The View From the Shoe: Paul Squires (Gingatao)

Paul is a poet and a thinker. He has the ability to shed the clearest light on things with the fewest words.

You can find his wonderful poetry-based blog at
http://gingatao.com/
and follow him on twitter at:
http://twitter.com/gingatao

Over to Paul:

Thank you so much for your time. So, Louboutin or Converse?
I could look Louboutin up but I am notoriously lazy. Con verse definitely.

What do you do?
React.

Why is there no one in the world who does it quite like you?
There are plenty who do it better, no one else would want to do it like me.

What do you really, really love about it?
It's fun.

A bit more time in the day, or a bit more money in the bank?
Time is the only commodity. Money can buy time.

Imagine you “make it”. You wake up, and imagine the day ahead. Tell us about breakfast.
If I'm making it, it will bacon and eggs. Otherwise, leave it up to the chef.

What’s your Jimmy Choo? And what’s just cobblers?
Is Jimmy Choo some kind of a hipster? I'm an old man, I don't havetime for this question, it's cobblers.

Tell us about the last time a fan made you feel 100 feet tall.
I don't have fans, they blow an ill-wind.

Independent and poor, or under contract and rich?
A completely different world in which we all can be independent and generating just enough surplus to be happy. Why is that so difficult?

Do you remember that bit on Play Away where Brian Cant stood behindpeople and did the actions whilst they spoke? If you could chooseanyone to stand behind you and do the actions to your sales pitch, who would it be and why?
No I don't, I must have been drunk that night. Takeshi Kitano is under contract for the job already.

Frocks or socks?
Clothes are for wimps.

You get ZERO for FREE

All three of the first Year Zero Writers novels - Benny Platonov, Glimpses of a Floating World, and Songs from the Other Side of the Wall - are now available as ebooks for free.

I want to take a moment to explain why. Inevitably this will mean rehashing some arguments I've made on this blog, and on others. So if you've heard it all before, please bear with me. Because I want to give a list of reasons and starting points for conversation, I won't be going into too much detail. Not because there isn't any, but because that would make the post way too long.

So, why decide to make our work free? (In electronic format - you can, of course, still buy the paperbacks) Of cousre, these reasons don't just apply to us - go forth and make your books free.

Here's my Free Manifesto:


1. People want content to be free. They expect content to be free. As hardware tech advances and people fall in love with it, the hunger for free content grows. I'm going to call this phenomenon FREED. And FREED IS GOOD. It's a wave the new writer can ride.

2. For a new writer, the choice isn't between giving your book away and having people pay for it. It's between giving your book away (and maybe getting some readers), and having no one read your book. Why should someone pay money for a book by someone they don't know? The answer is they won't. Let them get to know you.

3. File-sharing is a fact of life. Embrace it as a way to get your book read. Make it easy for people to do. It's NOT true they'll file share YOUR book anyway if you protect it. More's the pity. They won't. They'll ignore it and file-share Dan Brown/Stephanie Meyer instead.

4. Free does not devalue something. The value of culture isn't in what you pay for it. More importantly, it's not even PERCEIVED to be in what you pay for it. What we value most is what we have a personla and emotional connection to. If you're an author, it's THAT you should be trying to reproduce and not a sense fo "having paid for something". That's what I mean when I encourage writers 1. to engage their readers and 2. to try and recreate the festival spirit. Soem people call it "adding value". Yes, increased money is a result, but that's not the aim - the aim is to "add attachment".

5. Freemium goes with 1,000 true fans like hand in a tight, sheer, silky glove. Jargon apologies. Freemium is the term coined, I believe, by Chris "Long Tail" Anderson to describe the business model by which you give something away for free in one format, with the intention of selling it n another (paperbacks etc).1,000 true fans is Kevin Kelly's idea that to make a living from your creativity you only actually need 1,000 true fans who will pay for your work. Clearly these two ideas marry up nicely. If you give your work away for free, not everyone who takes it will aslo pay. But you don't need them to. If you've got a great product, and back it up with direct engagement with your readers through your blog, book tours, other events, you will build a following of true fans who WILL pay - for the paperback - and more.

