Will to Write

And people wonder why they are mocked...

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:20:26 GMT

So, cruising around the blogosphere, I spotted this gem of a post about writing and writing about writing. I'm not providing a link because, c'mon, I need to protect my sources of mock.

Cynicism setting in (updated)
I realize that it's been a while since I've done a writing craft or industry post. This is because, over the last few months, I've been feeling a growing sense of cynicism about whether such posts serve any real purpose. This is a combination, I suppose, of three things:

1) the sense that I'm preaching to the choir (i.e., anyone who really has an interest in improving their writing career and researching the industry is already reading blogs like mine

So...Little Miss Know It All (or LMKIA for short) claims to be cynical, of all words, because she feels that her posts serve no purpose - because they're already serving their purpose!

Logic much, LMKIA?

2) I keep getting the impression that a bunch of people simply want me and everyone like me to shut the fuck up, since we're published and therefore, it's "easy" for us to say that a particular agent is a bad idea, or a particular self-publishing model won't work and here's why, or that in general, the reason we're so skeptical about whatever fool thing they're trying is because we're jealous and elite and we want to keep the riff raff out.

Shut the fuck up?

Is this chick for real?

So she's not getting thousands of hits and hundreds of comments on her pearls of wisdom - but that equals people actively calling for her to shut the fuck up?

For the record, I've read her blog for a good, oh, year or so (mostly for giggles, but still) and I've nowhere seen anywhere "shut the fuck up" directed at her.

Well, maybe at HER, personally.

But not because of her writing advice.

Please. Have we met?

No, thank the deity of your choice. Watching you imitate a walking billboard for your book at RWA National was as close as I ever want to get to you.

I *so* want the riff raff in. I love me some riff raff.

Awwwww. Lookie, she's such a saint! She loves herself the unwashed masses!

I can't even begin to describe what is so wrong about her argument.

First, if you want to make a ridiculous argument go away, you don't codify it by referring to it ad naseum. Second, having seen LMKIA in action on several e-mail loops as well as on her blog, SHE'S the one who first calls attention to the divide between the high holy published authors and the unclean, leprous unpublished authors. But then, LMKIA is the first to talk about her competitive streak, so it doesn't surprise me.

And of course there is a distinction! Published authors learn first hand how to deal with a contract, sell through figures, marketing. No matter how educated unpublished authors are about the game, they still won't have the intrinsic experience and any learnings that come from it. It's like reading about sex, and actually participating in it. Some things you just have to DO.

This is why RWA has PAN, PRO and Member at Large levels. Or why organizations such as YPO (Young Presidents Organization) don't admit personal assistants. Or why sous chefs don't have their names above the restaurant door. People need different support at different stages of their careers, including writers. And That's. O. Kay.

Now, does that make unpubs any less of a person than the pubbeds? Of course not. Yet LMKIA likes to reduce the argument to peons versus patrons, and dismisses any other distinction between published/unpublished authors as mere jealousy. And That's. Not. O. Kay.

3) Sometimes people are listening without listening. "Scam agents suck," they agree, while writing out their checks. "No agent is better than a bad agent," they say, nodding emphatically, while justifying the fact that their agent won't return their calls, forward their rejection letters, or whatever other sketchy behavior is going on. Which is frustrating.

Someday LMKIA will learn that she can't make people behave to her specifications. Someday. But don't hold your breath.

So, am I a glutton for punishment or what? Because I keep pressing forward, posting things, glad whenever someone tells me that something I said helped them.

This is the most egregious begging for strokes I've ever seen.

"Oh, woe is me, I'm so 'cynical' (one wonders if LMKIA really knows what that word means as she's actually describing disillusionment, not cynicism) but yet I, the brave widdle soldier that I am, continue to march forward because my glorious candle, lit solely by the force of my ego, brings light and comfort to the few discerning riff-raff who are smart enough to worship the condescending pearls of wisdom that drip from my fingertips..."

If Moon Unit Zappa were recording novelty songs today, she'd gag LMKIA with her own spoon.

Oh, and I'm NOT the anonymous who commented on her blog, although I obviously applaud anonymous's fine insight. It's LMKIA's playground, she gets to say what she wants.

But I do love snarking her on my playground...

tap tap Is this thing on?

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 15:12:12 GMT

Wow, that's some dust bunny hiding under this journal.

I love the concept of LiveJournal as it pertains to community. I especially love the friendslist (even if I dislike the use of the word "friends" in this context) and the ability to create reading lists.

However, it's the journal concept of LiveJournal that I've been a little slow on.

