Tempus Fugit

Three years since the last post and I have four books published and a fifth in progress - though a prostate cancer diagnosis and upcoming treatment have derailed that a bit.

I've neglected this and other blogs terribly but don't want to delete it entirely just yet. If nothing else I'd like to archive the posts and journal them somewhere. Once I've copied what I went, then I'll delete it.

I have no idea if anyone other than me will ever read this, but if you do and you want any more info on my books, leave a comment or a message and it should get through to me somehow.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Since my last post I've published a collection of stories and a novel - a satisfying experience even if it has not been in any way a lucrative one. A second novel is in the late stages of preparation for publishing in (probably) early 2023.

Not surprisingly, I now have views on a number of things, many of them, such as the questionable value of Amazon Ads, not directly related to this blog. What is relevant here is my developing position on writing itself and by extension the act of publishing. This blog has recorded my changing thoughts on publishing from naive if heartfelt early thoughts through to the decision to self-publish. Along the way I've expressed views on for whom I'm writing and why I write and it is my thoughts on these that are in flux.

My starting point is that I now think of myself as a writer rather than as a hobbyist. That has consequences. In the past, when asked for whom I write, my answer has been myself first and then like-minded people. In one sense that remains true and must, I think, be the foundation of any serious creative endeavour, but it is not the end of the matter. My instincts remain to veer towards the literary and the weird, but that doesn't mean that I should not consider commerciality too.

My thoughts on this evolved when I was challenged by a friend as to whether I could write something quickly that was pure genre, even if I adopted a nom-de-plume for it. I initially rejected the thought, but something lodged in my mind and germinated. I'm now plotting three detective novels with the same protagonist and general setting. I'm not restricting my imagination in the generation of ideas, but I am paying attention to how classic noir/pulp writers approached their craft.

At this point I am not researching the market to see what is in demand and writing towards that demand. I am not blind to the nature of commercial fiction, but I am trying to maintain early focus on detail, structure, and voice - a lot of this type of fiction seems to me to be as much about the aesthetic as the mystery, and why I write has a lot to do with aesthetics and the act of creation.

The importance of myself as my own first reader remains, and in a sense I could craft something I really like then put it away and move on to something else, but in the end that strikes me as high-minded but pointless. For these purposes, I make a distinction between writing and being a writer - the latter implies (for me) the desirability of having readers, and hopefully sufficient readers to recoup the costs of creation of the work.

As a consequence of that, it is also in my mind to make the effort to seek a 'traditional' publication route for this series of books, and that means, in time, making a renewed attempt to find an agent and publisher.

It isn't as easy as that, of course. I sometimes see the notion floated that one can choose between 'indie' and 'traditional' routes, when in fact the two are very different in that the former is wide open and the latter is locked down and policed by gatekeepers. Even though I remain sceptical about the industry in general, it remains attractive. In part, I acknowledge, that is because 'traditional' publishing offers a sense of validation, but that is only part of it: in larger part it is because that route outsources at least some of what indie publishing entails and has greater reach in the market due to the economics of the enterprise.

Will I be any more successful attempting the traditional route this time than in the past? I don't know. On the plus side, there are people in the industry now who have at least a vague awareness of my existence, and that might help.

Of course, this is all somewhat premature as I have yet to write the novels: it's a declaration of intent though.

Progress Report!

In the five months since my last entry, things have moved on apace. I'll be publishing a set of linked vampire-themed stories in time for Christmas, hopefully by the end of October. The text of my first novel, which I hope to publish around Easter 2022, was very well received by an editor. She asked questions and made suggestions that have made me think, but in a positive way. In the meantime, I have some professionally-taken author photos in stock now, and a set of professional design options for the cover of the short stories to select and finalise.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about my Amazon keywords and search terms, and have determined that, for these stories, the most likely market is American e-book readers looking for Scottish horror or vampire stories, and I've built a lot around that. I'll report back on this in due course. I went into this knowing that substantial revenue isn't the most likely outcome, but I see no reason not to aim for some.

