This is an announcement as well as a post. Year Zero Writers now has a blog on its site. So now you can finaly get to know us all individually, and get a flavour of all our styles and projects and concerns. Just look us up by name in the categories heading to find our individual posts. I would dearly dearly love it ofyou joined us from time to time - but for one post only I'll reproduce what I wrote there over here as well.
Welcome to Year Zero Writers.
I’m Dan. I’m the one who blogs all over the place about the future of publishing like the long lost love child of Wittgenstein, Cassandra and the authors formerly known as Homer. Bear with me. The medication takes time to work.
Just so you know, all my posts here are Creative Commons. You can reproduce them and do what the hell you like with them except make money and forget to tell people I wrote them. If you want me to come over and take part in any debates on your blog, just holler. I’m listening most of the time. Or maybe that’s just the voices.
When I started writing The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes, one of my favourite authors, Patti DeLois, told me what I was doing was like creating a virtual campfire. I liked the phrase. And I’ve been thinking about what it means ever since. This ramble about What.Year.Zero.Means.To.Me. is a result of those musings.
Two years ago I spent a week in Marrakech. It’s not only a magical place in its own right. It’s hugely important in the world of storytelling. At the heart of the city is the Djemma el Fnaa, a giant square leading into the labyrinthine souks where you can sample everything from sheep’s head to snake charming. But at the heart of its heart, as the sun crawls down the sky and the fires light to warm against the cold desert nights, are the storytellers. True, most of what they rehash are third hand versions of popular legends, but this place is significant because it’s the only place in the world recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for something intangible – its oral storytelling.
So whilst global groups campaign to save the whale, the tiger, the ozone layer, or the rainforest, we have allowed one of the most important aspects of human life to come within an ace of extinction.
How? Because, in part, of the book. And the industry built on its fragile spine. When words were put on the page, and then set in type, and bound between covers, something happened to the story. It got “fixed” – like a pastel drawing, or a photograph. And as more and more stories got fixed, and faithfully reproduced in edition on edition, our attitude towards them changed. We saw “books” as precious. We saw the form of words they contained as sacrosanct. We forgot that a book, that words themselves, are no more or less than vehicles for stories – the most basic means communities have of sharing amongst themselves, of thinking about and deciding upon their values, of expressing themselves, of uniting, of understanding and combating their fears.
Don’t get me wrong. I love books. But I love books because I love stories. I love stories because they speak to me. But many of the stories I find in books don’t speak to me. They’re written by people unlike me about situations unlike mine. And when I have a question, they refuse to answer.
Year Zero Writers produce books. But we are, first and foremost, storytellers. This site is the square at the entrance to the labyrinthine souks of our weird subconsciouses. For me, a story isn’t fixed on the page. It breathes, as the person who wrote it, and the person who reads it, breathe. I DO believe there are storytellers, and people who listen and question. Culture isn’t a free-for-all. It’s a conversation. And the stories that emerge are the product of that conversation – articulations of answers to questions, attempts to convey the choices people face and the decisions they might make, efforts to deepen understanding, to ward off fear, to overcome prejudice, to reflect the reader back, but in a way that’s somehow transformed and that offers not new knowledge but greater self-knowledge.
Pick up your plateful of dinner. Imagine the sun setting over the sand, and pull your clothes tight around you. Let your face feel the gentle heat of the fire. Come with your questions, sense the security of the hands of others holding yours, and enter the cold desert night with us. It WILL be morning. The sun WILL rise, and you WILL leave. Different from how you came. You can cry. You can scream. You can reach down into yourself, take out your heart and lay it bare. It’s OK. It’s dark here, and no one can see your face save in the deep, cavernous shadows cast by the fire. Whatever you left outside can’t get in. You’re safe. You could be a fuck-up or a freakshow, we don’t care. As long as you’re here you’re one of us.
Now that you’re sitting comfortably, shall we begin?
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Saturday, 10 October 2009
When Dan met Sabina
I used to work in a luxury flooring showroom in a fairly affluent part of the country, so I've met a fair few people who are allegedly "celebs" but I can honestly say I've never been starstruck - or not until last week. I was really rather nervous as I skipped down the steps beneath a twenty foot tall plastic Freddie Mercury and into Tottenham Court Road tube station, because I was about to meet the best writer I've ever come across. Like, ever.
Sabina England is better know to some of us by her online monikers lie DeafBrownTrashPunk (authonomy) Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist (blogger) and DeafMuslim (twitter). It was on Authonomy I first found her, and her coruscating novel, a brutal, brilliant twist on the post-slacker 'burbs, Brown Trash. Online she's blunt, in your face, pretty much as brutal as her writing if she thinks you're an idiot, and (which some people have been unable to get their head around) hyper-sensitive and insecure about her work. She's also known for her mohawk hair.
