Special Guest Blogger Jo Conwrath: Why publishers are evil bastards and should be chained up in my back bedroom and flogged

Jo ConWrath has made a fortune from self publishing his eBooks, these include the bestselling Beer Shandy series which gives us the adventures of  private investigator, Worthington Best. ConWrath has gained a reputation for being critical about traditional publishing and here he tells us why publishing comes from the Dark Side.

Over to you Jo.

Jo ConWrath

Thank you - I've just put the finishing touches on my new novel, Shandy Bass and it will be up on sale on Amazon later this afternoon. Now if I'd sent that to a traditional publisher you wouldn't see it hitting print until later next year.

But that's not why I hate traditional publishing and want to see the industry dead, buried and mouldering in its grave. You see the writer does all the work and then sends off their nice shiny manuscript to the publisher, ie - the gatekeeper of doom. And all they do is edit it,design a cover, get it printed and distribute it - and for that they take most of the money leaving us poor writers with only a few pennies. I mean come on when did you ever hear of anyone making any money from traditional publishing? Stephen King makes nothing from his books, likewise J K Rowling and that James Patterson guy is living on the breadline and there's seventeen of him.



You see I had a dream and in that dream this angel dude showed me the way, he/she/it also told me that traditional publishing comes from the Dark Side and will seek to destroy us all. What we must do, the Angel said, is pledge allegiance to the likes of Amazon which is not a money spinning machine but a philanthropic organisation which supports small indpendent brick and mortar bookstores, and doesn't at all discount books so greatly that the publisher (bastards) and writer (good guy) suffers financially. Amazon, the angel told me, are wonderful and I was then instructed to bow down and worship at the feet of the Amazon.

The gatekeepers of doom would, if left alone, set the price of their own product - how dare they! They also turned down my first ninety nine novels - the stupid, soulless bastards. And you know what we don't need them because anyone who self publishes a novel will make a mint and never look at traditional publishing again. You'll never see writers making a splash in eBook form and then defecting to the gatekeepers of doom. The likes of Amanda Hocking and E L James breaking into traditional print and hogging the bestseller charts - it'll never happen. Listen to me because I am the guru of new age publishing and I have been chosen by the angel to show you all the way. And it's this way...straight past the Random House, take a left turn by the Penguin and dip your feet in the cool clear waters of the Amazon.

Thank you Jo - and check out ConWrath's own blog for a million and one rants against the gatekeepers of doom.













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