Nothing's original, but is that bad?

Music, inspiration and madness produced this piece of artwork in one evening of hard driving coffee house action. Fascinated by the spirit of its creation and the fervor of the artist, I snapped a photo before he carted it off to his vehicle.

A few days later I clicked on a Twitter link and discovered the picture below. The original I'd seen in its living, breathing essence, seemed somehow tainted. Not as pleasing. Even though the first was created using a brush and oils, and the one below is merely a manipulated photograph.


The experience reminded me of discovering a local author, and exploring her work only to be disappointed that each book copied the identical concepts, down to at least one character in each work having clever, whiskey eye color. I felt quite critical, smug even, although she had reached the NY Times Bestseller list multiple times.

How unoriginal.

After listening to my rant, my sister reminded me writers don't pump out several books a year. If you enjoy an author you usually wait a year for the next release. You forget their idiosyncrasies. I, however, forget little and tend to start with an author's first work and read one right after the other in an effort to determine how their writing style has evolved, and most of all I don't want every story to include:

Female protagonist who pep-talks self out-loud, saying things like ‘get yourself together, with more attractive siblings and one developmentally delayed or socially-underdeveloped one; she lives in a small town near a large city, and drives a jeep, rides horses bareback (ever tried it? Give me a saddle, geez), is from a wealthy, influential family, with a domineering father, makes bad choices in men, then suddenly makes a good one (?!), hooks her thumb at her chest and hitches her chin, has a sickly stomach and tends to throw up a lot.

A male character who sires a child with someone other than his wife and child is hidden, speaks basely about women, thinks about sex a lot and its not pretty, nor is it love, has a sex slave who is willing to do anything to keep him, which doesn’t seem to work out so well for her and ultimately is not appreciated by him, practices a sexual deviancy: brother to sister, father-daughter, or husband caught with under-aged girl…

Another male character who is a social outcast, as a youth has a trouble with the law, and who pines over the girl for years, and somehow was either misunderstood or magically got his life together.

Somewhere I read, perhaps on Nathan Bransford blog (wish I could find it), what sells, sells. The author had found a writing niche readers enjoyed and had exploited it.

I don't want to be a copy, or imitate. That's so uninspiring, I still can't quite embrace it. Perhaps that was my inspiration to be first, as in The First Carol. Someone else can be next or last, and I hope they have a grand time trying to imitate me. Sure. Let's run with that.

If given the chance (or talent), which author would you want to imitate and why?

Top

Ooo, Ooo, Ooligan Part II ~ WIN Book

I'm giving away two copies of an Ooligan Press mini-book, RETHINKING PAPER & INK regarding sustainability in publishing. Mention, ‘enter to win book’ in your comments to participate. Drawing to be held at end of month.

This is a continuation of Professor Dennis Stovall’s seminar on the publishing industry from Ooligan Press’ Write to Publish Conference. Dennis Stovall is an Assistant Professor of English and Coordinator of Publishing Curriculum at Portland State University, Oregon.

Part I introduced the evolving marketplace of publishing, the move away from credit to cash refunds for unsold books, the growing influence of print-on-demand options leading to the increase in the number of self-published books, and the emerging importance of amateur reviewers.

Abandoned authors rise like phoenixes

The number of books that a big publishing house needs to publish is rather high. The focused influence of mega book stores pressured publishers to market to the masses. This loosened the bonds they felt to their lower selling authors, and low list authors were cut loose. Those abandoned formed their own publishing companies, and as it turns out, smaller presses can be profitable. “A new milieu of small presses representing non-fiction authors appeared, they sold fairly well, and created a new small press movement,” Stovall said.

A pool of money to support literary publishing emerged. Readers Digest Fund, Carnegie Foundation and others underwrote the cream of the crop and served out several million dollars to sustain both for profit and nonprofit small presses. The small press came into its own and emerged as an opportunity for new voices to find new audiences, a critical component of publishing. “Without the edginess of new writing you have a stale culture of writing'; big publishing aims at the lowest denominator of books that can sell, all of that edginess gets pushed aside.”

A challenge of all publishing is getting the books on your list into the bookstores. This was originally done by sales reps from the publisher who called on bookstores, understood each store’s unique audience, and knew what from their list would likely sell. The landscape altered with the rain of new tax laws that made it costly to warehouse books. Sprouting like mushrooms emerged a group of intermediary book wholesalers and distributors who gathered up a variety of houses and acted as sales reps for not just one publisher, but for many.

