Commuty Theater and writing

A few weekends ago a student of mine was in a play at a community theater and asked me to go.  Since I have a shocking lack of a social life, Hubby and I were able to go.

It was two one act plays and they were excellent.  The one my student was in was about Juliet and Cinderella in a therapist office talking about how "things just didn't work out how they expected it." Spoiler, Cinderella was disappointed that Juliet didn't die at the end of her story.

The second play was good too, it was about a guy who thinks he's a super hero.

The night opened with two musicians, a girl and a guy.  The girl had a voice like a soul singer from the 40's.  She was breath taking.  I could have listen to her sing all night.  She was raw talent and I couldn't figure out why she was doing on a Saturday night.  There was only 56 chairs in the whole place.  She should be on Broadway.

The guy playing piano was good until he decided to break out a new song... and it got awkward FAST.
Somehow in my mind it's ok for a teenage boy to sit on a stage and sing about his broken heart but it gets creepy when he's forty. 

I couldn't tell if the songs he sung were good, bad or cheesy.  I don't know enough about music to be able to tell the difference... but I think I could compare it to reading the Twilight books.

So that got me thinking about different forms of art and writing.

I fully admit I got back into writing thanks to fanfiction but a lot of the writing community and most of the writing industry looks down on fan fiction-- much like the acting community looks down on community theater.  There are tons of talented writers who write  fan fiction. I'd even lump unpublished writers in the community theater label.  We've all read stories of writers who query their first draft and it makes the rest of us *headdesk headdesk headesk*   Unpublished writers are a mix bag of talent and "still learning how the industry works"  We're getting close but we're not quite there.

I would called a writer with an agent like a actor in a playhouse-- the venue sits at least a hundred people and they do plays that are well known like Alice in Wonderland, they have a budget and their doing well, but their exposure is limited.

Actors on Broadway would be writers who have had their book published, it's selling alright but they aren't a blockbuster. People who are like John Green, doing well, great in fact. No one is questioning his talent but he's not out selling Percy Jackson or Twilight.

A list actors are like New York Times Best Sellers.  Really in the population of writers and actors it's only like .5% that hit it big (I'm totally make up that number but it seems about it).

What other industry can you compare to the publishing industry?