6. Free helps us sever the link once and for all between culture and money. At a time when increasing internet access starts to outstrip access to banking, this is, on a global social level, essential. As creatives from all over the world acn put their work out there, and consumers seek to remunerate them, if we rely on the old equation of value and money, the only model available will be to go through third party conversion agents. We will see the developing world's creativity raped for profit in the exact same way as happened to its natural resources centuries ago. We need a new way fo turning the desire to reward into benefit for the producer; and whilst money plays part of that role, it can't be the only part.

7. The big one (and the one most likely to change in coming years) is timing. I won't claim ebooks are THE future. I don't think they are. Not in their current form (the future is intelligent paper). BUT they are about to undergo a mini explosion. As are sites where readers find and promote content they love. The effect of that is simple - if your material's out there now, as the medium grows, the effect of your presence early in the game will be multiplied. I've paid serious attention to the Indie ebook market for about 3 weeks. And I can already tell you who the "players" are, and there aren't many. The chances of great content being discovered and creating a buzz is still high. BUT ONLY IF IT'S THERE and ONLY IF IT'S FREE. And out of that soup, a whole new landscape will emerge. As with satellite TV and internet provision, it's at the start of the tipping point that it's most important to focus solely on market share. And that's where we are now. Now is the time to stake your claim.

Ash: The book that changed my thinking

I don't often recommend a book on my blog. In fact, Year Zero books aside, I don't think I've ever done so. So it's time I did. Just the once.

And that book is Ash, by Malinda Lo.

Of course, in order to justify a change of policy, there has to be a story behind the story, as it were. So why this book?

Well, I came across Malinda when I was looking for places I could send Songs from the Other Side of the Wall for review. D J Young very kindly recommended I try After Ellen, one of the leading lesbian lifestyle magazines. There I discovered a great article by Malinda on lesbian fiction beyond coming out stories, exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in, as Songs has a lesbian protagonist and is nothing to do with coming out.

Hmm, yes, well what has all this got to do with Ash and how it changed my thinking (and what did I change my thinking about?)

Well, Ash is a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, and rather well done at that. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in young adult fiction. And that's the reason I'm recommending it today. I read a great interview with Malinda about Ash, and the writing of the book, and one thing stood out for me.

Ash began as a work of literary fiction, but over time Malinda came to look at it differently, and began seeing it as young adult fiction, and it's that market into which the book has just been launched.

Now, Songs has a protagonist who's 17/18. And, as soon as I realised the parallels to Muraklami's Norwegian Wood, I started using the phrase "coming of age". But I used it sparingly, fearful lest my use of it mislead people into thinking it was a young adult book. Which it wasn't! It's literary fiction! Just like Murakami, and Coupland, and Brett Easton Ellis.

Only. Well, I know there are lots of people who like the book who aren't young adults (largely, from the response I've had, these are women in their 40s and 50s). But when we started publicising Year Zero, one of the places we went was Suicide Girls, a site frequented by a lot of teenage girls drawn to an alternative/emo lifestyle. And I got some e-mails about Songs. Which made me wonder a little. Sowed some seeds.

And then I read Malinda's interview and I finally realised that the target audience for Songs may just be young adult after all. And what the devil's wrong with that?

So there we have it. Ash, by Malinda Lo, the book that made me see Songs as a young adult book aimed at the alt/emo market. Thank you, Malinda.

Thank You: some surprisingly complex netiquette

It's the thing I want to say most often in life, especially as a writer. Yes, even more than, "sorry, you must send me the dry cleaning bill". In fact, I lose count of the times i want to say thank you in any one day.

Take yesterday. Someone in the publishing industry agreed to look at my book and help me find places to send it for review; an author I greatly admire had a personal word with a magazine editor who then requested a review copy; a bookstore owner agreed to take my book sale or return; a website host posted a great big plug for my book; a blogger I hugely admire gave me a link; most of all, more than one person who's read my stuff sent me a lovely message. I want to buy them ALL milk and cookies and hire the Red Arrows to write thank you in the sky.

But it's not that simple. Thank you is a minefield for a writer.