Which is why the first thing I remember thinking was "What happened to your hair?" Rather embarrassingly, instead of "hello" or "how's the play going?" (she was in England for a fortnight, promoting the iopening of her play, How the Rapist was Born, at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden - running till October 17), I think that was the first thing I said as well.
"I died my hair so many colours it started falling out," she said. "So I cut it all off." She made a sweeping, cutting action with her arms. 
When Sabina talks, she does it with her whole body. She does everything like that. Tiny, nuanced details just aren't part of the way she works - she puts every bit of her body and soul into everything she does. Only I soon realised the nuances ARE there. Her mind, like her body, is never still. It's always rushing ten steps ahead, playing tricks, branching off and waiting for the world to catch up. The result is I felt like I'd spent a week with her, talking and hanging out and exploring and getting to know her. But in reality it was just an hour and a quarter.
When Sabina talks, she does it with her whole body. She does everything like that. Tiny, nuanced details just aren't part of the way she works - she puts every bit of her body and soul into everything she does. Only I soon realised the nuances ARE there. Her mind, like her body, is never still. It's always rushing ten steps ahead, playing tricks, branching off and waiting for the world to catch up. The result is I felt like I'd spent a week with her, talking and hanging out and exploring and getting to know her. But in reality it was just an hour and a quarter.We started with coffee. Standing outside Starbucks at the start of new Oxford Street, I suggested we go in.
"Fuck Starbucks!" she said, turning and giivng the finger to the building. So we went for a great little place under Centrepoint called "First Out", where Sabina enthused about the walls filled with stsr portraits painted in glitter.
We sat outside, me drinking an espresso, she smoking and taking in ("Am I drinking the soup?" she asked, slurping from the spoon, "Or am I eating it?", taking a great gulp) a broccoli and stilton soup with lashings of cress ("What the fuck's this? It's gree, so I guess it must be healthy"). She told me about her week. About her session watching the cast rehearse - eyeballing them through the whole play until they were terrified from what I can gather (although she then broke into one of her wonderful, toothy, expansive smiles that melt her features entirely, and told me "I was so happy with them". It felt like the experience had meant the world to her - everything seems to mean the world to her. Which is why her work's so brilliant; and why she's such an exciting person to be around. And why she comes across as so vulnerable); about her afternoon in a school encouraging young Muslim girls to be creative - "they kept looking at me and asking 'are you a Muslim?' 'Yeah I'm a Muslim;'" about the Americans who started texting their mates druing a performance "theat's so rude!" she says. She looks genuinely hurt, and I realise the Sabina who took people's criticism and, it has to be said, utter rudeness to heart on Authonomy, is 100% genuine. "It's my play!" she continues. "MY PLAY. How dare they?" And for the first, but not the last, time, I'm reminded of Tracey Emin, and I find myself thinking I hope the world's nice to her and she's OK.
Then we walk up Charing Cross Road. We head into Foyle's where I learn she loves graphic novels, and her favourite author is Aravind Adiga. She picks books off shelves and opens them all with a sense of delight - "have you read this one?" she asks. "And this one?" "What about this one?" We head into a guitar shop on the corner of Tin Pan Alley, and dive into the labyrinth of Covent Garden, where she takes me to the Tristan Bates Theatre and shows me the posters for her play. I ask her to sign a flyer and she goes bright red.
We turn off Shaftesbury Avenue (she hates the anodyne, imported musicals. I ask her why she doesn't stand outside teh doors and shove flyers for How the Rapist Was Born into people's hands "Yeah!" she says, and her eyes light up), and she tells me anecdotes from her time in London. There's one about the famous playwright who came to see the play, and how she didn't know who he was till someone told her afterwards. "I was so RUDE to him," she says. "I wrote him an e-mail saying how sorry I was. I wasn't meaning to be rude but I get so nervous when I'm with lots of people." There's the story of a cabbie who wound down his window and shouted abuse at her. "I didn't know what he said" (Sabina has been deaf since she was a baby) "so I turned to the woman standing next to me and she said 'he said open your legs and I'll give you some pleasure - that's disgusting' but I didn't mind because he was hot" - people ahve problems coming to terms with Sabina's sexual frankness; it's something else that reminds me of Tracey Emin. Bloody hell, I think, when she tells me about the people who take offence at her play, have we really amde so little progress we still find it scary when a woman says what she thinks.
And she tells me about the lovely old Christian lady she's staying with she found on Craigslist. I picture their evenings together and I think it would make a lovely scene in a film. It reminds me of the scenes between Dot and Mary in Eastenders back in the mid 80s.
We head into Chinatown, where she stops and closes her eyes and takes in the smells. As we walk, her head is never still. "I love London," she says, and she gives the impression she's stuffing as many memories into her head as she can before she goes back to midtown, USA. We end up in an amusement arcade, where she plays a rally game and tells me how she used to hang out in the malls playing games as a teenager.
