R.D. Ronald's Blog, page 2
October 26, 2014
Diversity in Mainstream Publishing Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun?
I was sad to hear some particularly bleak impressions I’ve formed of the current publishing industry echoed back at me in a recent email exchange with a good friend, who also happens to have been a brilliant and well respected author for over 20 years. They sum up the ethos of this post quite succinctly, so I’ll begin by replicating them here:
“I’m beginning to think that the entire publishing industry is staring down the barrel of a gun, and might actually be on its last legs. It’s all about units now – units shifted – which is a strange way of looking at an art form that is often ahead of its time, and therefore not immediately accessible. I think we’re living in an age that is threatened – even frightened – by originality.”
This is also the sentiment I’ve gathered from talking to a number of agents, who claim it’s harder to break into the industry now as publishers are so much stricter on what they’ll take a chance on.
So how will this ultimately affect us, as readers, and our literary culture? Well, I’m sure a lot of you will be aware of the story of Chuck Palahniuk’s genre transcending debut novel Fight Club. That hardback sales were initially doing so poorly they were due to be pulped, until David Fincher got on board and the movie was released, catapulting Chuck’s career, overnight, into well deserved literary stardom. But if Fight Club were released today, would it even be given a chance? And if not, then how many other ground-breaking novels, that defy cultural constraints and reshape the way we think about the world, are we, as a result, missing out on?
In the past week I’ve been mulling all of this over, and thought back to a few years ago when music fans in the UK, myself included, made their feelings about the plasticated, synthesised music scene, especially around Christmas time, known, by their mass purchasing of Rage Against the Machine’s Killing In The Name Of, to make it the Christmas number one, beating out whatever travesty Simon Cowell and his evil minions happened to be pedalling that year.
Now, I’m not claiming that the publishing industry has a similar horned and trident carrying figurehead, but the effect of their exclusive support for a select number of household name fiction writers, who churn out titles like vending machines, and let’s face it, they do often tend to be fairly formulaic and predictable, is much the same. And then we have non-fiction: Celebrity chefs with another 1001 ways to make cheese on toast; Ghost-written ramblings of yet another glamour model; Middle-aged TV personalities slagging off cars, everything foreign, and anything else they don’t understand; And what about the fourteen-year-old pimply pop-stars with the third instalment of their unmissable auto biographies … and on and on and on.
And I’m not even saying people shouldn’t buy these books. If you really want them then of course you should do so. But first, just to ask yourself the question, do you really want them, or are you just bombarded by their familiarity?
The marketing of these types of books is widespread and undoubtedly very effective, but perhaps we’ve already seen enough of their shiny, airbrushed faces, and don’t really want to read more about them after all.
As an author myself I’m sure this is coming over like a lot of sour grapes, and to be honest, perhaps some of it is, but the sad fact remains that if the current cultural trends stay the same, then the cycle of diminishing returns from the publishing houses will continue to get worse. The big names will get bigger and lesser know authors will continue to be marginalised until they eventually vanish completely, and so much artistry, vision, creativity and passion will be lost.
This is all very depressing, so what am I proposing? Well I’m not about to suggest everyone go out and buy my books or one I’m about to nominate. This isn’t about electing a talismanic title to symbolise our dissatisfaction with the direction the industry is headed in. But rather, as book lovers and book gifters, we delve a little deeper in our selections to see that it can herald a far greater reward, and break the suffocating cycle of the dominance or familiarity.
Just because a title is on the best-seller list, does that automatically make it the best? I’m sure none of us would leap to that conclusion about the music charts, so why do we do it with books? Just because it’s on a big glittery display rack at the front of the store, or prominently placed beside the cash register, does that make it the ideal selection for you or the person you’re buying for? Just because you recognise the big smiley face on the jacket, does that mean the contents are any good?
Take another look. Dig a little deeper. That’s all I’m suggesting. Check out lists voted on by other readers and see what stands out and piques your interest. Take a chance on something that seems curious yet obscure to you. Some of my all time favourite books are titles I’ve discovered in this manner, and had otherwise never heard of. I wonder again if some of our most ground-breaking authors of the past were starting out today, would they be given the necessary chance to shine? To prove what they are all about, cut out a niche fan base and go from strength to strength? If not, and the vast contributions they made to our literary heritage were lost, then what are we currently set to lose out on from this generation of writers and the next?
