Reading Response

Temple's An Argument for Writer's Taking Charge helped to sort of identify the zine world, and the literary world as well. The references to authors and publishers and their sites gave me an idea of where and who was a part of this culture. Sadly, some of the companies had died or converted but I realize the document was written in '05.

It was interesting to get a publisher's stance on self-publishing, and while, at first, I thought he could be a bit bias, he strongly supported it. In fact, he strongly pushed for it and argued the many benefits.

It was interesting too to see how the punk scene and zine culture are connected. And it was helpful to get a couple different avenues to self-publishing or self-promotion strategies.

The info about BookScan was maybe my favorite insight. I was comforted, but then disapointed to hear that most "best sellers" don't sell too many copies. Comforted because 5,000 seems like an attainable number but then disappointed that literature does so poorly next to film or music sales' numbers.

Ultimately I sympathized with the image of literature no longer having the same impact as it did decades ago.