Publishing Fiction

Quality is a key problem. R.M. Pirsig discusses quality in great detail, but doesn’t arrive at a universal definition. After going down several rabbit holes after a definition of quality that describes even just fiction, I will just go out on a limb here and say that,

“Seems to me, the only real, universal litmus test of quality in fiction is when a perfect stranger(to the writer) is willing to put their own resources into the actual, tangible publishing, whether the work is to appear in a literary magazine or a book store. When the investor shows the money, when that complete stranger risks on the writer’s behalf, we KNOW where the publisher’s objectivity is truly coming from - that there is money to be made, that the work evinces to the publisher a level of skill so high, people will pay money for it.”