Welcome Layton Green, author of The Summoner. Layton is guest posting today and tomorrow I will be posting a review of The Summoner. So stay tuned!
When the digital music revolution hit, I wondered how great new artists would get discovered with anyone able to upload a song to I-tunes. That turned out rather well, at least from my perspective: I find more great new artists than ever, I love uploading samples and trying songs for a buck, and I think the advent of I-tunes and company definitely brought the world more, and arguably better, music variety.
I wonder, however, if it will be the same with e-books? I’m curious as to how many self-published books have flooded the new e-market, versus how many songs hit the Internet once music went online? I am an e-published author myself, so I have a vested interest in the outcome, but I am also a reader, and I have a vested interest in that outcome as well.
Will it be impossible, as a reader, to sift through millions of books to find the modern classics that the publishers bring to our attention, or will we be stuck with those works that have the best online promoters behind them?
Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of subpar works published, and there are plenty of self-published authors that can write and market the pants off many published authors. Talent, luck, timing and perseverance all play a part in this story. When it comes to popular books, I think the publishers are a little lost: they get a hit now and then (Davinci code, Harry Potter), but they lose money on most of their choices. The Internet will be a great proving ground of public consumption and, I think, a good producer of commercially successful novels.
Publishers are better, however, at selecting good literature. Not perfect by a LONG shot, mind you: in my opinion NY publishing is too incestual, and tends to publish works that look like all the other modern classics (although there are a lot of really great books out there). I also see a definite lack of voices from other cultures in the award-winning novels. My question for this post, then, is this: will the Internet produce great literature as well as bestsellers? Will readers and Internet forums and blogs help undiscovered gems rise to the top, or will the hard-to-read but important works get more lost at sea than they already are?
I’m stumped on this one, and of course the questions arise: what is the definition of a classic? Who decides? Can an unpopular novel even be a classic? I always wonder what beautiful works are languishing on the computer of some misanthropic genius, or locked forever in the bowels of an unopened crypt.
My gut tells me that, somehow, the Internet will help us gain access to more great works, but my gut also tells me that it will take some time before the successful public “filtering” systems are in place.
I’d love to see your opinions in the comments!
-Layton Green
www.laytongreen.com
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