Finally we say goodbye. She smiles and says thank you for coming to see her, and I sense she's genuinely as grateful for every tiny compliment someone pays her as she is upset at every criticism.
I descedn into the underground at Picadilly Circus just 75 minutes after I sank myself into Tottenham Court Road, but I get on the train feeling changed. There are very few people you meet, and come away feeling life's different from how it was before you met. Sabina is a bright, traffic-stoppingly beautiful, brutal, brilliant person, the kind of person whose talent changes the world rather than being changed by it. It's certainly changed me.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Eastern European Blockbuster Auction
Herta Muller has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Eastern Europe is now HOT. Especially quality literary fiction about Eastern Europe.So for one week only I am officially selling out and offering publishers the chance to bid for the hottest literary novel set in Eastern Europe that's currently unsigned, Songs from the Other Side of the Wall.
If you wish to check the quality of the novel, you may download it in full from here.
TO PUBLISHERS: e-mail me BY 12 NOON GMT THURSDAY OCTOBER 15 2009 at songsfromtheothersideofthewall@googlemail.com with the subject title "interest in Songs", and state your interest or your offer. I will open all e-mails with that title only when the auction has closed.
TO EVERYONE: If you would like to see Songs from the Other Side of the Wall cash in on the new craze for all literature anout Eastern Europe, leave a comment here; tweet this page to publishers; stumble this page; digg this page, and otherwise bring this opportunity to publishers' attention.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The day the Berlin Wall came down, Jennifer returned to England, abandoning her week-old daughter, Szandi, to grow up on a Hungarian vineyard with 300 years of history. Now 18, Szandi is part of Budapest’s cosmopolitan art scene, sharing a flat and a bohemian lifestyle with her lover and fellow sculptress, Yang. She has finally found her place in the world. Then a letter arrives that threatens everything, and forces her to choose once and for all: between the past and the present; between East and West; between her family and her lover.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
Songs from the Other Side of the Wall was a number 1 book in 2008 on both Authonomy and Youwriteon.
Scott Pack of The Friday Project said last weekend "Some moments of genuine promise in this debut novel suggest that Holloway could have a future outside of the world of peer review sites and print on demand"
US blogger DJ Young said two days ago: "Like Sputnik Sweetheart, Holloway’s prose gives shape to his characters and delivers us to a time and place, from the end of the Cold War in east Europe to the dead-end enclosures of modern Oxford, the world inside and out, the interior mechanisms and escapements that tick and tock, leading to the next hour or the next half-empty station. Songs, in a sense, reads like the inner life of 21st century bloggers and artists piecing together whatever has been left behind by the last generation.
"Like K in Sputnik, Sandrine is searching for something frustratingly vague and all the clues left behind only bring her to a kind of self-knowledge, though not the kind she was seeking. Interconnectedness is another theme of Songs, so, unlike Sputnik, we are given a narrative resolve to Sandrine’s journey, one that takes up the loose ends of these relationships – parent and child, lover and other and the wanting nature of love – and sets them adrift, free."
Random House, critiquing the book for Youwriteon, said: “Your voice is very fresh and original…Sandrine is an engaging, intriguing narrator…Your writing is extremely good, very lyrical but always with the aim of moving the story on.”
Harper Collins, critiquing the book for Authonomy, said: “An artful style, with some very striking moments…The parallelism of a person and a country coming of age; the past’s haunting of the present in both; the hopes and fears of different generations: all these are rich veins that you exploit well, and provide a fascinating core to the book”
SO WHAT NEXT?
I am a self-publisher. I am a happy self-publisher. But for one week I will, with respect to my own work, but whilst carrying on blowing the trumpet for my fellow Year Zero Writers, forget that. FOR ONE WEEK. And then it will be too late. Any cashing in to be done on Mueller's success will be done by me, and by Year Zero, and us alone.
THE AUCTION STARTS NOW
Monday, 5 October 2009
The View From the Shoe: Awkward
Today, I speak to someone who goes only by the name of Awkward. Or, to anyone who knows them on Twitter, Very Awkward. Awkward makes themost exquisite hand-knitted accessories, with a texture so ine they could be the oldest lace.
Thank you so much for your time. So, Louboutin or Converse?
Converse, as a matter of fact, coffee-and-cream ones. Louboutins look nice, but given the means, I would skip them and have a whole selection of John Fluevog’s boots and shoes instead.
What do you do?
I make things. Currently, all my efforts are almost exclusively focused on my etsy shop, where I’m trying to stock up small winter things in hopes of being able to expand and start offering other clothing as well.
Why is there no one in the world who does it quite like you?
