Storytellersunplugged

So I’m minding my own business, writing away and I take a break to compose my thoughts. What does any good writer do when taking a break to compose thoughts? I have no earthly idea. What I do is surf the internet, searching for an occasional new review of my latest book, checking out the bulletin boards that I frequent, etc. Is it a productive use of my time? No, but it doesn’t take much thought.  

And then, WHAM, I see one of THOSE posts. What posts? The ones that state in a matter of fact way that the industry is doomed.  

Sometimes, and I mean this, I don’t know if I should laugh or if I should cry. Most of the time, I just shake my head. But if I did that, I wouldn’t have an article for you. So instead, I’ll explain why the notion is ludicrous from my perspective.  

First, contrary to the beliefs of many, the publishing industry is not dead. If it were, the name J.K. Rowling would not be known to millions and millions of people, young and old. Long before she was reaping the benefits of the movies of her works, she was making decent scratch from the publication of her stories about a certain young wizard and his friends. The same is true of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Tom Clancy, etc. While I have trudged merrily along through a few dozen cries that the industry is dead, the aforementioned have gone through at least as many of the same cries and in many cases even more of them.

The publishing industry is not dead, nor is it on its last legs. The horror field is not dead, nor is it dying. Hell if every claim that horror is dead were true, then everything I’ve written for the last fifteen or so years would have qualified as science fiction, with a side of fantasy and true crime.  Or maybe I’d have discovered a hidden passion for writing advertising jingles.  

Genrefication, and I’m seriously doubting that is a proper word, is a marketing tool. Horror isn’t dead. Horror has never been dead. Horror sometimes hides these days, as “dark fantasy,” “science fiction,” “action” and “thrillers” as well as “suspense.” They’re all just words. They just happen to be the words that books sellers and publishers use if they decide that horror is a dirty word that month. In the grander scheme of things, it wasn’t all that long ago that horror didn’t exist as a genre in the first place. That too is a result of marketing teams deciding they needed a new word to describe the sorts of books that had been around all along.  

But it’s not just horror, is it? Oh, no. There are people out there who are absolutely convinced that books are a thing of the past, murdered by modern technology and just too dimwitted to notice it. Why, now we have Ipods and Playstation 3 and the ability to watch one show on our satellite dish and record two others simultaneously. Heavens! We can purchase entire seasons of television shows on DVD and watch countless hours of extras in addition to the 20 odd hours of actual show! How can the written word hope to cope with that, when there are writers out there who are GIVING AWAY THEIR STORIES FOR FREE ON THE INTERNET????

Do you remember what the very first song ever played on MTV was, back when the initials stood for Music TeleVision and they actually spent the majority of their time playing videos? I do. It was “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by The Buggles. MTV doesn’t play a lot of videos these days. You’re more likely to catch what is euphemistically called a “reality show,” instead. Radio is still doing just fine, thanks for asking and now and then it even garners enough attention that one jokey or another is in trouble for mouthing off at the wrong time or saying something mean about one group or another. Radio is doing so well, in fact, that you can buy special satellite radio programs or special digital radios to pick up even more music from the airwaves.  

Yep. Dead as a doornail, or at least it should be according to a few doomsayers back in the early 80s. You know, the same ones who predicted the book would die away as a form or entertainment.  

The thing here is that a lot of people apparently believe whatever hype is handed to them, or maybe they just need to feel that things are going badly. There could be any number of reasons, not the least of which is some people just like to look on the negative side.  

Now, calm down. I’m sure a few of you have decided that I’m a pompous idiot by this point. Well, I might be an idiot, but I’m not known for being pompous. I’m not trying to snide or egotistical, I’m just making a point. The publishing industry has certainly changed over the years, even in my lifetime, but that doesn’t mean that the industry is dead, dying or even severely wounded. It just means that things have changed. They always change. Thank God for that, because if they didn’t stagnation would surely have destroyed the industry by now.  

Yes, there is a recession going on. Yes, we live in uncertain times, doubly so when you consider that it’s an election year. (And yes, I know that not everyone is calling it a recession, I also know that the dollar is lower than it has been in a while and that qualifies in my book.) Guess what? Books still cost less than the latest Playstation 3 game. They cost less to buy and they cost one hell of a lot less to produce. Guess what? The writer’s strike (which I DO support) that is kicking Hollywood in the nards right now does not affect New York publishing all that much, excluding, possibly, media tie ins. Guess what? Despite another group of doomsayers, the current crop of Young Adult and Tween publishers is doing very well, thanks just the same. Here’s another one for you: You can actually read a book in a black out, provided you don’t mind a little eyestrain. You need only the book and your imagination in order to enjoy yourself. You can’t play the latest DVD, video game, CD or Ipod download without equipment that can be very costly. A paperback will cost you eight bucks. Used it will cost even less.  

What, you ask, has any of this to do with being a writer? Everything. I’ve said before, and I will say again, that a writer writes. I genuinely believe that if you’re wise, you write what you want to read, what you believe in, and then you let the publishers decide where it goes. Tom Piccirilli is a genius writer, who happens to be published in horror, mystery and poetry. He’s leaning more and more towards mysteries these days, because that’s what his heart tells him to write. He’s talented any way you look at it, and I’ll read him, regardless of what genre he happens to fall into. He could start writing bodice-ripping romances tomorrow, and I’d still read him. Not because I love romances, but because of his writing and his voice. The same for Christopher Golden, Douglas Clegg, Elizabeth Massie, Brian Keene, Tim Lebbon, F. Paul Wilson and a number of others. I read them because I enjoy what they have to say. That they all have roots in the horror genre is just a happy coincidence, but in each and every case, I’d gladly follow them elsewhere.

Say what you need to say. Write what you need to write. Be persistent and acknowledge that the markets are always going to change. I can’t promise you’ll have success. Hell, I can’t even guarantee that I’ll have success from week to week, but it’s worked pretty well for me so far. No, I’m no J.K. Rowling, and I certainly haven’t had that level of success, but I’ve managed to sell the vast majority of the pieces I’ve written.  

I recently asked a slew of authors what they thought about the genres, whether or not they were necessary, etc. Most of them felt about the same way I do about the whole notion. It ain’t my job or theirs to write genre fiction. It’s out job to write. I’ll do you one better, as far as I’m concerned at least one part of what I do is deliberately write outside of the genre lines, because that’s what I prefer to read and because I really don’t want to ever write the same book twice. Have it printed twice? Sure! Hell, printed in a dozen different languages and on its seventy-fifth print run wouldn’t hurt my feelings. But to limit myself because of what a marketer in an office says SHOULD be the case? Thanks, but no thanks.