I don’t often run obituaries or memorials in this column, but there are exceptions—especially when the person in question, Mike Shatzkin, has been a huge part of the indie landscape for many years.
ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
I draw on many sources for this column, and those sources have changed over the years. But when I first started, the one indispensable place to go was The Shatzkin Files, the fascinating, illuminating, and always opinionated column of Mike Shatzkin, who covered a lot of angles others weren’t, including regularly covering indie issues. The main thing I remember, though, is just how in-depth his pieces were. Every day there seemed to be not just an article, not just a long-form article, but a miniature thesis.
So I was, as many will have been, saddened to hear that Mike died on November 7. Thank you for the words, the force of will, and the wit over all the years, Mike.
Celebrity Authors and Industry Frustrations
I wondered what else to include in this particular column that would be fitting. Yet more stories on AI seemed out of place. But this weekend, I came across two “hot take” pieces. I don’t often report on hot takes unless the takes in question have gone viral, but these are both triggered by current events in the literary world. And whether he would have agreed with the takes or not, Mike would have enjoyed the debate they provoke.
So, in brief, first up is a piece I imagine many here will be on board with. Keira Knightley has become the latest celebrity to announce she will be publishing a children’s book. And The Guardian has a coruscating piece explaining many of the reasons why authors tend to feel frustrated by this trend. Largely, the piece focuses on celebrities not paying industry-specific dues the way writers have to, and automatically getting media attention. As an indie, many of those things won’t apply, of course. And I am often left to wonder if writers of such pieces suffer from a version of the overnight success myth.
The Debate on Open Access and Content Quality
Equally controversial is outspoken publisher Richard Charkin’s assertion that open access is destroying academic publishing and may soon impact the rest of us. Charkin argues that it incentivizes the publication of volume over quality and sees parallels in the race to zero on e-book prices. All of this, he suggests, might lead to AI-generated content flooding and overwhelming the market. I wondered whether “flood of…content” might be becoming the new “death of the novel” as a perennial hot take.
I am sure Mike would have had strong views on both!
