As I mentioned in my last post, I thought it would be interesting to make some comments here about books I’ve read or reviewed or am thinking about reading. I’d love to have some readers of this blog leave comments about books that are important to them. Of course, you understand that when I say readers it means you, right?
I’ve cut and pasted some information from my profile at "Smith Magazine," the home of the addictive six-word memoir. Two of the questions relate to the book discussions I hope we can have over time. The third one will give me the opportunity to expound on something I recently learned about my home state of Louisiana… the place I lived for my first 42 years. So, here are the questions and answers.
My favorite story of all time is:
Choosing one is impossible for me. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) has been with me the longest, but these books, each for a reason of its own, are equally loved: South of Broad (Pat Conroy), The Help (Kathryn Stockett), A Time to Kill (John Grisham), The Quiet Game and The Devil's Punchbowl (Greg Iles), and The Stand (Stephen King). Notice that the first six are very Southern. Come to think of it, the whole damn world went south in the seventh one.
Right now, I'm reading:
Right as Rain by Bev Marshall (Ms. Marshall is the author-in-residence at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.)
If you were to throw up your hands in exasperation and yell "it's the story of my life," what would you be talking about?
I am a Kansan by residence, a Missourian by employment, a Louisianan by birth, a Southerner by the grace of God, and a Tybee Islander at heart. The exasperation... not enough hours livin' on Tybee time.
Okay, a lot of these writing or publishing sites where I have established a presence will include a cheesy question like that as a part of their profile questionnaire. Most of the time I sort of ignore them, but I decided in this case to mold a version of my own cheesy, though factual, description of myself into an answer to their question. Even though it does not relate to books or publishing, I included it to discuss my use Louisianan to describe myself as a person from Louisiana. Now that I have a book at Amazon and hold myself out as an author, I find that I am more conscientious about checking on the spelling of words when I am composing for public consumption. When I put this description of myself together, I was surprised when the spell check in Word said that Louisianian was a misspelling. So I went to Merriam-Webster to check it out. They were a little more forgiving in that they recognize Louisianian as a word but only as a secondary alternative to Louisianan. I clipped it out of their site for you to see:
Definition of LOUISIANA
Lou•i•si•an•an \-ˈa-nən\ adjective or noun
Lou•i•si•an•i•an \-ˈa-nē-ən, -ˈa-nyən\ adjective or noun
It just goes to show that you learn new stuff every damn day… even things about which you think you are already knowledgeable.
So now we get to see if you, my readers, are willing to spill some beans about what books you like, new books you think might be worthy reads, or whatever. I’m hoping to learn about some good reads in our exchange. And, if everyone is too shy to speak up, well I’ll just keep my monologue going. Come on, give it a try.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Why am I here?
When I first started blogging as Red Stick Writer, my purpose was to commit to writing and share my thoughts, experiences, and questions about my journey as a first-time novelist. It was my hope to have other authors or readers or agents read my posts and make contributions of enlightenment, encouragement, or commiseration. In order that they might find my site, I became a commenter at other writing and publishing blog sites.
Through SiteMeter, I know I get a goodly amount of traffic, but the back and forth enabled by contributed commentary never developed on my page. For that interaction, I have had to rely on my reading and commenting at the pages of others.
I hit the mother lode in that regard the day I discovered Nathan Bransford’s blog page. At the time, he was a literary agent in the San Francisco office of the New York agency, Curtis Brown Ltd. Interestingly enough, shortly after I found him, Nathan became the first-ever commenter on my page. He told me to e-mail a query to him regarding my then agent-hungry novel, By the Light: A Novel of Serial Homicide. Unfortunately, I had to respond that I had already queried him and that he had declined representation.
Despite not securing Nathan’s representation, reading his blog and the comments others leave there has become a part of my routine. Though he is no longer an agent, I and many others thank God his blog page lives on. He says he is now "a publishing civilian working in the tech industry.” Nothing could be more distant from the truth. On May 12, his debut novel, a middle-grade story called Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow hits bookshelves virtual and otherwise, and his blog page is still one of the premier go-to places to keep your thumb on the pulse of books... reading them, writing them, and selling them.
By the time I discovered that my blog page would not become a forum for writer discussion, I had also learned that I enjoyed occasionally writing my thoughts about life or family or humor or politics or writing or whatever else pops into my head or the intersection of any of these. So I have kept it going. Now instead of chronicling my pursuit of an agent, I spill the beans about my experience as an indie author with an e-book in the Kindle Store at Amazon.