They offered the added advantage of allowing a bookstore to buy books from anyone they represented and more importantly, allowed booksellers to return the unsold to one site. This one site drop hadn’t existed before. Access also eased open for literary presses, and they seeped into the distributor mix. Some smaller presses still followed the old trend of making a commitment to an author because they thought, maybe this book won’t sell, but maybe the fifth or sixth will, so developing authors also found their way into the distribution stream.

Few consider the impact of the small press

Books that are sold into bookstores and libraries should all have an ISBN number. ISBN identifies one title from another, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors. Since 1996-97 the US produced approximately 11,000 new ISBN registrations annually. About twelve years ago former editor of Publisher Weekly, John Baker, estimated only 50,000 publishers were registered with ISBN, and further estimated an additional 150,000 unregistered.

Currently, a tremendous number of small, highly targeted presses produce to narrow audiences and never register. Estimates of how many exist are just that, estimates. “We have this kind of ‘hidden from view’ side of publishing for profit which is almost exclusively non-fiction. But we still have the other side that most of us are either writing to or publishing to, think of books being sold in bookstores, that’s where we’ve seen the most significant changes.” Big conglomerates Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters, and the mega online store Amazon have changed the face of book selling and publishing, but they are not the only influencers. “Small presses are largely ignored when calculating the economic impact of publishing.” Stovall said.

Ooligan Press was surveyed six years ago by Publishers Weekly. After Stovall completed the documents he was told, ‘you don’t qualify as a small press.’ Surprised he asked, “Just how small a press do you have to be to qualify?” No, you’re not large enough, he was told. He pushed for clarification and discovered PW was not counting anyone as a publisher unless they did $1 million a year. “They were ignoring 90-95% of all publishers in the country, ignoring the cultural impact of all that publishing. ” The BISG (Book Industry Study Group), reported in "The Rest of Us" study, that all small presses combined actually offer as much economic impact as everyone else.

Small presses were remarkable in how they opened up venues for new authors. The largest collaboration of new authors supporting each other happened in the 80’s, and reached its peak in the 90’s. “Large publishers are reluctant to take new authors until the author has ten books in print. How do you get to that point if you can’t get into the stores? As the traditional side of publishing is constricted, the new media side is opening exponentially.”

If you’re following the trade press it’s clear major publishing houses are struggling to deal with the crisis in the economy. They’ve stopped acquisitions or at minimum cut back, but according to Stovall the economic slide did not scare small presses. “There’s a little mantra we said to ourselves when the economy started going down, ‘oh boy, everyone else will suffer but not the small press.’ Large publishers are simply locked up at the moment with problems they created themselves. Superstores drive things towards the lowest common denominator. The books had to suit those superstores, the superstores depended on mall traffic, and when mall traffic goes down, book sales go down. The New York Times Best Sellers list gives the impression that there are a lot of books out there, but it’s the thinnest slice of what’s marketable to people on their way to buy shoes or books,” Stovall commented.

“Now we see a crisis in sales, Borders will not exist next year,” Stovall predicted, “Or just a few stores in a few places; they are that close to going under, and got there by a series of choices of their own. Barnes and Noble announced that they’re doing reasonably well at the moment, but if you look at their statistics they do usually well in new stores, but stores already in existence are down. They once cannibalized sales of indies, and now they’re head to head with themselves and dealing with an even bigger gorilla: Amazon.”

Amazon started on the democratic process, they took anyone. Once everyone was in the charges started, and sellers were weighted by how much money they made Amazon. “The more you make them the more prominent you are on the ‘people who bought this also bought’ position,” said Stovall, and not too unlike chains who offer the end cap, face out, top shelf position…when you pay for it.

• How does a new author enter the fray with even the slightest slice of equality with the rest of the field?

Stay tuned, stay employed, and keep writing. The next post deals with how to make money in publishing in this new environment.

