Wednesday, June 16, 2010

What Does It All Mean?

NPR did a piece today called On Tour With Best-Selling Suspense Writer M.J. Rose. (I am familiar with Rose from our good ol' days at Readerville.) During the course of the article, the interviewer/commentator said, "With more than 1 million books published last year alone — about three-quarters of them self-published — it's hard for a book to rise to the top."

I know my mind is easily boggled but even if it were not, I think it would be boggled by that statement. Three-quarters of the books published last year were self-published? I know that not all self-published books are created equal, but if that statement is true, then three-quarters of all the books published last year did not have traditional editing, production, and marketing. Many of them may not have had professional editing or marketing at all.

Yeah, it's hard for even the books with professional, traditional backing to rise to the top. And if three-quarters of the books published last year didn't have that, their course must have been even tougher.

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