In the background, though, other things have been on my mind, and they are all linked, one way or another, to Samuel R. Delany, whose On Writing I have on order. The context is me thinking (or overthinking) about the point at which a retirement hobby becomes a much more serious endeavour for me. The consequent question is: at what point do I become comfortable with being described, or describing myself, as a writer?

There are a lot of aspects of the modern cult of the writer that make me uncomfortable, just as I'm uncomfortable with the - predominantly American - trend towards academisation of writing via the MFA (and the parallel rise of the MBA and similar masters degrees). I see this a lot on social media - something close to fetishisation of writing and the writer, and I certainly see it in the hotshots who publish several novels a year as eBooks then go back at a leisurely pace to sort out spelling and plot issues - but hey! they're 'published authors', right? 

Charles Stross once ranted about misconceptions of the life of a writer - I've just reread it and his payoff about it being a job rather than a lifestyle is something that bears constant repetition. Even at my amateur level I've felt something at the fringes of the same: I've spent the bulk of this year revising rather than writing anything new, and there have been days when it has certainly been a job rather than a retirement activity.

In this context I came across something from Delany that said 'If you're going to do it, be serious about it, man.' He also reported poet Marie Ponsot saying of James Baldwin that 'If [he] thought he was anywhere near as good a writer as I think he is, he would be a much better writer.' In large part, both of these relate to craft and application, but they also relate to attitude.

I've said consistently over the past two and a half years that I have no problem with working, I just didn't want a job. That is still my core attitude, but I need to work out how to apply it to where I am now.

If I let my ego accept the praise I've been receiving (and it's nice to have the ego stroked from time to time), then I have to start taking it even more seriously than I already do. As Stross suggests, there are misconceptions abounding about a life spent in smoking jackets, casting enchanted words of wisdom onto the page while a servant mixes the perfect martini, but it is an honourable trade to which to aspire and work through an apprenticeship. Perhaps the milestone that marks the transition is the first sale of a book to someone whom I don't already know, even if (or perhaps especially if) they leave a 1-star review.

Ownership and Control

I've spent a lot of time since January revising things I've written (about 300,000 words). The process was more intense than I anticipated, but I'm confident that what I've come out with is stronger. There is a little way to go with it, but my mind is turning both to creating new stuff and figuring out what to do with the things I've written.

This post is to summarise my thinking so far, and also, because I'm going to email the link to a couple of friends, to form the basis for feedback to move my thinking on. My thinking has been conditioned a lot by the thoughts of musicians in analogous situations, especially 'legacy' artists with substantial followings, but adrift from commercial music companies.

I've been here before when thinking about creativity.

My model for this, oddly enough, is something that Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh said a lot about how the Grateful Dead went about creating music. Garcia talked about finding the form beyond chaos; Lesh talked about the search for improvised epiphanies. It's why I often say my first drafts need "less narrative and more weirdness." To the extent that I'm finding a voice, if I can say that without pretence, it is in stripping away my expectations of a narrative to let the story come through. Elsewhere I've described this as looking for something in the story to reveal itself to me, the ghost in the story, the presence behind the narrative, and then finding a way to make it manifest to a putative reader.

But this isn't about creativity now, it's about distribution and marketing of the end product.

 ***

I'm now certain in my own mind that I will self-publish. Why? Various reasons.

A fundamental one is ownership and control. I watched Rick Beato's interview with Steve Vai where he mentions a piece of advice Frank Zappa gave him: own your publishing. Steve then discusses the importance to him of all revenue coming into his companies, and his insistence that his suppliers or service providers invoice those companies for payment such that all payments are authorised by him, with no intermediaries having anything to do with the money. This contrasts with what was, and remains, the usual model for musical artists signing to a label, whereby managers deal with the money and rights without reference to the artist, often with disastrous results.

This seems to me to be at least somewhat analogous to publishing.

