Sue GraftonAuthor Sue Grafton was quoted in a Forbes blog post sharing disparaging remarks toward indie authors. The resulting press, including a post I wrote here about a response to Grafton’s quote, caused quite an uproar around the Web.

Grafton has clarified her statement to LouisvilleKY.com. (First, a big thanks for reader Ryan Fitzgerald for sending over the link to the post.)

Grafton starts by detailing her history in writing, how she started, how long it took to get published, and so on. She makes it a point to note that she started her work in the 1960s.

Here’s why:

” … self-publishing was done through vanity presses which were not highly thought of. Like mystery novels, self-publishing was dismissed as second rate … a non-starter if you were serious about a so-called literary career. It was in this context that I tossed out that ill-fated comment about self-publishing being as good as admitting a writer was ‘too lazy to do the hard work.'”

It’s interesting that she calls out people for being “too lazy to do the hard work” or do research when, in fact, her opinion was based on an antiquated notion of self-publishing.

If Grafton was being interviewed on a topic for which she didn’t have updated information, she shouldn’t have said anything at all. A far better response would’ve involved Grafton admitting that she simply wasn’t familiar with the massive cultural and professional changes that self-publishing has undergone over the past 40 or 50 years, because she hadn’t done sufficient research.

If that were the case, this post and many others wouldn’t have been written. And yet, I find it incredibly hard to believe that a career author genuinely has no idea what’s going on in her own industry. Has she stopped caring about it? Does she not pay attention because she doesn’t need to? Seems rather fishy to me.

Grafton goes on to explain that she doesn’t know much about the state of digital publishing. She explains:

“I am uninitiated when it comes to this new format. I had no idea how wide-spread it was, nor did I see it as developing as a response to the current state of traditional publishing, which is sales driven and therefore limited in its scope. I understand that e-publishing has stepped into the gap, allowing a greater number of authors to enter the marketplace. This, I applaud. I don’t mean to sound defensive here … though of course I do.”

Again, I’m just a little surprised that she can be so out of the loop when it comes to her own industry. By accident at the very least, wouldn’t she have run across a news story at some point about a self-published author who’d done especially well, or who was offered a traditional book deal? Here’s another Grafton quote:

“It’s clear to me now that indie writers have taken more than their fair share of hard knocks and that you are actually changing the face of publishing. Who knew?!”

Umm … lots of people. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. More from Grafton:

“This is a whole new thrust for publication that apparently everyone has been aware of except yours truly.”

She readily admits that she’s the only one who apparently didn’t know, which is why I find it so difficult to believe.

Grafton ends her remarks with this:

“I will take responsibility for my gaffe and I hope you will understand the spirit in which it was meant. I have always championed both aspiring writers and working professionals. I have been insulated, I grant you, but I am not arrogant or indifferent to the challenges we all face. I am still learning and I hope to keep on learning for as long as I write.”

I am glad she can take responsiblity and not use an excuse that her quotes were taken out of context. I commend her for owning up to her words. But make no mistake, this was not an apology. Nowhere in her 744 words of clarification did she ever actually admit to being sorry.

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  1. This is close to the limit on this issue for me, Teleread. She made some remarks, got some feedback, thought about it, and apologized.

    Here and elsewhere in the blogosphere, I’ve seen some very mean-spirited response. Suggestions that Ms. Grafton’s own entree into publishing was less legitimate because her father was also a writer (albeit one of limited success whose last book came out to little acclaim seventeen years before her first). Suggestions that she was unprofessional for opining on something without having researched thoroughly. Suggestions that she was sincere in her opinions, but not sincere in her retraction.

    And so on. Ugh.

    She flubbed. She apologized. Get over it. And stop being mean.

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