I’ll close this post with what I feel is a suitably profound quote from Haruki Murakami: “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
R D Ronald.
“I’m beginning to think that the entire publishing industry is staring down the barrel of a gun, and might actually be on its last legs. It’s all about units now – units shifted – which is a strange way of looking at an art form that is often ahead of its time, and therefore not immediately accessible. I think we’re living in an age that is threatened – even frightened – by originality.”
This is also the sentiment I’ve gathered from talking to a number of agents, who claim it’s harder to break into the industry now as publishers are so much stricter on what they’ll take a chance on.
So how will this ultimately affect us, as readers, and our literary culture? Well, I’m sure a lot of you will be aware of the story of Chuck Palahniuk’s genre transcending debut novel Fight Club. That hardback sales were initially doing so poorly they were due to be pulped, until David Fincher got on board and the movie was released, catapulting Chuck’s career, overnight, into well deserved literary stardom. But if Fight Club were released today, would it even be given a chance? And if not, then how many other ground-breaking novels, that defy cultural constraints and reshape the way we think about the world, are we, as a result, missing out on?
In the past week I’ve been mulling all of this over, and thought back to a few years ago when music fans in the UK, myself included, made their feelings about the plasticated, synthesised music scene, especially around Christmas time, known, by their mass purchasing of Rage Against the Machine’s Killing In The Name Of, to make it the Christmas number one, beating out whatever travesty Simon Cowell and his evil minions happened to be pedalling that year.
Now, I’m not claiming that the publishing industry has a similar horned and trident carrying figurehead, but the effect of their exclusive support for a select number of household name fiction writers, who churn out titles like vending machines, and let’s face it, they do often tend to be fairly formulaic and predictable, is much the same. And then we have non-fiction: Celebrity chefs with another 1001 ways to make cheese on toast; Ghost-written ramblings of yet another glamour model; Middle-aged TV personalities slagging off cars, everything foreign, and anything else they don’t understand; And what about the fourteen-year-old pimply pop-stars with the third instalment of their unmissable auto biographies … and on and on and on.
And I’m not even saying people shouldn’t buy these books. If you really want them then of course you should do so. But first, just to ask yourself the question, do you really want them, or are you just bombarded by their familiarity?
The marketing of these types of books is widespread and undoubtedly very effective, but perhaps we’ve already seen enough of their shiny, airbrushed faces, and don’t really want to read more about them after all.
As an author myself I’m sure this is coming over like a lot of sour grapes, and to be honest, perhaps some of it is, but the sad fact remains that if the current cultural trends stay the same, then the cycle of diminishing returns from the publishing houses will continue to get worse. The big names will get bigger and lesser know authors will continue to be marginalised until they eventually vanish completely, and so much artistry, vision, creativity and passion will be lost.
This is all very depressing, so what am I proposing? Well I’m not about to suggest everyone go out and buy my books or one I’m about to nominate. This isn’t about electing a talismanic title to symbolise our dissatisfaction with the direction the industry is headed in. But rather, as book lovers and book gifters, we delve a little deeper in our selections to see that it can herald a far greater reward, and break the suffocating cycle of the dominance or familiarity.
Just because a title is on the best-seller list, does that automatically make it the best? I’m sure none of us would leap to that conclusion about the music charts, so why do we do it with books? Just because it’s on a big glittery display rack at the front of the store, or prominently placed beside the cash register, does that make it the ideal selection for you or the person you’re buying for? Just because you recognise the big smiley face on the jacket, does that mean the contents are any good?
Take another look. Dig a little deeper. That’s all I’m suggesting. Check out lists voted on by other readers and see what stands out and piques your interest. Take a chance on something that seems curious yet obscure to you. Some of my all time favourite books are titles I’ve discovered in this manner, and had otherwise never heard of. I wonder again if some of our most ground-breaking authors of the past were starting out today, would they be given the necessary chance to shine? To prove what they are all about, cut out a niche fan base and go from strength to strength? If not, and the vast contributions they made to our literary heritage were lost, then what are we currently set to lose out on from this generation of writers and the next?
I’ll close this post with what I feel is a suitably profound quote from Haruki Murakami: “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
R D Ronald.