Let me start with some very bad practice, and it might help you also to see the problem with seemingly good practice. Book blog tours seem to be all the rage at the moment. Or maybe it just seems it because there's a particularly interesting thread on the subject on the excellent Help Supprt Indpendent Publishers group on Facebook.

Maybe it's just me but one thing I've noticed is just how many writers on blog tours, or giving interviews on websites, attract comments from readers, and questions, which are met with a stony silence.

Now, pardon me for being old fashioned, but that's RUDE. And before authors chime in with "you're unpublished, you don't know how busy it is" (true, and also true [but try working a 37.5 hour week, running a festival, coordinating a collective, launching a book single-handed, AND trying to revolutionise an industry]), I KNOW how busy you are, but that's not an excuse. In practical terms, you actually lose readers as well as gaining them (and remember the old adage about one complaint needing nine bits of praise to balance it out. That's not just true in restaurants). But aside from that, don't take it on if you can't manage the courtesy of engaging with the readers when you do. These people are your RAISON D'ETRE. And it's not just that. It's incredibly rude to the blog host, who has to pick up the pieces of disgruntled readers and explain why their star guest bailed half way.

OK, that's a pet peeve out of the way. Do you see the other thing that would have been really rude of me? In the context of calling people who act like this a SUPERCILIOUS PLANK (as I believe I said in a bilious tweet last night :-))?

That's right. It would have been REALLY rude of me to name names.

Which brings me back to the business of when and how you DO say thank you. Take the first two instances. In both cases, I want to say thank you publicly. Because surely that's the greatest honour for someone, and gives them the best rep, the biggest kudos, right? Well, yes, BUT. If I say "Thank you for agreeing to read my book" to someone who's hugely busy and has done it as a favour (either to me or to a fairy godmother of whom I know nothing), they're not going to thank me back when 200 requests to do likewise arrive in their inbox.

So I send a grateful e-mail, right? Well, it's not that simple. Only the other day I was reading tweets by a Well Known But Nameless Agent who complained that authors are stalkers and, in not too many words "get out of my inbox" and certainly "if we've given something, go away and don't come back and bother us again." So the last thing I want to do if WKBNA does a kindness for me is to hack them off by sending a long e-mail thanking them and clogging their inbox. Nor do I want to seem curt. It's a minefield. (In this case, my advice is be thankful for one thing; never ask a second but say yes if it's offered; DO send a thank you that's friendly and personal, wishing well for a current project; I wouldn't offer to "let them know how it goes" - my guess is this will make them feel pressured to reply, which is bad - if they REALLY want to know they'll ask, but chances are they don't, so not offering spares embarrassment).

Which brings us to the nicest category. Readers, and fellow-writers. These are people who have approached you. So you needn't worry you're bothering them (that's NOT a stalker's charter). It goes without saying you MUST say thank you. It also, and this is important, because if you're not careful you can end up with no time to write, and that's actually what people really want from you, should go without saying that you can't, even though you'd like to, be everyone's lifecoach. You need to have boundaries, and to make those clear (which is NOT to say some, probably many, readers and fellow-writers won't become friends, possibly lifelong. I would hope they will. But that shouldn't be the expectation from your initial contact - that's THEIR stalker's charter). On the other hand, if you can do something to help, I really believe you should. That means much more than the words "thank you". You could offer to host them on your blog; or look at a short story; or put them onto a helpful website.

Yes, again. I KNOW you're busy. And I know it's easy fro me because I don't really have any fans. But remember those times before you were famous, when you were met with silence? Remember the mutterings under your breath. And remember the one person who showed you even a bit of kindness? I bet you DO. And don't EVER forget it.

Which brings me to a general observation. One of the most important articles ever written about culture (or business) can be found here. Kevin Kelly's basic premise is that you only need 1,000 true fans to sustain your business/life as a writer. I happen to think he's right (I'm not getting into that argument here). Now 1,000 is NOT a huge number. Certainly not if, like me, you write 50-100 e-mails a day. One reason I like 1,000 true fans is because it's a way of being that allows you to engage with everyone who's a fan of yours. And if you're a writer, someone who communicates, that's really how it should be, isn't it?

