Hocking Books

Several news outlets, including the Huffington Post, are singing the praises of Amanda Hocking. Hocking is a 26 year-old Minnesota woman who's made a very impressive chunk of change by selling her YA fantasy novels as ebooks and circumventing the New York publishing system.

The HuffPo article goes out of its way to paint Hocking as a triumphant figure. And in some ways she is--she gets to live out her dream. I'm happy for her, and I get that Hocking's narrative plays into a very American mythology: charge your own path and mountains of monies will rain down upon your head.

But I think these kind of articles are missing an important part of the story. Yes, Hocking's story is impressive but a) Stories like hers are extremely rare and b) it ignores one of the most important aspect of releasing a book: publishing something that doesn't suck. And many of the posts I've read mentioned that Hocking's books are in desperate need of an editor. And that's no slam against her--the first and second drafts of my stories probably read worse than hers. Which is why I write third and fourth drafts, and have the stories edited ruthlessly by people I trust.


Now don't get me wrong-- I can see the benefit of some self-publishing. Wil Wheaton is the literary equivalent of Radiohead, in the sense that he started his writing career with a publisher before selling his books directly to his fans. The thing is, most of us writers aren't Wheaton or Warren Ellis. And we're not releasing music or comic books, which were practically made for self-publishing (in fact, most comics pros I've talked with look at self publishing as a badge of honor.)

I can also see how writing can have fun and get new fans by supplementing their published work with self-published material. Heck, that's what I did with "Mural". I knew I had the attention of a few readers, and decided to share with them a short story that I'd had trouble publishing elsewhere.


One of the most insightful arguments made against self-publishing come from novelist and current "Superman" writer Chris Roberson. He said that he had been a huge advocate for self publishing novels. Roberson hired a well known artist to draw the cover and gathered some impressive blurbs...and ended up selling less than 40 copies. His dreams of self publishing were dampened by reality, and he eventually found fame by publishing with a smallish press that could edit, promote, and sell his book.

Assuming that thousands of people are dying to read your self-edited, self-published book seems unrealistic. Feel free to share a few stories via the Kindle. Just don't try to build a writing career out of it.

Spine Breakers

I love listening to Spine Breakers . They cover books from all angles, from their love of libraries to the future of e-Books. Recently, they asked fans to shoot and submit videos about some of their favorite books. This is my entry:

Bissell's Breakdown

First, a disclaimer: I haven't read much from Tom Bissell. I know that he's penned some fiction and a book about his interest in video games, which was mocked by the stuffiest-sounding critic the New York Times had to offer and Roger Ebert. When I read this dismissal I felt for Bissell: here was a man trying to thoughtfully explore a topic many of his literary peers simply wouldn't understand.

Then today, one of my favorite blogs shared their lukewarm reaction to one of Bissell's short stories. Bissell's reaction to their reaction was a bit bipolar. The author went out of his way to explain that he was, in fact, a productive writer (since the Ward Six post had openly speculated about the amount of work he'd put into the story) while sounding disgusted that his work ethic was being questioned.

I'm not sure who to side with; reading the story in question might help, but after the description I can't bring myself to do it. I think Lennon and Ellis are correct in their assessment; his story sounds like anything one might find in just about any other literary magazine this month. Then again, I sympathize with Bissell. A writer can come up with an idea, fend off self-doubt long enough to write a story based upon that idea, then spend months and months editing, then see that story re-worked by countless magazine editors, only to see their published piece of fiction casually dismissed. It's a horrible feeling.

That said, brutal honesty from readers must be better than no reaction at all.