I also had thoughts arising from another Rick Beato interview, this time with guitarist Joe Satriani, in which Satriani gave his thoughts on streaming and digital distribution channels and how he has made them work for him.

I like classic, physical things: I listen to records, cassettes and CDs in preference to streaming most of the time; I like fountain pens and paper journals and analogue film cameras; and I like books. This is a visceral, subjective thing, but, I've realised, it can also function as a preconception or prejudice. There is a romance to the physicality of a book, to its smell, to its weight when reading, to the book as a thing. Typically, of course, books come from publishers and, in the general case, it's therefore necessary to have a relationship with a publisher, either directly or through the agent as intermediary.

This makes sense when the primary technology is the paper book and things are built around distributing that product. It makes less sense when the physical book ceases to be the only option, and other means of distribution direct to the reader are available. Much as I dislike how they operate as a company, this is where Amazon score.

I don't agree with those who reject the value of publishers or agents, but I do think the relationship has to change, and I also think it looks to be better for me to do this as a cottage industry from my shed rather than chase my tail trying to break into an industry.

If the primary objective is to get my words to readers and I can achieve that in real time by formatting and uploading the writing to a server, with full control of any income and associated expenditure, then that must be prima facie attractive unless the industry can provide some counterbalancing advantage, including an appropriate commercial structure. As it is, publishing looks like an archaeological site of old technologies and business models. (I'm exaggerating to make a point, of course). 

My own preference for the analogue has for some time blocked my thinking on this--I've been hooked on the sentimental value of the physical. Do I want hardback copies of my stuff on my shelf? Yes, of course; is that the be all and end all? No.

***

There are lots of reasons why writers don't get picked up by 'traditional' publishing. Many of these are entirely sound commercial decisions; many are aesthetic; sometimes (mostly, I guess) it’s because the writing is somewhere between mediocre and dreadful. I'm OK with that, but I also think it's irrelevant. What counts is getting the story to readers who (a) love it, (b) think it's OK or (c) hate it, in the hope that a subset will stick with it and let others know about it.

When I did a project recently listening only to music released in 1970, something interesting happened: I became conscious that my tastes were changing, and the things that made my ears perk up were things I'd previously ignored or dismissed, and often this was to do with where jazz met the avant garde. The culminating surprise was when I listened to both John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono's album of the same name, and preferred Yoko's by a long distance.

Yoko's album was resolutely uncommercial, as was most of the jazz and a lot of the rock music out on the fringes, but that doesn't really matter to me because I connected with it. Nor does it matter, in the abstract, that the audience for it was small while almost everyone else hated it: what matters is that there was an audience.

I make no particular claims for my writing, but I do believe that if I like it, and people whose opinions I trust like it, then other people will too. What I need to do is find them and tempt them to buy my stuff and read it. That is to say, it revolves around marketing and distribution.

I am not blasé about looking for best quality or editing or creating something I'm happy with, it boils down to the worker owning the means of production. And, in the long run, it isn't about money either. That isn't to say I don't want to be paid, it's to accept that the market I'm writing for might be as niche as me.

***

Distribution and marketing naturally brings me to the dread subject of social media. I have two problems with social media: the first is my dislike of the platforms themselves, especially FaceBook; the second is that I mute and avoid writers and creators who use social media solely for marketing and 'engagement'. It follows that, if social media is unavoidable as a means of discovering an audience, and vice versa, then I need to find a way of using it that is effective without cheesing people off. This includes YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, as well as a dedicated website.

***

So this is where my thoughts are turning now. Once I'm satisfied that the product is right, which involves outlay on editing, cover design, etc., how do I get it out there in a crowded market in an effective way, building up a readership who will be happy to look at other stuff I've yet to write? 

Plan Update

I mentioned a few posts back that I'd concluded that self-publishing was the way to go. I'm not rushing, but that's still where I'm going. I'm working up what my options are, bearing in mind that there'll be upfront costs.

