For those of you who enjoy a good read, today's reading market offers so much for you to choose from. While most people still believe that the way to find good reading material is to visit the bookstore or library, the fact is that this is simply woefully incomplete.
Today's mainstream (or Lamestream) still offers the plethora of reading from those who have made the publishing grade and those who harbor the celebrity status, but there is simply so much more to choose from. Now, I don't want to knock or criticize those who have achieved success in writing and publication; I applaud their success and wish them more of it. The purpose of this writing is to point towards the other choices that are equally worthy of the ardent reader's attention. Not just that, but I want to point towards places where one can find writing that went beyond what the mainstream claims the public desires, often without the public's permission.
Today, technology has opened doors to readers hitherto never seen before. The eReader such as Kindle has opened doors never before imagined, particularly for the writer. The writers out there who vied for publishing success (I feel your pain) but have yet to get there have options available. Places such as PublishAmerica and Smashwords, Kobo and Diesel, and Amazon offer places for today's aspiring writers to offer their work for the public to explore.
Now, there are critics stating these avenues open the door to less than ideal work as well as offering publishing without standards, and they're absolutely correct. There are people out there cranking out work utterly hopeless and just plain bad. Many of these people have fallen into the realm of bad self indulgence, thinking they can publish a book just like anyone else, regardless of the so-called quality as defined by others. There are those who need to look up the following words in the dictionary- punctuation, grammar, standard, editing, shame, shamelessness, and cheesy. There are more, but this will suffice for now. The pages and pages of available publications are filled with poorly written work created by people who didn't give one damn.
But they are not the only ones there. There are so many people who are extraordinarily good writers who, for whatever reason, have yet to achieve success or simply never will. Look, there are just too many at this for all of them to make it. But because these choices are filled with both good and bad writing, it makes this even more fun for those seeking the better work.
I have found several books and stories in places such as PublishAmerica and Smashwords that have been downright remarkable in how impressive they are. Not only are they good reads, but excellent in their writing standards. The truth is that, should one desire to write and want to be recognized as a writer, the pathway is so, so daunting. For those of you who know me, you know I have pursued these things with very little commercial success. But what I have found is the writer can achieve a certain level of readership without the permission of literary agents, publishing houses, and critics.
Lately, I have been on a mission of finding quality work among the obscure rank and file and passing on the findings via reviews written on Yahoo! through my page there. So, keep watch of my articles; you'll be seeing reviews for books and anthologies that are available for cheap or free but are virtually priceless in their literary value.
At the moment, I can tell you to go to www.lancemanion.com, should you be a fan of bizarre humor. I recently wrote a review for The Ball Washer and I am waiting to see it published. It's just that Yahoo! keeps rejecting it. The fuckers. But this clever and fun writer is someone I stumbled onto via Smashwords.
If you check him out, let him know you discovered him through right here.
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