(via Matt Bell)

This Guardian article gets a big amen from me:

The literary world only bestows acceptance, it seems, on those who are published through the traditional avenues. Independent and small presses get short shrift – national newspaper supplements seem loath to review indie books, the big high street sellers won’t stock them, unless the books are about the tough lives of mill girls or histories of public house names, which can be shoved on a shelf marked “local interest”.

<…snip…>

But there’s a sea of dross in the worlds of pop music and movies, too. Quality rises to the surface there, so if the literary industry can relax its perceived inherently snobbish attitude to the output of anything other than the established, traditional publishers, perhaps the same will happen with independent, small press and even self-published books.

Someday I’ll be brave enough to publish my rant/bitch/whine about the stigma of self-publishing in the literary writing world. I think it’s becoming clear that in the current book market, traditional venues are losing ground. In the meantime, read the The Guardian’s take on the subject.