I've revisited my original vamp stories, which a year ago I would have said were done, and revised them quite extensively with a second pass about to come. I've also got clean prints of my two existing novels to work on. The writing work-in-progress is on the shelf while the revising/editing gets done, but inevitably the work-in-progress will be improved as a consequence, so that's OK.

Costs will be editing and cover design, primarily. Having the text as good as I can currently make it ought to mitigate editing costs if and when I engage a third party who doesn't know me.

I've scratched the surface of marketing ideas but have more to work out there. I have a horrible feeling I may have to create an author page on Facebook, a site I'd rather have nothing to do with. Probably GoodReads as well :-/ These are sites I actively avoid as a private individual and as a reader, but they appear to be where at least some of the action is. The driving factor is those start-up costs: the only way I'll make any dent in them is through sales, which means going where the audience is.

I also think, by the way, that my post of 22 October last year was misconceived.

Anyway: watch this space.

Growing Pains

Vamps II has hit a familiar point at just short of 17,000 words: is this a novel or a novella? That's to say, is there enough story here to make a short-ish novel, or is it heading for around the 40,000 word mark?

In a sense, and following the logic of the last couple of posts, it doesn't matter; it will take as many words as it needs for the story to be told, especially if the publication will be online. On the other hand, I've been wondering whether to make it part of a collection. In my head, the model for that would be Viriconium. I mean that in a broad structural sense only, I'm not making any comparison between myself and Harrison.

One of the features of Viriconium was its deliberate focus on undermining the tropes of fantasy writing. In this case, it would be the tropes of the vampire novel, but I feel disinclined to do that if I was doing it just for the bantz. Alternatively, I described Vamps II as YA, but a YA who had grown up in a war zone. Maybe it is YA writing (about which I am deeply ambivalent) that needs to be got at. Joe Abercrombie has been here already, of course.

Playing with ideas just now, I hit upon having the Margaret/Ephraim relationship turn in part on competing ideas of what human society ought to be (in their terms). In that case, could I use, for example, Plato's Republic as a straw man to play with? In the end, there has to be a good story, but that doesn't mean I can't bury other things within it. If I still had them (and I might) I could use my old Moral Philosophy lecture outlines as a source to mine. Sure, that's cliched, but I am without shame.

My ambivalence about YA writing, by the way, is that it seems to me to be ossifying into a writing/publishing/marketing category which is in danger of missing what it is that the putative target audience might actually respond to. I have only my own experience to draw on, but I clearly remember that when I was a young teen, say from twelve onwards, I was reading what, these days, would not be marketed at young adults (Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, Alastair MacLean, Dennis Wheatley, Isaac Asimov), and by eighteen I was reading Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I don't think I was especially precocious. On this general theme, and for a pleasant change, the discussion of Young Adult fiction on Wikipedia (accessed today) is quite helpful.

Musings

 I'm thinking about the plan I mentioned in my previous post. The issue is what do I want to get out of this? I'm putting some thoughts here because almost nobody reads this anyway :-)

• I don't need the money that comes from commercial success. Of course, I'd like it, but I don't need it: We're comfortable on my pensions.
• I don't require literary credibility. Again, that would be nice, but I don't need literary acclaim to stroke my ego. That doesn't mean I'm cavalier about craft and style and good writing.
• I do like people reading my stuff and being either enthusiastic or at least polite about it. That is a nice ego boost.
• This is quite freeing. It means I can write whatever takes my fancy without regard to what the market wants and without even being under any requirement to be formally 'good'.
• The aim, therefore, is to write as best I can, and keep working at the craft, while making my work available for those who want it. I need to figure out what that means in terms of shaping the product and marketing it, but the drivers aren't to do with commerce or credibility per se; they're second-order benefits.
• My previous efforts to attract an agent in the current climate are therefore not where I should be putting my effort as, by definition, they are keen on commercial prospects and literary merit because they are commercial operations. They would take one look at this post and walk away, I reckon. And that's fine because they are businesses.
• So my primary focus should be on writing; my secondary focus should be on further analysing the possibilities open to me in a practical sense.