Dissin' Dat

In addition to loving books, reading, and writing, I'm a big music fan. I love music (excepting country & western -- not a fan of that).

Music's integrated in much of my writing--I'll throw in some song and band references, and often play music while I write. It also amuses me to think of music when thinking about indie and trad publishing, because there are pop cultural parallels to it, in some ways. This is how it sometimes feels to me:

This is Trad

This is Indie

This is Trad

This is Indie

This is Trad

This is Indie

I'm amusing myself, of course, in this comparing and contrasting -- the important thing to remember with trad is that the publishing industry is in a real jam, whether trad or indie.

Nobody still knows what'll take off as a book. The dark lesson of the whole FIFTY SHADES thing years ago is that even junk can sell, if it's the RIGHT kind of junk served up at the right time.

My own cynical observations over the years are as follows (take these with however many grains of salt you wish):

1) Quality of writing isn't as important to readers as quality of storytelling -- what drives readers is a good story, and/or a hooky high concept. If it's written nicely, that's a bonus for readers, but they're really there for a kicking story (but not TOO nicely written -- which is to say not too many big words and/or an impenetrable style -- writers love words more than readers; readers want a great story first and foremost);

2) You CAN kind of judge a book by its cover -- the presentation of a book can influence if/whether a reader buys it or considers it worth buying. Outside of friend/ally/crony circles, a good book cover design can draw readers to take the plunge and purchase -- they may not get to reading the book for some time, but the cover can entice if the story concept appeals;

3) Physical books are, amazingly, still more popular than Ebooks, and, interestingly, younger readers seem to favor the print book experience over the digital, which might be why Ebook sales are flattening compared to years past -- the pandemic really helped Ebooks, but post-pandemic, the sales dipped. Although, interestingly, romances, crime, and thrillers tend to be more popular in Ebook formats -- maybe the voracity of those readers necessitates a quicker turn & burn approach to consumption of fiction.

There are more, but this post has gone on long enough! One more comparison, just for fun:

This is Trad

This is Indie