May 31, 2014
The Idea, Concept and Emergence of the setting of Garden Heights
When watching a movie we very much share the creative vision of the director. Our experience as viewers (although some will it enjoy more than others) is universal, tapered only by the skills of the cast and crew, with all script interpretation already done prior to our enjoyment. The novel, in essence, is a very different beast. A cerebral partnership between author and reader, and one I have always loved because of this.
When reading fiction we expect the characters to be made up, created (more or less) from the imagination of the author, but outside of fantasy or science-fiction we almost always find the locations that events take place to be firmly rooted, past or present, in the real world where we all live and breathe. And why not? With travel to most corners of the world more accessible than ever before, and research inherently easier, with industrial amounts of digital information available at our fingertips, authors have never had it so good. This is something I pondered extensively before beginning work on my debut novel The Elephant Tree in 2008. The reason for my deliberation was that the Transgressive novels I loved set in the UK were very different from the ones set in the US. There were common themes shared by both, but the geographical backdrop affected the way the stories had to be told; cultural and language barriers that could isolate and alienate certain readers. I wanted the reader to be free of preconceptions entering into this world, than say, if the book was set in LA or London or Paris or New York. How many of us have been passionately vocal with our opinions after seeing a favourite novel adapted to the big screen because it varied so wildly from our own interpretation? It was an extension of this effect I wished to create.
With this decided, even though I realised it was a huge gamble, writing commenced, and the setting of the city of Garden Heights spilled out onto the page as a ready formed concept. Purposely withholding what country Garden Heights was in and what the unit of currency was I wanted to leave enough fluid room for the imagination of the reader to pour into the gaps creating as unique an experience for them as it was for me, but the mood, the feel, the very essence of the place was set, along with the seedy and desperate characters, and the acts they seemed eager to commit with little encouragement from me. Some of it proved to be abhorrent and lawless, but at the very heart of the city, and in many of the characters, I found endearing elements of hope and decency, and although sometimes misguided, an overall sense of morality. So I fell in love with Garden Heights and its varied inhabitants, but what would the readers think?
I began writing while serving a prison sentence for cannabis cultivation in 2008. Prison is an awful place, but even during those dark days surrounded by many dark souls I discovered an unlikely core of humanity. This experience no doubt influenced and permeated through my writing and probably always will. Because of the style, content and setting of Garden Heights I expected and braced myself for a 50/50 love / hate mixed opinion in reader reviews, but to my surprise and delight the ratio was way more favourable. There was also a response I hadn’t anticipated. I received emails from readers from various locations in the UK, US, Canada and Australia expressing how glad they were to see that The Elephant Tree had been set in their home town and asking when I had visited there. Obviously this wasn’t my intention and I had never even been to most of these places, but I was most intrigued to discover that by omitting certain specifics, while creating an environment that was both familiar and relatable, readers were subconsciously filling in the blanks with what was closest and most applicable to them. This was completely unintentional (I wish I was smart enough to have pre-empted this response) nevertheless it far exceeded the scope of my original idea. It also cemented in my mind my thus far unspoken desire to continue to explore the streets and characters of Garden Heights in further novels.
Each book occurs in its own self-contained literary sphere, meaning you can pick and choose your own order of enjoying the Garden Heights instalments. However, certain characters and plot lines may become prevalent between books, providing links both thematic and narrative, leading you, the unsuspecting reader, down darker roads, closer toward the heart of Garden Heights.
One thing to note for the sceptics: I don’t guarantee a happy ending. I don’t promise that the good guys will live happily ever after and the bad guys will get their come-uppance in the end. Sometimes it might not even be obvious which are the good guys and bad guys. I think that uncertainty is an inherent part of life and any outcome that has an inevitability of positive resolve is a hollow victory. My favourite books have always been those that mirror this philosophy, and the classics of years gone by certainly did. The craving we have, or at least or told we have, these days for a happy “Hollywood” ending has, I believe, diminished the impact of so many otherwise well written books. I know this is not a popularly held opinion, and it has gained me short shrift from a few critics over the years, but let’s face it, I’m not doing this to get rich, so far better to stick to something I believe in than become just another soul with a price tag.
That’s enough for now, but if even some of what I’ve said resonates with you, then I think we’re going to get along just fine.
Richard.
