that's a pretty noir view, so maybe you should say have a noir christmas.
there will be a need for people to do what the publishers did, however badly, pick out best books from the too many choices. so kevin will have to read thousands of e books now and not just all the 'regular' books sent to him.
seriously a group of people, having a website, could split up every damn book/e-book, and review or at least mention what is hb/noir and worthy. now i don't know it will be done for free, but i'd pay some minimal subscription type fee to find out that info, especially if done by people like those here who i trust as far as opinions on books, not to mention enjoy reading what they write about books, good or bad.
i already do that as many of us do, find out from here and other sources not in the publishing world or paid critics (pretty rare these days anyway), about books, old and new.
i did also think about the difficulty making money writing versus the person (mythical?) who will write whether they make money or not. perhaps the latter write poetry and not hb/noir, or at least not hb/noir without even the possiblilty or making any money. obviously most people writing dont make a living solely from it and never did. but with the chances going down, who will stop writing? everyone? only those in it for money (which i'm not putting down!)? will less people write overall or more people? if more, will they be of lesser quality (the writing that is)?
in other words, is there any way that the changes taking place and being discussed here could be a good thing for readers and/or writers? that it is and could be bad is obvious.
hb xmas and a noir new year,
s
--- On Sat, 12/19/09, jacquesdebierue <jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: jacquesdebierue <jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com>
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: possibly the biggest publishing story of the year
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 1:39 AM
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "davezeltserman" <Dave.Zeltserman@...> wrote:
>
> good luck with that. The writers we're reading today (except for the huge names) won't be writing books since there won't be any money in it--we'll all be trying to get TV or movie gigs...
>
> Seriously, this future world (if it happens) will be filled with so much hype as desperate writers will be begging readers to try their books, that it will be near impossible to cut through the hype to find anything good.
>
That's the main point. No money in it. Add this to the fact that people have gotten used to the idea that everything artistic should be free, and you have a grim picture. One of my interests, classical music, is surviving because certain countries subsidize it. it's the only way for young musicians to be heard, not to mention ones who are not so young...
If I may extend the idea a bit further, the system has fucked with the world to a point where you either work within it, i.e., obey, or you're out. I don't think it's a dystopian view but a realistic one. And the absurdity is compounded by the fact that in many cases civil society is avidly adopting things that will lead to its impoverishment, if not its moral destruction. A huge web of complexity laid over a human fabric that is more or less the same as it was since humans are humans. The fabric is visibly torn, it wasn't meant to function under such complexity.
Merry Christmas!
mrt
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