DBW Interview with Hugh Howey

[Brian G Turner]

A new interview with Hugh Howey:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2016/dbw-interview-with-hugh-howey-author/

The closer and closer I get to the publishing industry, the more I find myself agreeing with a lot of his criticisms of traditional publishing.

However, I can't help but feel that Howey's privileged position of having already succeeded makes him a less and less qualified observer. He succeeded with self-publishing years ago - but if he tried to publish new material under a different name, he might better appreciate the increasing problem of trying to create visibility in a flooded market. Making connections with readers is great when you have them, but having readers in the first place is the really big challenge.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

It seemed a little preachy to me, to be honest. And while I agreed with some of his points, he did seem to gloss over some aspects of the self-publishing journey and made it sound incredibly easy.

When I got to where he was asked if, despite a lot of high-quality self-published books there were also some "inferior" stuff is where I nearly fell off my chair laughing. Perhaps I should send him a list of books that I started to read and abandoned because they were so terrible? I shall call it the Poop List...

 

[E.Maree]

I find Hugh Howey's advice frustratingly binary -- he's ruthlessly pro-self-publishing, pushing that agenda to the point of spreading disinformation. Howey's made a career out of being "one of the most vocal proponents of self-publishing", so all of his interviews have a clear agenda to push, and I find it hard to trust him. And while some of his criticism against trade publishing is accurate, stuff like the below is ridiculous...

They should focus on genre works, move to shorter work lengths, and break up non-fiction into salable chapters that readers can “complete” as they might a full music album. They need to pay monthly via direct deposit.

I don't know any readers who'd be interested in a subscription model, let alone buying non-fic in micro-transactions a chapter a time. Micro-transactions and subscriptions are popular business models, sure -- you can overcharge for content, and rake it in when people forget to cancel their subscription -- but they are not kind to the consumer. They're predatory.

I deeply dislike treating readers like mindless consumers to be fooled.

His refusal, in the interview, to even consider the positives of traditional publishing for new writers is irritating. As is him not acknowledging that readers need to sift through a lot of dreck to find self-published gems.

There are positives to both sides of publishing. Honestly, I much prefer reading posts by hybrid authors, who can see the pros and cons on both side of the fence.

 

[Josh Hayes]

I enjoyed reading his blog and interviews a couple years ago, before he hit it big. He was extremely humble and it was fun to watch his unboxings and such. Now, almost everything he writes is preachy and kind of self-absorbed in my opinion.