Nobody Actually Wants to Change Publishing

They don't want it gone. They want in.

This week I released a video called “Dear Elon: xAI Has a Serious Problem.” Thirty-five minutes breaking down how Elon Musk’s AI company is hiring writing specialists using criteria that exclusively filter for people approved by ideologically captured institutions—Big Five deals, Hugo nominations, New York Times Book Review coverage, 50,000+ unit sales. Every single qualification screens for the gatekeepers Elon has publicly opposed for years.

I thought the indie author community would care.

Almost nobody touched it (outside my normal viewers). The reasons were more interesting than the video itself.

The video straddled four topics that the online writing community refuses to engage with honestly.

• AI: You must condemn it loudly and repeatedly or the mob comes for you.

• Job searching: Too close to class shame, and we’re all supposed to be making a living wage from our writing alone.

• Elon Musk: The man is either god-king of the internet or he can do nothing right. You can’t offer both praise and criticism in one video.

That last one is the big one.

• Most “indie” authors won’t share content critical of trad pub because they haven’t actually left. They don’t want to burn any bridges because they’re eagerly waiting for someone to invite them to cross over.

Lyin’-Ass Fake Indies

Spend enough time in indie author spaces and you start recognizing types. I’m not pointing at any individual, so don’t bother trying to figure out if I’m doing a long-form version of a subtweet. I’m not. These are just patterns that I keep seeing over and over again.

• The Rejected Applicant self-published because traditional publishing said no. They’re still querying. Sometimes still entering contests judged by agents. And always still hoping. “Indie” is a placeholder identity until the real publishing happens.

• The Credentialist wants indie success but measures it by trad pub metrics. They chase awards from captured institutions. They crave mainstream media coverage. They want the USA Today bestseller status. Their definition of “making it” is borrowed wholesale from the system they claim to reject.

• The Reformer believes they can change publishing from within if they just get a seat at the table. This is delusional. Kit Perez has it right: you can infiltrate a system to destroy it, but not to reform it. If you get a seat at the table, you got it because you’re useful to the table. Not because you’re going to change it.

• The Audience Coward has a platform. Knows the problems. Won’t speak because their audience is filled with people who would stab their own mother for a Big 5 publishing contract. They’re all chasing the same clout, and to mention it would 1) anger the trad pub overlords and 2) anger the viewers for threatening their fantasy.

And then there’s the one that earns my genuine disgust.

• The Self-Destructive Clout Chaser would rather earn pennies per book sold and have the status of a trad pub deal than earn a living wage as an indie. They’ll sign contracts that pay them a fraction of what they could make independently because the advance comes with a logo, with bragging rights on Threads (the most embarrassing social media site), and the ability to say a stranger in New York chose them.

They need approval from people who don’t give a shit about them. People who will drop them the moment their sales dip because they see them as a product, not partner. And they’ll sacrifice their financial independence for that approval, then wonder why they can’t pay their bills.

The pathology of it. The absolute willingness to be poor so long as you’re poor with permission.

I can’t.

What it Means to Go Your Own Way

That’s the thing about being outside (and actually accepting it). It doesn’t matter how right I am in the video I made.

Elon Musk is not going to see it and rewrite his job postings. And the Hugo Awards are not going to un-fuck themselves because conservative authors are angry.

No individual or small group reforms an existing system at scale. If you hate it that much, your only option is to load up on (metaphorical) C4 and bring it down. You will reform nothing. Not when it’s that big with that much money.

These systems respond to power and money. The people inside them benefit from the current structure. The agents who openly state they’re looking for “marginalized voices” aren’t going to change their manuscript wishlists because you pointed out the discrimination.

They’re not confused. They’re hostile. Which is why it irritates me to see so many bowing and scraping and cowering on the off chance m’lord would spare a crumb of clout.

The only leverage an individual has is to exit. Build something else. You can’t compete with them, but you can scoop up some of the clientele they’ve chased away. And that indie author over there who writes in some other genre, they can scoop up some more. Together, a lot of us can make the old thing irrelevant by creating an alternative that serves the people they’ve abandoned.

You cannot change the Big Five by complaining about them. You cannot change xAI’s hiring practices by making a video (and by you, I mean I). You cannot reform captured institutions from outside them, and if you get inside them, you’ve already been captured yourself.

An Appeal to Honesty

This isn’t about being anti-trad-pub as an identity. Some authors genuinely want what traditional publishing offers. Fine. Pursue it honestly. Write what agents are looking for. Build the query letter. Enter the contests. Craft a public persona that is ideal for Big 5 representation.

But stop pretending to be indie while you’re doing it.

If you want to build something outside the system, then actually build it.

Stop measuring yourself by their metrics and being embarrassed by the work that doesn’t fit their mold. And definitely stop softening your positions because someone in publishing might see them.

You cannot thrive as an indie while waiting to be accepted by the machine. The posture is self-defeating. You’ll make branding decisions that serve neither goal. You’ll pull punches to stay palatable and, worst of all, you’ll build an audience you don’t actually want, full of people who will abandon you the moment you say something unapproved.

The system isn’t going to change for you. It doesn’t care about your complaints, your arguments, your video essays. The Big Five will keep acquiring the same kinds of books from the same kinds of people.

None of that is your problem if you’ve actually left.

The only question that matters: Are you building something, or are you waiting to be picked by people who think themselves your betters?

I know my answer.