I attended a writers guild meeting in Spokane with Andrew last night. We were late, which did not help our prospects of joining, so we ended up sitting downstairs, listening to the members speak with a microphone and amplifiers, bragging to each other about what they had written. I found it to be a curious set, since none of them had more than one story to talk about, none of them offered up those stories for review, etc.
I wonder if my youth makes it easier for me to write stories. I've heard of other authors having trouble as they grow older, attempting to write as they did when they were in their 20s or 30s.
Some of the authors of the stories started bashing commercial authors, etc. Does that help their situation? It seems as if they are inviting themselves to be ignored by criticizing those already successful. I can't believe that successful authors don't have influence with publishers and can make or break someone else's career.
The strange part was the lack of importance these guild members placed on Kindle or Ebooks in general. One member called it a "fad" and attempted to suggest that ebooks weren't real books anyway.
What exactly is a book?
Does a book require paper? Does it require photos, words, cover art?
Or is that simply what everyone is used to? And because that is "the way it's always been;" does that make it correct, right or good?
I call it "Deny the Wheel." Even though the wheel exists, is round and is used by many people, there are some which would deny it because even though it makes common sense, it is not something that they wish to accept. The same is true for ebooks. Sad but all of these people fighting for draconian publishing contracts which limit the amount of work they can have published could be publishing right now on kindle, or in other ebook format.
Some people just deny the wheel no matter what you do to convince them otherwise.
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