January 22, 2018
More Writers than Readers: The Downside of Publishing Freedom
At the banquet following my doctoral defense, a colleague asked me about my future plans. I mentioned that, among other things, I planned to continue writing fiction. That colleague then said something that made quite an impression on me: “The problem with writing fiction nowadays is that there are more writers than readers”. Those words really resonated with me. I don’t know if this is actually the case – instinctively I would say “it can’t be” – but I’m afraid if not literally true, then it’s pretty damn close. You don’t need me to tell you what that means in terms of supply-and-demand economics.
In the first article written for this blog, I had said this:
I hope I don’t come off as too self-important when I say that people like me […]with the artistry to create and populate fictional worlds and characters (that are still allegorically linked to “reality”), would have been revered masters and teachers in another time and another place.
This is an extreme example of the very same situation, only in reverse. It alludes to times when writing (that is, literacy itself) was not a given. To be able to write and write fiction, to boot, was something akin to witchcraft. I suppose we tend to be mesmerized by things we don’t understand; to me, knitting is like quantum physics.
But nowadays, although there might not necessarily be more writers than readers in a literal sense, the number of people who have the possibility to write something they call fiction, publish it in some way, and make it accessible to a wide – indeed an international – audience has skyrocketed.
The Imbalance of Power: There is a Reason there might Be more Writers than Readers
There is another side to all this, however. One that I hadn’t mentioned in that earlier article. True, there just might be more writers than readers in our times, but that reveals another facet: writing, publishing, and distributing a novel has become incredibly more accessible. This is something that has occurred in our lifetimes, as a result of the digital revolution.
Before computers and the Internet, you had to type your novel (or, heck, write it with a pen; not everyone owned a typewriter). Then you had to gather the sheets comprising your manuscript (probably not revised more than once, maximum twice) and physically take them to a publisher – normally one around the corner. If it was rejected, that was it. You could try a couple more publishers (if there were any around where you lived), but basically it was the end of it. In some circumstances, maybe you could convince a local magazine to print some short stories.
All this changed with the Internet. Not only can you publish your own book – as a physical, paperback copy – but also make it available internationally. And it costs almost nothing, if you don’t want any copies for yourself. Creating and publishing an eBook costs literally nothing. No wonder, then, that basically anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection has done it.
The Problem of Having more Writers than Readers
I hinted at this in the first paragraph. Put simply, when you have more writers than readers, you have too many books and not enough people to read them. At this point someone might come and say something like “well, the best works will surface anyway”. No, I’m afraid that’s not the case. When you have a vast ocean of noise, the only thing that surfaces is flotsam and jetsam. In other words, it’s not the best but the loudest that are heard.
“So what then?” one might still counter-argue, “We can’t just forbid people to write and publish their books, surely…” And indeed, that is obviously an impertinent thought. At the same time, we must acknowledge a certain paradox: while the average quality of works has suffered (because there is a vast number of mediocre or even poor works), the absolute number of high-quality novels has indeed increased (because there are more great authors able to put their work out there).
So, the way I see it, there’s nothing we can do about the fact of having more writers than readers. Perhaps the only thing we can do (albeit idealistically speaking) is to try to make better readers and better writers (those two go hand-in-hand). In turn, this is directly connected with making better citizens; better students; better humans. I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds less probable than discovering a baby unicorn…
3 Comments
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There are still a huge proportion of people who can’t or won’t write, including those who, according to them, have nothing to say.
I agree there are too many writers; as Flannery O’Connor once said, the schools don’t discourage enough of them. But where before it was agents who stopped the further progress of anything they didn’t like, now it has to be the marketplace.
I don’t see the advice ‘learn how to write a whole lot better’ given on most writer’s sites. Because judgment is now suspect. They get, instead, marketing advice about turning out ‘books’ faster, and getting them out there. For ‘their’ readers.
Ah, well.
You make great points – by the way, I think I’ll need to make a t-shirt with the “schools don’t discourage enough of them” part printed on!
I think she was exaggerating. Or possibly meaning those who went through writing programs. Or MFA programs.
The problem is knowing WHICH writers to discourage.
We do have the phenomenon so loved by traditional publishers: publishing to great fanfare the debut novel of someone right out of school – who then sinks like an anvil.