I have served on awards juries--national and state level. The latter had a category of "self-published" books. It was by far the largest category. I read every single one. If I had any attitude about my superiority as a reader, mainly of literary fiction, it washed away. The sincerity, hope and desire to send words into the world by the self-published authors made me ashamed of my literary fiction self. I decided there are no bad books. Maybe they are not the book for me, but they are a book for the writer's heart and no one's heart is bad.
I've recently done a Substack about Mudie's Select Library. Before there were public libraries in Victorian England Mudie set up an empire of circulating libraries. If an author wasn't chosen by Mudie the author could not survive on writing. In the literature of that time there is a lot written about how literary fiction that didn't make Mudie's standards would be lost.
The cheering readers of MIT supporting Wire's jerky reviewer may feel they are too cool for school.. I think of all the self-published writers out there and Mudie's gatekeeping and what we lose by being absolute a**holes about other peoples' writing. I never heard of Sanderson, I never heard of the ambushing reviewer. But the ambusher is a callow, graceless insect.
I was quite distressed by the Wire piece. It was one of the most lumpen pieces I've ever read. Then children were killed in Nashville, and I didn't think about it anymore.
Yes, the Nashville shooting does put much in perspective.
I do think the dismissive attitude towards self published authors is kind of funny, since basically every book was self published before the 20th Century, and even within the 20th Century, many books were essentially self published, including Virginia Woolf.
Mar 29, 2023·edited Mar 29, 2023Liked by radicaledward
Now we know abt sensitivty readers, etc. I don't see value added by publishers except ads & distribution. Orwell could not find a publisher for Animal Farm and took out a loan to self-publish when a small publisher took a chance and made bank.
Distribution is probably the biggest benefit. Now most publishers rely heavily on the author marketing their own books, which is the same thing they'd do if they published it themselves.
One big difference between self publishing and traditional publishing is who gets paid and then the veneer of credibility.
"Anytime my son tells me to put down my phone, I want to cry."
Oh, god, yes. Little has ever made me feel worse than hearing my son's tiny voice say that and then I realize I'm online and don't even know why. Fuck the tech.
Incidentally, right after I read that part, my son snuck up behind me and wrapped his pudgy little arms around my neck and hugged for dear life, while saying, "I love you, Mama!” Hopefully, you can forgive me for dropping this article like a hot potato and snuggling him instead. (I did finish it later!)
Mar 28, 2023·edited Mar 28, 2023Liked by radicaledward
Gah. People love Sanderson because of his world building, right? That he comes up with elaborate systems that are coded into types of metals or colors of fairies or whatever. And its all simple in a way, but it appeals to a certain kind of ASD adjacent nerd who likes elaborate systems (I feel I can say this as someone who falls into this category). It's incredibly interesting that such a outwardly bland person has an intensely creative inner life. A person that wants to only eat at Appleby's spends all his time dreaming about grand adventures and being a hero. In some ways, even if Sanderson is a garden variety weirdo nerd, he's just like all of us.
Compelling television has been made exploring Trekkie conventions and other nerd stuff. This topic should be no different.
Definitely agree. I think Flaubert said that he lives a boring life so he can be creative in his work, and I think that probably applies well to Sanderson as well.
I don't particularly like Sanderson's writing or even his worldbuilding, but being unable to find interest in someone like this says more about the person writing the profile than the subject.
I rate Sanderson as fine. I liked Mistborn, but his other works were too hefty to get through. I got through 500 pages of Way of Kings and then I gave up. If someone handed me a free copy of the next Mistborn book and I was heading for a vacation, I would probably read it.
I don't love his writing, but I did get caught up in the underlying mythology of the Cosmere, which I enjoyed. In Mistborn, he doesn't get into the Cosmere much, but it underlies all the writing, and that gives the story layers. I liked that.
I read a lot of fantasy in my younger reading but now tend to read older big books from 19th and 20th c. I've been reading a lot of HG Wells because seeing him imagining things that came to be is fascinating to me.
This was such an insightful piece, Ed. We need to start refusing to get angry when people write articles to make us mad for clicks. We really do have that power.
Incidentally, you are undoubtedly correct that Sanderson doesn’t have congenital insensitivity to pain because he is still alive. But there are degrees in pain sensitivity, and he may be at one end of the spectrum. I am--I almost walked out of the hospital with raging appendicitis because it didn’t hurt that much and I figured I was ok, and I almost didn’t make it to the hospital in time to have my daughter because I was in labor for six hours without knowing it. (I thought, “Everyone says labor hurts, but this doesn’t really hurt, so it must be something else.)
