I think we give them too much credit.
A friend tells them what the books are about.

Curious to see, but worth restating.

bsky.app/profile/reco...

I have written a science fiction novel about the carceral state now used in two different college classes (and beginning with a Foucault quote) and I approve this message.
BECAUSE YOU ARE CORRECT.
Also did you see the new JP Morgan HQ where they brag every worker can be seen from the center?

More accurate: I draw inspiration from doing the same drugs as those authors.

Look up Homan and Miller comments on National Security Threat, it shows "a central and frequent element of his rhetoric", and "frequently and repeatedly in various media appearances, speeches and interviews.

They are using it to rob our government of funding.

Class action lawsuit-GRAND THEFT.

If a book sells 5000 copies and has one fair review, or one good or bad or even no reviews, that means that the vast majority of people reading it found it fine and that it meets expectations.

And, to close this circle, it's probably better than the dreck that incredible authors wrote on contract.

So if you are selling hundreds, or even thousands, more books than before and getting less reviews than ever, measure yourself fairly against the world we live in NOW, where engagement is mostly phone-based and no one wants to write a coherent review on a touch screen.

I'd thought about also going off on marketplace-level reviews, but all you need to really know is that it has become harder for a company to produce batch reviews as part of their ad budget and now even established IP will have a fraction of the marketplace reviews they used to...

So don't judge yourself by acceptance letters. THEY CAN ACTUALLY BE WORTH NOTHING.
Traditional publishing is dying, and our reaction should be to collectively say "good."

For every rich person who wrote a magnificent piece of literature there were several rich people who wrote books that died when they did. IT IS THE EXCEPTIONS, not the averages, that matter.

But the thing authors need to hear about it is this: In the history of literature, nearly none of the most magnificent authors had advances or a contract. They either paid out of pocket to get stuff printed or had friend/family do it, or serialized their works in places with a subscription model.

New publishing techniques... POD, self publishing, micropresses, direct sales and the rest, absolutely are about democratizing the publishing world: its about stopping those money men from feeling like they get to shape authors into what they want. AND THEY ARE TERRIFIED

I've been near-scapegoated when an old sport burns their fan base when the company fails to talk them out of a bad decision or course of action.
Hell, there's a couple books on my own personal shelf I'll recommend freely... when the author is DEAD.

I've proofed the copy by the cash cow writing the same exact novel since 1986 and had to use Find and Replace to find where yes, they literally wrote the same paragraph in the last book.

All three of these author groups share the same thing: The money guys decided they were worthwhile and continued to publish them whether they put out good stuff or not.
It's there where I get angry and want trad publishing to die in a fire.
I've done the handling... put the coked up author on hold.

A fair amount of time, these guys happen to be really smart... actual geniuses, and the money man behind them will publish just anything for the right to be considered in that genius' circle.

Without naming names, this category includes authors where the author's good stuff is so good that they will then be allowed to publish really, really, really awful stuff like gratuitous rape, sexism, racism and shockingly often, stories about sleeping with your mother.