Rod Raglin's Blog, page 43
March 24, 2014
Erotica and buying your way onto a Best-Seller list
If anybody is actually reading this, and not just clicking on it because you’ve been told that pretending to follow blogs will help build “your platform”, be forewarned – it’s yet another rant (and no, I won’t read your blog).
The author members of my publisher’s Yahoo group were recently all indignant about a story in The Wall Street Journal by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, entitled The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike, with the subhead; How Are Some Authors Landing On Best-Sellers Lists? They’re Buying Their Way.
The story details how for clients willing to pay enough, there’s a San Diego-based marketing consultancy that will guarantee a spot on The Wall Street Journal’s best-seller list. It does this by taking bulk sales and breaking them up into more organic-looking individual purchases, defeating safeguards that are supposed to make it impossible to “buy” bestseller status.
Soren Kaplan, a business consultant and speaker, hired ResultSource to promote his book “Leapfrogging.” Here’s how Kaplan breaks out the economics of making the list.
With a $27.95 list price, I was told that the cost of each book would total about $23.50 after various retail discounts and including $3.99 for tax, handling and shipping. To ensure a spot on The Wall Street Journal’s bestseller list, I needed to obtain commitments from my clients for a minimum of 3000 books at about $23.50, a total of about $70,500. I would need to multiply these numbers by a factor of about three to hit The New York Times list.
So it would’ve cost more than $211,000 to get on the New York Times bestselling list and that’s before ResultSource’s fee, which is typically more than $20,000. Kaplan reached that pre-sale figure of 3,000 by securing commitments from corporate clients, who agreed to buy copies as part of his speaking fees – he discounted his fees to include the book price, and by buying copies for himself to resell at public appearances.
After the first week on the best-sellers list, sales of Kaplan’s book dropped 99% to less than one hundred a week. Other authors have employed the same methods only to have their books drop off the radar in the second week with more returns than sales.
In actual fact, this article referred to business books and not fiction, which would need bigger numbers to top the best-seller lists.
The response from the author’s group was one of moral indignation as if their books were superior but they would never stoop to such methods even if they had two hundred grand and three thousand friends to send their books to.
Of course, the bogus review swaps and all other manner of manipulating postings on Amazon and Goodreads that they participate in are totally beyond reproach.
But really, are they serious? Most books on my publisher’s site and any e-publishing site for that matter are erotica (porn with a plot but not much of one) for every sexual persuasion and ones you might not even be aware of. Then there’s a category that includes demons, dragons, elves, and fairy tales for adults; and, of course lots of werewolves, vampires, shapeshifters and so on. Many don’t exceed one hundred pages and can hardly be called books.
Can’t imagine many best-sellers amongst these but what the hell, go ahead and mortgage the family home and take a shot at it.
If you’re writing for fame and fortune you’re likely going to be bitter, frustrated, disappointed and broke. Hmm… sounds like me.
Instead, write for the experience of writing. For the adventure your story takes you on as well as all those unexpected, and yes, enlightening things your characters tell you.
Write for the satisfaction of a finely crafted scene, the thrill of le mots justes – finding exactly the right word or phrase, the sense of purpose that comes from creating something that never was before.
Write for self-discovery, to make sense of the world.
Write to make the world a better place.
Find your voice, be authentic, make writing your ‘one true thing’. Don’t sully it with gimmicks, social media chicanery or other frauds to gain those few moments of tarnished fame.
As Emerson said; ‘A little integrity is better than any career.’
If you’re lucky enough to make some money and gain some notoriety, well, that’s not a bad thing.
~ ~ ~
Visit my publisher’s website (Yes, it’s the same one with erotica on it!) for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.
Read my current work(s) in progress at
More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin
March 19, 2014
The Half-Known World – a review
Robert Boswell’s, The Half-Known World – On Writing Fiction, is yet another book written by an instructor of a Creative Writing Program likely under the threat of publish or perish.
Boswell’s got some interesting concepts and he delivers them in a self-deprecating voice which is refreshing coming from an academic. One gets the impression that writing likely saved Boswell, who unabashedly admits he failed at just about everything else he tried.
Two things were gleaned from this thin book. One was the use of “narrative spandrels” in fiction.
