I’m a huge fan of the Syfy channel show, Face Off. It features movie makeup artists competing for a $100,000 prize. Along with the artistry, creativity and craftsmanship on display, it’s a straight up competition, too. Not one of those “reality” shows where the producers designate the characters: “Okay, you’re the asshole everybody loves to hate. You’re the funny one. How about a little sexual tension between you two…” Uh uh, the competitors are playing for keeps. It’s tough. The judges are brutal.
In this week’s episode, Alien Interpretation, my boy, Ian, came through with flying colors for the win and that jerk, Jerry, got booted. (Tara got booted, too) What jumped out at me was how Ian won and why the Jerry got booted. The correlation between the episode and what’s going on in publishing right now is downright spooky.
Ian is very young (he looks about twelve to me) and he’s nervous and intense and eager and insecure, and he’s also immensely talented and creative. Jerry is a blowhard. Twenty years experience in the field, knows it all, has his way of doing things and nobody can tell him different. He is also very talented and creative. As far as he’s concerned, he’s got nothing to learn. During the episode, he was harassing the two youngest, least experienced competitors (Ian and Sue). He mocked their skills and inexperience, and their nervousness. When Patrick Tatopoulos, one of the judges, acting as the client, consulted with the artists, I noticed Jerry was very smug, too busy demonstrating his know-it-all attitude to pay much attention to what Patrick was saying. Ian, on the other hand, practically crawled inside Patrick’s skull. You could see it in his eyes how hard he was paying attention and absorbing every word Patrick had to say. Those attitudes showed in the final reveal. Jerry’s creation was solid, but dull
without any spark of specialness. Worse, he muffed the coloring of his creature and when the judges questioned his choice, he gave them a snotty answer about how he didn’t see any need to give the client expected results. He’s an artist with vision, after all, and he knows best. In contrast, Ian stretched the limits of his skills. He suffered some setbacks that could have been disasters, but he consulted with his buddies RJ and Rayce, who are very open to the idea of helping their fellow artists, and Ian came up with brilliant ways to turn his disasters into triumphs. During the judging, he was nervous, unsure. He looked at his creation and knew it was good, but he wanted it better and he essentially said so. The judges named him this week’s winner.
That’s the lesson for traditional publishers. You guys are Jerry. You’re looking down your noses and snickering into your martinis over those silly little self-publishers. You’re smug and set in your ways and you think you have nothing to learn. The indies you disparage with their eagerness and nervous energy are doing something you’ve forgotten how to do. They’re learning. The most important thing they’re learning is how to please the customer. While you are producing safe, stodgy same old-same old stuff you know is best for the readers (who cares what they want) indies are branching out, taking chances, connecting to readers and actually listening to them. They’re getting better. Do you read indie work? You should. I read a lot of it. Indies are growing, nurturing their talent, honing their skills. They’re turning their weaknesses into strengths.
Every time I read one of your articles assuring the reading public that you are still relevant, that readers need you, that writers need you, I laugh. Especially when you start talking about curating books. That is some funny shit, guys. If you don’t know why it’s funny, well, guess that makes you the butt of the joke instead of being in on it.

















