Guest Post: Jacquelyn Wheeler

Hello everyone and welcome! I was recently able to talk the lovely author, Jacquelyn Wheeler, into doing a guest post here at my blog. She is the author of the YA book series The Soterians; the first two books, Rising Shadow and Merger, are already out and available. Now if you will, give a warm round of applause for Jacquelyn as I have found it very hard to find authors who will do a guest post and cause she rocks. :P


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The Changing Face of Publishing
by Jacquelyn Wheeler

There’s a revolution going on.

You might have noticed it when you walk into your local mega bookstore and wonder why it’s half empty. Or you might have gotten a hint of it when you read a really good book and realized it wasn’t from one of the major publishing houses. And you can definitely see signs of it with the proliferation of book bloggers who are gaining hundreds of followers and shaping the direction of the books we buy and read.

The revolution is in publishing, and it’s a fascinating time. On the one hand, you have the slow demise of many bookstores, both independent and chain, which truly breaks my heart. But on the other hand, the old gatekeepers—agents and publishers—are slowly being replaced by bloggers and self-publishing services, which means that it’s now easier than ever to write a novel and actually get it into the hands of people who want to read it. True, you’re much less likely to strike it rich as an author when you go with a smaller press or self-publish, but most authors with the huge traditional publishers don’t make enough money to call it a living, either.

What this means is that more people can publish books, so we’ll have a much greater variety of authors to choose from. Even better, we’ll have a wider variety of books to choose from, because gone are the days when we only see what an agent and publisher thought was marketable. Yes, we’re still going to see a lot of copycats (another vampire book, anyone?), but we’re also going to see some really fresh ideas that maybe felt too fringe-y to an agent but is just what we’re dying to read.

Of course, some people are concerned that without gatekeepers, there will be an endless sea of garbage out there. How will we ever find good books to read amidst all the crap? You, savvy blog follower, already know the answer to that: book bloggers are the new gatekeepers. Bloggers love reading so much that they consume tons of books a year—some great, some garbage—to find the gems. Instead of complaining about how many awful manuscripts they have to review every day and endless slush piles, bloggers joyfully read everything they can get their hands on and write up their reviews—all in their spare time, and for free. We simply follow the blogs of people whose taste matches ours, and bingo! We have a steady stream of recommended books to add to our TBR piles.

So although there’s a lot of change happening in the publishing industry, I think it’s a wonderful time for authors and readers alike. After all, in my humble opinion, the main point of writing a book is to share a good story with readers, regardless of whether it’s got potential to be a best seller or just have a small following.

What a revolutionary idea.

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Well I don't know about ya'll but I just loved that guest post; Jacquelyn really made some good points and put things in perspective. I personally think that this is probably the best guest post I've had on my blog.

Well, what'd you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section. Jacquelyn and I would love to hear...er...read what you have to say. :D

The Soterians Series