How Ya' Buying?
There's been a lot of talk over at Blogging In Black about the quality (or lack thereof) of today's commerical African-American literature and the number of shady businesses popping up claiming to be publishers - thus increasing the number of poorly written or simply not ready for prime time books.
After all the comments were said and done, it seemed that plenty of readers were tired of wading through bad books that claim grammatical errors, typos, and poor plotting are "keeping it real."
Still, publishing is a business. And supply and demand is a weird little cycle. Based on the number of books available of questionable standard, that means someone is buying them. Period. Plain and simple, someone - a lot of someones, in fact, are buying them.
Nothing speaks louder in our country than the greenback. So, as a reader, you must ask yourself, are you supporting the products and types of books that you really want or have you resigned yourself to buying what's out there, no matter the quality?
Do you hunt for new, fresh voices? Continue to support those you like who have proven their mettle in the writing game?
If you can't remember the last time you purchased or borrowed your "favorite" authors work, that's a problem.
If you're unable to find the type of lit you want, yet still find yourself purchasing books of questionable quality, do you feel responsible, in part, for the lack of quality literature available?
Readers, let me know - how ya' buying?
After all the comments were said and done, it seemed that plenty of readers were tired of wading through bad books that claim grammatical errors, typos, and poor plotting are "keeping it real."
Still, publishing is a business. And supply and demand is a weird little cycle. Based on the number of books available of questionable standard, that means someone is buying them. Period. Plain and simple, someone - a lot of someones, in fact, are buying them.
Nothing speaks louder in our country than the greenback. So, as a reader, you must ask yourself, are you supporting the products and types of books that you really want or have you resigned yourself to buying what's out there, no matter the quality?
Do you hunt for new, fresh voices? Continue to support those you like who have proven their mettle in the writing game?
If you can't remember the last time you purchased or borrowed your "favorite" authors work, that's a problem.
If you're unable to find the type of lit you want, yet still find yourself purchasing books of questionable quality, do you feel responsible, in part, for the lack of quality literature available?
Readers, let me know - how ya' buying?
posted by Paula at 1:08 PM
1 Comments:
I blame "mainstream" publishers who are still rejecting good Af/Am and multi-cultural works, saying there is not an audience for it. But because there has been such a lack and a void of all Af/am literature - especially fiction, readers gobble up what is available. So, guess what's available? I think it's pure crap - but that's just my opinion. Like I told TadMack - if our society is starting to hold music producers and production companies accountable we should do the same for publishers. We need balance - they need to start taking "risks" and some responsiblity for what society has to choose from and publish some (more) quality literature of color.
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