tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post3116844672822426499..comments2023-09-08T07:54:39.425-07:00Comments on The Cynical Self-publisher: This Is Our MomentAgnieszkas Shoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-13203053478125156802012-10-31T05:18:07.980-07:002012-10-31T05:18:07.980-07:00YESSSSSSSSSYESSSSSSSSSDan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-82519362894370602872012-10-31T04:51:12.456-07:002012-10-31T04:51:12.456-07:00think spelling and grammar are up for grabs, also ...think spelling and grammar are up for grabs, also :)<br /><br />Penny GoringAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-24432695886797700112012-10-31T03:10:20.115-07:002012-10-31T03:10:20.115-07:00yes, the freedom to get it wrong is one of the mos...yes, the freedom to get it wrong is one of the most liberating things of all about self-publishing, with no one wielding the contract for the next book over you as either a carrot or a stick!Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-37117014748930265142012-10-31T02:54:37.734-07:002012-10-31T02:54:37.734-07:00I'm with you, Dan - and I think that the poten...I'm with you, Dan - and I think that the potential of different media, and our response to it, should include a capacity to make mistakes, to risk work that the purists will deride, to 'try it and see.' I don't mean that to include failing to attend to basic things like grammar and spelling; rather to play with words in a different way, to see what happens - and if it doesn't 'work' (whatever that means) then nobody comes down on us and assumes the whole movement is rubbish. The whole point, surely, is experimenting - and we can only do that if it is safe to get it 'wrong' occasionally.<br /><br />(I write this, even though my own books are relatively conventional!)JOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03127111575563904349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-28321624745609748562012-10-31T01:41:34.079-07:002012-10-31T01:41:34.079-07:00yes, Roland, I have a lot of qualms about that too...yes, Roland, I have a lot of qualms about that too - the fact that a lot of YBAs are essentially Thatcher's little children.<br /><br />"Maybe now, in advanced capitalist societies like our own, there is only the Market"<br />wouldn't that be depressing? And even the thought that it might be true makes me want to do anything I can to show it's not.<br /><br />"most of the rhetoric around self-publishing is notable for its conservatism and its desire to emulate what it professes to oppose."<br />yes, I was reading Talli Roland's piece a couple of days ago (http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/please-dont-call-me-an-indie-author/) which is just the latest in that trend. It's incredibly depressing. We might have been utterly clueless, but I'm sure when we started self-publishing nearly four years ago we felt an artistic as well as a commercial excitement - that we'd been freed from something more significant than direct access to the market.<br /><br />Absolutely agree about novels, however you define them, not being the right place to look. There's a lot about alt lit that's naive and far less original than it thinks it is (Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman spring to mind as predecessors even before the literary ones like Brett Easton Ellis. Even B S Johnson in his own way), but there's also a lot that's really exciting - not least the sense of a Movement.<br /><br />I'll keep on keeping on, don't worry!Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-63084071602383813702012-10-31T01:06:27.136-07:002012-10-31T01:06:27.136-07:00Great piece. My only disagreement with you, Dan, i...Great piece. My only disagreement with you, Dan, is your reverence for the art czars like Jopling and Serota - the international art market is now really a form of investment banking and I think the last thing we want literature to do it to emulate it. Of course, the art world can create celebrities without much public engagement other than a stroll through a gallery (and most people who have an opinion about, say Emin or Hirst probably haven't even done that) - the problem with books is you have to take time to read them.<br /><br />But perhaps looking for revolution in the novel is simply looking in the wrong place, just as any manifesto that thinks self-publishing is a 'movement' is bound to fail - in fact, most of the rhetoric around self-publishing is notable for its conservatism and its desire to emulate what it professes to oppose.<br /><br />Maybe the time for Moments and Movements is over. Maybe now, in advanced capitalist societies like our own, there is only the Market. How we challenge that is, at the very least, um, interesting. But is a ramshackle edifice that has been constructed around us, it is groaning under the weight, the cracks are showing...<br /><br />Keep on keepin' on, as they used to say...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17638540063632676684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-63249134636448860492012-10-30T08:00:38.380-07:002012-10-30T08:00:38.380-07:00"The discussion is all about attracting and r..."The discussion is all about attracting and retaining readers, while “literature” seems to have become an embarrassingly uncool term."<br />Sadly too true. You have a fabulous website, btw - and I love the reviews linking one of your books to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown!Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759551758720120236.post-19757920705578290222012-10-30T07:39:54.261-07:002012-10-30T07:39:54.261-07:00I couldn’t agree more, Dan. Since joining the rank...I couldn’t agree more, Dan. Since joining the ranks of the “Indies”, I’ve been paralysed by the anxiety associated with becoming an efficient social media marketer, blogger, PR specialist and online “personality”, which the self-publishing journey seems to demand of me. Writing – good, bad or indifferent – appears to have as little importance as processed sandwich filling for the successful “Writer”, barely mentioned in passing – the way you might toss a tin of spam into your supermarket trolley. The discussion is all about attracting and retaining readers, while “literature” seems to have become an embarrassingly uncool term.<br /><br />The Internet revolution is a technical revolution – a revolution of means and access as opposed to one of content or quality. The need to search-engine optimise your blog text in order to be read means that the words themselves have become nothing more than cheap markers to attract the attention of robot crawlers. I think a true revolution in electronic content will only come about once writers start exploring the visual and organisational tools which the Internet offers – hyperlinking, SEO, the non-linear nature of the Internet – as part of their literary exploration, using these techniques in their stories’ online structure and in ebooks – and so abandoning the constrictive blueprint of the print book for new formats. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com