First Friday is for Friends

Affinity to art and creative people is in my nature, so naturally, I was attracted to downtown Friday night and the effervescent First Friday Artwalk. The evening began at the Marketplace, the venue for the previously mentioned Mayoral campaign kick-off. The hub event, sponsored by Pacific Continental Bank, offered an array of finger foods and their beverages flowed freely. Veronica from the bank remembered me AND my name. Can you imagine I make an impression on people? Watch out world. And thank God there are still folks in it who believe part of customer service is connecting with something important, the customer’s name. I only mention that because it’s a sub-theme in the book, being a people person vs. a strictly numbers person. I get that yin-yang thing going whenever I can.

To make sure no one felt snubbed, I made the rounds clutching my plastic cup of Pinot Gris, checking in with all the celebrities who have previously met me. My performance was flawless except for that stumble when I called former mayor Bruce, ‘Dave.’ I was distracted glancing at the name tag of the president of the bank, and since he'd never met me, I introduced myself. Duly impressed by my friendly banter, he smiled, and I took license to chat with said president about how my daughter had met Bruce/Dave when she was investigating her own future, political career. As soon as they chuckled I was on my way. I am here to make people laugh first, promote myself second.

First Friday continued to jam to the creative vibe of indigenous artists and I moved eagerly from Evergreen Boulevard over to Main to haunt Angst Gallery and mix it up with the less connected non-old-boys-network. The un-suits, i.e., the casual bring-it-on-world spilled onto the street and became the welcoming committee for artist Christine Eagon.

At the front door I encountered fabric artist Eliza Lane (pictured left) and exchanged a quick hug. Woman (pictured right) I’d previously crossed paths with in Uptown Village. She had swirled a mural wall with fantasy images and a celebration ensued. Both artists continue to create their unique and exquisite work as a side job to the other parts of life.

Most of my correspondence with Eliza comes via Facebook and blogs. Cherry Bombastic makes me laugh out loud. Lord, laughing feels good. This up close and personal encounter in the real world was akin to walking out of the black and white movie of your life into the land of Oz.

Eliza and I met in grade school, our kids’ grade school. Her blond son had sufficient crush on my dark-haired daughter to create elementary curiosity, a need to check in with each other at regular intervals, a movie ‘date’ that Eliza chaperoned, and lots of proximity planning. If "The Magician" was going to be somewhere, Kai maneuvered her way there, too. He plans on becoming a chef, and I delighted at the opportunity to have someone in our sphere who could cook. At this point, though, Eliza and I have concluded what is of utmost interest in fourth grade loses luster in eighth. Both kids have other diversions at the moment.

Eliza happily announced her acceptance into the master’s program at Portland State University. I shouted “Oooo, Oooo, OOLIGAN!” at the news. Last year, Ooligan Press met me at the Willamette Writers conference and expressed interest in my first four chapters, since rewritten four thousand times, so that now they might be good, but I still have to smooth out that first chapter; damn this writing career. Although, nothing came of their inquiry—I neglected to enclose the obligatory SASE to receive their form rejection via post—I did not lost interest in their mission to publish local writers with a bent to highlighting the local area. I worked my way through some of their published books and am currently in love, and I mean deeply, down to the soul smitten, with writer Geronimo Tagatac. His use of language in his short story collection, The Weight of the Sun, actually made me swoon. For real.

The right words wielded in the right way can pierce you.

My next move is to determine how to cross paths with Tagatac so I can fly in his orbit and dig into his brain and see where those words come from. If anyone knows him, please pass on my passion to share a cup of coffee and a chat. I am totally harmless and can offer references to back that up.

At the door step of Angst Gallery, I was mid-stream divulging how I embarrassed myself in front of the chancellor of the local university during Congressman’s Mfume’s event (fodder for future celebrity post), only to discover, that the woman Eliza had been talking to when I ran up all exuberant to get that girl talk going, was related to said chancellor. Erin assured me her dad would have found my antics humorous. I gave her a sideways glance and tried to convince myself it was true.

Inside the gallery I gave Christine Eagon heartfelt greetings and congratulations on her successful show, checked in with gallery owner Leah. Leah met me in that same grade school, yes she is the mother of a BOY, my daughter is networked with half of them in the city. I invest a couple of hours on Saturdays to give Leah relief, banking on future ‘mom’ and ‘art’ credits, and to support a friend fierce about our community, our kids and the world they'll inherit. Before departing, I entered into a quick chat with a man, yeah, I still look, and hustled out to figure out next steps for my Friday evening.