A spandrel is a byproduct of the evolution of some other characteristic, rather than a direct result of it. Boswell suggests we be on the lookout for these opportunities to help mutate our stories into something better. These devices, perhaps a physical object, or maybe an idiosyncrasy, can be an at-the–moment event, but then go on to service the larger function of the story.
They can be an effective “ticking symbol” but he warns they must be spontaneous, even unconscious and not obvious “plants”.
In my latest novel, The Big Picture, my protagonist wears a cheap watch with a dead battery. Every time she looks at it, forgetting that it doesn’t work, it symbolizes how broke she is, how reluctant she is to be ruled be the clock, and how insignificant these types of personal belongings are to her. When it appeared on her arm I had no idea the significant role it would play.
The other advice that was worthwhile was Boswell’s conviction that if you’re going to write politics into your fiction you must do it from the point of view of the antagonist, the aggressor. This way you can fully explore both sides of the argument and, if you insist on the truth, avoid the work becoming clichéd propaganda in favor of the victim – your protagonist.
Boswell suggests that exploring political issues is important work for writers. “Writers cannot pretend to be helpless,” he says.
Helpless, no. Impotent, probably.
~ ~ ~
Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.
I blog at
http://rodraglin.wordpress.com/
Read my current work(s) in progress at
More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin
February 24, 2014
The social media ego ponzi scheme
My publisher has a group email where their authors can post messages. This is one I received recently.
Not sure how many of you if any use Triberr. It is a fabulous way to get
your blog posts out and gain Twitter followers. My tribe “Suspense for the
Romantic Heart” has a reach of about 75K. If there is anyone who would like
to join, it is super easy. Just go to
http://triberr. com/pages/ tribe-details. php?tribe= 23614 , sign up and then
follow my tribe. From there I will add you as a member.
For those who are not familar with Triberr, it is a share for share team. I
share all of your stuff, you share all of mine. The more tribemates, the
more twitter reach, aka the more exposure for you and your books!
Wow! 75,000 people read her tweets about her books! OMG! She must be, like, famous, and selling, thousands of books.
To that I say, LOL
About five years ago, everyone in a writing group I was involved with was fired up about social media. To be a successful writer you needed a “platform”, indeed you should start building it even before you were published. Just what you would say on the “platform” wasn’t clear. Maybe just WIP.
I registered on Facebook and was hungrily “friending” everyone possible – friends of friends of friends …
One day my wife was on the site trying to find a real friend and asked, “Do you know all these people?”
“Of course not.”
“Why are they here then?”
“Because I’m building a “platform”. I post information to them about my books.”
“Are you interested in what they’re posting?”
“Not really.” I mean how could I keep current with all these strangers even if I wanted to?
“Then what makes you think they’re remotely interested in what you’re doing?”
I hate it when she does that, actually makes sense.
With just a minimal amount of research, like asking authors for solid sales results generated by social media, I came to the conclusion it’s all a ponzi scheme for the self-deluded. A few positive responses leads one to believe that there’s riches to be tapped as long as they keep investing in “friends”, tribe members, tweet followers.
But the evidence seems to show nobody’s selling anything through social media. It’s a delusional way to feel good about what you’re doing because the chances of having any real success are infinitesimal.
If you don’t believe this visit your friends’ Facebook sites. If after five minutes you aren’t asking yourself “who cares” you’re probably posting the same boring stuff yourself in hopes someone will “like” it and validate your life.
Hold on, you say. You blog and is that not a form of social media and a platform for self-promotion?
This blog is my rant, to sort out my thoughts, to vent my frustration. Do I care that someone reads it and clicks the “like” button?
No, emphatically.
For all I know the person that clicked that button hasn’t even read my blog. Someone told them (like my delusional colleague) the way to sell their writing was to respond positively to blogs and sign up as a follower because then those they follow would do the same for them. Get it?
I also blog because I like to talk about writing, even if it’s only too myself, and usually it is. In case your friends haven’t told you, talking about writing is boring to everybody except other writers. Actually, some of them, writers not everybody else, can also be boring, especially the ones that talk about their book – because the conversation is not about product, it’s about process.