The View from the Shoe: Verre Design

I discovered Verre Design on twitter through @IndieNorth, who were the first people actively to come and support Free-e-day. Verre Design is part of this amazing collective of jewellers and craftspeople, based in Canada.

Here she is in her own words:

:::VerreDesign - Handcrafted Feminine Artisan ArtGlass § Jewelry:::VerreDesign is the perfect place to find Handcrafted, One Of a Kind, Artisan Jewelry Designs.
http://www.verredesign.etsy.com/
http://www.verredesign.blogspot.com/
http://www.twitter.com/verredesign.com/verredesign


Thank you so much for your time. So, Louboutin or Converse?
Silvia Campbell AND Converse... but mostly barefootJ http://www.usafashionshows.com/press/silviacampbell.htm

What do you do?
I am a glass artist and jewelry artisan

Why is there no one in the world who does it quite like you?
First, I am the only human with this particular set of 46 chromosomes and beautiful DNA chain.

Second being mostly self taught, I kind of developed my own techniques at the torch and designing board.

And third, getting easily bored, I only create unique, one of a kind pieces.

What do you really, really love about it?
Inventing, reinventing, creating unique work... I love inspiration, the “feeling” itself within the body of elevated energy and enthusiasm. I LOVE working at the torch for each colour has a different way of responding to heat. I love it when I smile after completing a piece. I love knowing some of my designs are walking down a street in LA, London, St-Charles or MontrealJ

A bit more time in the day, or a bit more money in the bank?
A lot of both!

Imagine you “make it”. You wake up, and imagine the day ahead. Tell us about breakfast.
No breakfast for me today, slept until eleven eleven. Fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit and orange juice will be perfect for now, thank you. Or maybe... think I have what it takes in the fridge to make a large pineapple-strawberry smoothie. Will grab a tuna salad after melting glass or creating a new ring, let’s say in two hours. Will you join me? My treat! Will take a little shower before and wear my fabulous new Silvia Campbell boots! Maybe we could have waffles with fresh fruits, Belgium chocolate and Chantilly cream instead? We’ll seeJ

What’s your Jimmy Choo? And what’s just cobblers?
My Jimmy Choo is my son :-) Cobblers... non kiln annealed glass beads.

Tell us about the last time a fan made you feel 100 feet tall.
They all make me feel taller! Compliments by peers feel so great, compliments by buyers just feel awesome, compliments by fellow sellers feel super, retweets make me smile, blog features amaze me, positive feedback is so rewarding... Every fan kind of makes your roots strongerJ

Independent and poor, or under contract and rich?
Independent and rich, of course! Lol!!!

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?
I would choose Angelina Jolie. I wouldn’t have to say anything, she wouldn’t have to do anything. Classy, beautiful, engaged and wild, dressed in black, she’d simply wear one of my awesome pair of earrings while smiling :-)

Frocks or socks?
Both – but not at the same time!


Thank you SOOO much -- No Thank YOU!

Begging a Favour

Not something I'm altogether happy doing, but that never stopped me before.

Let me begin with the favour. In the words of those slightly seedy classifieds:

Do you have a mental health difficulty? Have you experienced problems with debt? Would you be prepared to answer some questions for an article on debt and mental health? (Anonymously is fine). If so, please either comment here or e-mail songsfromtheothersideofthewall@googlemail.com

OK, let me rewind.

4 years ago, I began a blog called Mad Marrieds' Journey Into Debt, about the year my wife and I, courtesy of a decided "up" phase in the bipolar cycle, ended up in 23 countries and a lot of debt in one year (or my wifer ended in debt - I was already too indebted to be allowed a credit card!!).

A nice young man at the Royal College of Psychiatrists was, at the time, working on debt and mental health, googled debt and depression, and found my blog.

In the four year since, I've worked with Chris on 2 major projects, In The Red, a study on debt and mental health by Mind; Final Demand, which resulted in a leaflet distributed to 140,000 people (the largest readership I'll EVER get) in the social care profession about debta nd mental health; I've spoken in parliament to the All Party Parliamentary Group on mental health; and I've helped Mind produce a guide on debt and mental health.

