Very nice. Informative, meandering, and bitter. In a good way. Perhaps what is needed is a parody about an embittered humor writer? Who cares what I think?
I’m not bitter about much, thanks to a lot of therapy, but I do really have a bone to pick with book publishing. The people are all so NICE, and the system is all so stacked against authors. I really feel they take advantage of people’s dreams, and only really work for a few authors at the top. It’s no longer much different from Hollywood, but the scales of success are so much smaller in books. If you are successful in TV or movies, that one success leads to a stable financial life—health insurance, a pension, at the very least a decently paid life in Development Hell. Four years after selling my millionth book, I was struggling to afford health insurance again. Publishing simply refuses to take care of the people who write the words, and then wonders why its cultural profile shrinks year after year. Writing books is self-harming behavior, and publishing them under the conventional terms is a form of abuse.
Appreciated this. At once informative, enjoyable, and terrifying (from a publication perspective in 2023). When the odds are stacked so much against writers, where will great literature and longform humor (which can be great literature) emerge? Maybe from remote corners of the world where people are doing it for the love of it, appearing circumstantially decades later, or in hoity-toity places where literature is still kind of supported, like, you know, France.
It’s much easier if you don’t write humor. People do not rise to power and authority within vast corporations by displaying a sense of humor. Publishing corporations are no different.
Yes, I’m in negotiations with a couple of people for books. I’m trying to put together a creator-favoring contract; if this is successful, it may shift the Standard Corporate Deal in some important ways. As the magazine has done in its way.
Right. I was speaking more to longform humor / literature in the sense of full-length books. Great to hear (per above) that you're venturing into and trying to disrupt somewhat that arena in favor of authors' rights.
Of course the problem remains that while digital tech allows for everyone to publish a book, it has so weakened every institution involved that the situation is functionally the same--lots of books being published, no money being made. Unless you made your brand in the waning days of the old model, the solution to marketing a book--even if you're with a Big Five house--seems to be, "Do you have a lot of friends?"
This is not a solution that allows books to play a meaningful role in our culture. It is only a solution that allows for huge corporations to eke out another year in their skyscraper.
Hermann Hesse, in the Prologue of his last novel the Glass Bead Game (which someone else here might have read) prophesies a cultural scenario eerily similar to today's, which, if I recall, the narrator at last calls something like 'a complete capitulation and bankruptcy of the mind.' Sometimes this prologue comes back to me when I check in with or am faced with some of the latest cultural developments. Let us hope that, unlike in the novel, civilization doesn't collapse first before a mental resurgence can occur.
Aw thank you, @Michael. I was trying to be gracious, which made me elide many funny—read: painful—details. I hope things have improved for authors since then.
Thanks, Geoffrey. You two are so brilliant that I have no doubt. But Devastator was/is a wonderful thing, and there simply is a lot of luck involved. I think part of the problem is that print humor is particularly loved by smart people, and its popularity is yoked to the literacy of a culture. As the US has become less literate, less intellectual, less hospitable to words, print humor has become more and more a niche taste. The MARKET is simply smaller, even with a much bigger population. Whereas romance, mystery, thriller, spy, etc have all increased with the population.
I think you’re VERY smart to be doing Adventure Snack. That feels like something with real growth potential, and I would encourage any Bystander readers to check it out! Reply with the link wouldja Geoffrey?
Very nice. Informative, meandering, and bitter. In a good way. Perhaps what is needed is a parody about an embittered humor writer? Who cares what I think?
I’m not bitter about much, thanks to a lot of therapy, but I do really have a bone to pick with book publishing. The people are all so NICE, and the system is all so stacked against authors. I really feel they take advantage of people’s dreams, and only really work for a few authors at the top. It’s no longer much different from Hollywood, but the scales of success are so much smaller in books. If you are successful in TV or movies, that one success leads to a stable financial life—health insurance, a pension, at the very least a decently paid life in Development Hell. Four years after selling my millionth book, I was struggling to afford health insurance again. Publishing simply refuses to take care of the people who write the words, and then wonders why its cultural profile shrinks year after year. Writing books is self-harming behavior, and publishing them under the conventional terms is a form of abuse.
Appreciated this. At once informative, enjoyable, and terrifying (from a publication perspective in 2023). When the odds are stacked so much against writers, where will great literature and longform humor (which can be great literature) emerge? Maybe from remote corners of the world where people are doing it for the love of it, appearing circumstantially decades later, or in hoity-toity places where literature is still kind of supported, like, you know, France.
It’s much easier if you don’t write humor. People do not rise to power and authority within vast corporations by displaying a sense of humor. Publishing corporations are no different.
I mean, that's what we're trying to do here I think! Make a place like that.
Yes, I’m in negotiations with a couple of people for books. I’m trying to put together a creator-favoring contract; if this is successful, it may shift the Standard Corporate Deal in some important ways. As the magazine has done in its way.
Right. I was speaking more to longform humor / literature in the sense of full-length books. Great to hear (per above) that you're venturing into and trying to disrupt somewhat that arena in favor of authors' rights.
Of course the problem remains that while digital tech allows for everyone to publish a book, it has so weakened every institution involved that the situation is functionally the same--lots of books being published, no money being made. Unless you made your brand in the waning days of the old model, the solution to marketing a book--even if you're with a Big Five house--seems to be, "Do you have a lot of friends?"
This is not a solution that allows books to play a meaningful role in our culture. It is only a solution that allows for huge corporations to eke out another year in their skyscraper.
Hermann Hesse, in the Prologue of his last novel the Glass Bead Game (which someone else here might have read) prophesies a cultural scenario eerily similar to today's, which, if I recall, the narrator at last calls something like 'a complete capitulation and bankruptcy of the mind.' Sometimes this prologue comes back to me when I check in with or am faced with some of the latest cultural developments. Let us hope that, unlike in the novel, civilization doesn't collapse first before a mental resurgence can occur.
This is amazing. And funny!
Aw thank you, @Michael. I was trying to be gracious, which made me elide many funny—read: painful—details. I hope things have improved for authors since then.
Afraid it hasn’t improved. But your DIY success inspires.
Thanks, Geoffrey. You two are so brilliant that I have no doubt. But Devastator was/is a wonderful thing, and there simply is a lot of luck involved. I think part of the problem is that print humor is particularly loved by smart people, and its popularity is yoked to the literacy of a culture. As the US has become less literate, less intellectual, less hospitable to words, print humor has become more and more a niche taste. The MARKET is simply smaller, even with a much bigger population. Whereas romance, mystery, thriller, spy, etc have all increased with the population.
I think you’re VERY smart to be doing Adventure Snack. That feels like something with real growth potential, and I would encourage any Bystander readers to check it out! Reply with the link wouldja Geoffrey?
I love reading your stories, Michael. As a fellow humor-in-print veteran, I feel your highs and lows viscerally.
I’ve told Amanda a few times that if we’d started a mystery, horror, or romance imprint, it’d probably still be going today!