Michelle's corner

One of the things that https://twitter.com/paperhaus posted recently and published on twitter, was a wish list for book publishing in 2015 - http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-6-wishes-for-books-publishing-2015-20141231-story.html

Among those wishes was for an end to copycat books.

Let me tell you a story.

Some time ago, as a photographer I joined the Pentax photographic community. Like most photographers, I was taking various pictures including flowers, and submitting them for critical review. It is only by positive review that you go anywhere in the community.

However, I was having my work kicked back for no other reason than, "Well, it's a picture of a flower. I've seen them before." Yes, but it was MY picture of a flower. There are people all over the world flooding the internet with pictures of wonderful things which, let's face it, in the UK we're just a grey land of mostly-rain. We've got to shoot what we can.

What most hurt me was that my skill as a photographer was being judged not on the quality of the work that I produced, but the fact that it was, "just another flower shot." Well, thanks for thinking so little of me.

Wake up, people. Pretty soon you're going to have to go to Mars to capture something new that might get past the critical eye of those who have forgotten what it takes to start from scratch, and need decent critical feedback in order to better themselves.

There is a danger of this happening in literature too if this attitude is allowed to persist.

And just in case you're interested, here are some of my pictures - https://www.flickr.com/photos/msknight/ - enjoy them, because you'll never see any of them in the Pentax gallery! In fact, thinking about it, I haven't picked up the camera for real, personal pleasure in years. That's what happens when your peers don't encourage you on your journey. And when all the greats are dead and people are looking around, asking where the new blood went ... you'll know the answer. They all just gave up and went home.