So why do I write if the chances of being published are so unlikely? This took awhile to figure out, but finally I know. Ready?
I write to know myself, and the world around me, better. I write because it gives me joy – the existential kind.
So what do I tell my colleague with 75,000 in her tribe?
It’s better to have 75,000 readers rather than 75,000 tribe members. Spend your time writing. If you’re serious, at least you’ll get to know yourself.
It was tough to kick, but now that I’ve given up hope, I feel a lot better.
~ ~ ~
Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.
Read my current work(s) in progress at
More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin
February 21, 2014
The good, the bad, and the esoteric
There seems to be three categories of books written about creative writing.
There’s the traditional books that primarily deal in craft; point of view, story arc, goal/motivation/conflict/showing instead of telling, and so on. These types of books teach you the rules, which you can break once you’ve master them. These are often written by editors possibly with the hope of making their job easier.
Then there’s “how I did it” books by authors. These are often self-serving and self-aggrandizing and though usually more entertaining, not as helpful.
Then there’s the third tier of books written about creative writing, usually by an academic that deals with the more esoteric aspects of writing and creativity. Reading these types of books I often get the feeling I’m a student sitting in on one of their lectures. Come to think, that’s likely not far from the truth since I imagine these books are often compilations of the same lectures they’ve given year after year.
That doesn’t mean that some are not worthwhile.
David Jauss’ book, On Writing Fiction – Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About the Craft, is interesting. Is it going to teach you how to be a better writer? Maybe, if you’re prepared to consider his take on what spawns creativity, which is that not knowing is crucial to art; that without uncertainty the imagination simply does not come into play.
Okay, so how do you go about achieving this?
According to Jauss you use “convention unconventionally”. To do that requires destruction as well as creation, and destruction requires “rejection, negation and contradiction”.
Sounds like suggestions blue-penciled in the margins of the last manuscript I submitted – especially the rejection part.
So once you’ve “destroyed the cliché, the stereotype, the formulaic plot, the predictable rhyme, the potted theme…” how do you go about creating something new?
Jauss says you must “court contradiction, seek out uncertainty”.
Well, all right, since nothing else seems to be working. But isn’t this just a highfalutin (this is actually a word!) way of saying try to make your characters and your plot as interesting and as unusual as possible?
I’ll let you decide.
Jauss also challenges the conventional wisdom about “writing what you know.” His take is the same as Grace Paley’s who said, “You write from what you know into what you don’t know.” Or, to quote Oscar Wilde, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person”. Jauss suggests that you reveal more about your true self when you imagine the life of others through fiction, or to complete the Wilde quote, “Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth”.
In other words (not quite so highfalutin), writing a memoir or autobiography is not only really boring it’s also a lie.
Which is exactly what I tell my students, though in not quite the same words.
Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.
Read my current work(s) in progress at
More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin
October 9, 2013
When student trumps teacher
I’ve submitted two personal essays to this publication. Both have been rejected.
How does one feel when the student trumps the teacher?
I haven’t been a creative writing coach very long so this is a new experience for me. I use the word coach rather than teacher because the latter implies I am somehow an expert on the subject. Which leads one to ask, ‘if you’re so smart how come you’re not rich’, or in this case, a bestselling author? To which I have no answer and so I “coach” rather than “teach”.
Up until now, I’ve had mixed emotions about the success of other writers. When I read the work of the prize-winners in competitions I’ve entered, I often think they must be having a personal relationship with the judge(s), are the judge’s student, or are from the same alma mater. The fact the competitions I enter are all judged “blind” does not vindicate them one bit in my tormented mind.
I’m also immediately suspicious when other writers I’m acquainted with boast about a work being published. If they’re a good writer (better than me – lots of room there) I’m inspired to work harder. If, in my opinion, they write poorly, I immediately check the publication. If the only success they’ve found is in an obscure e-zine that doesn’t pay for their work but promises unlimited internet exposure, I breath a sigh of relief.
The same goes for flattering reviews of bad writing. When I check out the review I most frequently find it’s either written by a quasi-literate reader as payback for a free book, it’s an author review-swap, or worse, its been penned by a friend or relative, likely at the urging of the author.
