tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post662247407509738494..comments2024-03-28T01:06:38.596-07:00Comments on Maya Reynolds: Critiquing Pod CriticMaya Reynoldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12791278987339976101noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-27740874205876970572007-04-17T03:50:00.000-07:002007-04-17T03:50:00.000-07:00By the way, do you know you have your blog setting...By the way, do you know you have your blog settings such that people can comment only if they have a google/blogger account? If you want to be less restrictive, you can over-ride the blogger settings to allow non-Blogger/Google account holders to comment.Maxine Clarkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06628509319992204770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-53273235513339906582007-04-17T03:49:00.000-07:002007-04-17T03:49:00.000-07:00Interesting argument, and as ever insightful comme...Interesting argument, and as ever insightful comments from Prairie Mary.<BR/>I agree that POD is a technology not a business model in itself.<BR/>Some of the points you make in your post about "credentialising" apply to my own part of the publishing industry, scientific journals. We have the relatively new and so (self) called "Open Access" movement, which is an author-pays model. This raises obvious questions, a couple of which you have posed, but there are various others.Maxine Clarkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06628509319992204770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-71635490511609982502007-04-16T21:05:00.000-07:002007-04-16T21:05:00.000-07:00The paradigm shift (and I think that grand term is...The paradigm shift (and I think that grand term is justified here) in publishing is so broad that I think few people are grasping it. POD is only part of the difference (eliminating both bookstore returns and warehouse taxes). Google and Amazon have also made it possible to find and buy books without bookstores, even old, out-of-print, unknown ones -- right alongside the new ones. This is even more important since publishers have stopped editing, proofing and promoting and instead have gone to "packaging" which means writing to what is presumed to be market demand and deputizing someone to purport to be the author of what is often pirated.<BR/><BR/>Beyond that, most of the people who object to POD and point to the ascription of value by publishers, are thinking only of a certain kind of "best seller" market that concentrates largely on novels. There is no thought for the huge industry of academic books, books for niche interests, regional books, and all the other complex markets out there.<BR/><BR/>I've had one book accepted for publication by the University of Calgary Press next fall. In the meantime i will have produced a dozen other books:<BR/>1. For my family about our ancestors. (limited appeal but those who want it really do want it and I have no way of knowing how many of them there are.)<BR/>2. Short stories meant for the Blackfeet and those specificially interested in Blackfeet history, which stories turn out to be of interest to a lot of other folks just as fiction.<BR/>3. A history reference book providing resources for those the State of Montana has mandated must teach Indian history without providing funds for those materials.<BR/>4. A chapbook from my service as a hospital chaplain, again a limited but specific niche.<BR/>5. An account of my years as an animal control officer and educator which is of interest primarily to others in that field.<BR/>6. A little journal yearbook of the seasons in this small village, meant for tourists and maybe Christmas presents for maiden aunts.<BR/>7. A guide to the Blackfeet Reservation for visitors coming in cars -- Lulu.com will publish this as a CD if I ever figure out how to prepare it.<BR/>8. A novel written by the 7th grade class I taught at Heart Butte on the reservation in 1990.<BR/>9. A retelling of the Demeter/Persephone myth in terms of a Western, pitting grain against coal.<BR/><BR/>You see what I mean. (There are others.) No mainstream publisher will clamor for the opportunity to publish these things, and anyway, I don't know how they could ever hope to decide their worthiness. They have to be judged in terms of usefulness and appeal to certain readers. Because of POD I can afford to make them available and because of Google/Amazon et al. people can find them.<BR/><BR/>Prairie MaryMary Strachan Scriverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00538160009129822362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-25311537318281643992007-03-28T21:54:00.000-07:002007-03-28T21:54:00.000-07:00Thanks for stopping by, Peter. I appreciate your ...Thanks for stopping by, Peter. I appreciate your comment. <BR/><BR/>Warm regards,<BR/><BR/>MayaMaya Reynoldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12791278987339976101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-29592581104036656112007-03-28T16:27:00.000-07:002007-03-28T16:27:00.000-07:00Excellent, clear thinking.I am less kind than you ...Excellent, clear thinking.<BR/><BR/>I am less kind than you are to POD Critic's "grandiose" (in your words) fantasy that somehow, if enough writers self-publish using POD, their books will somehow escape the prejudice usually assigned to vanity presses.<BR/><BR/>Even if a major trade publisher started publishing their frontlist tomorrow using POD, it won't legitimize self-published books.<BR/><BR/>Anyone who confuses a printing technology with a business model doesn't know what they are talking about.Peter L. Winklerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16005846686173676213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-22718836732176302942007-03-27T11:21:00.000-07:002007-03-27T11:21:00.000-07:00About Miss Snark - I'm happy to take your word for...About Miss Snark - I'm happy to take your word for it, though her taste in books, at least based on her current reading list, isn't mine. If she's managed to help people to a Pulitzer Prize, or at least a NY Times book review, more power to her.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-32178136733210740982007-03-27T06:10:00.000-07:002007-03-27T06:10:00.000-07:00Lee: If you've read my blogs for any length of ti...Lee: If you've read my blogs for any length of time, you know that I don't believe the current system is perfect--<BR/>far from it.<BR/><BR/>I've known who Miss Snark is for over a year. She doesn't owe anyone an apology.Maya Reynoldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12791278987339976101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16743003.post-40188830438798060822007-03-27T04:28:00.000-07:002007-03-27T04:28:00.000-07:00Would that be the same filtering system that turns...Would that be the same filtering system that turns down midlist authors whose first books haven't managed to sell enough copies? That approves mammoth advances for celebrities? <BR/><BR/>A system, by the way, to which Miss Snark belongs. Before I trust an anonymous agent's statements, I'd like to see the quality of the authors on her list.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.com