Is the novel, along with other forms of traditional media, dying?

Valerie Stivers, a contributing writer for UnHerd, wrote a fascinating essay about the state of the American novel at Compact Magazine. People continue to hotly debate this particular medium’s relevance in an age of TikTok videos and longform podcast streaming. I have personally argued that fiction is a valuable artform and offers something unique to culture. However, like every other “traditional” medium, the novel has to learn how to survive in the new world of online, independent media. The question is if the novel will totally join forces with the new media or if it should still go through the traditional publishing gatekeepers.

Stivers argues that while many emerging writers are self-publishing on alternative media (like serializing novels on Substack), a lot of books that are produced this way lack literary quality. It turns that out that a good, sharp-eyed editor makes books a lot better. She writes,

 I have a pile of hyped galleys sitting next to me, and the prose is downright bad in all but one of them (which, actually, turns out to be from Penguin). This doesn’t mean that these writers don’t have potential; I think the rebellion-lit folks do have more ideas and more vision than the mainstream. Pistelli has some nice turns of phrase, if he could sift them out and identify them. And I personally like reading small-press books, with all their flaws, more than the conformist new releases from major publishers. But the rebellion-lit pitch—the books are great and publishers (and the reading masses) just don’t appreciate them — is dead wrong. 

The “rebellion-lit” writers resist the traditional publishing model, which involves to finding a literary agent, landing a book deal with a major publisher, and securing future publishing deals. These days, many fiction writers bypass the “gatekeepers” entirely. When all you have to do to get an audience is start a blog, write, and hit “publish,” who needs Penguin and HarperCollins?

I relate to the struggle many authors feel when it comes to publishing fiction. It isn’t easy. Agents take months to respond, if they ever do at all. Mainstream fiction is often ideologically confined and overly preoccupied with identity politics. Major publishers also tend to bank their hopes on a few big projects, like celebrity memoirs they know will sell well. Self-publishing, moreover, is much easier in the age of the internet. In addition, a lot of self-published material is obviously excellent. Before the internet’s cultural domination, beginning authors had to sweat it out just to get a bite. J.K. Rowling pitched a little story about a young wizard dozens of times before she landed a deal. What if she’d thrown in the towel? Maybe she would have published Harry Potter on Substack if it was available back then. Would it have succeeded? Would the algorithm have favored it? We’ll never know. We do know, though, that eventually a publisher gave her wonderful story the due it deserved.

Stivers’ piece on fiction and publishing illuminates the tension between the old and new forms of media. The old media vanguards are hard to enter and are not always vindicators of good quality. However, that doesn’t mean that everything independent media creates is good as gold, either. In my previous article for Mind Matters, I highlighted the contentious debate between comedian Dave Smith and author and journalist Douglas Murray. Murray, although a critic of liberally biased legacy media, still believes that the people who don’t understand history shouldn’t make controversial claims about Hitler and World War II. Truth still matters. Provoking and resisting the establishment, for Murray, isn’t enough.

In a similar way, then, while venues like Substack allow independent writers a voice, literary quality still matters. Perhaps we still need some kind of editorial gatekeeping to help writers meet their full potential. Writing good and interesting narratives is hard work, as Stivers also notes in her article. Self-publishing can tempt writers and other creators to grow numb for the need for feedback. It’s easy simply to get it done and get it out there. In short, then, excellence in craft and content still counts for a lot. And it is excellence that will endure.