Thoughts on Publishing
At least a part of the reason that the publishing industry is undergoing the major changes currently
in progress is truth. If you were to look back historically you would
find that newspapers and magazines were often outlets for fiction and
writers like Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and others
had stories printed in papers and magazines.
Fiction was labeled as fiction and published. Opinions and essays were
published for iconoclasts like H.L. Mencken but the news and opinion
and fiction were identifiably separate. Papers might contain a story
and people would read and enjoy them. Now, needing content but
convinced that conflict, sex, money or violence is needed to get
readers the papers having long since abandoned fiction for fiction's
sake are adopting fictions as long as they fit the mold of being
alarming enough to get interest.
Truth has become secondary to economic survival. You can witness this
in television news as well. A 'bean counter' somewhere will buy a story
and the media will report it more based on its alarming qualities,
hoping to gather attention and this is where truth may receive her most
severe beating.
Clark Kent beware. Your profession and the standards of Truth, Justice and the American Way are at odds.
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I
am proposing that newspapers need fiction. It was a part of the
original business model. People like a good story. All that really
needs be done is adding it in and labelling it as such.
People bought Will Rogers and his approach. People bought the
"Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County" and enjoyed it. Why?
Because there is an urge to be amused and know that a story is just
that. No need to alarm your readers into reading them.
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