Fiction in a consumer world

Being contemporary ain't what it used to be. Especially for a writer.

Fiction, the kind of fiction that I enjoy, attempts to capture some facet of life, to discuss an issue or, as Milan Kundera says, deal with some existential question. (Not answer it, mind you... just explore it). That doesn't mean that the stories are necessarily realistic, but making that facet of life or existential question relevant to the reader does require a certain one-to-one correspondence with the world that readers know.For it to be true, it has to fit in with what else they know to be true, or at least appear to.

Given that premise, the job of writing fiction is growing increasingly difficult and the reason is consumerism. The continuous introduction of new products and technologies and the (eager) desire to interact with the world in new ways means that the world itself changes significantly in increasingly short spans of time. Much science fiction from the past twenty years seems childishly simple in today's world. Some futuristic predictions considered extreme when they were written are rather bland compared to the real changes that have taken place. Tweeting is one. Social media an important tool of big business? Who woulda thunk it?

The rapid rate of change is old news but the implications continue to manifest. Here is a simple example of how these changes confound a writer. I ran across a story idea I had filed away a few years back, intending to write the story when I had a better idea of what to do with it. I liked the idea, but it has a problem--it hinges on a character sitting at home waiting for a phone call and yet having an urgent need to leave the house. What young reader would understand that now? I can hear them mutter: "Take your phone with you, jerk!"

Even if I established that this took back in ancient times, say the 1980s, would today's readers really understand the situation? Would the tension it creates be felt? I don't think so. They might accept it, but that dilemma is not visceral enough to grip. Better to toss that one. The shelf life of ideas is shrinking. I will need to date stamp them--"Best written before..."

It is an era of rampant consumerism. You can love it or hate it, but a writer cannot ignore it. It even changes our vocabulary at a frantic pace, leaving the writer the concern that having one character text another might be a totally archaic action in a few years. People still use Skype, but with rising competition and new technologies emerging, is it safe to have characters do it?

What is a bit maddening about this is that these things seldom have much to do with the story. But they do involve the telling, and the telling affects the reader's enjoyment. Most writers want to entertain at least somewhat. Regardless of the "point of my novel" I want readers to enjoy the experience, even if it is darker.

Unfortunately (in terms of being aware of these changes) I am not an ardent consumer, nor an early adopter. Many years working in the vanguard of technology as a journalist made me rather bored by change for its own sake, yet that sort of thing is at the heart of the consumer world and drives this writing problem.  So I will have to work harder.

Overlooked and unloved

I have a number of books published and I am proud of them all. Their fates are important to me.

Now writers tend to have a favorite among their literary children and I am also well aware that readers often disagree with writers concerning which is their best book. But one book of mine that I have a fondness for doesn't suffer from readers not liking it. It suffers the angst of loneliness. Although my other books do sell this one hasn't. Never.

 Here is is, just to the left. Nameless Mountain. See the book with the nice cover, with a great photo by Guy Prentice.

I think that the book's invisibility is a shame, because I honestly think it is a fun book and that readers would enjoy it and want to read my other books.

What's a kid to do?

Part of the problem is that this story doesn't fit into any genre that I am aware of; it has no home in a niche. It is just a story. It is humorous (in my dark and weird manner) but not a book to be read for laughs. The universe the characters live in is a bit off kilter, but not in a science fiction sense. It is just that it is filtered through my own perverse way of seeing things.The relationships of the characters, the narrators happiness in finding a place with no name, are factors. No one dies in the book. It lacks any exciting car chases, however there is a humor attack and sex and gambling. And lots of traveling about.

The book evolved through several incarnations. It actually first came into my life, via my computer, back in the 80s. It was rewritten, scrapped, revised, salvaged, and finally redrafted entirely. I thought I had it nailed, finally. The story that needed telling was stripped of the story that I was trying to layer on it. My efforts to be creative had been getting in the way of my being creative. That happens. So I got out of the way (stood sort of to the side--an uncomfortable posture to hold for any length of time) and let the story tell itself. Even about the brainy Vegas hooker named Denise (she's a Scorpio) and the agony of a wine snob. There is high drama when Ted pukes on a Corvette. All the ingredients are there.

But online selling hinges on categorization. And what is it? To my mind it is a story about people sorting out who they are. Sort of Kerouac with a sense of humor and a pinch of belief in the overall right working of things. In short, a novel.

Failing anything else, I have it listed under Literature & Fiction > Humor and Literature & Fiction > Literary. That last one sounds a bit snooty to me, but the books like it are listed that way, so what to do? I think most readers of literary fiction have a plateful of established authors to choose from and the discovery process for a lesser known (okay, unknown) is about like waiting for a bus in the middle of the Gobi desert. Both can happen, but what are the odds?

So categories fail me and if I can't label it, readers cannot find it. Oh me, oh my!

Then, this morning, I thought of a label that might work, at least for a time. It is accurate, to the point, motivates a buyer to consider it, and captures the mood (that I want it to be read). That label is FREE. Until July 31, the novel is free in any ebook format at Smashwords.(It is also available in paperback, not free, if you are so inclined.)