I find exposing these delusional attempts at self-aggrandizement heartening, but I’m saddened for the author. I know about grasping at straws
If somehow a lesser writer than me manages to get published and paid in a publication of significance I remind myself that I write because I have to. Whether or not it gets published is not a priority.
I’m hoping if I tell myself this often enough I’ll begin to believe it.
So back to my student, for lack of a better term. Her initial essay was very good. The participants of the writing circle made suggestions, as did I. In her published work it was apparent she heeded some, though not mine.
When I read her work prominently displayed in the Globe and Mail I was, surprisingly, excited for her. I felt proud of the contribution the group had made toward improving her overall writing as well as this piece. I was pleased these suggestions had been presented in such a way that she was open to accept them.
The only credit I’m entitled to, if any, is I have created an atmosphere where people can present their writing and all that entails – insecurity, vulnerability, even delusion, and can come away encouraged, nurtured, perhaps a little more knowledgeable, but most importantly, excited about continuing on this wondrous journey to wherever it might lead.
Does the success of my student prove I’m becoming a better writing coach?
Not likely.
A better person?
That would be nice.
September 26, 2013
I finished another novel
Thanks, but it’s a bit to early for congratulations.
The chances of The Big Picture (working title) getting published, at least the traditional way, are slim to none.
Does it matter? Yes and no.
For me, the only actual acknowledgement, in the real world, that I write well is if a stranger is willing to pay to publish my work. In the light of new technology and changes in the publishing industry I’d now go as far as saying I would feel acknowledged as a writer if strangers paid to read my self-published work.
So, does it matter if I get paid to be published or to be read?
Yes.
On the other hand, do I spend all this time sitting in front of a computer, by myself, in my own head to make money?
No.
I write because I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction crafting a well-written phrase, creating an original, appropriate metaphor, or discovering le mot juste – exactly the right word.
Then there’s the magic when I become the conduit for my characters, when the space between reality and imagination blurs, and they do and say things on their own volition.
I also write because it’s cathartic and a way to make sense of things. Betsy Lerner, literary agent, former senior editor at Doubleday, and author of The Forest for the Trees, put it in perspective when she said:
“What’s important, finally, is that you create, and that those creations define for you what matters most, that which cannot be extinguished even in the face of silence, solitude, and rejection.”
So if my creation defines me, how do I want to be defined?
Carol Bly, author of The Passionate, Accurate Story – Making Your Heart’s Truth into Literature talks about “Writing as a Moral Act’. She suggests you ‘build your fiction on strong ethical ground. Even before beginning to write a story, Bly suggests you prepare a “Values Listing,” a written record of the things most important to you.
Throughout the writing process; in the sketchy, first draft, through the crafting of structure and plot, in the imagining of character and setting, she encourages your to return to this list to ensure these values continue to be identified in your work. That means these values are present in the issues and conflicts your characters confront and that they themselves are grounded in or address these same principles.
This resonates with me because it allows me to research issues and advance my causes indirectly with a fictional interface. Maybe I’ll even learn something along the way. Besides, I can’t understand how an author can spend all the time it takes to write a novel in the company of characters that are immoral, unethical, marginalized and without redeeming qualities.
My Eco-Warrior Series (Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More) afforded me the opportunity to research a whole host of environmental issues, as well as natural healing plants and remedies, and other medical related topics including schizophrenia.
In my latest novel, The Big Picture, I researched the impact of the illicit drug trade and the affects the billions of narco-dollars have on our society from the governments we elect, the wars we fight, economies large and small, even friends and family.
"The key in choosing any kind of subject matter is to follow your own interests rather than an idea about what someone else might find interesting, acceptable, or shocking. Some writers, anxious for approval or success, may listen to the voices from outside, or to their ideas of what the marketplace might want, and so go astray. To resist this requires a continual setting aside of worldly goals. Only then do we make the kind of writing that readers become passionate about. To do this we must give ourselves permission to write anything at all. It can help to imagine, while writing, that no one else will ever see the story, or at least never see it in its current form."
The Longman Guide to Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writing
By Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren
So there you have it. I set aside my worldly goals and give myself permission to write anything that interests me imagining no one else will ever see it.
Which, in actuality, is more likely than not.
