The Cream Always Rises to the Top

Why We Don’t Have to Worry About Quality in a World Where Everyone is a Publisher

I think what people are most afraid of is that we’ll miss the good stuff. Somehow, if there’s too much of something, then the best will get drowned out. This applies to life as well as to music and to publishing.

Let me back up a bit. I just wrote a book, a novel. Don’t worry, that’s not what this article is about. I queried my novel 60 times and was rejected 60 times. The writing has been reviewed by some of the best editors and content writers in the world. I should know, I saw the tab. But, rejected nonetheless. What does this mean for digital publishing? This same story could be attached to 10,000 or so other writer’s whose work is rejected every year.

We’ve always trusted the agent/publisher system to deliver to us the very best of all the writing that’s out there. And usually, they do put out great work. But a lot of great work also goes unseen.

There is an obvious parallel here to the music industry. Just replace agents with talent scouts and publishers with record labels. The writer stars as a struggling band. As soon as iTunes went live, and the iPod was invented that entire business model became obsolete.

The same is true for the book industry with Amazon and CreateSpace. Self publishing is the norm now, not the exception.And while it used to be true that only bad writing and bad authors self-published, that’s not true anymore. As independent rapper Macklemore says, “I give it to the people, they spread it across the country.” No one can argue with his success.

For publishers and agents to buy into us, it means we are one in a million. If you’ve had a book published by the big five, this means your work is beyond reproach. It means that you’ve been vetted against other creatives by “experts” and those experts agree that you are in the top percent. Wait a second—this can’t be true either. Tons of poor writing is published by big publishers every year. The most notable examples being the Twilight series, and Snooki’s book but there are tons more.

So, as with the music industry (and to some extent all entertainment), the book industry has been afraid to embrace self publishing because it might mean that some shitty stuff will leak out into our perfect cultural cannon. Head front, eyes up: 95% of all writing is shitty. 95% of all art is shitty. It always has been. That’s why it’s so miraculous to find good art. To find that book that speaks as if it were written from your own closeted thoughts. So of course it stands to reason that 95% of self-published books are shitty. Apples = apples.

There has always been shitty stuff in the cultural cannon. Examples: the 1980s, Justin Bieber, the recent obsession with Miley Cyrus, the fact that Britney Spears is still making music.

Even for each of the examples above, someone will argue with me. Because art is completely subjective. It speaks something to the person looking/listening/reading. Sure we have to fit it into the cannon somewhere by classifying it, but that comes later.

So why don’t you have to worry about bad quality writing contaminating your delicate sensibilites?

Because you live in a bubble. You live inside of a bubble of the things you already like. That bubble feeds itself. It gets fed through personal recommendations from friends and family and also through recommendation engines like Pandora, Amazon, Goodreads, and Netflix.

You are insulated. You would have to go looking pretty hard—outside the bubble—for something that wouldn’t meet your expectations.

Consider this: Do you think bands like Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, Imagine Dragons or Of Monsters and Men would have ever broken into the mainstream if it weren’t for the democratization of music? The answer is no, my friends. Because, in order for that to happen, someone getting a fat paycheck would have had to take a chance. A risk. If you want your paycheck to continue being fat — risks are a threat.

Those bands exemplify quality. Critics and fans laud their creative efforts. Pre-digitization, they would’ve been thrust onto the indie club/mix tape circuit until they burned out. Their loyal fans would feel proud that they’d discovered something truly great that the majority knew nothing about. But overall, they wouldn’t have been rewarded for their efforts to follow their dreams.

Let’s apply this to books, now. At any one time there are 15,000 people working on books. There is no way that many people can possibly be published by major houses—advances are dwindling, representation is fading, and houses are closing left and right. This is the definition of a “dying category.” But does it stand to reason that maybe the next Arcade Fire of the book world is one in 15,000? Yes.

Essentially—the democratization is a great thing for you, as the reader. You’re getting access to things you never previously would have seen. Now, you have to be the agent, the talent scout and the critic. It’s up to you to decide what’s good. Not everything will be.But the good stuff will rise to the top: your top.

You can find the next great talent that’s tailored to you. Being that things are so subjective, you don’t have to be subjected to crappy art unless you just like crappy art.