I was thinking about Soviet censorship of writers in the
shower the other day, as one does. Having not long finished reading a couple of
books written in Soviet Russia (one that got past the censor and one that
didn’t) I was trying to work out why the one that was highly critical of a
totalitarian regime that suppressed creative thinking got published, whilst the
surreal work that explored the difficulty, even impossibility of successfully
putting anything into written words was blue pencilled. I was also wondering
whether living under the gaze of a censor (terrible as that is) did not make
better writers of those inclined to be subversive. They did, after all continue
to be subversive right under the very noses of those they criticised and got
away with it. They were forced by circumstance to be inventive.
Notwithstanding the thought that anything that makes one a
better writer must have some good in it (from a purely craft point of view) I
thanked my stars that I do not live in such circumstances. Advocating a
Stalinist state just to get better writing would be stupid and even I am not
that daft.
I was at the rinsing down stage by now and another thought
did strike me. Two in succession. After I recovered from feeling a bit faint, I
developed this second thought. We might not, as writers, live under a formal
regime of censorship but our work does face various forms of censorship
nonetheless if we follow a mainstream route to publication (self-publishing in
the modern age is something else altogether). Some are obvious and to be
welcome. I don’t want to pick up a book that is riddled with spelling mistakes,
typos, bad grammar, rubbish structure, and so on. It doesn’t mean such books
don’t get published, even after going through the mill. Book shops are full of
such tat. But for the most part they are properly designed and have the worst
of their errors removed.
But capitalism censors just as readily (if in different
ways) to any other socio-economic system. Books need to make a profit for the
companies that publish them. At least, there must be an expectation that a
given book will make a profit. You cannot expect such companies to make a loss.
They wouldn’t last. But they have got themselves in a bit of fix recently. Like
many other businesses they are staggering under increasing layers of people who
want their cut of the money without actually contributing anything to the
process that generates the money.
Books now get rejected on the grounds they won’t make enough
profit. It is no longer sufficient that they bring in more than they cost. Now
the level of profit must be increased to feed all those hardworking
shareholders and all the layers of middle men who don’t do very much.
If your book is out of the ordinary, exploratory, ground
breaking, has a small audience, then forget it. It will not generate enough
profit. It will not appease the free market dogma. It will feed the leeches in
the system. Therefore it gets censored. Good writing, stuff that doesn’t fit
the stupidly narrow pigeon holes invented by marketing people who really have
no conception of how writing works, stuff that is written by a dull looking
disabled person who won’t dazzle the camera or be able to get out and do all
their own promotion. It gets censored.
Thank goodness then for modern technology. These works rejected
by the capitalist censor at least stand a chance of being printed and
distributed (even if the average income is just above zero because reaching a
market when you are self-published is something that has yet to be cracked).
But whilst this alters the picture, it also throws
responsibility onto those who are taking this new route. It may be the future
of publishing so I beg of you – don’t foul the path; don’t shove out any old
crap because you think it’s a masterpiece. It most likely isn’t, but that doesn’t
matter. Only one in a hundred thousand of us are going to produce a work that
lasts for generations. The rest of us should aim to produce work of better
quality than you find in traditional print. Better designed, better written,
better edited. This isn’t difficult. You have friends. Involve them. You
probably know a struggling artist. Get them to do the cover. Learn how to
spell. Learn how to use your computer. Because if you don’t do these things you
will be just as bad as the mainstream that has rejected you and on which you
have turned your back.
