Expecting Less

This is likely to be all over the place and I'm not going back to edit it, sorry.  It's also likely to be somewhat political, tho I will try to avoid that, but if you're touchy, come back in 2 days.

There is an elite class in this country.  Or more precisely they've designated themselves as such.  They think they're better than the rest of us.  They know more, they're better educated, and they think deeper thoughts.  We're stupid because we believe in God and other things that are against "established science".  These people live on the coasts.  We live inland.  They run advertising and entertainment and publishing.  They know what's best for us.  We're too stupid to run our own lives, so with their wisdom, they will tell us how to live.  Yippee!  I always wanted to go back to the time when my people were slaves to Pharaoh.

So you have all these elitists in tradpub who are making up the rules as they go along--the writing isn't loud enough--and as gatekeepers, so the kulaks won't read the wrong material, they publish the best writing.  It's the approved material!  How dare you suggest otherwise?!

This morning I downloaded a relatively successful ebook because I wanted to see the chasm between this writer and me.  After reading a few pages, I learned quite a lot.  I learned why this book wasn't traditionally published and that was because the writing wasn't loud enough.  I don't know what loud means.  So unlike Ms Elitist Agent, I will say that it was just writing, just storytelling.  It got the reader to where they should go.  In other words, the writing did its job.  It wasn't elegant, it wasn't poetry, it wasn't profound, deep or reflective.  It was just storytelling.

And then it occurred to me that readers expect less than the elitists in NYC do.  Readers just want to be entertained.  Like in the first half of the 20th century with all the pulp magazines.  People do like to read, they love stories.

I don't know what the elitist agenda is for publishing.  I don't know if they know well enough to put it into words.  They say they want a good story and they turn them away time after time as proven by all of Joe Konrath's books that have been rejected and are now bestsellers on Kindle.  They're clevering themselves right out of an entire once-vibrant industry.

As proven time and again through history (some people just can't learn) the peasants can only be oppressed for just so long and then they start to squirt out at the edges.  Pretty soon it becomes a flood and the elitists are pushed aside.  People want to be free.  It's instinct.  The only people who don't want to be free are those getting well paid for their slavery.

Digital publishing is where the leak began for tradpub. 

First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.
~ Nicholas Klein