I think most other people manage their time more effectively. I like to use complicated, slightly archaic design aesthetics, thin string, small needles, and old buttons, and I like to design as I work. It’s hard to imagine anyone else working this seriously and having such a ridiculously circuitous approach.
What do you really, really love about it?
The textures, colors, and potentials in a new box of yarn are amazing; it’s like being immersed in some sort of synesthetic paint box. The entire process--being able to tu
rn what is essentially just nice string into something warm and cozy and wearable, something you imagined in your head or at best sketched out in skeleton design notes, and then having someone else whom you’ve never even met fall in love with the result--is kind of indescribably joyful for me most of the time. I really really love the tactile pleasantness of it, the usefulness hidden beneath the tactile and visual appeal, and the way most knitting and needlework builds on itself in a way that often reminds me of simplified fractals.
rn what is essentially just nice string into something warm and cozy and wearable, something you imagined in your head or at best sketched out in skeleton design notes, and then having someone else whom you’ve never even met fall in love with the result--is kind of indescribably joyful for me most of the time. I really really love the tactile pleasantness of it, the usefulness hidden beneath the tactile and visual appeal, and the way most knitting and needlework builds on itself in a way that often reminds me of simplified fractals. A bit more time in the day, or a bit more money in the bank?
I’ve already kind of given up having more money in the bank in favor of having time to work on things I’m most passionate about, so embarrassingly I’d prefer the second at the moment.
Imagine you “make it”. You wake up, and imagine the day ahead. Tell us about breakfast.
Breakfast is slightly non-existent for me, and I don’t imagine that will change--but I do imagine I’d have many more varieties of tea and coffee on hand. Upon waking, I’d laze in for a while before giving up my spot in a warm bed, then get up to go to the kitchen and stand indecisive in front of the tea cupboard. After briefly fantasizing about my potential to starve to death in indecision before lunchtime, I’d make two mugs of tea--one for me and one for my favorite-person-at-first-sight, who is possibly the only human being I’ve ever met who is sleepier in the mornings than I am, and even less interested in breakfast. It would be really good tea.
What’s your Jimmy Choo? And what’s just cobblers?
As far as independent designers go, I am really smitten with Gibbous Fashions, and their blog, which is mothmust.livejournal.com. I think they’re brilliant and strange, and I really like their designs--all of which seem to be one-of-a-kind, elaborate concoctions that I wish I could have for my own. The website’s also beautifully designed with typewritten scraps of text, buttons, and frayed strands of sequins. I am really the opposite of smitten with the fetishization of the artist, particularly lately--it annoys me when I find myself getting caught up in it, and I also think that it plays into the problems creative people face in finding ways to be paid for their work, since you’re supposed to be unconcerned with mundane things and able to exist without benefit of sandwiches apparently.
Tell us about the last time a fan made you feel 100 feet tall.
I’m not sure I have any fans, per se, but recently someone let me know that they were very thrilled with a neo-Victorian-style button cuff I had made and it had me floating around with an idiotic smile all day. I really really liked it, and was strangely concerned about sending it off; it’s completely exciting to me that the new owner likes it at least as much, if not more.
Independent and poor, or under contract and rich?
Both! Wait. It depends on the contract, and whether as an independent I would have so little money that I’d be almost imprisoned by my own independence. It’s a tricky question; a non-restrictive, lucrative contract could fund independent work.
Do you remember that bit on Play Away where Brian Cant stood behind people and did the actions whilst they spoke? If you could choose anyone to stand behind you and do the actions to your sales pitch, who would it be and why?
If I ever got to be really very famous, I would like to hire at least one stunt double to play me whenever I had to do any kind of sales pitch or PR. Preferably the double wouldn’t really look like me, and would be taller, and when people pointed out that they suspected we were two different people we’d both act completely shocked and aggrieved that anyone would say such a thing, especially when we were spotted together. An old friend of mine who’s much more extroverted than I am would be the ideal for this, but he’d get mad at me if I praised his acting talents here, and rightfully so--it would give the scheme away. It is possible that I don’t remember the bit you’re talking about at all. I hope no one notices.
Frocks or socks?
Socks! Usually very tall ones. Curiously, I’m much better at choosing socks or stockings and then finding a frock to fit them, rather than the other way around.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Pirates Ahoy! Why the media just DOESN'T GET the ebook piracy issue
OK, not ALL the media necessarily, but I came across this terribly written article yesterday, and it's representative of most I've seen on the issue of the ills of Ebook piracy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/business/04digi.html?_r=2&hpw
Let me outline the gist (but please don't take it from me - I AM biased, I may have distorted it) of Randall Stross' article "Will books be Napsterised". As a result of file-sharing the music industry lost vast revenue streams. As Ebooks take an increasing share of the book market, the same will happen there. The problem lies with file-sharing sites like Rapidshare. Sites like RapidShare allow anyone to upload files and then post the URL for others to download them. Whilst they will remove copyright-infinging files on the request of the copyright owner, these files are not policed upon upload. RapidShare talked to Mr Stross, urging publishers and authors to learn from rent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails and use free downloads as part of their business model. Stross ends with a retort to this suggestion:
"I will forward the suggestion along, as soon as authors can pack arenas full and pirated e-books can serve as concert fliers."
