Fiction Writers Are Ego-Whores

It's true and you know it. Even I am. We love to hear our own writing and see people reading it. So we'll do pretty much whatever we can to get our work read. Everything except betray our huge egos by publishing what we consider to be crap. Lower art. Blogs and zines are classic examples of our egotism. The main purpose is to get your voice heard. Does anyone really consider whether anyone else cares what their saying? Maybe. But from what I've seen, there are a lot of people who talk just to hear themselves speak. People with too much to say and no one to listen. Or rather, too much to write and no one to read.

Where do we draw the line of what is 'selling out' and what is not? It depends on what kind of writing you consider to be crap. In my opinion, any author who writes with no regard for his audience, writes crap. They are writing solely for themselves, and they just as well keep it to themselves. In others' opinions, writing for the undereducated, easily entertained masses is writing crap. While I certainly prefer to read literature, works that are written with audience in mind, but written to make them think, not just entertain - moneywise, writing for the masses is genius. If James Patterson would hire me, I'd take the job in a second. Pay off all my tuition in a month. Am I a sell-out? Am I lowering my standards? Am I unintelligent and, therefore, in a different class than my peers? Maybe. But I at least know that I need money to survive in this world. Sure the idea of bartering for goods and services has always sounded beautiful. But realistically, unless I know a farmer, it's not going to feed me and my family.

These people that are out there publishing zines, I totally support them. For the most part. I think the idea that they are 'fighting the man' is a little too self-important for my taste. And is it possible that they are people scorned by the conglomerates? Are they not in with Random House because they don't support what the conglomerates are about, or do they not support what they are about as a front because they couldn't make it into the large houses? What I don't understand is the need to 'fight the man'. Ever since I've known about independent presses, I've heard about this constant struggle against the conglomerates. I don't get it. Why do people feel the need to contrast themselves to something else in order to feel like an individual, different, unique? I've never heard any argument against the indies. Only against the big guys. As far as I know, all the conglomerates have done is sell books. Books that the indies think are garbage. Is that really such a crime as to spawn as much hatred as the indies have? Is this a one-sided argument? Or do the conglomerates hate the indies just as much? I want to hear the other side of this argument so I don't have to play devil's advocate anymore.