So I'm resolving to change that. Starting with a name change. No more wanna_write, although I still do want to write. This ties this journal in with my other home on the net, http://londonwriting.blogspot.com, which I use to (occasionally) journal my expat experience.

I never know whether to use my real name or not on the internet. Caution and a healthy fear of identity theft (I've had brushes with it in the past) have kept me semi-anonymous. Plus, I have an unusual name, both first and last, so I tend to shy from putting my name out there because if I do something stupid or embarrassing (and I will), it's pretty hard to say, "Oh, no, that was the OTHER person who shares my name!" Also, there's the whole connectedness thing I like about LiveJournal, but what if people come here and, like, hate me? I do tend to err on the sarcastic and over-dramatic-for-the-sake-of-making-a-point side, after all.   After all, the internet doesn't come with video screens - yet - and so you can't see my expressions.

Wired had an interesting article about misreading e-mail. According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , in a recent study people only correctly interpreted the sender's ton 50% of the time.   But they think they correctly interpreted it 90% of the time.

Inbetween, lie the flame wars. :-)

I've been in a few scuffles and I've seen my share of verbal fisticuffs, which is another reason to keep quiet on the journal front. After all, what if I say or do something stupid in the heat of the moment and the world de-"friends" me? I shouldn't care - well, yeah, I know I shouldn't, but I'm pretty hard-wired to want people to like me. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all those cliches.

Veronica Mars

Mon, 09 May 2005 09:18:58 GMT

If you're not watching Veronica Mars - why not?

The series finale is tomorrow night, but the DVDs should be out in September, just in time for season two to start. To keep with this journal's (sadly neglected) writing theme, this has got to be one of the best plotted and best characterized series ever broadcast. Lots of great lessons in how to build arcs and sustain mystery in this one.

Smart TV on UPN - whodathunk?

London Book Fair

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:51:27 GMT

I went to the London Book Fair yesterday.

I had no real business reasons for doing so, but I attended BookExpo America two years ago when it was in LA and found it to be incredibly interesting and informative. Surely it wouldn't hurt to check out the publishing trade show in my new backyard. And so I wouldn't feel like the world's biggest poseur, I signed up for the PEN/Daily Mail MasterClass in Historical Fiction. (I can’t help giggle at “PEN/Daily Mail” – only in Britain would an organization founded on respect for the power of the written word partner with a tabloid newspaper that has little to no respect for truth in writing – but that’s the subject for another journal entry.)

First, a caveat: I have very little news, gossip or other scuttlebutt from the Fair. I didn’t speak to anyone about the business, and perhaps I wasted a golden opportunity. However, I've been on the other side at trade shows. And I know that one doesn't tend to have much patience/sympathy for lookie-loos after a day spent shivering and/or sweating in a non-thermostat-controlled booth of flimsy plywood, trying to appear intelligent, upbeat and awake under dim florescent lighting with only stale sandwiches, burnt coffee and lots of candy to keep you going - all underscored by the constant din of the roaring crowd. Add to that wafts of cigarette smoke from all corners - while the booth areas in the middle of the conference center were smoke free, the aisles on the sides most definitely were not. It's sensory overload at its most hellish. So...I didn't approach any of the professionals actually doing work at the Fair.

And they all looked very busy. This was the first day of the Fair, and in my experience the first day is always the busiest, with the crowds tapering off even by mid-morning the second day. However, if first day crowds are anything to go by, then the Fair was doing good business. By lunch time, the bigger multinational publishers (Harper Collins, Time Warner, Simon & Shuster) all looked like they had been hit by a particularly nasty albeit localized tornado. Catalogs, binders, pamphlets randomly littered the small round tables where publisher representatives met with buyers, vendors or agents. And people came dressed to do business: brown and black skirt suits or wool trousers with fine-gauge sweaters for the women; natty three-piece suits for the European men or two-piece suits for the Americans. A few creative types were in jeans and designer t-shirts, but they were the minor species on the crowded walkways. I’ve seen Tube platforms at rush hour that had more room to move than the aisles at the Book Fair. So at least from the perspective of someone trying to get from booth C47 to H12 in a timely manner, publishing looks like it’s still strong and full of life. In fact, according to Publisher’s News, the Fair was sold out.

