21st Century Literature discussion
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What is One Thing You'd Like to See Happen with Fiction? (8/20/18)
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Marc
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Aug 20, 2018 08:55AM
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Maybe: that it wasn't so hard for writers to make a living selling good quality fiction; that so many must be MFA instructors or hold other jobs as well?
I am an enthusiastic believer that the novella is the perfect length for a piece of fiction (and by that I mean between 20,000 and 40,000 words, with the ideal length being 25,000 to 30,000 words). So I'd love to see a lot more authors writing novellas and a lot more attention given to them in the form of prizes and other types of recognition.
Lily wrote: "Maybe: that it wasn't so hard for writers to make a living selling good quality fiction; that so many must be MFA instructors or hold other jobs as well?"Every author needs what Charles Bukowski had with John Martin. Martin was a businessman who loved books and in particular loved Bukowski's writing. He loved it so much he not only started a publishing company to print Bukowski's work, he offered to pay Bukowski a monthly salary if he would quit his job in the post office and become a writer full time.
David wrote: "Every author needs what Charles Bukowski had with John Martin...."Uh, huh? If this is true? https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-sensele...
Lily wrote: "Uh, huh? If this is true? https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-sensele......"I said every writer needs what Bukowski had with Martin. What Martin did after he died is another story. My point remains true - if every writer had someone who paid them a salary so they did not have to work other than on their writing, that would be an amazing thing.
David wrote: "Lily wrote: "Uh, huh? If this is true? https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-sensele......"I said every writer needs what Bukowski had with Martin. What M..."
I'm wondering if any publishers do that?
I wish we could read more books translated to English. The 3% or so that is published each year leaves so many authors from all over the world unavailable to those of us who only read English. Many countries such as France, Spain and Turkey have a much higher percentage of translated works published each year than the US, UK, or Canada.
I second more books translated into English, and greater parity between the genders of whose books are translated. I'd also like to see fewer literary fiction books published by MFA-holders residing in London or on either American coast, and more of those opportunities afforded to literary fiction written by authors either residing elsewhere (anywhere else) or telling stories that don't reflect the London or US-coastal urban experience. (I say this as an East Coast urban denizen, for decades.)
Less segregation in story-telling. Lots of all-white-character books and all-black-character books still abound. Many of our lives are far more integrated than the fiction worlds of the books we read.
Robert wrote: "I'm wondering if any publishers do that?"I just finished NK Jemesin's Broken Earth trilogy (The Fifth Season) and at the end she mentions how she quit her day job in 2016 because of a Patreon campaign, which I hadn't heard of before, but is apparently artist crowdfunding. So not exactly publishers doing that, but fans are!
Bretnie wrote: "I just finished NK Jemesin's Broken Earth trilogy (The Fifth Season) and at the end she mentions how she quit her day job i..."That reminds me of a concept that has been used for almost two decades now by one of my favourite bands, Marillion. In the late 1990s, they started financing recording their albums by asking their fans to pay for the new album before they had even written anything for it. For dedicated fans who would buy any album they made, this was an easy sell and there were enough people in that category to pay for the recording sessions and manufacturing the CDs. Mark Kelly, the keyboard player for the band, did a Ted Talk all about it which, if you are interested, you can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJZvJ...
I didn't know Marillion was still around. I used to listen to them back in the 90s. They seemed pretty intense at the time.
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I'm all for more literature being translated into English!!!
Bryan wrote: "I didn't know Marillion was still around. I used to listen to them back in the 90s. They seemed pretty intense at the time."They were producing new albums on a regular basis until 2009. Since then they have had only two new studio albums and one was new arrangements of songs they previously wrote and recorded. They still tour a lot and every two years they put on a one-band music festival - three nights in a row with two-and-a-half to three hours of different music each night. Their live shows are still quite intense.
Bretnie wrote: "Robert wrote: "I'm wondering if any publishers do that?"I just finished NK Jemesin's Broken Earth trilogy (The Fifth Season) and at the end she mentions how she quit her day job i..."
Same idea! true
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Since Jemisin came up, she more eloquently touched on theses issues in her Hugo acceptance speech. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/s...
I'd like to see computer games begin to be taken seriously as a legitimate form of fictional story-telling. There are some amazing stories being told. The interactivity of games allows for some really interesting new ways to tell a story. But the reputation of games has them stuck somewhere analogous to where scifi was in its pulpy beginnings.