Last summer, my wife and I were in Camden when we saw ni the local rag an article about a magazine called One in Four, run by a cool looking dude called Mark Brown. It was pitched as a lifestyle magazine for and by people with mental health difficulties. I cut the article out, and "filed" it. A month or so back, I took it out and sent Mark an e-mail, wondering if they'd like to rnu a story on a bipolar writer who'd just launched a collective.

We spent one of the most enjoyable hours I can remember drinking coffee together in a garage in Walthamstow, and I came away with my first ever proper commission, to write a piece about debt and mental health for their magazine. The piece will focus on case studies of people who've experienced debt and mental health difficulties, with a view both to connecting with people, but also to giving practical advice to help people with both aspects of what's often a vicious cycle.

Anyone who is ableto spend a few minutes of their time to sghare their experiences and/or advice, I would love to hear from you. I'm happy to write about my own experiences, such as the time I genuinely believed I couldn't get through a theology degree with just 20 Bibles and HAD to get yet another, or the time I couldn't open a letter, had the phone unplugged, sat on the sofa and cried solidly for 6 months waiting for someone to show up for their money with a baseball bat. But I'd ratehr write about someone other than me for a change.

And a little advance warning. October 10th is World Mental Health Day. As well as being a great time for raising awareness (if you have a blog, why not write something), you may, if you live in the UK and watch the news any time a few days either side, find yourselves in the unenviable position of being confronted with my ugly mug :-)

Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Spreading Some Love

I HATE awards and praise-giving, and love-sharing sessions. Most of all I hate #followfriday on twitter. Not because I hate heaping praise on the countless people who do amazing things online. But because I know there'll always be someone I forget; and that someone will feel AWFUL. And possibly take it personally.



So I HATE Book Blogger Appreciation Week, because I want to throw my arms around the whole book blogging community and give it an enormous hug. So I want to apologise in advance for everyone I've missed out. Somewhere there's a loaded gun with a bullet for every one of you to fire right at me. And I want to make a policy statement. my blog roll is full of amazing book blogs on blogger. Anyone who's already there, please consider yourselves bigged up already (as I believe they say). I want to use this week to give a shout out (as I believe they also say) to a couple of non-blogger sites that really deserve everyone's attention



Loudpoet

Guy Le Charles Gonzalez is a former slam poet (can one be a former slam poet? Does that make one a gentle slap poet?) who writes with passion, compassion, wit, and intelligence about writing and social media. He not only cares about the future of literature; he knows a thing or two as well. He also asked me to guest blog for him earlier this month :-)



Phillipa Fioretti

Most of you already know Phillipa. That doesn't mean she shouldn't have another big plug because she's the most articulate, intelligent polymath writer you could hope to meet. She also brilliantly bridges the art and literature worlds.



Eudaimonia For All

Lisa Kenney is another artist who writes about books. She's one of the most thoughtful, erudite readers I've had the pleasure of meeting online. She's simply inspirational for anyone who really loves books. (This is a blogger blog, but I can't get it to appear on my blogroll so that's OK!)



Smelvillewrites

Sarah E Melville designs my covers. Which makes her a goddess of some kind, because they're just amazing. She's an artist, poet, and novelist. And The.Next.Big.Thing



Farm Lane Books

I came across Jackie's blog by accident on twitter. It's very rare that you come across a reader whose tastes seem to click with your own. Jackie is a voracious reader and intelligent reviewer; and I can be fairly sure that if she likes something so will I. Whcih is about as big a recommendation as it's possible to give a reviewer!



Charlie Atlantic

Charlie's the lead singer of InLight, one of my favouite bands, and technically this is a culture blog rather than a writing one. But I don't care, because he's the funniest man on the Internet. And insightful and poignant to boot.



Banana the Poet

How could I not include everyone's favourite alternative poet



Gingatao

Paul Squires is a quite brilliant poet and observationalist. Much like Sulci (who IS on my blog roll), he can take words to places you never imagined possible.

Left Under Books
Charles Dickey is someone who not only cares about books and culture, he's someone who's passionate about raising the uncomforatable issues so many blogs gloss over in their back-slapping and "aren't things wonderful" ness. A blog for anyone truly outside the mainstream