First, thank you for these posts. The comments on both creativity and practicality in the world of writing are fascinating.
I don't have the background to comment about agents, editors, and the specifics of publishing, but some of the comments in the linked blog rang true as parallels to things I've seen elsewhere: Essentially, short-sightedness in the name of good business causing long-term business losses.
There was a time when the pop music industry aggressively hunted and promoted what was new, different, and exciting. They created whole new markets and catalyzed music purchasing for a generation. Then somebody decided that smart thing to do *from a quarterly perspective* was to re-sell the sound of the most popular 3% of songs from last quarter. The result has been a 25 year implosion, blamed mostly on technology rather than their own abandonment of R&D.
I'm also old enough to remember a time in the software sector (at least) when companies had training budgets. It was assumed that investing in skills that the company needed would eventually pay back in productivity. That turned around as, one after another, organizations signed up for a "tragedy of the commons" scenario where they would choose instead to hire those that others had trained. Soon there were no "others", leaving hiring managers to complain about a lack of qualifications among thousands of applicants (or the failure of outsourcing, or the high cost of contract staff, or...).
All talk of the publishing industry gives me the impression that it also feels no need to take any responsibility for its own future.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-04-22 12:58 pm (UTC)I don't have the background to comment about agents, editors, and the specifics of publishing, but some of the comments in the linked blog rang true as parallels to things I've seen elsewhere: Essentially, short-sightedness in the name of good business causing long-term business losses.
There was a time when the pop music industry aggressively hunted and promoted what was new, different, and exciting. They created whole new markets and catalyzed music purchasing for a generation. Then somebody decided that smart thing to do *from a quarterly perspective* was to re-sell the sound of the most popular 3% of songs from last quarter. The result has been a 25 year implosion, blamed mostly on technology rather than their own abandonment of R&D.
I'm also old enough to remember a time in the software sector (at least) when companies had training budgets. It was assumed that investing in skills that the company needed would eventually pay back in productivity. That turned around as, one after another, organizations signed up for a "tragedy of the commons" scenario where they would choose instead to hire those that others had trained. Soon there were no "others", leaving hiring managers to complain about a lack of qualifications among thousands of applicants (or the failure of outsourcing, or the high cost of contract staff, or...).
All talk of the publishing industry gives me the impression that it also feels no need to take any responsibility for its own future.