Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Great Business of Publishing


With all the angst, tribulations, anguish and trials writers go through on the road to publication, it’s no wonder we whine, cuss, and even throw rotten eggs at this amorphous thing called The Publishing Business.

And what better time to point the finger at the publishing establishment and wag it? Its failings, its consolidations, its being usurped by the self-published… Ha! Told you, Publishing! You weren’t doing your job! See?* (*Sometimes this really means you failed to accept my book or my best friend’s book, or properly promote the best book I ever read.)

Now that I am in the “published” section, I can attest that frustration doesn’t end there. It morphs. I’ve seen it years ago with published friends, complaining about aspects of publishing that I could only secretly dream of being able to complain about.

So I decided to do something different here. I missed being publically thankful on Thanksgiving, but there’s no expiration date on gratitude. I woke up determined to find three great things about the business of publishing.

It was easy. I could probably list ten. But lists get tedious after three. Here goes:

*Publishing is about books. The business makes books, not weapons, or doodads.

**Many, if not most, people in the business love books.

***Best of all, publishing produces some great books.

IT’S A GREAT BUSINESS.

9 comments:

Kai Strand, Author said...

Great post, Mirka!

My list:

Publishing provides books for kids to read.
When kids read they discover, learn, or escape.
Happy, smart kids will make a better future for us.

Ann Herrick said...

No forms of publishing are perfect, but any that get books out there works for writers and readers!

Karen Jones Gowen said...

Agreed! I love my small part in it. It's exciting and thrilling!

Kelly Hashway said...

I love that there are so many options in publishing now.

Vijaya said...

Nice post! And the pen is mightier than the sword ... so I'm happy to be in this biz.

Shannon Hitchcock ~ Children's Writer said...

I've made some great friends who are in publishing! And thanks for the Amazon review of my book.

Tina Cho said...

Love the photo! You're right! Publishers do publish some GREAT books! And yours is one of them.

Marcia said...

I like all these points, especially the first.

Ruth Schiffmann said...

Love your list, Mirka. You've got the cure for grumbling here - thankfulness. A good reminder that we can choose how we look at things.