My hope is that this way it will get read. And maybe you will download a copy, read it and let me know what category you'd expect to find it in. A honest review would be appreciated too.

Happy summertime.

Traveling Ed

July Book Sale!

During the month of July a number of my ebooks are on sale to make your summer reading more fun--many are half price. This is offer is only through Smashwords, but the good news is that they have about every ebook format available. Just enter the coupon that will be at the top of each book page and enter it for the discount. Then download mobi, epub or even PDF or plain text--whatever floats your boat.

All the links you'll ever need to load your favorite e-reader with discounted books are here:

http://floatstreetpress.com/july-ebook-sale/

The Writer's Conundrum

As a writer, my main love is creating fiction and poetry. As a creator of books, I want to reach readers. As a human who would like to earn a living, I want to sell those books. This is nothing new in my life and nothing that came with the changes that are sweeping through the world of publishing. Dave Farland expressed this beautifully in his blog David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants—Waiting to Be Discovered. Here is a short bit (read his blog).

I’m a firm believer that if I “get it right,” if I create a beautiful work, I’ll find an audience. A story that is unique, engrossing, and powerful will attract attention. People will talk about it. If enough people get excited, it will be like a bolt of lightning that electrifies everyone that it touches, and then reaches out to touch others.

So your goal for today is to get it right.

Once you do that, you still have to market your works, let enough people—the right people—know what you’ve done.

For writers, it is the last bit that sucks. But, okay. I am a tough guy and I just need to man up and get 'er done, right?

How?

Fortunately, there is a ton of advice on the web on how to do exactly that. Unfortunately it is often couched in general, rather vague and useless terms.

One writer recently suggested that when you use your five Kindle Select free days (allowed with a 90 day period), you "pick them wisely." Good advice, assuming you know what are wise days for poems that are not topical, for instance. The same writer suggests promoting your book before the free days, so people will know about it. Which is fine, except that the free days are the promotion, which means that you are promoting your promotion (somehow) in the hopes the promotion will work. That leads me to wonder if the wise author should promote the promotion, promoting the promotion (of the free books)? Time well spent, I'd think. Except that somewhere you have to consider that eventually the actually promotion must go on.

Or must it? The returns writers get on the free day promotions are an exceedingly mixed bag. Some writers suggest that they do free days to get reviews. I've heard that you can often get one review for every 1,000 downloads. Hmmm. Of course, I've also been told that having reviews (assuming they are good) will make your promotion more successful. Well, if you are getting reviews, then the point of the free days is what, exactly.

I admit that I get easily confused.

I see writers using promotional services. One well-known one will promote my book as soon as it is successful (in terms of x number of 4-star reviews). Yes, I and I know of a mechanic who will guarantee that he can fix anything as long as nothing is broke. Maybe they can ride off in the sunset together.

Ah, but there are reviewers, people who love books and review them. Did you know that the vast number of them charge for that? I didn't. I used to review books myself. I had reviews in MidWest Review of Books. I did a monthly column online where I reviewed books a couple of short years ago and I was paid, let me think--no I wasn't paid. I got to keep the book. Silly me.

I will be the first to say that all of these obstacles or frustrations (or whatever) are surmountable with the right attitude, plenty of cheeky optimism and some time and cash. I can be cheeky and even optimistic. I can sell something or borrow for the cash. But if I put my time into becoming a social media expert (another routine bit of well-intentioned advice for writers) and build my reader base, then I won't be writing. Even doing this blog means I didn't write a couple of thousand words on the current novel in the works.

So I cancelled my Facebook account. It was meaningless and a time sink (sorry Mark). I still have twitter, but I am not quite sure why, other that it tickles me that I can go to my Amazon author central page and see there, that I tweeted about posting a blog here. It is all appallingly and bizarrely appealingly self referential.

And that leave me down to my minimalist marketing strategy. I am investing in a soap box. (A wooden one, not a cardboard laundry detergent box. This is big time.) Every Sunday I will go to a different park, stand on my soap box, shout something controversial, and when the crowd appears, instead of waiting to be discovered, I will touch them with my book. I will have a print copy in my hand and touch them, thus selling possibly tens of copies of my book.

This innovative strategy will seem a bit retro in this era of flash stuff, of course, but retro is the new leading edge in our self-referential, recycled culture.

Or so I am told.

Book reviews, sales and other confusions

Float Street Press has been experimenting with things, trying to figure out how to reach readers. We'd like our books to be read (seeing as that is the point of publishing them) and especially find readers who like a particular author. Javaid Qazi writes strange and wonderful short stories, but his two collections (UNLIKELY STORIES and THE JEWELED WEB) have not sent tremors through the publishing world. Still, when UNLIKELY STORIES came out, it got good reviews. Someone giving it a five star review wrote:

 

Excellent stories from Pakistan to Silicon Valley 

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Javaid Qazi's first collection of short stories is notable both for their insightful nature and amazing variety. A country-western barfly, Silicon Valley office workers, a doctor and his family in Pakistan, a lustful maid in Portugal, and a German 'stripteuse' populate these tales. Throughout the world Qazi finds interesting people in interesting dilemmas. His language is as original as it too is varied. A highly recommended first book by an upcoming writer who measures up internationally.

