Jeffrey Ricker's Blog, page 57

You tell me: "Spamazon" and ebook pricing

From Livia Blackburne's Twitter feed I came across this post about self-published spam ebooks that are clogging Amazon's Kindle marketplace. (The original Reuters article can be found here at Yahoo.) It caught my eye because of several things I've read lately, one being former agent and current YA author Nathan Bransford's recent poll on what readers think is a fair price for ebooks. Then, of course, there was the New York Times piece on Amanda Hocking who got her start self-publishing (the quote that stands out for me there, and not in a good way, is, "For me to be a billion-dollar author," she would tell me later, "I need to have people buying my books at Wal-Mart.")

This gets back to quantity-versus-quality  and how the flood of ebooks can make it nearly impossible for a good, legitimate work to make its voice heard in the marketplace. It's always been a challenge for small, independent, and midlist writers. For me, it also highlights the continued importance of the role that gatekeepers play in the traditional publishing process.

What do you think: Is price a reliable way to determine the relative merits of an ebook? Or are you more or less likely to take a chance on an ebook priced at 99 cents because, even if it's crap, it was only a buck?

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

My desk, my mind, both cluttered

My desk is a mess. I think it reflects my state of mind, or perhaps it's the other way around. I find that when I sit here lately, I don't focus on my writing. I check my email, I post something to Twitter, I think about the next thing I want to blog about. I check Facebook and see which friends are amusing me and which ones are pissing me off. I check to see which ones have been amused by something I've posted. I look at the mess that is my desk and think, "I should tidy this up."

I never seem to get things cleaned up, but neither do I manage to steer my attention back to writing.

I have this wonderful program called "Freedom" that shuts out the rest of the world when I'm sitting at my computer, but only if I take the first step and turn it on. I need to turn it on more often. I read an article at n+1 by a writer named Dani Shapiro and how much trouble she has keeping the world away from her desk when she writes. It used to be just the telephone and the answering machine that would distract, people calling in the middle of the day and not fathoming how she needed focus and time to herself in order to write, her mother's voice coming from the answering machine saying, "I know you're there, pick up." Voicemail was a wonderful thing in that case, because you could turn off your ringer and not know someone had called until you picked up the phone and got that choppy beep before the dial tone.

We had voicemail at home, but since Mike and I both have cell phones, we have an answering machine in an upstairs bedroom that we usually forget to check. I want to get rid of the home phone if we can, but that's a story for another day. Actually, it's not even a story, so I probably won't mention it again because-well, boring.

Now, the little app to shut out the internet asks, "How many minutes of Freedom do you want?"

All of them?

Of course, since I have a smart phone, I can conveniently carry a whole world of distractions in my pocket. It is often useful, but more often than not, it takes my attention away from wherever I am and whatever I'm doing. I find myself turning it on airplane mode to try and escape from it.

My contract is up in September, and I'm seriously thinking about going back to a plain Jane phone. (At this point, I might have been tempted to Google the origin of "plain Jane," but I turned on Freedom last night and asked for eight hours. I still probably have about seven and a half to go.)

Now I'm also thinking, since I mentioned how much Freedom I have left, about the blog entry I meant to post today, the Q&A from another indie LGBTQ publisher. One thing Dani Shapiro didn't point out in her article is that, yes, Freedom does shut out the internet, but if you can get around its wall if you restart your computer. Not that I've ever done that.

Actually, I've done that a lot.

She also mentioned the Jonathan Franzen article (the one that pissed off some of my friends) where he talks about writing at a computer that he's modified so that he can't get online. He's plugged the Ethernet port by gluing in a hacked off Ethernet cable. (I'm assuming it doesn't have wifi built in.) The thing is, I don't think the lengths he's gone to are all that unreasonable.

I still have my old laptop downstairs in the basement. I wonder if I should think about doing the same thing to it.

But now, here I am, sitting at my desk, it's six in the morning, the dogs are fed, there's a load of laundry going, and I'm thinking I need to go back upstairs to put on my running shoes and go for a walk before I head to work this morning. I'm also thinking about the story I'm revising, which I need to work on because the clock is ticking on that. (Make a note to check the email from the editor again to confirm that I'm covering all the bases he suggested-except that I use Gmail and so I can't access it offline. Oh, wait, I think I can still pull it up in MacMail. Yep, there it is. Yep, I seem to be on track.) My copy of Wilde Stories 2011 is still sitting here, still waiting to be read. There are the two stories due in November that I have sort of started on. (Well, I've thought about them.) Have I mentioned the first draft of the second book is due December 1?