Just as I once commented at sites to get noticed by others who might have an interest in representing me, I continue to comment to get found by people who might have an interest in buying and reading and possibly reviewing my book. My interaction with readers and other authors in those settings is both enriching and enjoyable.
Writing sites and communities I have been known to haunt:
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/
http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/
http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/
http://www.goodreads.com/
http://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/
http://tinyurl.com/amazon-reviews-by-dick
I enjoy these and a number of other nooks and crannies on the Web. Maybe I’ll bump into you at one of them.
You are always welcomed and E N C O U R A G E D to make your thoughts known here by leaving comments. One of the things I plan to do here in the near future is mention or discuss or review books I have read, books I am reading, books that I’m considering reading, and maybe even coffee table books that can become coffee tables. Regarding the ones under consideration, I’m hoping some of you will stick a toe in, test the water, join the discussion, and help me make informed decisions about the direction of my reading. I continue to keep alive the hope that this can become a place for discussion.
Through SiteMeter, I know I get a goodly amount of traffic, but the back and forth enabled by contributed commentary never developed on my page. For that interaction, I have had to rely on my reading and commenting at the pages of others.
I hit the mother lode in that regard the day I discovered Nathan Bransford’s blog page. At the time, he was a literary agent in the San Francisco office of the New York agency, Curtis Brown Ltd. Interestingly enough, shortly after I found him, Nathan became the first-ever commenter on my page. He told me to e-mail a query to him regarding my then agent-hungry novel, By the Light: A Novel of Serial Homicide. Unfortunately, I had to respond that I had already queried him and that he had declined representation.
Despite not securing Nathan’s representation, reading his blog and the comments others leave there has become a part of my routine. Though he is no longer an agent, I and many others thank God his blog page lives on. He says he is now "a publishing civilian working in the tech industry.” Nothing could be more distant from the truth. On May 12, his debut novel, a middle-grade story called Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow hits bookshelves virtual and otherwise, and his blog page is still one of the premier go-to places to keep your thumb on the pulse of books... reading them, writing them, and selling them.
By the time I discovered that my blog page would not become a forum for writer discussion, I had also learned that I enjoyed occasionally writing my thoughts about life or family or humor or politics or writing or whatever else pops into my head or the intersection of any of these. So I have kept it going. Now instead of chronicling my pursuit of an agent, I spill the beans about my experience as an indie author with an e-book in the Kindle Store at Amazon.
Just as I once commented at sites to get noticed by others who might have an interest in representing me, I continue to comment to get found by people who might have an interest in buying and reading and possibly reviewing my book. My interaction with readers and other authors in those settings is both enriching and enjoyable.
Writing sites and communities I have been known to haunt:
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/
http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/
http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/
http://www.goodreads.com/
http://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/
http://tinyurl.com/amazon-reviews-by-dick
I enjoy these and a number of other nooks and crannies on the Web. Maybe I’ll bump into you at one of them.
You are always welcomed and E N C O U R A G E D to make your thoughts known here by leaving comments. One of the things I plan to do here in the near future is mention or discuss or review books I have read, books I am reading, books that I’m considering reading, and maybe even coffee table books that can become coffee tables. Regarding the ones under consideration, I’m hoping some of you will stick a toe in, test the water, join the discussion, and help me make informed decisions about the direction of my reading. I continue to keep alive the hope that this can become a place for discussion.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Indie Authors, Indie Publishers, Indie Jones Buckling Swashes in a Wild World
One of the publishing blogs I read with regularity belongs to Nathan Bransford. He was until fairly recently a literary agent for Curtis Brown in San Franscisco but now considers himself a publishing civilian who works in the tech industry. Despite this, he is still widely read among publishing insiders and wannabes alike. The reason for his continued popularity is his knowledge of publishing, his ability to frame issues with center-of-bullseye accuracy, and his ability to communicate them in a very enlightening, understandable, and entertaining way.
On Wednesdays, he often throws an issue to his readers and invites them to tell him what they think about it. He did that this week on the topic: "Who Should Have the ‘Indie’ Label: Self-Publishers or Small Presses?" The link below will take you to his blog post and the numerous comments his readers provided. After the link, you will find the comment I deposited on his page.
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/04/who-deserves-indie-label.html
I'm self-published. It's an e-book in the Kindle Store. I paid nothing to get there. Consequently, it seems there is a flaw in the "paid for=vanity=self-published," equation.