This may not come as a surprise, but I am not shy, and whenever I observe someone who’s face is vaguely familiar I cannot rest until I put the pieces together. I struck up the song, “Where do I know you from?” with this young lady, Cara. We decided probably no-where, paths just crossed on previous gallery events. The Cara conversation led to introduction of this man, Christopher Luna, the poet and blogger.

Now, I would have bought his book when I first noticed it, my daughter is unusually oriented to poetry, but he uses a bad word and I am a mom with standards, however, that does not prevent me from finding people the most interesting thing on the planet.

Well, we were just all so utterly interesting and fascinating and jibbering like fully intelligent people, when all of a sudden Cara pulled out her microphone to record our nonsense for KOUG RADIO.

How does an unpublished author find such good fortune? Well, you work hard, you mix it up, and you get lucky, and you don’t forget to plug your blog for the podcast. I named 'pearlofcarol.blogspot.com' about three times, gathered up everyone’s business card and promised to bug them into infinity to become my fan on Facebook.

I am competively challenged, I MUST WIN. There is a New York Times best-selling author with 16 books to her name and only 195 Facebook fans. Currently, I have 77. Daily, I imagine the smug sensation when I best her.

Okay, and don’t get me started on my LinkedIN status. I finally threw myself into the fray and am clawing my way up to get over 546,800 network connections and beat KenB. Computer geeks have the most intensive networks. Oh, and by the way, thank you Dave, you shot me up 90,000 with your connection and I am grateful (film producers seem to have quite a following, too). And just in case you're wondering, pictures don’t lie, Cara was sufficiently impressed with my progress, she just had a rough time when I neglected to mention Koug Radio as a source when she asked where people should search for information about First Fridays.

My evening on the town ended in the park. Me and the transients snuggled on comfortable park benches. I dodged squirrels and leaves navigating towards laptop, and a couple of curious bugs to download event pictures to Facebook. I sat silent, basking in the glow of the beautiful city where I live and the great people who plan and promote creativity and looked sadly over to the building where I used to work… The $42 million structure stands empty, devoid of the necessary cash flow from our media business to pay the rent. We moved out end of year and continue to struggle in this volatile economy.

In that world, I am present, first, to lead a dedicated sales team fighting to make a dent in that debt, and second to leave them smiling when they’ve had a bad day, or at minimum to offer comfort, creative ideas on how to attack tomorrow, and shore up with praise, as I believe I work with the best individuals in the community.

We will make it through this year.

Top

When will we honor all our children?

A tradition of favoring boys over girls, and China’s strict family planning policies have turned the sale of stolen children into a thriving business. The New York Times reports this is happening in China’s Pearl River Delta. The infant boys, nabbed in major industrial towns, are sent to rural areas. Driven by fear: who will take care of me in my old age, driven by pride: without a son how can I hold my head up, the children frequently end up with farm families desperate for male heirs.

Advocates say it is difficult at best to calculate exactly how many children are stolen. The Chinese government reports 2500 cases, but that includes women and children. Child advocates estimate more than 100,000, State Department estimates are 10-20,000. Which is correct? One Chinese man compiled a list of 2000 names of parents with missing children all from one city.

An informal, illegal network runs the child trafficking. Poor farmers know who to contact, and they do, paying $3-4000 for a male child. Multiply that by the estimates.

Officials have to be aware this is going on, but you wouldn't know it because they acknowledge it. Their response is almost an encouragement, and if not that blatant, then turning a blind eye. A family, whose three-month-old son died, was advised by their family planning official, "Just buy another one."

Officials look the other way, close ranks, and very few at the place of abduction intervene. At the other end, where the children reappear, officials are fairly indifferent. They don't have resources to track down the perpetrators or to cross provinces. The victims are largely 'migrant' workers, those who come from other provinces, and are less of a concern in the large manufacturing towns where there are a million 'migrant' workers.

The kidnapping sites are busy, crowded places, where people don't necessarily know each other. At end of day, when tired, working parents are less vigilant and the children merely a few feet away, they are grabbed and hurled into a car. Gone. Forever.

When the parents contact the police, they are told wait 24 hours, but those are the crucial 24 hours. Often, when parents return the next day, they are told too much time has elapsed, not much we can do.