I have served on awards juries--national and state level. The latter had a category of "self-published" books. It was by far the largest category. I read every single one. If I had any attitude about my superiority as a reader, mainly of literary fiction, it washed away. The sincerity, hope and desire to send words into the world by the self-published authors made me ashamed of my literary fiction self. I decided there are no bad books. Maybe they are not the book for me, but they are a book for the writer's heart and no one's heart is bad.
I've recently done a Substack about Mudie's Select Library. Before there were public libraries in Victorian England Mudie set up an empire of circulating libraries. If an author wasn't chosen by Mudie the author could not survive on writing. In the literature of that time there is a lot written about how literary fiction that didn't make Mudie's standards would be lost.
The cheering readers of MIT supporting Wire's jerky reviewer may feel they are too cool for school.. I think of all the self-published writers out there and Mudie's gatekeeping and what we lose by being absolute a**holes about other peoples' writing. I never heard of Sanderson, I never heard of the ambushing reviewer. But the ambusher is a callow, graceless insect.
I was quite distressed by the Wire piece. It was one of the most lumpen pieces I've ever read. Then children were killed in Nashville, and I didn't think about it anymore.
Yes, the Nashville shooting does put much in perspective.
I do think the dismissive attitude towards self published authors is kind of funny, since basically every book was self published before the 20th Century, and even within the 20th Century, many books were essentially self published, including Virginia Woolf.
Now we know abt sensitivty readers, etc. I don't see value added by publishers except ads & distribution. Orwell could not find a publisher for Animal Farm and took out a loan to self-publish when a small publisher took a chance and made bank.
Distribution is probably the biggest benefit. Now most publishers rely heavily on the author marketing their own books, which is the same thing they'd do if they published it themselves.
One big difference between self publishing and traditional publishing is who gets paid and then the veneer of credibility.
"Anytime my son tells me to put down my phone, I want to cry."
Oh, god, yes. Little has ever made me feel worse than hearing my son's tiny voice say that and then I realize I'm online and don't even know why. Fuck the tech.
Incidentally, right after I read that part, my son snuck up behind me and wrapped his pudgy little arms around my neck and hugged for dear life, while saying, "I love you, Mama!” Hopefully, you can forgive me for dropping this article like a hot potato and snuggling him instead. (I did finish it later!)
Kids really do know how to melt hearts, haha
Gah. People love Sanderson because of his world building, right? That he comes up with elaborate systems that are coded into types of metals or colors of fairies or whatever. And its all simple in a way, but it appeals to a certain kind of ASD adjacent nerd who likes elaborate systems (I feel I can say this as someone who falls into this category). It's incredibly interesting that such a outwardly bland person has an intensely creative inner life. A person that wants to only eat at Appleby's spends all his time dreaming about grand adventures and being a hero. In some ways, even if Sanderson is a garden variety weirdo nerd, he's just like all of us.
Compelling television has been made exploring Trekkie conventions and other nerd stuff. This topic should be no different.
Definitely agree. I think Flaubert said that he lives a boring life so he can be creative in his work, and I think that probably applies well to Sanderson as well.
I don't particularly like Sanderson's writing or even his worldbuilding, but being unable to find interest in someone like this says more about the person writing the profile than the subject.
I rate Sanderson as fine. I liked Mistborn, but his other works were too hefty to get through. I got through 500 pages of Way of Kings and then I gave up. If someone handed me a free copy of the next Mistborn book and I was heading for a vacation, I would probably read it.
I don't love his writing, but I did get caught up in the underlying mythology of the Cosmere, which I enjoyed. In Mistborn, he doesn't get into the Cosmere much, but it underlies all the writing, and that gives the story layers. I liked that.
I read a lot of fantasy in my younger reading but now tend to read older big books from 19th and 20th c. I've been reading a lot of HG Wells because seeing him imagining things that came to be is fascinating to me.
Walter Mitty wasn't alone.
Fire essay.
This was such an insightful piece, Ed. We need to start refusing to get angry when people write articles to make us mad for clicks. We really do have that power.
Incidentally, you are undoubtedly correct that Sanderson doesn’t have congenital insensitivity to pain because he is still alive. But there are degrees in pain sensitivity, and he may be at one end of the spectrum. I am--I almost walked out of the hospital with raging appendicitis because it didn’t hurt that much and I figured I was ok, and I almost didn’t make it to the hospital in time to have my daughter because I was in labor for six hours without knowing it. (I thought, “Everyone says labor hurts, but this doesn’t really hurt, so it must be something else.)