Pot. Kettle. Black. #274

Dear Mr Jacobson

Genre – a category of literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.

For example: contemporary ‘literary’ fiction in which the central character is a writer.

Stop gazing out of the window!

I saw it again today and it made me cross enough to dust off this blog and make one of my rare forays into the ether.

Will you please stop referring to yourself as an aspiring writer or a wannabe writer.

You may aspire to being a published writer (by whatever definition of ‘published’ you care to choose); it is possible that you are a wannabe published writer. However, you write or you do not write. An aspiration to write is a waste of your time. If you do not actually write anything, you cannot aspire to being published (unless you are someone with an agent who can get you a book deal despite the fact you cannot string three words together in crayon). Writing means working. Hard. For years. Without reward. That is how you produce short stories, novels, poems, screenplays. Well, that is how you produce good ones. I’m enough of a realist to know that a lot of garbage gets picked up and published – look at the best seller lists. You may wish to try that route. That’s your choice. I have made mine.

Accuracy is important in writing, using words to pinpoint an emotion or state as exactly as possible whilst using the resource that is language to do so in a new and memorable way is part of what you are meant to be doing. If you cannot get it right at this stage you will be adding to the heap of garbage.

And before you get on a horse of any height, I’ve argued before that good writing can (and should) be used in all cases – high literature or the latest thriller/romance/sci fi/fantasy epic. It may make me sound [insert description of your choice – the words ‘old’ and ‘fart’ will probably be included if you lack imagination], but I happen to believe that writers (as well as agents and editors) have a duty to see that only work of quality gets put out before the public. It is what makes writers worth supporting.

You will only ever get that far, however, if you write. Stop aspiring (a fancy word for daydreaming without intent) and get on with it. Now.

Stealing into Winter

No apologies for a bit of self promotion.

Please check out the publisher’s page for Stealing into Winter. Look at that endorsement! Thanks, Mike. And look at those reviews! Those guys have been lucky enough to see pre-publication versions of the book.

If that whets your appetite, then Amazon UK, Amazon Canada and The Book Depository currently have fabulous pre-order offers.

You can, of course, do your bit for the health of publishing by supporting your local bookshop and ordering Stealing into Winter from them. They might not be able to discount like the big operators, but diversity is good; small is good.

For the opportunity to obtain a signed copy directly from me, join the Jeniche of Antar Fan Club page on Facebook. From there you can send me a message and let me know you would like a signed copy. Full details will be posted on the page in the near future.

If you are strapped for cash, then please order a copy of the book from your local library (if you still have one). That way I get a sale, you get to read the book, and other people get to see it and maybe like it so much they want a copy of their own. In fact, please order a copy from your library anyway.

Finally, if you read the book and enjoy it, please leave a review on Amazon, The Book Depository, your blog, or any other website that accepts book reviews. Just a few lines will, but it all helps.

My thanks to you all.

PS - Book two is already written, the first third of book three is nearly drafted with the rest plotted in detail, book four is plotted out in detail, and there are notes accumulating for a further trilogy.

STOOSHPR

Being creative has always been more than just about, well, being creative. You can be the world’s greatest literary/artistic/singing/tap-dancing/filmic genius, but if you don’t share your work with others, only your mum will ever know.

And if you are the slightest bit serious about putting your talents in front of an audience (maybe even making money from it), you have to make use of whatever social networking comes your way. It often sounds daunting, but is quite simple. It simply means making friends – in person or online. Now, I know us creative types have a reputation for being curmudgeonly loners, but it is unfounded. When we start out we are nervous about others’ reaction to our work. But talking and sharing with fellow writers/artists/singers/tap-dancers/film makers gives us the opportunity to tap into a vast community through which we can learn to improve our own skills, help others with theirs and spread the word about what we do.

One such avenue is one I found on Facebook recently.

Stoosh PR

In their own words:

FB networking arm of the retainer based NYC cross platform marketing, branding and PR initiative.
Authority from experience without the self aggrandizing floss!
Originally from England STOOSHPR’s Jane Buchanan started her career as producer and presenter of the SONY award winning show "Streetlife" on the BBC. From radio she moved on to television with seasons as Entertainment Producer for the network Granada TV show, "This Morning" and later "Jameson Tonight" on Sky TV.
Headhunted from Sky TV by Sir Bob Geldof and Lord Waheed Alli’s company at 25yrs old, she was appointed to the position of US Producer for Planet 24 Productions. Based out of NYC she coordinated and produced all US strands for the controversial show "The Word" and later, "The Big Breakfast".
When Planet 24 relocated to LA to produce the successful "Survivor" reality show, Jane decided to make NYC her home and continues to live and work in the media. She has held positions at New Video Group/Docurama (Home Video arm of A&E/The History Channel), Disney Theatrical (Lion King, Mary Poppins and Phil Collins' Tarzan) Maxim Magazine/Dennis Publishing, and Bad Boy Entertainment hand picked by Sean P Diddy Combs.