However, aside from witnessing the hustle and bustle, there wasn’t all that much for a interested observer to do. At BookExpo America (BEA), the publishers are eager to giveaway their catalogs. They are placed in easy-to-grab spots, piled high. At the London Book Fair (LBF), catalogs from major publishers were quite difficult to come by. They were kept at the reception desks or in the back, and brought out only on request or for a meetings. A few non-fiction publishers, such as BBC Books, did have catalogs available for the hoi polloi to pick up, but they were the exception (that I saw.) I can understand publishers not wanting to waste valuable, expensive catalogs on their non-target audience; after all, while I do buy a lot of books, I don’t have Books, Etc or W.H. Smith’s purchasing power. But I had been looking forward to seeing the upcoming offerings and to check out the latest market trends, so it was disappointing.

As catalogs were scarce, I didn’t expect to see free books – and I was right. While the booths were lined with shelves of samples of new and upcoming books, there were very few being slipped into briefcases and bags. (At BEA, getting run over by people pulling luggage trolleys or wheelie suitcases stuffed with books from all over was just part of the fun.)

LBF is also short on the glamour when compared to BEA. A popular feature of BEA is its Autograph Sessions, in which authors sign copies of their new or upcoming releases. I watched one line turn into a human snail shell as it curved around itself – it turned out the various circles were being formed to meet Paige Davis of Trading Spaces fame. And if your tastes ran more to literary celebrities, next to her was Martin Amis while Anna Maxted, Los Bros Hernandez (of Love and Rockets graphic novel fame) and Sherman Alexie signed just a few tables down. Although the Bookseller News LBF special edition for Sunday featured an ad for an in-booth signing by Jodie Marsh (think Pamela Anderson with a British accent and less clothes), otherwise appearances by authors or other celebrities were kept quiet.

Overall, LBF is an event dedicated to the work of publishing, very British in its low key approach. The floor was consistently hopping, and when I peeped into the seminar rooms they appeared full as well. Unfortunately, my MasterClass ran at the same time as several seminars of interest. I attempted to attend “Have We Got Publishing News For You,” billed as a look at market trends, which was scheduled to end an hour after my class – but when I arrived, breathless, it was already over. Oh well, better planning next year!

One other area, that was closed off to all but those with a special badge, was the international rights center. I got the impression that this was just as much a nerve center for the conference as the exhibitor floor. Certainly I could hear a variety of languages and accents at any given moment; while the exhibitions centered on the UK (with various country pavilions scattered around) the attendees were from all over.

While finished, newly published books were definitely the star of the show, exhibitors ranged from paper companies to marketing solutions to remainder consolidators. Google was presenting a standing room seminar as I walked by (on my way to the MasterClass, so I couldn’t stay) on how to use Google Print to increase your search results and therefore make sure your book was on the top of the referral page. Companies offering e-commerce and e-publishing solutions were also well represented, and in far greater numbers than I remember at BEA.

The costs of attending LBF are about on par with attending BEA. A three day pass is £20, or about $40 with today’s tourist rates. That’s a bargain compared to BEA – but not when you add in the cost of the official guide at another £20 (free with pass at the BEA I attended). The guide is worth it, however; it lists all the companies, address, and LBF attendee names. In addition, one has the opportunity to pick up free books at BEA, which helps amortize the costs. And food in London is never cheap: a sandwich and a bottled drink cost £5.40 or about $10. A side note if you do attend: don’t check your coat, or if you do, reacquire it before 6:00 p.m. The line was at least a half hour long.

Would I go again? If I had business there, absolutely. As a lookie-loo, there wasn’t that much there. Sure, I could have been more aggressive and started conversations, but perhaps almost of year of British living has rubbed off on my brash American self. However, it’s always a thrill to go to a venue that is dedicated only to books: to the publishing of them, the printing of them, the marketing of them. And ultimately the reading of them. For that, the experience was worth all of it and more.

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 12:19:48 GMT

I'm starting this journal for the following reasons:

1) There's a lot of interesting people in LJ-land. I want to have one comprehensive "friends" list to read, instead of bookmarking pages and visiting every day. If I have "friended" you, there is no need to friend back - but I hope you don't mind that I have added you to my list.

(Note on the use of "friend" - like some others have mentioned, I dislike LJ's use of the word. Reading list is far more accurate, and that's how I use the function.)

2) Most of the journals I visit are writers and/or in the publishing industry. And like the user and journal name suggest, I'm a (hopeful to be published) writer. However, I'm having a very hard time with AIS (no, not the insurance company, but Ass In Seat). I'm using this journal to practice fifteen minutes of writing, whatever pops into my head, in the hopes that it will jumpstart work on my very stalled WIP.

And...that's the first fifteen minutes down. Not a very productive in terms of word count, but it did help to clarify just what I want out of this journal.

Will to Write

And people wonder why they are mocked...

*tap* *tap* Is this thing on?

Veronica Mars

London Book Fair

tap tap Is this thing on?