Follow & Contact me on:
A.B.PATTERSON
  • Home
  • Author Bio
    • Also: Q & A
    • Also: Author Talks Done
  • Works
    • Also: ALL ABOUT HARRY
    • Also: BOOK AWARDS
    • Also: BOOK REVIEWS
    • Also: FREE STUFF
    • Also: AT LIBRARIES
    • Also: MERCHANDISE
    • Also: ANTHOLOGY PROJECTS
  • MEDIA
    • Also: Archived News
  • Blog
  • READING
    • Also: MY READS
    • Also: Cops Writing Crime
    • Also: Crime Genre
    • Also: Anthology Corner
    • Also: Francophile Corner
    • Also: Dystopia Corner
  • Quotes
  • Contacts
    • Also: Links

Self-published authors - Democracy and free speech versus the Establishment!

11/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
"I'm a self-published author."
Uncomfortable pause.
Sounds like introducing yourself at an AA meeting, doesn't it?  We seem to have a similar stigma attached to us.
I haven't tried that line at a bar.  I'm guessing I'd bomb out badly.  Not that I try lines at bars anymore at my age!
But seriously, there's an epidemic of us, and VIVA US!!!
So my blog today is part of a concerted effort by a group of self-published authors to stand up and shout, "We are writers too. Writing is not owned by the publishing industry, the Establishment."
Now, there are all sorts of aspects of self-publishing that I could discuss, but I'm singling out democracy and free speech.  Let me elaborate.
Self-publishing is to writing what the Internet has been to communication: a democratic free-for-all.  And YES to democratic free-for-alls!  If you can't embrace the finest traditions of western liberal democracy, then go live somewhere else and try that. Perhaps North Korea, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or Russia, or China; the list goes on.
Every society in history has expressed its free spirit though its writers.  When writers are stopped from expressing themselves, the truths they reveal, in whatever genre they're writing, then fascism creeps in and freedom wilts away.  And we should never take that freedom for granted.  The camps and the barbed wire soon follow, when we lose sight of liberty and its values.
Self-publishing has become a open avenue for those so inclined, and more power to it.  Sure, there's crap out there in the self-published world.  But there's crap in the publishing Establishment, too.  
The crucial point is this: the traditional publishing Establishment has been an all-powerful censor of what's written and published.  But time has moved on.  No more can the Establishment have total control over what gets published in books, and therefore what is available to readers everywhere.
This is the true beauty of self-publishing - your voice can be heard.  Look, if you want lots of people to buy your writing, you're still going to have to produce good stuff.  And so you should.  But, and this is the kicker, you now have an avenue to exercise your right to express yourself to readers.
Gone are days of a select group of pretentious, egotistical wankers in the publishing industry determining what our whole society gets to read.
Power to the people, folks!
Cheers,
ABP


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    A.B.Patterson

    Bringing you hard-boiled and noir tales of crime and corruption. And various related opinions!

    Categories

    All
    A.B.Patterson AUTHOR
    Authors Uncensored
    Book Reviews
    Colonialism & Literature
    Cops Writing Crime
    Corruption
    Crime Writing & Authors
    Dystopian Writing
    Ethics
    Flowers & Trees
    France
    Liberty & Censorship
    Literature & Authors
    Planet Earth
    Power & Politics & Society
    Quotes

    Archives

    June 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    October 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly