… If you’re actually in publishing and not lumber distribution.
Hat tip to author Rawle Nyanzi for documenting this frank admission from Tor Books editor Beth Meacham:
For years, I’ve called out legacy New York publishers for being in the lumber business instead of the story business.
A book isn’t reducible to bound wood pulp pages. It’s the story written on the pages.
Yet oldpub apologists doubled down on equating their paper-pushing cartel with “The Publishing Industry.”
Now, as predicted, the paper distribution monopoly that was oldpub’s lifeline is crumbling under assault from Corona-chan.
Real publishers connect readers with stories they’ll enjoy. Newpub authors–including me–have seen increased sales while officers of RMS Oldpub scurry for the lifeboats.
The entertainment industry, more than any other, has always displayed remarkable resilience in the face of economic downturns. Not even the Great Depression could take down Hollywood–though the Death Cult will.
Yet survival is predicated on an entertainment enterprise actually producing entertainment people want in an easily accessible form. That’s why newpub, with our fast, lean production and delivery systems, is poised to redefine “The Publishing Industry.”
Aloof Manhattan editors once smugly referred to themselves as the industry.
If newpub authors keep providing readers with entertaining stories they like, the industry will be us.
In that vein, here’s a little glimpse of newpub’s future:
Newpub authors and readers–you know what to do!