I agree that it’s unlikely that most editors and most publishers believe ANY of the works they publish are bad (though some obviously must know Britney’s Mom is no writer) but they are having to contend with the advent of new technologies and delivery systems and it’s kicking a lot of people’s asses.

Personally I loathe the genre classifications for anything that isn’t dead center in the middle of the definition. I know it’s a marketing tool that, in theory, helps the consumer identify those books that they are likely to enjoy but I hope the artificial boundaries that separate most works will dissolve sooner rather than later.

I listen to a personal radio station designed by me on PANDORA.COM. I plug in the name of an artist I like or type of music and, by trial and error, the site and I carve out a buffet of NEW ARTISTS that I’m likely to enjoy based upon the tastes I’ve already expressed. The more I use the site, the more accurate its choices for me become. To the point where it becomes 100% predictive of stuff I’ll enjoy.I would like to see publishing towards a model like that, one that does away with genre classification in favor of style, period and subject among other things.

I know Amazon has something like that, based upon buying patterns, but it’s nowhere near as specific for obvious reasons.

(apologies for typos. it’s late)

I think the people working for corporate entertainment vessels probably fall into two camps.

In camp A, we have the folks who mean well, but are completely out of touch with public taste.

And in camp B, everyone else is wringing their hands watching the ship go down, but for whatever reason they feel powerless to rock the boat they are sitting in.

I saw this a lot when I worked in the music industry. These are people. They’re not evil – some of them are clueless, but they’re definitely not evil. Many of them have families to feed. Or other reasons to justify maintaining the status quo.

More people on the inside than you’d ever imagine are surely just as frustrated as the people on the outside by the way the system works. The big difference is, they have a lot more to lose when they gamble.

It’s the people on the outside of the current system who have an opportunity to spark the most change. The people with nothing to lose.

And by the way, the music industry crisis is still ongoing. So for anyone who is quietly waiting for corporate publishing to sort itself out… my feeling is that you’ll be waiting a very long time.

I did not for one second intend to label Jason as a vampire novel hater.

Although that genre spawns some terrible, terrible writing in my own, very humble opinion.

I’m sure Jason finds some great vampire novels in his pile of wonderful/acceptable/awful things.

If only we considered Bram Stoker to be John Cleese. When he decided to stop, we should have stopped too.

More of this stuff! More!

Surprised at Jason’s whippy view of vampire books and Lexi’s assiduous web-work already! And, yes, lots of consensus…