Self-Publishing & Post Office Blues
The New York Times has an interesting article today about authors self-publishing and how it's eating away at traditional publishers like Random House. There are a number of success stories about authors who self-pubbed and were picked up by a major publisher. One they don't mention is N. Frank Daniels, a former Atlanta writer who self-pubbed his novel Futureproof with Lulu and had it picked up by Harper Perennial. The quote from the NYT piece that chaps my ass is from Lulu CEO Robert Young: "We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind," Young said. Yeah, what about all those micro-presses who use Lulu to publish some of the best poetry in the country? I suggest Young take an extra helping of STFU. Those "bad" poets are paying his salary.
Another interesting tidbit in today's news: the United States Post Office is falling on hard times because of economy and the Internet, so they want to cut mail service by a day. If you ask me, there's already some fuckery going on at the PO. I mailed something priority last week and it took six or seven days to arrive, while a package sent to me should have been here in four days and took two weeks. Since postage rates are going up yet again in May, pretty soon it will be just as cheap to use FedEx or UPS.
The cover concept for Conquering Venus will post on Friday morning. American Idol recap later tonight. Check back soon!
Comments
No way. I can't believe he said that. Jerky move indeed.
And, you said "fuckery." I love that word.
Jo and I are self-publishing Ouroboros, and I know the poems are excellent. The CEO of Lulu needs to learn some manners.
but I may have a chip on my shoulder about all this, too, because I have such bad luck with mail.
and anyone who's had to work with getting a publication out the door knows what a nightmare it would be for deadlines with only 5-day a week service! on a holiday weekend (and you know the PO takes every holiday it can get!), you'd have to ship on Friday - probably with some premium costs - to get something to a customer by TUESDAY. crazy.
As for the USPO, we don't get our mail but half the time, anyway, and it shows up at night when it does show up.
my PO is easily one of the worst in NYC, and i say that having lived in more places, and held more new york PO Boxes, than i can count. they don't deliver mail on saturday as it is, and haven't for years -- every couple of months we'll get token saturday mail.
other than picking up mail at the POB, i never use the post office for anything. i've got a stamps.com account and i print all my own postage, from stamps to priority labels. haven't had a single problem (though i'm picky about which mailboxes i drop my packages and letters into -- they are NOT all created equal).
Leah