Contemporary Fiction

[pynchonoid]

--- jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't deny that it could be a substantial
> resource, you're right
> about that.  It's just that without some sort of
> editor in between the
> writer...  well, I wouldn't want to see Vollmann
> without any kind of
> editor whatsoever, nor really any writer for the
> most part.  I think
> it's sort of like blogs in that there is quite a
> deluge of very poor
> material, which might be the precursor to a deluge
> half-assed lulu
> books (half-assed even when compared to the
> half-assed books put out
> by big companies today).  Even if there's a genius
> blog out there,
> it's very hard to find as a reader / hard for a
> blogger to market /
> etc and generally it will become a blip on the
> radar, if it doesn't
> entirely fly under it altogether.  Look at
> DeviantART, for example.
> Every once in awhile, if you try hard enough and
> spend enough hours
> plodding through it, you'll find something
> interesting to look at.
> More often than not it's crayon furry drawings and
> photoshoppers
> enthralled by the magic of the lensflare - hardly
> (generally, not)
> worth sifting through to find those one or two good
> pictures.
> 
> I feel that it's a rather grim assessment to think
> that that's the
> future of literature, and I hope it's not.  It's
> hard enough to make a
> living as a writer as it is, almost akin to winning
> the lottery.
> Perhaps time will change this, but what, exactly,
> can a writer do to
> convince someone to buy their lulu book, or even
> simply download it
> for a cheaper price?  What can be done to rise above
> the
> furry-and-lensflare crowd and the people who come to
> the site
> expressly for that level of art?  To, in a sense,
> reach a "serious"
> crowd?

Marketing 101.  If you have money, you buy
advertisements in the right places and you do the
other things that money makes possible to promote a
new book. If no money, you use guerilla tactics.
Network. Write letters, make phone calls, follow-up
emails. It's a full-time job. Some people seem to make
it work, however.

If an author's book is worth reading, the new channels
that exist make it easier than before, imo, to get it
in front of opinion-makers.  I believe that some big
publishers also actively look for self-published books
that have sold enough copies to show promise. 

Another  trend is for authors to get together and do
things on the web and in the fleshworld to promote
their works, ad hoc co-ops that can attract attention
and make things happen with aggregated resources and
coordinated actions.

Dave said he was looking for the preterite, and I
listed some places where ordinary people  publish or
where they see their tastes/interests reflected in
print.  That's where some of the good new writing is
going to come from, imo, in addition to other places
more traditional.  




> 
> All, of course, without the marketing budget of a
> publishing company,
> nor the connections that such a company will have
> with outlets such as
> PW, NY Times Book Review, successful authors to
> write blurbs, etc?
> Have PW or NYTBR ever reviewed a lulu book?  And
> then there's the
> bookstore / Amazon crowd who won't get the "People
> who bought ____
> also bought (your book)" or see your book on the
> "new on our shelves"
> displays.
> 
> Think of it this way.  If we'd never heard of Thomas
> Pynchon, and he
> posted GR to lulu yesterday, how would we hear about
> him even if we
> were aware of Lulu?  Would we even bother holding
> any hope that
> sifting through all that fanfiction and third-rate
> horror stories
> would result in anything worth reading?  Would we
> just let it slide
> by, unnoticed?  I'd say it's quite likely.
> 
> My argument here is regarding the current
> incarnation of
> self-publishing, and not necessarily what it might
> become.  Again,
> time may change all this.  But as it stands I think
> the lulu /
> deviantart correlation is apt and to help
> e-publishing rise above it
> might be necessary to have an intemediary to sift
> through the slush
> for us, an e-editor, shall we say, and then we're in
> the same place we
> were before.  Or, at least, we'd have to break away
> from publishing as
> we know it and throw people wholly into the
> self-published market,
> instead of having them weigh the merits based on an
> online blurb
> between a professionally edited book on Amazon on
> the one hand versus
> some no-name on a self-publishing web page like
> Lulu.
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/14/06, pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > --- jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Do you think that there's any chance in hell of
> > > getting any sort of
> > > readership / recognition through lulu?
> >
> > Yes, if you spend enough time and money to market
> the
> > book. I wouldn't count on lulu doing it.
> >
> >
> > >I hadn't
> > > heard of blurb.com
> > > til your email.  But while I like the idea of
> lulu
> > > it seems kind of
> > > like "giving up" almost.
> >
> >
> > A real longing for legitimacy among new authors
> out
> > there, undeniable. Being published by an
> established
> > house - even better, to be discovered by an
> editor,
> > nurtured along into a literary lion - the romantic
> > dream dies hard, but that's the 20th century,
> history.
> >  That circuit still exists and still plays a huge
> > role, but a lot of stuff is bubbling up from
> below,
> > authors using the web to connect with audiences;
> lots
> > of junk and mediocre stuff but some gems pop up,
> too.
> > Look at the way a web site like Boing Boing, to
> name
> > one I know a little bit, helps to promote authors,
> > especially those outside traditional circles.
> >
> > That's why I have  hopes that great new literary
> work
> > can emerge. Compared to the likes of Pynchon,
> Roth,
> > and a few others, the young writers seem a bit
> weak to
> > me so far, but what is it the theorists say, get a
> > million monkeys typing and one of them will write
> > Gravity's Rainbow.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >Have never heard of a lulu
> > > book being
> > > discussed or even read.  I wish there were more
> > > opportunities for a
> > > wider readership in the self-published sector,
> but
> > > in the mean time
> > > using it seems to rank about at the level of
> > > fanfiction from my
> > > perspective (but as I've said I don't have a lot
> of
> > > experience with
> > > any of the books that are published through it).
> >
> > Each to his own, of course.  These services look
> like
> > an excellent and inexpensive way to publish - what
> > happens to the book after that, I guess that's up
> to
> > the author.
> >
> > When you consider how expensive and difficult it
> used
> > to be to get a book published - if the author were
> > outside the agent/editor/publisher loop - as well
> as
> > how difficult and expensive it used to be to
> > self-publish or start a small press, imo these
> > services represent a substantial resource for
> authors.
> >
> > Add the capability to use the Internet to find
> > potential readers/book purchasers, the tools at
> least
> > are in place for a Golden Age for authors.
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > > On 9/14/06, pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > > > >the preterite stuff
> > > >
> > > > Comic books, graphic novels, fan fiction,
> zines,
> > > > reader-contributed editorial elements in
> online
> > > > communities, writer self-help groups,
> > > self-published
> > > > books at sites like Blurb.com and Lulu.com
> (more
> > > on
> > > > the way, making it easy & cheap for people to
> > > publish
> > > > novels)...
> > > >
> >
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> 


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