Since Amazon has provided a place where I can sell my story for free and make as much or more in royalties per sale than the vast majority of traditional authors make per book through publishers of either the indie or the big six ilk, color me hesitant to call them my corporate overlord. No, the corporate overlords are folks with whom I have no contact as a consequence of at least two degrees of gatekeepers, none of whom are named Kevin Bacon. I tried. They let me see through the keyhole, but in the end it made more sense for me to drive right through that double garage door at Amazon.
The traditional worlds of authoring and publishing are trying to enforce rules and terminology that make their universe feel like home. I don’t think they should hold their breath until they get their way. Popular culture will have its own way, industry pillars be damned.
Once upon a time large numbers of people got lumped together because they had happiness in common. Those happy people had to learn to share the word “gay” with people who are attracted to other people of the same gender but may or may not be happy. Sometimes that works. Sometimes the female people who are attracted to other females like to instead use the “L word.” This all sounds like the same old stuff that has made political correctness so tedious at every turn.
To use a famous quote from a guy to whom people rarely look for a good quote, “Can’t we all just get along?” I don’t know for sure, but I think Rodney is neither happy nor attracted to others of his gender.
The new publishing world, the one that includes people like me and people like the meteoric Amanda Hocking and people like J.A. Konrath, seems to be something akin to the Wild West. Given that, I think I’ll call myself an indie author. The name seems to go with the territory, and as an extra benefit, it rankles all the right people.
To sum up, Nathan has had it right all along. There’s room for everybody at the table. Agents and publishers will continue to determine who gets in the gate of the pasture known as traditional writing and publishing. The public will decide who succeeds in the rough and tumble open range of indie or self-published or vanity or whatever-you-call-it writing and publishing. The name calling and the fighting over names serves no purpose. Call yourself whatever you want. Folks will figure it out. Just give the people what they want… whether it be entertainment or enlightenment or inspiration or space monkeys or space kapows of the cosmic kind. Why is Nathan’s batting average so good?
The reference to space monkeys is an inside joke for Bransford blog regulars, and the space kapow term refers to Nathan's debut middle-grade novel that is coming out on May 12.
On Wednesdays, he often throws an issue to his readers and invites them to tell him what they think about it. He did that this week on the topic: "Who Should Have the ‘Indie’ Label: Self-Publishers or Small Presses?" The link below will take you to his blog post and the numerous comments his readers provided. After the link, you will find the comment I deposited on his page.
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/04/who-deserves-indie-label.html
I'm self-published. It's an e-book in the Kindle Store. I paid nothing to get there. Consequently, it seems there is a flaw in the "paid for=vanity=self-published," equation.
Since Amazon has provided a place where I can sell my story for free and make as much or more in royalties per sale than the vast majority of traditional authors make per book through publishers of either the indie or the big six ilk, color me hesitant to call them my corporate overlord. No, the corporate overlords are folks with whom I have no contact as a consequence of at least two degrees of gatekeepers, none of whom are named Kevin Bacon. I tried. They let me see through the keyhole, but in the end it made more sense for me to drive right through that double garage door at Amazon.
The traditional worlds of authoring and publishing are trying to enforce rules and terminology that make their universe feel like home. I don’t think they should hold their breath until they get their way. Popular culture will have its own way, industry pillars be damned.
Once upon a time large numbers of people got lumped together because they had happiness in common. Those happy people had to learn to share the word “gay” with people who are attracted to other people of the same gender but may or may not be happy. Sometimes that works. Sometimes the female people who are attracted to other females like to instead use the “L word.” This all sounds like the same old stuff that has made political correctness so tedious at every turn.
To use a famous quote from a guy to whom people rarely look for a good quote, “Can’t we all just get along?” I don’t know for sure, but I think Rodney is neither happy nor attracted to others of his gender.
The new publishing world, the one that includes people like me and people like the meteoric Amanda Hocking and people like J.A. Konrath, seems to be something akin to the Wild West. Given that, I think I’ll call myself an indie author. The name seems to go with the territory, and as an extra benefit, it rankles all the right people.
To sum up, Nathan has had it right all along. There’s room for everybody at the table. Agents and publishers will continue to determine who gets in the gate of the pasture known as traditional writing and publishing. The public will decide who succeeds in the rough and tumble open range of indie or self-published or vanity or whatever-you-call-it writing and publishing. The name calling and the fighting over names serves no purpose. Call yourself whatever you want. Folks will figure it out. Just give the people what they want… whether it be entertainment or enlightenment or inspiration or space monkeys or space kapows of the cosmic kind. Why is Nathan’s batting average so good?
The reference to space monkeys is an inside joke for Bransford blog regulars, and the space kapow term refers to Nathan's debut middle-grade novel that is coming out on May 12.
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