Is this writing that ‘readers become passionate about’?
Not yet.
May 26, 2013
Are writers borne or made?
A Writer S Space by Maisel EricMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
Are writer’s born or made?
Can anyone become a writer, specifically a writer of fiction, or is the proclivity to writing an innate characteristic?
This is a question I often ask myself, particularly when participants in my creative writing circles ask for writing prompts or inquire where to find story ideas. As if the life you live and all the people you interact with is not material enough.
It’s then that I think these people are not writers, but instead fantasize about the clichéd version of a writer’s life. The distinction could be further defined as those who ‘want’ to write, as opposed to those who ‘have’ to write.
I have to write and, indeed, am writing all the time, at least in my mind. I constantly watch people and ask myself questions about: the way their dressed - what are they trying to say; their activities - whom are they waiting for; and their mannerisms - why is she so jumpy. What would my latest character do in this situation, I wonder? Plot scenarios continually run through my mind. ‘What if’ is a question and the motivation.
So when I sit down it’s like a floodgate opens. I write.
I can write anywhere at anytime. Often I simply can’t wait to write. I grab a napkin, an envelope, the edge of a newspaper and scribble words. I look forward to it, long for it, and find it deeply satisfying. It’s a release, a meditation, a method to make sense of it all.
If you’re one of those that fantasize about writing but are too conflicted to do any, then A Writer’s Space, Make Room to Dream, to Work, to Write, by Eric Maisel, is the book for you.
Maisel is a creativity coach who holds a PH.D. in Counseling Psychology. He believes that writers aren’t borne, they’re cajoled, coaxed, and coached into being. The first step to becoming one is to pick, protect, and honor a physical space specifically for writing. Maisel would have you go on a vision quest to locate the best place in your home to write. Once you’ve divined the location, you must then prepare a security pledge on how you will protect and do the right things in your writing space.
Evidently, the author doesn’t consider life and people enough of a stimuli for a writer and offers all kinds of incentives to inspire one to write. These include a way to access your ‘self-help neurons’ to enter into a state of ‘creative mindfulness’. The next time you decide to be angry, Maisel tells the reader, use creative mindfulness to decide not to be angry, or, I suppose, just say ‘no to anger’. It’s as simple as that.
As well as the appropriate spiritual location to enable you to write, Maisel suggests there are various psychological and emotional ‘spaces’ to psych you up, chill you out, or otherwise evoke or enhance your inner muse. They include an emotional space, reflective space, imagined space, public space, and existential space.
At the end of each chapter, the author offers up lessons to help you enter these ‘spaces’ which will allow you to ‘desire worlds into existence; discover the ‘way of the meaning maker’; and, ‘not be quite so nice’.
If you’re not ‘spaced out’ before applying these techniques and exercises, I imagine you will be afterwards.
There’s also an exercise to ‘upgrade your personality with twelve quick centering incantations’. This might be useful to many of the authentic writers I’ve met since they tend to be reflective, more observers than a participants, and comfortable with their own company, or, depending on your point of view, arrogant, anti-social, loners.
A good portion of A Writer’s Space is given over to anecdotes about the author’s clients/patients, an incredibly flakey sounding bunch who imagine themselves as writers but don’t have the guts and determination to sit down and actually write something. Success comes for the doctor not when one of his charges gets published, but when, after all the positive nurturing and self-help mumbo-jumbo, they finally, actually make marks on paper.
If you haven’t drawn any conclusion on this book from what I’ve told you so far, I’ll close this review with a sampling of Maisel’s profundity:
“You have been hungering for years to write a certain piece while simultaneously curbing your enthusiasm and by curbing it killing it.”
If you can relate to that statement, I’m sorry for you. It’s likely you’ll never be a writer.
View all my reviews
March 4, 2013
An agent by any other name
I may have had different titles but I was a salesman – and a good one.
I sold advertising for newspapers, then for my own.
Even when I assumed the title publisher and editor I kept an active client list. My most valued employees were my sales staff.
Eventually, like everything else you enjoy but do too often, the thrill of the sale became not exciting as it once was. It was time to move on.
Fortunately, I’d sold enough.
What has this got do with finding an agent for my novels? An agent by any other name is a salesperson.
