Who Needs Book Publishers When You Have Steemit?
Hi, Steemit community! Thank you for giving me a platform to share my stories. Seriously, who needs book publishers when you have Steemit?
An Open Letter To Book Publishers
July 2014, Jamie Le Fay
She loves Austen as much as she loves R. R. Martin. She reads young adult fiction, fantasy, and dystopia to feed her idealism, sense of wonder, and need for adventure. She dances on the fault line between deep intellectual curiosity and the colourful, but shallow world of pop culture.
She rejects Twilight and Shades of Grey, expecting the world to elevate women beyond passive, submissive puppets of the man-monster that is waiting to be redeemed through their sacrifice. She dreams of her hero, a hero who stands beside her as she saves herself, a 21st-century upgrade to Darcy and Aragorn.
She yearns for narratives that express the fifty shades of womanhood and manhood and humanity and leadership and love. Tales that redefine and refresh these concepts elevating them to a new world order where gender, race, and sexual orientation no longer limit the arc of the character. Stories that feed her artistic, geeky, quirky, bookish mind, with inspiring ideas that challenge the status quo.
She loves art and architecture and unique beauty. She escapes the daily grind with a trip to the Met, the MoMA, or the Louvre. She gets lost in the images and handwriting in Frida Kahlo’s diary.
She wonders what would happen if Jane Austen, Arthur C. Clarke and Margaret Atwood joined forces to write a novel that would, one day, be adapted to become a Marvel Studios film. A layered blockbuster that at first glance is fun and light an action-packed and mainstream, but as you travel down the rabbit hole, you discover the nuggets of meaning in a narrative that dissects humanity, challenging and celebrating our journey toward the singularity.
She is a dreamer and a scientist and a hopeless romantic and an adventurer and a trailblazer and a change maker. She is no longer a girl, but the girl inside her informs her womanhood. She will never become a worn-out middle-aged zombie. She will never settle comfortably into privilege and power.
She looks at all labels with a critical eye, the ones in jars and the ones that attempt to place humans in neatly packaged boxes, boxes that come with a set of instructions propagated by society, media, and old fairy tales. She rejects your stereotypes, society’s need to place her work in a specific genre in a fine-grain categorised online bookstore. She is not alone.
They are not alone; they are the largest and most powerful group of consumers of the 21st century. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge, respect them, and respond to their needs?
Jamie
Jamie first published A Letter to Book Publishers on her blog in July 2014. Jamie no longer needs to plead to book publishers. Jamie has Steemit. Hurrah!
Photos:
- O Reflexo de Frida Kahlo by Paula4348 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
- Alice In Wonderland by Arthur Rackham [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
- Winged Victory of Samothrace [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Great post as always!
Hurrah!
Hurrah!
I completely agree with the idea of releasing books on Steemit. I just posted the 8th chapter of my book Love Like His about a half hour before I saw this post.
I figured that Steemit would also give me encouragement to finish it, as well as the outlet to release it.
Great post.
Good to discover a fellow author. The community is super supportive and diverse. I love it.
Hi @jamielefay - I've been reading Ahe'ey and truly enjoying it - and I love your train of thoughts! How long did you take to pen down the series? And what was or is your greatest challenge in the process?
Hi @kevinwong , thank you for your support and kind words. I’m so grateful to all my readers. I take nothing for granted. I have been writing this particular book series since 2013; it has evolved a lot as I became more experienced in this genre and as Ahe’ey and Its characters gained more depth, breadth and texture. These days, Ahe’ey is a world that includes many fully fleshed characters, dozens of locations and story arcs. Initially, I struggled to let go of my need to make all my protagonists perfect and likeable and make my antagonists evil and unidimensional. I have learned that both heroes and villains need strengths and weaknesses; that the best story lies between the shades of grey of humanity. These days I’m much more interested in my characters’ flaws and vulnerabilities than I am in their strengths. The people of Ahe'ey teach me the best life lessons. J.
