On the spec fiction malaise

I've linked to this blog entry from Responsible Nanotechnology and it might seem like an odd source for speculative fiction commentary. It was to me when I read it...but I guess with nanotechnology as a bastion of future possibilities, it makes sense in a way.

Anyhow, it is an interesting article that reflects on the drying up of speculative fiction from the perspective of near-future-based stories. The writers, they largely contend, are not being as gutsy as past writers about making prognostications. The dissection that follows feeds off of scientific and societal reasons for this "malaise."

I'd like to propose a different reason: the changes in the publishing industry. Over the past 5 years, writers have had various options open up to them. New ways emerged for getting their books read that didn't previously exist. I remember the first electronic books being read around my office around the turn of the millennium...incidentally, the same turning point being analyzed in Responsible Nanotechnology. Also, I started noticing the mainstream Print on Demand options surfacing by major corporations like Barnes and Noble over the past 3-4 years. So, I think that the new publishing options are the key to changing speculative fiction perceptions.

On a personal account, I had published interactive and short works in my past. So, I could have gone the route of selling my speculative fiction story idea through a traditional publisher. But they are publishing such formulaic works that I largely consider devoid of ingenuity and fresh style that it scared me to bother with them. Why would I want to climb that hill of attention gathering for my work and then face another hill of editorial battles? Publishers need to stick to the formula that sells...it's smart business. However, it's not good for the expansion of literary works.

You can have an established writer like Cormac McCarthy, who had already made a name for himself and obeyed the formulas early on in his career, break into speculative fiction with The Road and wow audiences. But what if a writer doesn't want to spend the years on this publishing exercise...that was my case. I'm too far along in life to start playing a new game and I wanted to write my book my way with a fresh voice and an unedited view of our possible future.

So, enough of the personal account...back to fitting it into the argument: with changes in publishing moving along at a fast clip, the wise speculative fiction writer is perfectly poised to publish in a future mode. After all, if you're a speculative fiction writer, you're a futurist. The future of publishing is emerging, so I want to write where it will live 5 years from now. So, I published my book in the future fashion: print on demand.

If the mainstream publishing world wants fresh speculative fiction, they'll go and find it...wherever it lives. On this note, I think Responsible Nanotechnology is seeing a genre in flux. I don't think, however, that it's going through a malaise. It's not drying up. Rather, you have to start looking in different places to find the best of it...with the obvious exception of Mr. McCarthy who is this year's speculative fiction paragon.