Over the weekend, an outfit called The Guild of Outsider Writers sent out an email with the text of a petition it had put together demanding an alternative literature section on Amazon.com. Now, I’ve seen a lot of begging to the powers that be in the book world since I started blogging—oh, Oprah, please bring back the book club; oh, newspaper publishers, please leave some space for my freelance reviews—but I’ve never been as underwhelmed as I was by this entreaty.
It starts with an untruth: “Click on ‘Books‘ and you will find extensive listings for everything from Graphic Novels to Performing Arts to SF and Fantasy,” writes Victor Schwartzman. “There is even a Poetry category. There is not such a Literature category, though.” Actually, there is; it’s called “literature & fiction,” and it’s not that hard to find. But what Schwartzman really means is that there isn’t a separate section for “alternative” literature, so all the “alternative” stuff is both “crowded out by the mainstream books” and “buried among the mainstream products.” I’m surprised it wasn’t drowned by all the mainstream books and shoved aside by the mainstream products while they were at it.
Schwartzman is right when he observes that “Amazon is an extremely important online sales tool for independent publishers and authors,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean the store should create a special section for them—and it certainly doesn’t mean that the store, or readers, should make the mistake of conflating “independent publishers” and “alternative literature.” Schwartzman complains, “If you are looking for ‘Alternative’ you have a problem,” and I agree—if you’re looking for a book, and you’re saying to yourself, “I want to find me some alternative literature,” there’s a good chance you’re a poseur. (Seriously, has the word “alternative,” as opposed to “independently produced,” had any cultural utility since Nevermind went platinum? The last three NBA fiction winners have been Richard Powers, William T. Vollmann, and Lily Tuck; are they somehow insufficiently “alternative” by virtue of those prizes or by being published by international conglomerates?)
Looking for something “alternative” to read is simply not the same thing as looking for something good to read, or even something challenging to read, and there’s no reason to pretend that it is—even for indie presses. Instead of defining one book in opposition to another, one author in opposition to another, or even one publisher’s front-and-backlist in opposition to another’s, it would be far more effective—and a bevy of independent publishers already know this—to call attention to this so-called “alternative literature” on its own merits rather than slapping a meaningless label on it in the hope of snagging lazy consumers. Instead of complaining that Amazon doesn’t have a special section for you, create what Seth Godin calls a “purple cow” and make it impossible for people who care about literature to ignore you, your book, or your press. And here’s some free advice: Calling yourself an “outsider” isn’t going to be enough.
