Red Room Where the Writers Are

Why has John Le Carré left his publisher out in the cold?  is the headline in The Guardian today!

"The relationship between writers and their paymasters has always been uneasy, as the veteran author's move demonstrates."_The Guardian

This seems to be true historically!  The article in The Guardian gives some famous examples.  Now there is no loyalty, but as The Guardian suggests, "who cares?"  Furthermore the story finishes off with the loyalty card, "Where publishers are concerned, there's no identifiable editorial friend to be loyal to any more. So why be loyal?"

There seems to be a shift and at what price to authors is the question that concerns me.  How could that happen?  The news everyday seems to be so negative that it might just reduce the noble calling of writing to hobby status.  There is a delusion of expectation that because the Internet exists then it is responsible for this publishing world mess.

If household name authors are made to look like they are in some time-warped chaotic flux then it is the fault of mainstream media.  There is more enthusiam for writing in areas that are not mainstream media channels of distrubution of information.  How do we know [writers] who to listen to?  Worse, what do authors say when they are asked by bright eyed students who dream of being writers?__that answer used to be quite simple to answer, but given what is going on I really think there is nothing to say.  Now how inspiring is that to our youth?

via The Guardian