blame you for going postal with a sawn off shotgun, just for the privilege of writing your memoir in jail and knowing it will be published. Check out some great jailbird memoirs here on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Criminals-Specific-Groups-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=2438. Be careful though, where you commit your crimes, as the UK is currently considering placing a ban on such sordid, yet lucrative, literature http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/samleith/3563901/Government-plan-to-ban-criminal-memoirs-is-moronic.html
I’m not saying that infamy is the only way forward, of course you could go the honest route, spend a fortune entering and trying to win short story contests, spend a fortune on writing courses, spend a fortune establishing an online presence using web designers, learning SEO and submitting your site to honest or dishonest directories claiming to increase traffic, but who will instead spam you into the next universe. You might also wear yourself out using the traditional route of trying to get your articles published in reputable papers, only to receive the generic “due to high volume…you are so worthless you might as well jump off a bridge” response. Or better still you could get bent over and properly shafted by the vanity publishing industry.
It’s a sad fact that less than 1% of writers ever get published by a reputable publisher. Not because less than 1% of writers can write, but because, in today’s world, due to high volume of demand, your value as a human being has decreased to pretty much zero.
Sure there are terrible writers out there, but due to high volume, you have no way of finding out where you stand. Which is sad because, if a piece of work is of good quality, then it is worthy of recognition whether it is the only one of its kind or there are millions just like it. Quality is quality!
One great thing about the internet though is that it allows everyone the opportunity to be judged by the world, without having to beg an arrogant, uncaring jerk for that opportunity first. Just publish your stuff online (Triond, Broowaha, Ezine Articles, Helium etc) and if it’s good it will be read and if not, at least you'll know with certainty that you need to keep your day job.
And failing all of that, aim a gun at someone famous and don’t forget to ask for pencils in jail…
Due to high volumes, you are insignificant...
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