Now, there is so little analysis and so much fabulation in this article I couldn't deal with it all (apparently e-book hardware is "on the verge of going mainstream", for example, whatever that means (I didn't see a single reference to the Kindle or the Tablet, and nary a mention of teh phone vs reader debate, by the way)).
OK, it's time for my disclaimer. I hate plagiarism. It sucks, and sucks major. In fact, any form of copyright violation sucks. And it's NOT a victimless crime. But. But, but. But, but BUT. The way to beat pirating is, I'm afraid, as RapidShare's spokesperson say, to incorporate free downloads into your business plan. That's not giving in, it's not kowtowing. It's the way it is.
The obvious way to do that is, as suggested, to study the successful musicians. I've been talking about gigging and merching for authors ever since I got into the blogging business, and I stand by what I've always said. Culture is culture. It inspires communal events, it inspires fans to desire souvenirs, to desire contact. These things aren't unique to music. And as an advocate of the "freemium" model, I'd have to say I think content itself can be charged for in different formats - the special edition, the regular paperback even.
What we need, as authors, is to work - collectively and individually - on ways to adapt to the file-sharing world. I DO have a problem with exploiting fans. I don't like the idea that some people pay for my stuff and others don't pay for the same thing - so for me, ebooks have to be either free or not free (or it jas to be transparent which is which). I DO think, though, that we need to loko for soemthing slightly more exciting than "free".
Part of the thing about file-sharing is the fact that it creates communities - where has the industry's sense of history gone? Do they not REMEMBER the Warehouse and Rave scene? The buzz of these things is that they're outside the usual channels - an anonymmous URL on a bulletin board, a phone box on the M25. It's the same thing. These are communities that exist and get their energy from being on the outside. Bring them inside and they instantly use their energy. So "free" isn't the only answer - that would be like having your parents sit down to watch Debbie Does Dallas with you on your 18th birthday.
As authors we DO need to use free, but we also need to be clever how we do so (but not, as I say, so clever we pretend our ebokos are for sale to try and make it seem a thrill to pirate them - that just exploits our fans). I'm not 100% sure what all the answers are (but Kevin Kelly's 1,000 true fans is part of the answer). But THAT's the interesting debate - not whingeing when we left the sweet shop open that someone took our candy canes. And I never thought I'd say this, but the places we need to be looking are those semi-legal communities that use bulletin boards and chatrooms - the modern equivalent of rave culture - be it the BDSM scene, or the dogging networks, or the secretive supper clubs I saw on the news the other day. Come on, guys - we're meant to be creatives, aren't we?!
A further piece of logic that niggles at me. Until now, when I've talked about authors following the music model, and "doing a Trent", I've been told - as Stross concludes - that the two types of fan are fundamentally different, so it won't work. If they're so diffeernt, why worry about "Napsterisation" (other than for the rather unprofessional sake of using an emotive word)? Surely if books ARE "Napsterised", that's just one more piece of evidence for those of us who maintan culture is, fundamentally, culture; and fans are, fundamentally, fans. And if they download stuff, they'll pay for things they like.
A final point, Mr Stross. You complain that the group the file-sharing sites never mention are authors and publishers. And HERE, I'm afraid, you give yourself away. Stop speaking on my behalf, please. As a writer, I'm more than happy to embrace file-sharing. It's not the people who file-share my work I lose sleep over. It's the people who DON'T. The people who will lose out in the new landscape are the publishers. Please stop bundling our fate as writers in with theirs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/business/04digi.html?_r=2&hpw
Let me outline the gist (but please don't take it from me - I AM biased, I may have distorted it) of Randall Stross' article "Will books be Napsterised". As a result of file-sharing the music industry lost vast revenue streams. As Ebooks take an increasing share of the book market, the same will happen there. The problem lies with file-sharing sites like Rapidshare. Sites like RapidShare allow anyone to upload files and then post the URL for others to download them. Whilst they will remove copyright-infinging files on the request of the copyright owner, these files are not policed upon upload. RapidShare talked to Mr Stross, urging publishers and authors to learn from rent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails and use free downloads as part of their business model. Stross ends with a retort to this suggestion:
"I will forward the suggestion along, as soon as authors can pack arenas full and pirated e-books can serve as concert fliers."