When reading fiction we expect the characters to be made up, created (more or less) from the imagination of the author, but outside of fantasy or science-fiction we almost always find the locations that events take place to be firmly rooted, past or present, in the real world where we all live and breathe. And why not? With travel to most corners of the world more accessible than ever before, and research inherently easier, with industrial amounts of digital information available at our fingertips, authors have never had it so good. This is something I pondered extensively before beginning work on my debut novel The Elephant Tree in 2008. The reason for my deliberation was that the Transgressive novels I loved set in the UK were very different from the ones set in the US. There were common themes shared by both, but the geographical backdrop affected the way the stories had to be told; cultural and language barriers that could isolate and alienate certain readers. I wanted the reader to be free of preconceptions entering into this world, than say, if the book was set in LA or London or Paris or New York. How many of us have been passionately vocal with our opinions after seeing a favourite novel adapted to the big screen because it varied so wildly from our own interpretation? It was an extension of this effect I wished to create.
With this decided, even though I realised it was a huge gamble, writing commenced, and the setting of the city of Garden Heights spilled out onto the page as a ready formed concept. Purposely withholding what country Garden Heights was in and what the unit of currency was I wanted to leave enough fluid room for the imagination of the reader to pour into the gaps creating as unique an experience for them as it was for me, but the mood, the feel, the very essence of the place was set, along with the seedy and desperate characters, and the acts they seemed eager to commit with little encouragement from me. Some of it proved to be abhorrent and lawless, but at the very heart of the city, and in many of the characters, I found endearing elements of hope and decency, and although sometimes misguided, an overall sense of morality. So I fell in love with Garden Heights and its varied inhabitants, but what would the readers think?
I began writing while serving a prison sentence for cannabis cultivation in 2008. Prison is an awful place, but even during those dark days surrounded by many dark souls I discovered an unlikely core of humanity. This experience no doubt influenced and permeated through my writing and probably always will. Because of the style, content and setting of Garden Heights I expected and braced myself for a 50/50 love / hate mixed opinion in reader reviews, but to my surprise and delight the ratio was way more favourable. There was also a response I hadn’t anticipated. I received emails from readers from various locations in the UK, US, Canada and Australia expressing how glad they were to see that The Elephant Tree had been set in their home town and asking when I had visited there. Obviously this wasn’t my intention and I had never even been to most of these places, but I was most intrigued to discover that by omitting certain specifics, while creating an environment that was both familiar and relatable, readers were subconsciously filling in the blanks with what was closest and most applicable to them. This was completely unintentional (I wish I was smart enough to have pre-empted this response) nevertheless it far exceeded the scope of my original idea. It also cemented in my mind my thus far unspoken desire to continue to explore the streets and characters of Garden Heights in further novels.
Each book occurs in its own self-contained literary sphere, meaning you can pick and choose your own order of enjoying the Garden Heights instalments. However, certain characters and plot lines may become prevalent between books, providing links both thematic and narrative, leading you, the unsuspecting reader, down darker roads, closer toward the heart of Garden Heights.
One thing to note for the sceptics: I don’t guarantee a happy ending. I don’t promise that the good guys will live happily ever after and the bad guys will get their come-uppance in the end. Sometimes it might not even be obvious which are the good guys and bad guys. I think that uncertainty is an inherent part of life and any outcome that has an inevitability of positive resolve is a hollow victory. My favourite books have always been those that mirror this philosophy, and the classics of years gone by certainly did. The craving we have, or at least or told we have, these days for a happy “Hollywood” ending has, I believe, diminished the impact of so many otherwise well written books. I know this is not a popularly held opinion, and it has gained me short shrift from a few critics over the years, but let’s face it, I’m not doing this to get rich, so far better to stick to something I believe in than become just another soul with a price tag.
That’s enough for now, but if even some of what I’ve said resonates with you, then I think we’re going to get along just fine.
Richard.
November 26, 2012
Free International Shipping
I've been receiving a number of messages from the States among other places, asking where the best place to order The Zombie Room in hardback is for the overseas community. As far as I know, the Book Depository in the UK is currently the best price that includes free overseas shipping, coming in at just over $17. If anyone discovers anywhere cheaper then by all means let me know and I'll pass along the info.
Thanks to everyone who became a fan, and for all the well wishing messages and positive reviews. Work on the third book continues, but for now keep enjoying The Elephant Tree and The Zombie Room.