A family who purchased a child, complained when caught, they didn't know the child was stolen, the man who sold them the child said it was his own son, that he had more than one, his wife was ill and in hospital. They should have known, there were signs, child spoke a different dialect, didn't like their food, but they were desperate for a son, borrowed money from everyone in their village to complete the sale. The boy was there for about a year until police broke up the trafficking ring. The seller's confession sent the police to the village. This boy and three others from that village were sent back to their homes.

If the neighbors are doing it, why not join in?

Because it's wrong.

I've spoken many times of the goodness of a government that allows willing parents to legally adopt their country's children. They could hide their problems, let the little ones languish without love. I cannot fathom they allow their sons to be stolen. I am speechless. But not without thought. Today, I award the Shameful Award to those could help and do not help.

Top

“If I said it once, I said it 16 times!”

I carry around a mini-notebook where I capture class feedback and include advice from published authors. On one page is an Arizona newspaper clipping. Diana Gabaldon is quoted sharing her three rules: read everything, write, don’t stop. At the moment, I’m reading a New York Times Bestselling Author (not Gabaldon) with 16 published works and wondering if Gabaldon needs to add a fourth point, repeat yourself, a lot. In my author-of-the-moment focus I’ve identified this collection of similarities in the first two books I've read:

• Female protagonist pep-talks self out loud, saying things like ‘get yourself together


• Female characters have sickly stomachs and tend to throw up a lot


• Comes from a wealthy, influential family, with a domineering father


• Lives in a small town near a large city, and drives a jeep


• Siblings are more attractive


• One sibling is developmentally delayed, or socially-underdeveloped


• A character works for a newspaper


• A man sires a child with someone other than his wife, child is hidden


• Female characters ride horses bareback -- ever tried it? Give me a saddle, geez


• Characters hook their thumbs at their chests and hitch their chins


• Young male characters talk basely about women, driven by baser instincts, i.e., they think about sex a lot and its not pretty, nor is it love


• Female protagonist makes bad choices in men, then suddenly makes a good one?! [Has anyone connected with something has to happen to change her/him, maybe soul searching with a friend, counseling?]


• And those good men they finally pick were: social outcast, pined over girl for years, and as youths had a trouble with the law


• Someone has a girl who is their sex slave, willing to do anything to keep her man, which doesn’t seem to work out so well for her, and ultimately is not appreciated by him


• Someone practices a sexual deviancy: brother to sister, husband caught with 15-yr-old…


• Someone has gold eyes (I guess that’s better than the oft repeated green-eyed, red-haired girl), but gold eyes? While extremely intriguing in the first book, feels like cheating in the second


• Both books take place in Oregon -- okay, that’s not fair, I just threw it in to make my list longer. Writers write about the area they know, or like me, they add one they don’t know and say, “This will give me an excuse to travel to…”


• Someone dies -- okay, now I’m just completely off the deep end, they’re romance mysteries, for heavens sake


• Alright already, the author has given the female protagonists different personalities, but still…

In the first book I read, I wanted to do the class thing on the author, mail her a minus sign, draw her attention to a particular portion of the book and explain she had not properly laid the groundwork for a twist one of her characters seized. Then I realized, I could only comprehend that misstep because I’d made the same mistake myself, and our class had caught me and hauled me up on ‘reader abuse charges.’ I’d felt the stab of their feedback, but in order to obtained desired future readers more than preserving a fragile self-image, I did a revision, found very, very simple ways to interweave missing links, and lay hints. Occasionally, I’ll remark to the group, oh that’s something you’ll catch when you read it a second time. How arrogant am I? Well, egotistical enough to keep writing.

And if it’s as easy as repetition, then my books will always have these five key points:

• A woman who hates cooking


• A man who doesn’t understand she hates cooking


• A struggle as she competes in his world


• His surprise at how successful , (smart, talented, creative--fill in the blank) she is


• His discovery: only by giving her what she wants will he obtain the life he wants

I am beginning to conceive that getting published is because you’re really, really good, (and how many of us attain that category first book out), or you’re really, really lucky, and how many…well, to sum it up, luck or talent wins. I’d like to find a third item to round out my list, maybe persistence. Would make me feel more professional with a minimum three bullet point list, and slightly closer to Galbaldon.