Now, there is so little analysis and so much fabulation in this article I couldn't deal with it all (apparently e-book hardware is "on the verge of going mainstream", for example, whatever that means (I didn't see a single reference to the Kindle or the Tablet, and nary a mention of teh phone vs reader debate, by the way)).
OK, it's time for my disclaimer. I hate plagiarism. It sucks, and sucks major. In fact, any form of copyright violation sucks. And it's NOT a victimless crime. But. But, but. But, but BUT. The way to beat pirating is, I'm afraid, as RapidShare's spokesperson say, to incorporate free downloads into your business plan. That's not giving in, it's not kowtowing. It's the way it is.
The obvious way to do that is, as suggested, to study the successful musicians. I've been talking about gigging and merching for authors ever since I got into the blogging business, and I stand by what I've always said. Culture is culture. It inspires communal events, it inspires fans to desire souvenirs, to desire contact. These things aren't unique to music. And as an advocate of the "freemium" model, I'd have to say I think content itself can be charged for in different formats - the special edition, the regular paperback even.
What we need, as authors, is to work - collectively and individually - on ways to adapt to the file-sharing world. I DO have a problem with exploiting fans. I don't like the idea that some people pay for my stuff and others don't pay for the same thing - so for me, ebooks have to be either free or not free (or it jas to be transparent which is which). I DO think, though, that we need to loko for soemthing slightly more exciting than "free".
Part of the thing about file-sharing is the fact that it creates communities - where has the industry's sense of history gone? Do they not REMEMBER the Warehouse and Rave scene? The buzz of these things is that they're outside the usual channels - an anonymmous URL on a bulletin board, a phone box on the M25. It's the same thing. These are communities that exist and get their energy from being on the outside. Bring them inside and they instantly use their energy. So "free" isn't the only answer - that would be like having your parents sit down to watch Debbie Does Dallas with you on your 18th birthday.
As authors we DO need to use free, but we also need to be clever how we do so (but not, as I say, so clever we pretend our ebokos are for sale to try and make it seem a thrill to pirate them - that just exploits our fans). I'm not 100% sure what all the answers are (but Kevin Kelly's 1,000 true fans is part of the answer). But THAT's the interesting debate - not whingeing when we left the sweet shop open that someone took our candy canes. And I never thought I'd say this, but the places we need to be looking are those semi-legal communities that use bulletin boards and chatrooms - the modern equivalent of rave culture - be it the BDSM scene, or the dogging networks, or the secretive supper clubs I saw on the news the other day. Come on, guys - we're meant to be creatives, aren't we?!
A further piece of logic that niggles at me. Until now, when I've talked about authors following the music model, and "doing a Trent", I've been told - as Stross concludes - that the two types of fan are fundamentally different, so it won't work. If they're so diffeernt, why worry about "Napsterisation" (other than for the rather unprofessional sake of using an emotive word)? Surely if books ARE "Napsterised", that's just one more piece of evidence for those of us who maintan culture is, fundamentally, culture; and fans are, fundamentally, fans. And if they download stuff, they'll pay for things they like.
A final point, Mr Stross. You complain that the group the file-sharing sites never mention are authors and publishers. And HERE, I'm afraid, you give yourself away. Stop speaking on my behalf, please. As a writer, I'm more than happy to embrace file-sharing. It's not the people who file-share my work I lose sleep over. It's the people who DON'T. The people who will lose out in the new landscape are the publishers. Please stop bundling our fate as writers in with theirs.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Be Part of Something Amazing
You may remember that several months ago I mentioned a hair-brained scheme for an online festival called Free-e-day, the idea for which was that a whole bunch of independednt creative people would offer something of their work for people to keep, for free, on December 1st.
Like me you probably thought that was the last you'd hear of it. But what has actually happened since then is that 58 writers, artists, bands, musicians, magazines and indie organisations gave so far got together to offer something and support the event. 24 of them have sent me pages with fantastic creative stuff on. These, along with a bit about the event, and a directory full of weblinks to where the free downloads will be available (many are available now), comprise the first brochure for the event, the cover for which you can see here.
You can download the brochure in full from the Free-e-day website, or you can read it on your screen by clicking "read now" on the bookbuzzr on teh sidebar of this blog (or at the bookbuzzr site).
There are also loads of workshops and webchats going on on the day to encourage debate as well as to offer practical help to independednt creative people. It's also looking more and more likely there will be a real-life concert on the day.
Now there's something tangible for you to see, I hope more and more of you will want to join up and get involved. Remember, you're giving something away for free for one day. But the next time fans out there have money to spend on a CD or a book or a picture, maybe, because of Free-e-day, they'll look beyond the usual places to get it.
So drop me a note here if you want to take part, share the bookbuzzr, tell people about the event and the site, and get as many people as you can to sign up to the Facebook group (there are 200 members so far - the more we get the more creative types we can get on board). And you could be part of the next brochure.
