Ursula Le Guin is Clueless

I couldn’t tell you anything about Ursula Le Guin. I can’t tell you how many books she’s published. I can’t tell you which genres she writes in. I can’t even tell you the name of just one of her books. But I at least know her name. Much the same as I know the names of other prominent authors who I’ve never read. But it is quite obvious that she’s clueless about the state of publishing. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, by reading an article she wrote. I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to read the full article here.

Over the course of the last year or so, many authors (prominent and not) have come out against Amazon. They’ve come up with reason upon reason for their ultimate decision. But the interesting thing about all of their gripes is that they never actually have anything to do with Amazon. They should be aiming their words at New York publishing. But you can’t do that when they’re giving you six-, seven-, or even eight-figure checks. The issue with prominent authors coming out against Amazon is that they have a very real stake in maintaining the status quo. It’s easy to toss around finely written statements that likely lead many to believe that their words must be true, but they’re not.

Now Ursula Le Guin has added her name to the list of authors who have spoken out against Amazon with no basis for their arguments. Amazon has done a lot for and to the publishing industry, but almost none of it is bad.

Now go read the article and tell me what you think of her words.

And don’t you think Ursula Le Guin should go ahead and remove her books from the site if she’s so against them? Oh wait, she probably has no control over that because her PUBLISHER does.

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On this day in 2014 I published What Writers Should NOT Post on Their Blogs.