One of the biggest lies that Traditional Publishers peddle to would-be authors is that things 'have always been this way'. That's historically inaccurate. What we call 'publishing' is a recent invention. It didn't exist before the development of what we now call the novel, long fiction pieces that involve either an omniscient author or a psychologically aware narrator. That happened around the middle of the 1700s, and when the form became very popular with readers, some businessmen saw the possibilities of producing large numbers of these books for a wide audience. They commissioned printers, arranged distribution and worked to find new authors. (Bear in mind that 'distribution' wouldn't have been possible in a place like England before the Toll Roads were built either, around the same time.)

Before this, there were printers and – usually – patrons. Printers sometimes commissioned work, where they saw a money-making opportunity, such as in the popularity of Broadside Ballads, songs and lyrics printed on enormous single sheets of paper, (usually about topical events, such as local crimes and hangings). More normally, printers limited themselves to a small selection of classic and every-popular books like the Bible, and other work where it had been commissioned by a 'patron'. Shakespeare had one, that's why his plays made it into printed form. If he hadn't, he never would have been able to afford it for himself, and there weren't any middle-men at the time who could take a chance and get some copies run off in the hope they would be sold. No, that's a different game. It's called publishing.

These days that's all there is. In plush and extensive offices in all the major capitals of the world sit men (and a few women) in smart clothes, who pore over newly typed manuscripts, looking for gold. The mission they are about, (they would have you believe), these be-suited and well-educated fellows, is to find gems of rattling stories that they can arrange to print and distribute – for a profit. At least, that's what they tell you. When they're feeling disingenuous. 'It's a business', they say, as though that explained everything. If you are an author, and have a work to submit, they want to know that it can be printed, put in bookshops and sold. That last one is the most important. Any book can be put on a shop's shelf. The magic is to see it walking off the shelf to the till, where money changes hands. It's necessary, these transactions, in order to make the world of publishing work. No money, no more books. That's what they tell you.

Unfortunately, publishers have another string to their bow. Whenever they're stuck for a decision, they resort to an earlier ethic. 'This book deserves publishing', they declare. No, that can't be right! That's the cry of the patron. Hundreds of years ago, well-to-do and titled gentlemen would pay the printing bill if they considered that a work was worth sharing with the world. So why, I hear you ask, would modern-day publishers recreate the same philosophy? The answer, in my opinion – too much education! Most people who infest the world of publishing have been massively educated, usually well past Degree level at University. They know too much about literature. They don't look at books like tins of beans, or parcels of hamburgers, (as they claim to do). They still have romantic notions of what makes good reading, probably gained during long years in the classroom. The result? They can't help acting like the patrons of old, committed to putting the best of all current writing in the hands of an un-eager but deserving public.

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