How 25 Million Bloggers Destroyed Publishing
Somewhere in the archives here you’ll find a post about my trip to the Olympics and some words about the screamers. It is a reference to the couple who stayed in the hotel room next to mine.
For three nights they entertained my roommate and I with their all night long sessions. I have never heard or witnessed a woman scream like that outside of bad pornography nor did I ever get to thank them in person for the show.
Way back during the dawn of time known as the ’96 Olympics I made my roommate laugh hysterically with various Howard Cosell impressions about the screamers and even penned part of a newspaper story about them.
“Jack, you are a funny guy. Promise me one day you’ll write a book about this.”
I remember nodding my head at my roommate and telling him that Simon and Schuster and three other major publishers were waiting to discover me and that if they failed I would hijack one of my our copier trucks and do the book independently.
Independent Publishing
It is funny looking back upon it all because I can’t say I was serious about publishing a book independently. I made that crack because we were Pitney-Bowes copier salesmen and it was funny to us to suggest that we could grab one of our trucks and photocopy our way into a best-seller.
Never occurred to me that one day independent publishing would become popular and that it would enable almost anyone to become an author.
Nor did I realize that I had a bias about so many people publishing their own book. Didn’t realize that one day I would be somewhat bitter about how easy it was for anyone to declare themselves a writer.
Didn’t realize that I would look at some reality television stars and be irritated because they were published authors. Not only were they published some of them had gotten the very cool publishing contracts from the big publishing house(s) that I wanted.
And then in the midst of my bitterness I recognized that I wasn’t upset with them as much as I was upset with myself.
Upset because I didn’t follow the advice that I give my own children. Didn’t go after it the way I could have because if I did I wouldn’t be jealous.
Bloggers and Publishing
I can’t say that realizing this about myself changed everything and suddenly provided me with a better attitude because I would be lying. I still look at some blogs and cringe when I read the writing there.
I still read parts and pieces from books that bloggers have written and wonder how the hell they managed to not only become popular but published because what I read is awful.
And it reminds me how subjective writing can be.
There are people that love my work and people that hate it. That is no different than any other writer. It is no different than I how I feel about some professional writers too.
Some authors produce content that makes me smile and or feel something every time. Some of them produce content that makes me shake my head and wonder why I can’t write like that and some make me wonder how they ever get paid for producing such dreck.
Sometimes Mondays Are Hard
In the midst of this game of let’s remember I’ll share today has been a hard Monday. Just one of those days where you feel like you are walking through mud and everything you do is an effort.
Call it an extra cup of coffee kind of Monday and you still won’t adequately describe how pleasurable it has been for me. Today is one of those days where I am fairly certain that I’ll see pair of horns sticking out of my skull but it doesn’t have to end that way.
Today will be the day where I grab the bull by the horns and make something happen. The moment where I do more than just rant or complain about what others did, do or have done.
And that will make the difference.
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