I agree that some of the very best stories don't really have a clear line between the antagonists and protagonists. Must be awesome having a bulky notepad full of characters and plotlines :) Personally I've been trying to write fiction - it's just so difficult to get the ball rolling writing on the way to something expansive. Talked to a friend recently about the process of innovation - we usually have an idea, a shape of what's to come, and we don't really have a good idea on the end product until it is done and open for others to look into (just like Steemit until more users coming in and showing how things can be done differently). So I guess it's quite applicable for fiction writing? Just need to keep writing and writing and getting feedback. Good to know you're having great fun producing Ahe'ey :)
The agile, continuous innovation process applies to fiction writing. The work is never done, and you continuously go back and revisit plot and characters. I have restructured my novel several times over the years. I believe it's super important to release work often and get some validation. I come from a "lean startup" innovation background and have a tendency for continuous improvement. And yet, sometimes you just need to release it in print or on the blockchain and let it go with all its wrinkles and warts. ;) I can't wait to read your work. ;) BTW, some writers structure the beats in advance; I find it helpful, but I don't always stick to it.
I know her. And I try to be like her... E.O. Wilson pointed out the "consilience" of things, how science can inform poetry, and poetry can inform economics, and on and on.
:) "There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres." - Pythagoras
interesting way of looking at things. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks, J.
Great to see more quality formatted posts from fellow indie authors :)
Followed!
Thanks. I look forward to reading your work. J.
I need!) Love keep book in my hands)
As someone who practically lives in a bookstore I can tell you that never before has there been so many genres and cross-genres of books available to the public. And yes, most of these are published with great care by traditional publishers who are just as keen as the consumer to offer books that feature diversity (including sexual and gender diversity) and play against stereotype. Today's literary marketplace includes everything from beautifully illustrated feminist graphic novels for the youth market to cross-genre travel memoirs to sci-fi with heroines and books on STEM for kids...and everything in between. In the past decade, publishers and editors have done a 180 in regards to overturning old models in publishing. Hurrah!
@Florentina, I agree; things are changing rapidly, particularly in the past few years. Unfortunately most publishers still struggle with cross-genre fiction. They just don't know what to do with it.
For sure, the difference between "literary" and "popular" writing has blurred but today's publishers --especially the Big Six-- have taken advantage of this. I mean, consider that as far back as 1992, Donna Tartt was changing the rules with her bestselling debut, The Secret History--a literary novel that was also a mystery thriller. The book, along with so many others in the 90s, changed the rules and has given us cross-genre writers like Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Annie Dillard and so many others. The amazing author and literary critic, Lev Grossman, does really well with his "hybrid" fantasy novels which are written in a literary style.
Funny you mention Lev, I am seeing him in just a few days. He is speaking at the Sydney Opera House. He is a great champion of the democratisation of literature.
How wonderful!
I just discovered your series, and I think i'm begining to hate you! You are stealing my precious sleep hours, since I can not stop reading!!
(obviously joking about the hate -> keep going!! I`ll find some corner in the office to take a small nap...
I apologise profusely, particularly, because I hope you continue to miss some sleep... ;) I appreciate the hate. Thanks, J.
hi jamie, o.. should I hurrah first? hurrah! It's really great to see real novelist gain some success here. but I think you still need book publishers, only this time they have to beg you. Still, steemit has its problem right now as a substitute for books as your chapters cannot receive income after one month. I hope you can help the dev team realize those issues and really set up steemit as the next gen publisher! Steem on!
Thank you @deanliu . I appreciate the context. I am aware of the issue and am very willing to discuss it with the Steemit product team. Given that the platform is still in beta, I suspect that the product backlog is long and that they might have competing priorities. As you know, in such an early stage venture, the business strategy evolves quite fast. I'm not sure if long-form serialised fiction is steemit's top priority right now, but I am surely paying close attention to the ongoing developments. I do have many opinions, but for now, my goal is to observe, learn and contribute as much as I can. Opinions and requests will come, once I get my head around the complexities of this exciting new world. :) J.
your words is a timely reminder to me. lately I was a little bit frustrated by getting no replies or no responses from dev team or peers... but you are right that I forgot how much work they have right now and we should be more patient. Indeed. Thank you for bringing positive energy back to me! Hope I can do a Chinese novel one day! (English novels too difficult for me :))
My pleasure. I wish I could read Mandarin or Cantonese. Best wishes with your writing @deanliu .