WHAT IS FREE-E-DAY
Free-e-day is 1 December 2009
Free-e-day 2009 is a celebration of the independent creative spirit.
Free-e-day is for every singer, writer, artist, artisan, photographer, film-maker, whatever who believes that the most important part of culture is the fans. And it’s for everyone who loves culture and wants to experience the very best of it, or just try out something new, for free.
Free-e-day is the chance for everyone and anyone to give some of their work away for free, as a thank you to their current fans, and a present for their new ones.
Free-e-day is the world’s biggest showcase for the massive, indomitable, indestructible, joyful, independent creative spirit of the human race.
Free-e-day is the chance for everyone to discover the most exciting culture the whole world has to offer.
Free-e-day is a 48 hour (because we recognise that a day starts one side of the date line and doesn’t finish till it reaches the other side) carnival with online events like webchats and debates; and workshops to offer advice to anyone who wants to do it for themselves.
Free-e-day is not a directory. It’s not exhaustive. It’s not a list of stuff that’s available for free. It’s a celebration of a group of amazing people who’ve all endorsed the principle of being fabulous in their own way. It is, in other words, a community.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Hold me to account: Month one accounts of a self-publisher
OK, time for the first month’s report. This was always going to be the most exciting one, because the first always is. So let’s see first what it says; second what happened this month; and third what that means.
So,
1. The stats
Downloads
Smashwords:
(I’m going to break these down day by day because they tell a tale:
3,9,5,17,14,11,8,14,10,10,11,6,15,12,64,25,19,64,14,12,50,25,20,18,22,8,13,9, 14
My website: 2
Year Zero Website: 1
e-mail requests:
Scribd: 9
Total 544
Books:
Direct from Lulu: 3
My orders from Lulu: 25
Sold through bookshops: 1
Direct sold by me: 5
Ordered online from me: 1
2. The calendar (what I’ve done, where I got a mention)
Sep 1 – Farm Lane Books gave me a mention and announced she’d bought a copy from Lulu
Both Jaffe and Neale in Chipping Norton and Albion Beatnik in Oxford agree to stock the book
Sep 2 – One in Four magazine are going to run an ad for Year Zero
Emprise magazine offer to do an interview about Year Zero
Sep 4 Barnes & Noble deal announced by Smashwords
Sep 9 into stock at Albion Beatnik, and a date (29 October) fixed for a reading
Sep 10 3 copies sold to conference participants
Sep 14 invited to guest blog on the Aspiring Mangaka and Writers Club website (and the book will be featured there on 6 October)
Sep 16 listing on Finding Free e-fiction
Sep 21 e-mails form two media figures interested in review copies (names omitted until reviews published, if published)
Camden Lock Books, in Old St Station, stocks the book
Sep 22 ebooks Just Published lists the book
I take part in Operation ebook drop
Benny Platonov is offered free, meaning all 3 Year Zero titles are free ebooks, and we can begin presenting a unified platform
Sep 27 My college alumni office offer me a promotional opportunity (more if/when it happens)
Sep 28 Smashwords is down for about 12 hours
Sep 29 I receive requests to guest blog on 2 writing sites about Year Zero
Smashwords announces a deal with Sony.
3. Analysis
Downloads: The smashwords stats tell some interesting stories. I didn’t think there would be such apparently obvious correlations between downloads and events, but there are. Viz:
- The figures jumped from single figures (before Sep they were also 3-10 in general) to regular double figures ON THE DAY the deal to list with Barnes & Noble went live
- Listings on the web fiction guide and novels online did not meaningfully affect figures (it seems). The listings on Finding Free Efiction and Ebooks Just Published most definitely did – AND had a residual effect.
- When smashwords went down for most of the day, there was – unsurprisingly – a big effect on downloads
Books: These are lower than predicted. I can offer the following analysis.
- I predicted a spike from friends and family sales – largely because this is what “established wisdom” tells us happens with self-published books. This hasn’t happened. With family the reason has been “we’re waiting till we do our Christmas shopping”. Friends – well, I try not to “sell” to friends because it’s distasteful, and most of them haven’t gone and ordered the book anyway.
- Things move slowly. I have had progress in terms of getting agreements to do reviews, but they take a long time coming. The first will be out this weekend.
- I’ve managed to arrange some great book readings. I’ll be at the Book Club Boutique on October 5th, and will have a music and wine and reading night in Oxford on 29th. In other words – these are all in the future.