And then of course I have to take a shower and go to work.

Maybe shutting off the internet for eight hours was too ambitious after having been hip-deep in it for a while.

How many minutes of Freedom do I have left? If you're reading this and it's Friday morning, the answer is none.

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Q&A with PD Publishing's President, Linda Daniel

When did you start PD Publishing? (And what do the initials "PD" stand for?)

PD was incorporated in 2004 and we put our first book out in 2005. PD doesn't really stand for anything. We liked the ink splot idea of how messy it used to be to use ink and pen, like all the writers used to do before things became more technical, like typewriters. When asked, we say the PD stands for Purple Dot. Which is what we were thinking when we decided on PD, but legally, the only name we have is P.D. Publishing, Inc. There are no other ways you can find us since PD truly doesn't mean anything worthy of including in our incorporation paperwork.

How many titles do you currently have in print?

We currently have 91 titles in print.

What were your reasons for starting your own publishing company?

The main reason that we started our own publishing company was because authors asked us to do so. Barb and I had been working with another small press and got so very tired of how that publisher was treating authors and treating workers, deciding just to quit. After we were away for a few months, we had authors writing to us saying they wanted to work with us, no matter where we were working. Many gave us the idea to start our own company. After much thought and consideration, we went and talked to an accountant and an attorney to see what it would take on our end. After more thought, we jumped in.

The reason for starting versus the reason for staying are actually not the same. There are many ways authors can get their stories in print—many ways they could self-publish and make more personal monies. But I think there will always be some folks that would rather ONLY write and not have to be involved with the business end of things. Also, there is a quality that publishers can add to a book that many cannot afford on their own.

How big's your staff?

Barb and I, owners of P.D. Publishing, are the only folks that work full time as business owners. We are not salaried. The rest of the workers are contract pay workers. We contract them and give them work orders per job—either editing or cover art. Our contract workers all have jobs and work with PD on the side. So there is a lot of flexibility since their real-life jobs pay the bills or the insurance. Some workers have periods of times in their lives where they cannot accept new projects. So the number working with us at a specific period of time comes and goes. We currently have 10 editors and 8 artists.

Since you started the press, in what ways have you seen the landscape of LGBTG publishing change, and what steps have been necessary to adapt to that?

The first thing coming to mind is the digital technology changes—where authors have so many options to get their work into print. When we started, the doors to small publishers were just opening. The next thing that comes to mind is the death of most of the brick and mortar LGBT bookstores and other independent bookstores.

Are your titles available as e-books? If not, what are the roadblocks you've encountered in that process?

PD will have e-books out shortly. The readers are demanding their availability. But we've really worried about the security of the digital age. Piracy is so rampant. Readers think nothing about copying e-book files and giving them to their friends. What's worse are folks "selling" e-books that they don't have the right to. That's even a worse form of stealing than the sharing amongst friends. There is a minor issue of the variety of file forms being used by all the differing e-book makers.

In what direction do you hope to take the press in the future?

We hope to continue to keep up with the technological changes that the readers request. There are many things that we would do if we had plenty of money and time. Really, time has been more of an issue for Barb and myself. PD is very lucky to be doing so well financially, especially considering what others we know of are going through. Barb and I are full-time post-graduate educators—that pays our bills and our health insurance. We'd be doing so many more things if we had more time. But we love the publishing business. I know that authors have other options, so we feel so thankful that authors are seeking us out to get their work into print.

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Q&A with Jameson Currier, founder of Indie LGBTQ publisher Chelsea Station Editions

You started Chelsea Station Editions in 2010, and your list currently includes 12 books either already released or coming out this year, is that right?

Yes, but I am already addressing some titles that will come out in 2012, including new works by David Pratt, Jon Marans, and Felice Picano, all of whom I published this year.

How big's your staff?

One. (Me). I edit, copyedit, layout, design, market, publicize, and publish all the books with a one-man staff (me). It gives me a hands-on control, which I feel is very important. I do have help with the Web site from Andrew Beierle, an author (First Person Plural) and good friend who is very talented in Web design. I also have incredible help from the authors who help publicize and market their own work.

What was your reason for starting Chelsea Station?

With the demise of Haworth, Carroll & Graff, Suspect Thoughts, and Alyson and the increasing disappearance of gay books from the market, I felt it was important to establish a press for gay literary works that were not able to find a home at other publishers.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for your press as well as LGBTQ publishers in general?

Finding readers and getting the attention of people who would want to buy and read gay books. For the generation that I came of age with, gay books were how we discovered ourselves—reading gay novels and short stories and memoirs and personal accounts. Now that there is more gay visibility on TV, movies, music and politics, gay literature has to compete with these other mediums.

