The question is simple. Today millions more books are being published than in the past. Self-published books are coming online and going into print with the click of a button. Is the quality of lit getting better or worse? Are we seeing literature go in new directions or is it only being driven by one thing? Are the new authors and new works original? Have you seen anything that has made you believe that the slow deaths of large publishing houses might mean the the quality of literature will get better or will the quality die?
Richard Everywriter (pen name) is the founder of EveryWriter and a 25-year veteran of the publishing industry. With degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology, and Education, Richard has dedicated two decades to teaching writing and literature while championing emerging voices through EveryWriter's platform. His work focuses on making literary analysis accessible to readers at all levels while preserving the rich heritage of American literature. Connect with Richard on Twitter Bluesky Facebook or explore opportunities to share your own work on ourSubmissions page. For monthly insights on writing and publishing, subscribe to our Newsletter.
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People used to write letters to one another. Thoughtful, personal, well-composed and grammatical. They were intended for an audience of one, or possibly to be shared among a few intimate friends or family. Pen was put to paper. Thought and effort went into the process, there was no backspace, no delete key. Strikeouts were evidence of haste, poor planning and lack of focus on the task of communicating with the intended recipient. Time and effort were expended to convey one’s state of mind, physical condition, surroundings and one’s relationship to current events. Such letters were commonplace. And many survive as real historical documents.
Who can write such a letter today? A document with an intended audience of one. Yet so many think they can write a book of broad appeal such that strangers will pay them for their efforts that they can make a livelihood of it?
There’s still an abundance of good literature being published. An overabundance even. High quality written personal communication, on the other hand, is most definitely on the wane.
I wonder about this though. How many of these little electronic notes are going to last forever. Some famous author someday will, his ghost haunted by a server full of badly spelled emails he typed to a co-worker about nothing throughout the day. I think the quality of lit is, in some ways going falling. It has too because of the speed of publishing, the demand. You can’t wait months to publishing and think people will remember you now. People are publishing everyday…..
So I say yes….the quality is falling among the literary world, but I don’t think that means were are not seeing great writing…..I just mean we are seeing great writing. I think we have a better chance now to see good and great writing, we just have to find it…..even if it is full of typos
If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it does it still make a sound?
If a book is published to the internet and no one reads it does that mean it’s not a book?
Just wondering……
This is true. The promotion of books is so difficult getting one reader sometimes is like climbing a building. Next we have to talk promotions. We have to. How do you promo your work….if you don’t, what you said is 100% true…..
Franz Kafka only saw a few minor pieces published in literary journals during his life, and they were mostly ignored. In fact, his stated desire was that the rest of his manuscripts should be destroyed. His friend, Max Brod, defied his wishes. Kafka’s manuscripts were preserved and eventually were published. Translated. And have pretty much stayed in print continuously since then. Allen Ginsberg used to hound and nag several of his opiate addicted and petty criminal friends to get busy writing. And then he’d do most of the leg work acting as agent to find publishers for their texts. Including, to a great extent, William Burroughs.
A book is a book. It is the rarest of things for a book to have only been seen by the eyes of the author alone. Even if it’s only shared as a work in progress with one other person that person may be the only one that matters initially. And ultimately. In this there is some analogy to the act of writing a letter.
Nothing can happen in a vacuum. Is it possible that nothing can happen on the supersaturated, extreme density of the internet either?
Tim R: Your last missive brought the song “Message in a Bottle” by The Police to mind. The part about a hundred million bottles washed up on the shore. Is it possible for nothing to happen on the internet, just like a vacuum? Probably not. Eventually your something is going to wash-up on someone else’s googled shore. And at some point doesn’t everything become just another giant cockroach?
Every Writer: As for self-promotion. At what point does self-promotion and self-aggrandizing become one in the same? If everything is *Extreme to the Max!* which is now the new internet normal, how does a person rise above the noise? Do we go back to whispering? What is promoting on the internet and how do I do it without having to be physically naked or involved in a licentious act? -not rhetorical. i really have no idea.-