THE FEARFUL SYMMETRY OF HOCKING AND EISLER

This morning came word of Amanda Hocking's movie deal http: http://nyti.ms/hoXcUk  .  Never has so much happened in such a short time to one so young. Or at least not that I can remember. You just have to be happy for the kid who naively self-published her way into millions and now seems poised to become the new Stephanie Meyer. Last year:  $2 million sales online. Last week: A $2 million publishing deal. This week: the movie announcement.

Check out this amazing quote: “I’ve done as much with self-publishing as any person can do,” Ms. Hocking said in an interview on Thursday. “People have bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don’t have to keep using them. But I do think they have something to offer.” http://nyti.ms/h2YzVI .  Wow! How about that word "still"?  As if Big Pub is so yesterday. How long ago was it that any new writer on earth would have killed for the contract she just got and never questioned that it was the only way to go? Six months ago? Three months? A week?

Ms. Hocking's timing is amazing and maybe a bit ironic, coming as it does a week after her very own new publisher, St. Martin's Press, lost one of their other big authors to self-pubishing. Everybody's got something to say about it. Here's lee Goldberg: http://bit.ly/g1DcrZ .  He notes that a lot of the coverage of all this is  inept. Which is intimidating, considering I even blogs are coverage I guess. But here's what I think: This is a fantastic illustration of what publishing's become, and a look into the future. What we have here is an example of amazing symbiosis. Big Pub made Eisler and now he's going off to be an entrepreneur. Hocking turned her mom-and-pop venture into giant bucks and now she can reap the benefits Big Pub can give her. I say, you go, girl! And you too, Mr Eisler. Not to mention, dear old SMP-- they certainly recouped Eisler's loss about as flashily as possible. But I still bet they got a double dose of food for thought this week.