Are your titles available as e-books?

Most of our books are available in e-books, which I do myself. It has been a learning curve for me to learn how to create the books in all of the formats that now exist.

What were some of the unexpected issues you faced while starting up Chelsea Station? Would you do anything differently?

The costs associated with being a new publisher have always been worrisome, and Chelsea Station has grown very fast. I've never been someone who had a lot of money or made a lot of money, but everyone thinks that because you are a publisher you have money and financing. I only publish books that I adore and feel have merit. I don't publish the books to make a profit, and the press is financed by the salary I make at a very demanding day job. I put as much as I can into making wonderful books, so I have been surprised to encounter independent booksellers I have dealt directly with who won't pay their bills in a responsible manner. And there are also many independent booksellers who won't carry books published by a small press, which I find so strange and problematic—they only want to carry the same books that are sold by the big chain stores.

In what direction do you hope to take the press in the next few years?

I publish books that I adore and want to share with other readers. I'd love the press to grow by our authors recommending future works that they adore and want to share with readers.

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Indie LGBTQ publishers, a preface

You'll recall that recently I mentioned an article I wrote on LGBTQ publishing for a friend's newsletter and, unfortunately, the story got spiked. In the process, though, I contacted a couple of independent presses to round out the information I'd gleaned from last month's panel at Saints & Sinners on current trends in LGBTQ publishing (and publishing in general). In a book environment that's as changing as the current one, I think there are a lot of opportunities for nimble outfits to carve their own niche, and I was looking forward to getting the word out about them. My own publisher, Bold Strokes Books, is probably one of the most notable in that regard, but you've heard me go on and on about them already (and likely will in the future). Who else is out there?

A lot, actually. So, when the story got spiked, I decided instead to post my email interviews here on the blog (that's what it's for, right?) in a Q&A format. I'll put up the first one, with Jameson Currier of Chelsea Station Editions, in the next day or so, and the second, with Linda Daniel, president of P.D. Publishing, after that.

One thing that I really admire about them both is their can-do attitudes toward putting forward new voices. And they're not the only ones. It's always encouraging to encounter people who are passionate about the written word. Seek them out whenever you can!

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

What's in a letter?

So, a friend of mine wanted me to write an article for her newsletter on writing LGBTQ-themed fiction. We got our wires crossed, though, and instead of writing a how-to article on how to crack, as it were, the market, I gave her something else.

Anyway, as with most things, it got me thinking, as did last month's Lambda Literary Awards where Edward Albee, in accepting the Foundation's Pioneer Award, said, "I'm not a gay writer. I'm a writer who happens to be gay." You can watch the speech here.

What's the difference?

Obviously, with Edward Albee (did I mention he and I were in the same anthology once? I know-who'd have thought?), you have a writer whose work didn't address themes from an LGBTQ perspective. A writer, he said, needs to be able to "transcend self." Indeed, all writers have to do that, otherwise they're memoirists (which is not to knock memoirists).

I think Albee's stance came across as overly simplistic and more than a bit defensive. Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe it's a symptom of white male privilege. I don't know.  But I think he's wrong. He's also right.

He's wrong if he thinks being gay has had no influence on his writing. (Hello: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Sylvia?) Your work doesn't necessarily need to address being gay specifically, but I think the context of our own existence will influence what we write. I've written about suburban housewives and vampires, though I am neither. I am also writing about a girl and a ten-foot-tall cat. I don't have to tell you that I've never been either of those, do I?

Do you have to be gay/lesbian/bi/trans to write literature with explicitly gay themes? Clearly, the answer is no. Did you ever read The Dreyfus Affair by Peter Lefcourt? Straight. Married. (Also, great book.) There is also a vibrant market of women writing gay-themed fiction (for those to whom this is Greek, and admittedly my Greek is of the phrasebook level here, it's been called "slash" but is more commonly now called "m/m") and they're not strictly writing for the gay reader. An LGBTQ writer should not automatically be required to write about LGBTQ-related themes either.

Nor should a gay writer (or a writer who happens to be gay) who wants to be taken seriously (whatever that means) feel it necessary to avoid writing fiction with specifically LGBTQ themes in it.

I understand I'm treading a line here. We develop our fictions to get at some truth about life. Whether our life specifically or life in general, it is life as we, the writer, observe or experience it. Our lives. Whether the protagonist sleeps with men or women is often not the point.

But it's not like I sit down at the keyboard and switch off the part of me that's gay. It's part of the fabric. Remove it and the entire weave unravels.