This is their website: http://www.stooshpr.com/

And this is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stooshpr/

Go take it a look. It might just be what you are looking for.

Please read...

Please read this blog. Saundra Mitchell writes eloquently about the damage that piracy does to authors.

Preview

 

Although it's a way off yet, I thought you might like to know that Stealing into Winter will be published by Roundfire on 28 September 2012. The paperback ISBN is 978-1-78099-625-7 and the book will be £9.99

There will also be an ebook version (ISBN 978-1-78099-626-4), but as yet I have no further details.

All very sweet. And sweeter still is what you'll find on the rear cover; an endorsement from my all time favourite author:

A first class adventure which moves with a pace and panache rarely seen these days. If you like good future fantasy you'll love this. Reminiscent of M. J. Harrison or China Miéville at their fascinating best. I enjoyed Stealing Into Winter a lot.

Michael Moorcock

You can be sure that closer to the time of publication there will be plenty more of this!

A new censorship?

I was thinking about Soviet censorship of writers in the shower the other day, as one does. Having not long finished reading a couple of books written in Soviet Russia (one that got past the censor and one that didn’t) I was trying to work out why the one that was highly critical of a totalitarian regime that suppressed creative thinking got published, whilst the surreal work that explored the difficulty, even impossibility of successfully putting anything into written words was blue pencilled. I was also wondering whether living under the gaze of a censor (terrible as that is) did not make better writers of those inclined to be subversive. They did, after all continue to be subversive right under the very noses of those they criticised and got away with it. They were forced by circumstance to be inventive.

Notwithstanding the thought that anything that makes one a better writer must have some good in it (from a purely craft point of view) I thanked my stars that I do not live in such circumstances. Advocating a Stalinist state just to get better writing would be stupid and even I am not that daft.

I was at the rinsing down stage by now and another thought did strike me. Two in succession. After I recovered from feeling a bit faint, I developed this second thought. We might not, as writers, live under a formal regime of censorship but our work does face various forms of censorship nonetheless if we follow a mainstream route to publication (self-publishing in the modern age is something else altogether). Some are obvious and to be welcome. I don’t want to pick up a book that is riddled with spelling mistakes, typos, bad grammar, rubbish structure, and so on. It doesn’t mean such books don’t get published, even after going through the mill. Book shops are full of such tat. But for the most part they are properly designed and have the worst of their errors removed.

But capitalism censors just as readily (if in different ways) to any other socio-economic system. Books need to make a profit for the companies that publish them. At least, there must be an expectation that a given book will make a profit. You cannot expect such companies to make a loss. They wouldn’t last. But they have got themselves in a bit of fix recently. Like many other businesses they are staggering under increasing layers of people who want their cut of the money without actually contributing anything to the process that generates the money.

Books now get rejected on the grounds they won’t make enough profit. It is no longer sufficient that they bring in more than they cost. Now the level of profit must be increased to feed all those hardworking shareholders and all the layers of middle men who don’t do very much.

If your book is out of the ordinary, exploratory, ground breaking, has a small audience, then forget it. It will not generate enough profit. It will not appease the free market dogma. It will feed the leeches in the system. Therefore it gets censored. Good writing, stuff that doesn’t fit the stupidly narrow pigeon holes invented by marketing people who really have no conception of how writing works, stuff that is written by a dull looking disabled person who won’t dazzle the camera or be able to get out and do all their own promotion. It gets censored.

Thank goodness then for modern technology. These works rejected by the capitalist censor at least stand a chance of being printed and distributed (even if the average income is just above zero because reaching a market when you are self-published is something that has yet to be cracked).

But whilst this alters the picture, it also throws responsibility onto those who are taking this new route. It may be the future of publishing so I beg of you – don’t foul the path; don’t shove out any old crap because you think it’s a masterpiece. It most likely isn’t, but that doesn’t matter. Only one in a hundred thousand of us are going to produce a work that lasts for generations. The rest of us should aim to produce work of better quality than you find in traditional print. Better designed, better written, better edited. This isn’t difficult. You have friends. Involve them. You probably know a struggling artist. Get them to do the cover. Learn how to spell. Learn how to use your computer. Because if you don’t do these things you will be just as bad as the mainstream that has rejected you and on which you have turned your back.