Very true! It’s like a record label saying “we want the next top band and we need to be certain they’ll sell records! … Oh wait, you’ve already sold 10,000 records off your own back? Sorry, we want someone we know will sell that’s so far sold nothing”… What?!

At face value this post raises some industry points that appear amazing and exciting, but when you start to think about it, it’s really got just as many problems as the “old” publishing game.

The average pot-boiler, even in paper back, makes steady income for the publisher and the writer. If it appeals to a particular audience, romance, adventure, mystery, whatever, it can sell well and be a money-maker.

I suspect a lot of publishers are concentrating more on the changing business plan of their trade. e-books, print on demand, and internet access to both mean the publishing business will have to adapt or die. I have been trying to publish my own novel and am now thinking it would be far easier to simply self-publish as an ebook and sell through e-bay on on various web sites devoted to those than try to attract the notice of overworked agents and editors.

My reaction to these books has made me very hard on myself and I rewrote my Gothic Faery tale “The Golden Stairs” 35 times smoothing and polishing, injecting emotion — each foray has a different quality and focuses on different aspects of the story — because I want it smooth and flowing and seamless.

When I used to read books as child I would get so lost in the author’s world that I often missed being called to supper — I tuned out everything. That is the standard I strive to achieve in my writing. It takes time and Grim Reaper is always looking over my shoulder telling me to get on with it.