The Lighter Side of Absolute Zero: What Does Publishing Do? <link rel="prev" href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2009/04/literary_mashups.html" title="Literary Mashups" />   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/mt-site.js"></script> </head> <body class="layout-one-column" onload="individualArchivesOnLoad(commenter_name)"> <div id="container"> <div id="container-inner" class="pkg"> <div id="banner"> <div id="banner-inner" class="pkg"> <h1 id="banner-header"><a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/" accesskey="1">The Lighter Side of Absolute Zero</a></h1> <h2 id="banner-description"></h2> </div> </div> <div id="pagebody"> <div id="pagebody-inner" class="pkg"> <div id="alpha"> <div id="alpha-inner" class="pkg"> <p class="content-nav"> <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2009/04/literary_mashups.html">« Literary Mashups</a> | <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/">Main</a> </p> <a id="a001225"></a> <div class="entry" id="entry-1225"> <h3 class="entry-header">What Does Publishing Do?</h3> <div class="entry-meta"><span class="entry-category">{Rumination}</span> <span class="entry-topics">Topics: <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=5&tag=Publishing&limit=20&IncludeBlogs=5" rel="tag">Publishing</a> <a href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=5&tag=Writing&limit=20&IncludeBlogs=5" rel="tag">Writing</a> </span></div> <div class="entry-content"> <div class="entry-body"> <p>I grew up with stories; when I learned to read I consumed as many stories as I could. Somewhere along the way I wanted to tell my own stories and write them down. Somehow that goal was never quite true, for I also wanted my stories to be complete, and somewhere I got it in my head that a story is not complete unless it has been published. I am beginning to question that: what does publishing do?</p> <p>I used to think that publishers were a sort of filter but I have books on my shelf that flagrantly violate the rules of grammar and I’m utterly shocked; I was taught that we should use complete sentences, and every sentence must have a verb. Some authors and publishers disagree. So this cannot be true: bad books get published.</p> <p>I have also caught myself thinking that publishing in some way validates a man or woman as an author. Put another way, you aren’t a “real” author until you are published. Does publishing validate the writer as an author? Am I something less if I never sell a book to a publisher? Does self-publishing not count? Does self-publishing only count if I function as both a publisher and as an author, and publish authors other than myself? And if publishing does validate, does a small-press count, and if so, how small can I get away with? Here’s a good one: do you have to publish to paper, or can you publish electronically?</p> <p>Some time ago I concluded that being published means only one thing: your particular story is marketable. If a story is published that means that some person (or persons) believed they would be able to sell the story for a profit. It does not guarantee a fan base, although it probably does guarantee that a few people will at least read your manuscript.</p> <p>As someone who would love to call himself an author I really only care about one thing: I want an audience. I’ve given up on the idea that I’ll ever make a living at writing. I have a day job, and that is consistent with all the writing advice I’ve ever heard. So if I only care about having people read my writing I’m seriously wondering why I still have this pipe-dream to one day be a published author, although I now no longer know what that means, nor what it would mean.</p> <p>What does it mean to be published, and what does publishing do?</p> </div> <div id="more" class="entry-more"> </div> </div> <p class="entry-footer"> <span class="post-footers">Posted by Seth Croston Barber on September 15, 2009 11:05 PM</span> <span class="separator">|</span> <a class="permalink" href="http://blog.0kelvin.net/lite/2009/09/what_does_publishing_do.html">Permalink</a> </p> </div> <div class="trackbacks"> <h3 id="trackback" class="trackbacks-header">TrackBack</h3> <div id="trackbacks-info"> <p>TrackBack URL for this entry:<br />http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-tb.cgi/513</p> </div> <div class="trackbacks-content"> </div> </div> <div id="comments" class="comments"> <div class="comments-content"> <h3 class="comments-header">Comments</h3> <a id="c016503"></a> <div class="comment" id="comment-16503"> <div class="comment-content"> <p>It's my understanding that publishing was a necessary concept in the days when communicating your works to others incurred an exceptionally high transaction cost. Publishers came into existence as an entity that made the cost of reproducing a work very cheap on the margin, therefore a work could be disseminated. Given the market opportunities that exist these days, publishers (and comparable entities in other markets, like record labels) are going the way of the dinosaur. They provided a much needed service at one point in our history, and technology has almost entirely replaced the need for them to exist at all.</p> <p>To answer your question of what it means to be published, I think it means absolutely nothing. People growing up in the "internet age" care if their friends recommend a work, not if some guy at a desk at a publishing company recommends a work.</p> </div> <p class="comment-footer"> Posted by: <a title="http://profile.typekey.com/jdhuntington" href="http://profile.typekey.com/jdhuntington">JD Huntington</a> <a class="commenter-profile" href="http://profile.typekey.com/jdhuntington"><img alt="Author Profile Page" src="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-static/images/comment/typekey_logo.png" width="16" height="16" /></a> | <a href="#comment-16503">September 16, 2009 8:53 AM</a> </p> </div> </div> <form method="post" action="http://blog.0kelvin.net/mt-comments.cgi" name="comments_form" onsubmit="if (this.bakecookie.checked) rememberMe(this)"> <input type="hidden" name="static" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="entry_id" value="1225" /> <div class="comments-open" id="comments-open"> <h2 class="comments-open-header">Post a comment</h2> <div class="comments-open-content"> <script type="text/javascript">  </script> <p class="comments-open-moderated"> (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. 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