Wanted One Editor Who Can Think Beyond Their Last Best Seller

I was on a job board recently looking at writing jobs when I came across an ad from a freelance writer, who is now working on a novel,  who is seeking a publisher. I had to read it twice to make sure I hadn't read it wrong. While I celebrate the optimism with which this person posted the ad, I don't think it's going to work.

I'm imagining a bunch of editors, and agents, sitting around with empty desk cruising job posting boards going, "There has to be someone who needs me!" Although, with the new wave of self-publishing successes, this could become a reality.

I am still mystified by the foot dragging that went on at major publishing houses when eBooks came to be a reality. You would have thought they would've contacted everyone they'd ever published to try to secure the electronic rights to their back lists. Nope, they let authors jump into those waters themselves where many found a much more lucrative home than they ever did through traditional publishing.

After publishers screamed, "we want a fresh voice!" and then rejected everything innovative that came across their desk, writers decided to take the matter into their own hands. Writers who were told there was no place for their stories in the market have proven publishers wrong and carved out their own markets.

Artist in the music industry have been doing this for years. Take for instance Joan Jett, after the Runaway's broke up no one would give her a record deal, so she created Blackheart Records and released the MONSTER hit I Love Rock-N-Roll. Look at Jay-Z. He couldn't get a record deal so he started his own record company too, and now he's a music mogul.

Publishers scoffed at self-published authors, now they're throwing huge deals at them. After all, the work of finding a market and creating a following was already done, so why not.

So maybe the person who posted the ad looking for a publisher  didn't have it too far wrong. Maybe it will be publishers and editors searching job board looking writers willing to take them on,  instead of the other way around.

Viva La Revolucion!