I understand your point... I'm just not seeing where it actually is a point. You're essentially repeating and rephrasing what I'm saying like it changes something about my point.
The "mainstream publishing" is tracking and marketing to only a small fraction of the potential. There are vast swaths of people out there whose interests and needs aren't being catered to by them. Therefore, 1) the idea of "mainstream" is very much a mischaracterization and 2) there is plenty of room for alternative markets to grow.
And also, I think that while many people who don't read much else overhype the quality of the Harry Potter series, you're dismissing it unfairly. The shelves are full of things that are bland, easy to read, and inoffensive to pretty much everyone... but none of them can touch HP's numbers. The first book received an initially small publication deal because it seemed to fit the mold of so-called mainstream appeal... but it broke the mass market because of things unique to it that publishers don't select for.
If J.K. Rowling had gone to a publisher and said "I have a seven book series in my head that's all about how the way to defeat death is to learn to accept it" instead of "Look! Baby wizards!", she'd still be living in an unheated flat.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-04-07 07:18 pm (UTC)The "mainstream publishing" is tracking and marketing to only a small fraction of the potential. There are vast swaths of people out there whose interests and needs aren't being catered to by them. Therefore, 1) the idea of "mainstream" is very much a mischaracterization and 2) there is plenty of room for alternative markets to grow.
And also, I think that while many people who don't read much else overhype the quality of the Harry Potter series, you're dismissing it unfairly. The shelves are full of things that are bland, easy to read, and inoffensive to pretty much everyone... but none of them can touch HP's numbers. The first book received an initially small publication deal because it seemed to fit the mold of so-called mainstream appeal... but it broke the mass market because of things unique to it that publishers don't select for.
If J.K. Rowling had gone to a publisher and said "I have a seven book series in my head that's all about how the way to defeat death is to learn to accept it" instead of "Look! Baby wizards!", she'd still be living in an unheated flat.