I know they vaunt themselves as the key to your success as a writer, the gatekeeper to all the fame that will come once you’re published, the oracle that guards all the secrets to the nether world of the publishing industry, but they’re salespeople.
The only reason they have such power and esteem is that we authors give it to them. They are only as good as the product they’re selling. Which means even a good agent can’t sell a bad book.
The opposite is probably true as well, but the emphasis is on the product, not the salesperson. In other words, you, the writer, the creator of the product, hold the key to success. Agents are the conduit.
So what do agents offer as their qualifications to rep my book? What do they include in their resumé, their curriculum vitae?
Some tell you they love books and are prolific readers.
Most people I know have read a lot of ads but that didn’t mean they could sell advertising.
Some have written books.
Why are they agents?
Some have a successful, clever blog.
What has this got to do with anything except self-aggrandizement? I’m thinking the time they spend promoting themselves might be better spent promoting their clients.
Some tell you how to write.
I never, never, ever (to infinity) told a client how to run their business no matter how dumb they were. It just pissed them off and was the kiss of death for closing the deal.
Some have degrees in English Literature, Creative Writing, blah, blah, blah.
So you’re educated? I sold to businesses but I didn’t have, nor did I need, an MBA.
If an agent is a salesperson by any other name than shouldn’t the qualities of a good agent be the same as those of a good salesman?
What qualities did I look for when hiring sales staff? What qualities do I have that made me a successful salesman?
I made more calls.
The success of salespeople is directly related to the number of calls they make. The more you make the greater the success. I made more calls.
I was self-motivated.
I didn’t need to be prodded, pushed, pumped or primed. Hour after hour, day after day, month after year I was up for the job.
I was hungry.
For money, recognition, success, self-esteem. I was/am never satisfied, never complacent.
I sold smart.
I had knowledge of the market, the industry, the needs of my clients.
The one ingredient that put me over the top, the one that is intangible and can’t be taught is the ability to make people like you.
If you’ve got this you can forget the rest. If the client won’t take your call all the motivation, hunger and smarts aren’t worth bugger all. I can make people like me, though these days I’m less and less inclined to.
Wouldn’t you know, it’s all about relationships – again.
So that’s it. The agent I’m looking for is self-motivated, hungry, smart, and has consummate people skills. He or she should also be looking to take on a new author with a dubious track record.
Any takers?
Rod Raglin is the author of three e-published books in the past year. Visit his website at www.rodraglin.com
If it don't sell, it ain't good
Creativity is subjective. “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like” – could be applied to a Bateman masterpiece or a black velvet reproduction from Zellers.
This overused adage also applies to literature. It’s an excuse for a multitude of sins including a distinct lack of artistic ability as well as just plain bad taste.
So how does one decide whether their creation has any artistic merit? For me, if it don’t sell, it ain’t good.
Of course I to put it out there. I’ve offered my photographs to the public through various venues including retail stores, websites, flea markets, Craig’s List (you name it – I’ve tried it). My writing’s been sent off to agents, publishers, magazines, newspapers as well as posting it on various websites.
Then I wait.
How long I wait depends on how patient or delusional I am, or both, at any given time. If nothing happens I eventually give up, withdraw, and move on – hopefully to improve. I used to call it a “learning experience”, but now I understand that phrase as a euphemism for failure.
I’ve rationalize my lack of success with all manner of excuses – I’m ahead of my time; misunderstood; not commercial enough (a good thing?); the economy is in the dumps; the weather was rotten; the stars were misaligned; or, like Van Gogh, who only sold one painting in his entire life, my genius will be appreciated once I’m gone.
Six new photographs of mine were recently shown at The Metro Theatre Lounge Gallery. Theatre-goers could view my work prior to the show and at intermission for the entire run of seventeen performances.
The Metro is a good venue. People that attend are inclined to the arts and have the time to take a look, unlike a coffee bar gallery where all you want is to get your latte and leave. The box office for that production was 1621 and I would imagine at least 1,000 patrons visited the lounge at least once.
There were no sales, nor any enquiries regarding my photographs. According to my own philosophy, there’s only one conclusion.
