What gives with these ‘literary’ competitions? Over the past year we have seen a number of large publishers launch the paper equivalent of American’s Next Top Model in a pageant likely to draw as much interest as the next blog launch: Oops, you missed it. As any aspiring novelist knows, assuming they are honest with themselves, the chances of getting a publishing house to respond let alone give their life’s work even fleeting notice is miniscule. Now this may not be the case with smaller houses but then who has the time or staff to review the slush pile with any degree of diligence? So, if the publishing companies are not facing some dire shortage of content what are they up to? Well just like American’s next Model, it’s really not about the pretty girls; it is about the people who watch the pretty girls. In the case of the publishing companies they are surely along for the ride as Amazon.com and Gather.com – two of the current partners of Penguin and Simon & Schuster respectively – look to increase awareness and traffic for their web based products and tools. So, should we be congratulating the publishing companies for being innovative and ‘with it’? This would be a reasonable reaction and perhaps they do deserve some kudos for the publicity and brand identification that goes along with the arrangement; however, these programs are paper tigers. I don’t believe they will have any positive long term impact on the publishing companies involved and in fact will influence a category of authors to associate Amazon, Gather.com and others as publishing platforms where they can develop, manage and launch their own content packages. Rather than partnering with these web platforms and social networks, publishers should be focused on developing their own capabilities that puts more control in the hands of their authors. In effect, publishers should themselves provide an umbrella of services for their authors that allow them to make some of their own decisions while still retaining the benefits of a relationship with a major publisher.
Posted by: Michael Cairns, Information Media Partners