Best wishes for the festive period,
Richard.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Zombi...
Thanks to everyone who became a fan, and for all the well wishing messages and positive reviews. Work on the third book continues, but for now keep enjoying The Elephant Tree and The Zombie Room.
Best wishes for the festive period,
Richard.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Zombi...
November 8, 2012
October 14, 2012
September 21, 2012
Cell Motivation and Packaging Personality.
Having enough time on your hands to spend day after day engrossed in books may sound like a dream come true for a modern day bookworm, but standing before a judge accused of growing cannabis to pay for my wife’s cancer treatment, I was about to discover that the reality was far from the dream.
Prison life, for the most part, was pretty much what you’d expect from crime novels and TV detective shows. I was there, could do nothing to change the situation, so I quickly befriended the librarian and was prescribed an ongoing, daily course of literary anesthesia.
For a while this helped no end. One book faded into the next and the days sped by. I found myself exhausting the library’s collection of most of my favourite authors, delving into whichever available new realms and rereading past classics. That is, until the magic began to fade.
With such an intensive reading schedule and limited availability to branch out, I began to find that many books, especially from more prolific authors felt very familiar. Sure the character names were different, the locations and situations they found themselves in weren’t exactly the same, but I couldn’t deny the formulaic feel of the cut-and-paste construction. With nobody to vent these frustrations at other than whomever I happened to be sharing a cell with at the time, I began to open a dialogue.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to preach that the people I began to get to know were all good guys (once you got to know them), not at all. Many were despicable individuals that casually told tales that could make your blood run cold, but even they weren’t without their own shred of humanity. One particular sociopath I spent a week locked in a cell with, would switch from bloodcurdling reminiscence to the disposition of a placated child when Loose Women was on television. Others were more regular guys, the type you might have a brief conversation with at a supermarket, or a bookstore. Further investigation often led to discovering of outlandish circumstance, the type we read of in crime novels that led them to react and end up serving out long sentences.
I have to admit that this revelation intrigued me. Nowhere within the pages of my beloved books could I find such honest and forthright representation of these souls whom I now found myself getting to know. I had never written anything more than a shopping list since leaving school, but found myself begin to jot down thoughts and ideas. The conveyor belt of inmates continued. I got to know more of them, with tales as varied and despicable, heartwarming and tragic as those that had gone before. My ideas took root and plot lines began to grow from the pile of notepads I continued to fill.
The characters were already there, the situations they found themselves in were defined. My writing career was about to begin.
Prison life, for the most part, was pretty much what you’d expect from crime novels and TV detective shows. I was there, could do nothing to change the situation, so I quickly befriended the librarian and was prescribed an ongoing, daily course of literary anesthesia.
For a while this helped no end. One book faded into the next and the days sped by. I found myself exhausting the library’s collection of most of my favourite authors, delving into whichever available new realms and rereading past classics. That is, until the magic began to fade.
With such an intensive reading schedule and limited availability to branch out, I began to find that many books, especially from more prolific authors felt very familiar. Sure the character names were different, the locations and situations they found themselves in weren’t exactly the same, but I couldn’t deny the formulaic feel of the cut-and-paste construction. With nobody to vent these frustrations at other than whomever I happened to be sharing a cell with at the time, I began to open a dialogue.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to preach that the people I began to get to know were all good guys (once you got to know them), not at all. Many were despicable individuals that casually told tales that could make your blood run cold, but even they weren’t without their own shred of humanity. One particular sociopath I spent a week locked in a cell with, would switch from bloodcurdling reminiscence to the disposition of a placated child when Loose Women was on television. Others were more regular guys, the type you might have a brief conversation with at a supermarket, or a bookstore. Further investigation often led to discovering of outlandish circumstance, the type we read of in crime novels that led them to react and end up serving out long sentences.
I have to admit that this revelation intrigued me. Nowhere within the pages of my beloved books could I find such honest and forthright representation of these souls whom I now found myself getting to know. I had never written anything more than a shopping list since leaving school, but found myself begin to jot down thoughts and ideas. The conveyor belt of inmates continued. I got to know more of them, with tales as varied and despicable, heartwarming and tragic as those that had gone before. My ideas took root and plot lines began to grow from the pile of notepads I continued to fill.
The characters were already there, the situations they found themselves in were defined. My writing career was about to begin.
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