The reason I take this uncompromising approach to my work is so I’ll continue to strive to improve.
When I look at my first public offerings, in either photography or writing, they were so awful I cringe even now as I think about them. Had I continued to assign any of the above excuses to the lack of response to these works I wouldn’t have attained what little success I have.
I’m still determined to create something good enough to overcome all the obstacles – real or imagined. What I lack in creativity I hope to make up in part with perseverance and the ability to learn from past mistakes and failures. There’s no shortage to draw from.
Until then, I can appreciate (and marvel at) the success of others while I keep honing my craft and perfecting my eye.
It’s not about money. It’s about recognition and respect from my contemporaries, and a sense of achievement for myself.
Nietzsche said, “Art is the proper task of life…”, and that may very well be the case, whether it sells or not.
The distasteful business of self-promotion
I have this moment when I realize I am or have been that person. I’ve actually displayed that kind of attitude or conducted myself in that manner.
Believe me, this kind of epiphany is the best behavior modification I can think of.
This brings me to the subject of self-promotion, or self-aggrandizement, defined as “an act undertaken to increase your own power and influence or to draw attention to your own importance.”
For me, even the definition, sounds distasteful and a huge personal turn-off. This is probably because, as a former aspiring politician, I’ve done so much of it myself – until, you guessed it, I had one of those behavioral modifying moments.
Perhaps only second to the previously mentioned calling, we writers seem to be the most flagrant self-promoters. Indeed, we are encouraged to be. Some agents and publishers, as part of their submission process, start by asking how we personally plan to promote our work – this even before they decide whether what is being submitted has merit.
Many people in the industry suggest you begin building your profile even before you’re published. Just what you would say, and who would be interested I’m sure I don’t know.
A new twist to the self-promotion game came with the launching of Harper Collins website authonomy.com. Here’s what this publishing giant has to say about their site.
The site “…invites unpublished and self published authors to post their manuscripts for visitors to read online. Authors create their own personal page on the site to host their project - and must make at least 10,000 words available for the public to read.
“Visitors to authonomy can comment on these submissions – and can personally recommend their favourites to the community. authonomy counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site.
HarperCollins hopes to find new, talented writers we can sign up for our traditional book publishing programmes – we’ll be reading the most popular manuscripts each month as part of this search.”
When you upload your manuscript or wip you immediately receive requests from other authors basically saying, “if you plug mine, I’ll plug yours.”
There is no caveat about it being well written or a good story, or requests for suggestions on how to improve the work. The emphasis is on self-promotion and networking not good writing with these ambitious wannabes hoping to secure enough recommendations to get their work before the decision makers at HC.
The assumption appears to be that HC will be so impressed with their self-promotion skills that they will over look the fact that the work is crap.
Frightening, but maybe they’re right.
I think the importance of self-promotion is blown way out of proportion. Contributing to blogs, managing Facebook and Twitter, uploading stuff onto U-Tube and MySpace, keeping a website up-to-date and sending out that newsletter takes time. Time that might be better spent, well, writing, since that’s what it’s really all about.
Beyond putting you’re work out there, self-promotion is only marginally effective, in my opinion, because it lacks a most important ingredient – credibility.
However, an unsolicited* endorsement has the sincerity that can generate a word of mouth ground swell that spreads exponentially. I believe that a worthwhile story told by a good writer can do this, and will ultimately prevail over all the hi-tech gimmicks and new age marketing chicanery.
Naïve? Unspohisticated? Old-fashioned? Out-of-touch with reality? Maybe, probably, but I’ve learned the hard way that, indeed, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but in the end the merit and true value of what you’re doing becomes apparent to almost everyone (except maybe yourself), and what you’ve sacrificed blowing your own horn is dignity, self-esteem and character.
Perhaps a certain amount of self-promoting has to be done but surely it can be done graciously and with humility.
As we build confidence in our ability and our work, hopefully the need to applaud one-self in public will diminish. If not, we’ll be the ones avoided at social gatherings.
As Emerson said; ‘A little integrity is better than any career.’
*Unsolicited as in without conflict of interest. Anyone that stands to gain either personally or financially in supporting your writing is suspect including; your publisher, agent, publicist, spouse, friends, family, etc.
