We Have An Obligation to Obliterate Corruption in the Publishing Industry
Important voices are being deliberately suppressed and it has to stop
I’m fortunate enough to be able to make my living as a writer. I’ve worked hard in this field for decades and I’ve amassed a substantial following. Despite my achievements, I never get any attention at all from traditional publishers or legacy media.
This is an injustice.
When I write about this issue, people often say, “Well, if you’re doing so well you don’t need a big publisher anyway.” But that comment completely misses the point. Just because my belly is full doesn’t mean I disregard the plight of the hungry. Just because I am free doesn’t mean I disregard the plight of the oppressed.
Unfortunately, the majority of the citizens of the United States of America seem to have adopted a “me first” mentality. Whenever they encounter an obstacle, they look for a way to get around. They never spend any time considering how the obstacle might be dismantled for the sake of the people who follow.
The simple fact of the matter is that not everybody is able to overcome every obstacle. The more obstacles we dismantle, the greater our collective power becomes.
I look around and I see a lot of articles that lecture aspiring writers on how to find success. Most of the time these are articles written by people who have absolutely failed at becoming writers themselves. Even so, they’re inclined to come out of the woodwork to criticize me when I point out the flaws in the system.
At some point we have to collectively acknowledge that the gatekeeper system is a relic of white supremacy. It’s not designed to uncover work of merit. Instead, it’s designed to block any narrative that goes against the established norm even when that narrative might be of benefit to all humanity.
Ultimately, the thing that drives the proliferation of this corrupt system is laziness. The majority of people want to believe it’s possible to send off a manuscript to an agent who will immediately recognize its brilliance and hand out a six figure contract. People clutch onto these stories as if they’re the rule rather than the exception.
The truth is that the literary contracts that do get handed out aren’t much different than the much publicized acts of performative charity handed out by billionaires. These are men and women who occupy seats of unmatched social privilege who demand to be worshiped when they take an action that completely fails to resolve any problem.
They put band aids on wounds that require tourniquets and they expect to be showered with praise.
The system doesn’t work.
I always find it interesting how otherwise intelligent people become the victims of mental mechanisms that render them incapable of perceiving the truth. Everybody wants to skip through the daisies pretending everything is fine. They need to look around and accept they’re running right into the raging heart of a forest fire.
I need every single writer out there to accept the possibility that our literary industry is corrupt.
Yes, I personally have figured out how to survive and continue to write outside the system, but the route I took isn’t available to everyone. That means that the voices of many brilliant writers will be forever lost to history.
That’s a tragedy.
At some point our society has to cultivate an empathy that recognizes the existence of atrocities that happen beyond the bubble of our personal comfort. To lecture me with, “What are you complaining about, you seem to be doing fine,” completely misses the point.
It’s not about me, it’s about all those who don’t have the good fortune to crawl over the obstacles the way I did. They are just as much human as I am. They have important stories to tell. The fact that they can’t get by those obstacles on their own is exactly the story that everyone in our society needs to hear.
We have to stop making excuses for the cruel and incompetent gatekeepers who only want to keep the doors of prosperity closed for everyone else. The system as it currently exists is completely unacceptable. It has to be dismantled and rebuilt.
I’m in the unique position of being able to reveal this truth with a certain amount of credibility. If I’d never found any success as a writer, it would be easy to say, “Well, he’s just frustrated because he wasn’t good enough.”
My achievements as a writer prove that I am good enough. The lack of interest I get from traditional publishing also reveals an ugly truth the industry cannot hide. They are not interested in publishing voices of merit.
The moment you accept that, you become free to explore the topics that are truly important. Most writers waste their entire lives listening to the false advice of dishonest gatekeepers who will never provide assistance.
Take a step back and recognize who your enemies are. Mainstream publishing isn’t about money, it isn’t about merit, it isn’t about storytelling. They only care about maintaining a cultural narrative of cruelty and maintaining their own position of power.
Stop purchasing books by mainstream publishers. Stop listening to the lies of agents. Stop rewriting your work of genius into a vampire/werewolf romance for tweens.
The corrupt publishing industry is lying to you.
Take it from a writer who made it despite never receiving anything but scorn from the establishment.
The "I've got mine"attitude of many in our country will go down in history As a total precipitant of our current situation and the coming/ now "getting underway" downfall of America. This is perhaps worldwide, but I only feel qualified to call what I see. How does leaving any human behind benefit us as a society? Many of these humans will be children, born into situations that are no fault of their own. But screw them! Must be in the DNA, huh?!? Certainly not the fault of flawed systems with built in biases. If only our default settings would have been "set" on empathy and education rather than "look at me! I'm a bigly important idiot"....Love the commentary on the publishing jungle. This IS the basis of our society since Gutenberg made widespread communication/ sharing of ideas possible. How much different would our world have been if Gutenberg would have been African, Asian or anything besides gatekeeping European/ Western world aligned?
You are spot-on, Walter! We have right as human beings and citizens of this country, to have totally accurate information conveyed to us, and not what some small pod of elites thinks we should hear/see. We have an obligation to not only disrupt the latter, but to highlight it as well. That's why we enjoy your communications so much! Thank you!