 

 That was lovely, but it doesn't seem that it encouraged shoppers to avail themselves of the book.

 

Okay, I get it that short story collections, especially when they lurk in a strange limbo between experimental and mainstream fiction, sometimes encroaching on one, sometimes the other, isn't the easiest sell. How do you tell people what it is? Our thought was to publish some stories individually and let people know they were from a large collection of such stories.

So we published two stories and made them available at 99cents and used the Kindle free days to let the world know.

 

 Both received an encouraging number of downloads, both free and paid. And one reviewer (the only reviewer) of President Sahib's Blue Period gave it:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise, metaphorical, entertaining May 16, 2013

By Scrabble Fan

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This short story contains many allegories and metaphors for our age, at the same time containing irony and humor. The writing style reminds me of Marquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude." 

 

We've seen no reviews for Berlin Danse Macabre yet, but it is a challenging story.

 

Understanding what this anecdotal evidence means is difficult. I don't know what inspires people to write reviews, or how other people relate to reviews. I take them along with salt tablets myself, as single grains are usually inadequate, but the reviews of Javaid's books suggest that they struck a lovely chord with some readers.Now we are hoping that the interest this generated is enough to get readers to go for the collections. We could publish all of the stories individually and we will if that is what readers prefer. Given that the least we can charge for a story is 99 cents and the collection of 11 stories in UNLIKELY STORIES is $3.99 and THE JEWELED WEB has 18 for $4,99, I am not sure why readers would prefer single stories, but I know that I am not a typical reader. (We have both in paperback as well, for those who are not addicted to ereaders and like the touch and feel of books.)

It's a fun experiment and the results are sketchy. If you have any thoughts on the idea or value of individual stories versus collections, or how to let people taste a collection in another way, I'd love to hear them.

 

The Music From the Story

My good friend Edward Null, who is a wonderful songwriter and folksinger, took the time to read a draft of my new novel, UNDER LOW SKIES and claimed he enjoyed it. When I asked him if he liked it well enough to write some songs based on it, he said yes. I think he actually said "Hell yes" but then that is what I wanted to hear, and I think I'll stick to that version of the history.

Things never go exactly as intended, and of course, the album that got finished isn't exactly about the story I wrote. The story is a murder mystery/suspense story that takes place in Venezuela, where I lived for seven years. As things developed, we wound up with songs were inspired by the kind of life of the main character Martin Billings, who captains an inter-island freighter in the Caribbean, leads. As we worked on it, I decided that was probably a better result (more fun, more interesting), as it doesn't contain any spoilers or any contrived lyrics stuffed in to sell the book. It's just good music that relates to life on a boat in the Caribbean. Hey, what more could you want?

In putting together the material, Ed decided to re-rerecord a couple of my tunes that fit the theme, as well as write some new ones of his own, including the title song. I got to tweak the lyrics a bit, even enough to get a co-writing credit in one case, and play a harp fill on one song. I couldn't talk him into using another song of his that is excellent as he didn't think it fit.

It was a fun collaboration and seeing as Ed is in Missouri and I am in Cambodia, we were tickled with how well it came together. I am trying to get enough photos and video material to do a trailer for the book that will feature the song UNDER LOW SKIES. Don't hold your breath though. When it comes to visual stuff, I work kinda slow (and painfully).

I've posted the album cover below. The music should be available for download soon, if not already, at Edward Null's CD Baby site. If it isn't there yet, well Hurricane Rosie is a damn good listen too.

 Now those of you with a nautical bent  are going to notice that the boat in the graphic to port isn't an inter-island freighter, but a sailboat. Yes, sharp eyes there, mate. But then, as a I said, the songs are the right feeling for the book, not actually the story, and well, the sailboat wound up fitting the songs better than a freighter would.

Below is a little another graphic I did that pushes the album and book into one space. That is sort of an advertising gimmick--inserting gratuitously and then pointing it out provides a convenient excuse for me to stick a link to Amazon where you can buy the book (print or kindle) online. But it is also available from iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Barnes & Noble.

So this is the latest push from Float Street Press. We have some other exciting books and miscellany in the works and I will be talking a bit about our intention to publish our first romance novel. If things stay more or less on what passes for schedules around here, we will be releasing it in November of this year. But it is a rather large book, so there is much to do.

Rain

It seems odd to be wishing for rain in SE Asia. It is the tropics after all, but it has been hot. Even the breeze, when there is any, was hot. And it was humid. The sky hung heavy. It needed to rain. Rain cools things.

Finally it did rain. Several times. We found new holes in the roof and the gutter had backed up so a wall was running water. Who cares? Things cooled down. Life became more energetic. The moo frogs were happy. The tokay gekos were shouting "oh oh!" (that means they are happy).

Now it's hot. The breeze is hot. It is overcast. I hope it will rain.