- I haven’t mentioned above because it has been ongoing, but there have been serious issues with my ISBN and subsequent Amazon listing (several people citing “I’m waiting till it’s on Amazon”). I purchased a “Published by You” package with Lulu, which comes with 10 ISBNs. This was in July. Then, at the start of August, Lulu changed their offer without informing people who’d already bought it that it was no longer available. Customer service refused to answer e-mails. There was no help on the forums. FINALLY this month I found a post on the Lulu blog. I had an e-mail and a refund within 48 hours. Impressive, and worth remembering for people – go to the blog not the usual help channels, BUT leaving me still without an ISBN
Next Month:
Predictions:
Downloads: I will struggle to match this month’s because I’ve had the initial spike from listing on the main efiction sites, and I don’t think enough time has elapsed for people to have read what they’ve downloaded and start spreading word of mouth. I’m saying 300
Books: I am hopeful of 25, based on bookshop sales.
OK, SO NOW GRILL ME WITH QUESTIONS!
So,
1. The stats
Downloads
Smashwords:
(I’m going to break these down day by day because they tell a tale:
3,9,5,17,14,11,8,14,10,10,11,6,15,12,64,25,19,64,14,12,50,25,20,18,22,8,13,9, 14
My website: 2
Year Zero Website: 1
e-mail requests:
Scribd: 9
Total 544
Books:
Direct from Lulu: 3
My orders from Lulu: 25
Sold through bookshops: 1
Direct sold by me: 5
Ordered online from me: 1
2. The calendar (what I’ve done, where I got a mention)
Sep 1 – Farm Lane Books gave me a mention and announced she’d bought a copy from Lulu
Both Jaffe and Neale in Chipping Norton and Albion Beatnik in Oxford agree to stock the book
Sep 2 – One in Four magazine are going to run an ad for Year Zero
Emprise magazine offer to do an interview about Year Zero
Sep 4 Barnes & Noble deal announced by Smashwords
Sep 9 into stock at Albion Beatnik, and a date (29 October) fixed for a reading
Sep 10 3 copies sold to conference participants
Sep 14 invited to guest blog on the Aspiring Mangaka and Writers Club website (and the book will be featured there on 6 October)
Sep 16 listing on Finding Free e-fiction
Sep 21 e-mails form two media figures interested in review copies (names omitted until reviews published, if published)
Camden Lock Books, in Old St Station, stocks the book
Sep 22 ebooks Just Published lists the book
I take part in Operation ebook drop
Benny Platonov is offered free, meaning all 3 Year Zero titles are free ebooks, and we can begin presenting a unified platform
Sep 27 My college alumni office offer me a promotional opportunity (more if/when it happens)
Sep 28 Smashwords is down for about 12 hours
Sep 29 I receive requests to guest blog on 2 writing sites about Year Zero
Smashwords announces a deal with Sony.
3. Analysis
Downloads: The smashwords stats tell some interesting stories. I didn’t think there would be such apparently obvious correlations between downloads and events, but there are. Viz:
- The figures jumped from single figures (before Sep they were also 3-10 in general) to regular double figures ON THE DAY the deal to list with Barnes & Noble went live
- Listings on the web fiction guide and novels online did not meaningfully affect figures (it seems). The listings on Finding Free Efiction and Ebooks Just Published most definitely did – AND had a residual effect.
- When smashwords went down for most of the day, there was – unsurprisingly – a big effect on downloads
Books: These are lower than predicted. I can offer the following analysis.
- I predicted a spike from friends and family sales – largely because this is what “established wisdom” tells us happens with self-published books. This hasn’t happened. With family the reason has been “we’re waiting till we do our Christmas shopping”. Friends – well, I try not to “sell” to friends because it’s distasteful, and most of them haven’t gone and ordered the book anyway.
- Things move slowly. I have had progress in terms of getting agreements to do reviews, but they take a long time coming. The first will be out this weekend.
- I’ve managed to arrange some great book readings. I’ll be at the Book Club Boutique on October 5th, and will have a music and wine and reading night in Oxford on 29th. In other words – these are all in the future.
- I haven’t mentioned above because it has been ongoing, but there have been serious issues with my ISBN and subsequent Amazon listing (several people citing “I’m waiting till it’s on Amazon”). I purchased a “Published by You” package with Lulu, which comes with 10 ISBNs. This was in July. Then, at the start of August, Lulu changed their offer without informing people who’d already bought it that it was no longer available. Customer service refused to answer e-mails. There was no help on the forums. FINALLY this month I found a post on the Lulu blog. I had an e-mail and a refund within 48 hours. Impressive, and worth remembering for people – go to the blog not the usual help channels, BUT leaving me still without an ISBN
Next Month:
Predictions:
Downloads: I will struggle to match this month’s because I’ve had the initial spike from listing on the main efiction sites, and I don’t think enough time has elapsed for people to have read what they’ve downloaded and start spreading word of mouth. I’m saying 300
Books: I am hopeful of 25, based on bookshop sales.
OK, SO NOW GRILL ME WITH QUESTIONS!
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