So what I guess I'm saying is, don't touch my weave.

What do you think? Do you agree with Albee or disagree?

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Saints & Sinners Highlighted at Lambda Literary

Over at lambdaliterary.org, Carol Rosenfeld has posted a roundup on the Ninth Annual Saints & Sinners Literary Festival held last month in New Orleans. I wrote about this from a personal perspective last month as well, but this article gives a broader range of the events that take place during the weekend. If this is a genre you write in, believe me, it's a worthwhile and inspiring time, even if it's the sort of place where I imagine Edward Albee might not be caught dead. (I have some thoughts on that as well, which I will likely share if I can get them coherent in my head.)

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Men of the Mean Streets, Part the First

So, my friend 'Nathan recently wrote a note on Facebook in which he went through each of the stories in Men of the Mean Streets, the anthology coming out from Bold Strokes Books that features work by both of us, along with several mutual friends and great writers. I'm not a fast reader, so I've only finished the first story in the anthology, but it's 'Nathan's, which I had the pleasure of reading before I got the advance copy.

Now, in his review of the book, he skipped his own entry, which is understandable but is an omission that should be corrected. So let me just say that "Keeping the Faith" is a grim tale about a detective hired by a priest to find something that's been stolen from him. Getting it back won't be so straightforward, and I can't tell you more without giving away the key that puts a wonderful twist on a standard noir trope. It left me wanting more, and I hope 'Nathan revisits this character in the future.

I think 'Nathan is a faster reader than I am, because he's gone through the whole book and given his thoughts on each story. I'm hoping to do that here and there, but probably only one story at a time. That may make me a dreadful tease, but given that the book doesn't come out until August, at least I'm prolonging the anticipation.

It's going to be really good. 

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Always Fry Your Best

Fay Jacobs is a tough act to follow. Believe me, I know.

I wrote about that experience earlier this month, but what I didn't mention was how wonderfully kind and gracious Fay was. (Everyone I met at Saints & Sinners was, in fact. It's a gathering of amazingly nice people, I've found.) Josh Aterovis gave me a nice setup before I went up to read, I passed out some chocolate to lull the crowd into an endorphin-induced sense of satisfaction, and then read. When I was done, Fay said what I read was beautiful.

(See? Chocolate works. I'm bringing it to my annual performance reviews from now on.)

Fay Jacobs is the author of several collections of humor essays, including As I Lay Frying and Fried and True. After the reading was over, I went to the book table and bought her latest collection, For Frying Out Loud.

I'm glad I did, because it's great. The collection consists of the columns that Jacobs wrote for the publication Letters from CAMP Rehoboth, as well as original pieces written just for the book, describing her and her partner Bonnie's adventures in RV'ing.

As a child whose parents owned a succession of recreational vehicles, I found these stories hit all too close (and hilariously) to home.

Jacobs touches on everything from the sublime to the ridiculous to the sublimely ridiculous-politics, dogs, the Rehoboth Beach community, gay culture and history-all with her signature wit and good-natured humor. She can also get fired up too, like when she's taking witless Maryland politicians or religious hatemongers to task over their bigoted viewpoints. Trust me, you do not want to be on the receiving end of one of her zingers.

After hearing her give a reading, I enjoyed these essays all the more because I could imagine them being read in her voice, and listening to her read is a joy.

Even if you haven't had that good fortune though, read this book. It'll make you laugh 'til you fry.

(What? Don't tell me you didn't see that coming.)

Continue the discussion on redroom.com

Pilgrimage

So, I've been in a bit of a funk since we got home from Saints & Sinners Literary Festival this past Monday. On the one hand, the festival is an inspiring gathering of writers and book lovers. On the other hand, by the time we got home after a ten-and-a-half-hour drive, New Orleans seemed a million miles away.

I haven't gotten much writing done this week, which adds to the funk. I've written a couple scenes, a bunch of character sketches for the novel, and worked on an article for a friend's newsletter. It seems like wherever I've been, I've wanted to be someplace else.

But there's a reason for that, too. This morning I'm flying to San Francisco to see Kylie Minogue in concert this evening. It's a whirlwind trip: I fly out this morning, the concert's tonight, and my flight back is at six tomorrow morning. I haven't done anything impulsive like this in a long time, but seeing Kylie is a bucket list item for me. Traveling light, I've just got a carry-on with a book, a notebook, a magazine, and my toothbrush.

How Egyptian.

My friend Tricia calls going to San Francisco to see Kylie "summiting gay Everest." I can't say she's wrong. And I'm sure the view from the top will be stunning.