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In thinking over this literary journal idea (which, by the way, has taken the latest form: a sort of best-of-retrotech collection, where YOU write/photograph a page or two, 8x11, with your typewriter/fountain pen/vintage camera, on the subject of retrotech. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, whatever, which we will then collect and figure out a respectable way to bind. This is a call for you to begin your submission, by the way. This is quite an aside, isn't it?), I've been rummaging around in the world of independent presses. And I've discovered something.
For years, I've had trouble really being compelled by much that I've seen in the fiction section of local bookstores (but that aside, run, don't walk, to your nearest independent bookstore, as they are disappearing as we speak). A lot of it seems kind of Oprah-y or conventional or just dull somehow. I can't put a finger on it. The thing is, I like really contemporary stuff. Stuff written about now. Stuff written about cities. Stuff that is kind of weird and energetic, written by new authors. Just a personal preference. Well, as it happens, independent presses publish whole messes of this stuff. (Slaps self on head.)
So, I am going to start poking around in the independent press world for books to buy, starting with Featherproof books. Why? Well, they're doing some interesting things with digital publishing, like free printable mini-books, to interest you in their longer works. Now, I like this. It's innovative, which is exactly what publishers are going to need to be to make it. I am printing one of these suckers out, and then I'm going to buy a book.
Oh, wait. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Yes, it was my morning paper, and it died yesterday. The last paper arrived in the driveway yesterday morning with a sad note from the publisher affixed, and I realized my lifetime habit of reading a paper in the morning was now officially being retired against my will. I will profoundly miss criticizing the comics page each day (thank god for the Comics Curmudgeon, who has to be one of the funniest writers ever), and have to say that unsurprisingly, the whole thing just really sends me into a sulk, this careless massacre of our lifetime offline reading habits. Ugh. Ugh, I say! Which is why a print retrotech edition is all the more justified in these screen-based times. So, get cracking on your submission.
Banning the Big Black Box
5 hours ago
11 comments:
Thanks for linking to our list of indie book publishers at NewPages.com. Hope you'll drop us a note if you find we are missing some good presses. We are looking for book reviews if you or any of your readers might be interested.
I thought I would mourn the passing of print newspapers. I remember getting both a morning and evening paper at one point. But our local paper has declined greatly in quality and content, so I stopped subscribing two years ago. If it should stop printing, I may not even notice.
I'll have my flash ready by the weekend, boss. -M
I like sitting at the kitchen table and reading the funnies or doing the puzzles on Sunday morning as much as anybody, but I think the PI might be ahead of the curve here.
For the most part, newspapers are ephemeral. They aren't meant to be permanent or collected like books. I think as soon as we saw the Web take off it should have been obvious that ephemeral print media had a limited life span.
The Web is a natural place for such publications to exist. Do you read every single section of the paper? I don't know anybody who does. Web-based news makes it easy to get only the information that you're interested in, without excess material piling up in the recycle bin all week.
I think where online "newspapers" have screwed up is in offering their content for free while asking consumers to continue to pay for the print version. They need to continue the subscription model online and focus on in-depth local news; let CNN and the BBC provide national and international news.
I've got pages more I could say on this, but you get the idea.
I actually cried a bit for the P-I when I read the news, and it wasn't even my local paper. Olivander may be right, but I'm having a tough time accepting it. I firmly believe there is a tactile aspect to the written word that is crucial— I cannot stand reading long passages online, and this trend towards putting everything on the web is faintly disturbing. But I can ignore it as long as they're still printing books...
On a more positive note, love your idea for the literary journal, will see what I can do about a submission. The typers have lain idle too long anyway.
Apparently none of these individual newspapers is "too big to fail", huh? You'd think a bailout would be in order, all things considered.
I've not been a newspaper reader for years. If the Columbus Dispatch follows the PI, I'll definitely not notice.
But thumbs-up on the small presses. Especially small, regional publishers. I like my fiction homegrown.
I'll put together a little something - how do you want these submissions sent? If online, at what resolution?
Our Arkansas Democrat Gazette (which is fiercely Republican) has chopped staff by 40% and asked the rest of the employees to take two unpaid days off per month. My city paper, the Log Cabin Democrat (also fiercely Republican) is cutting staff as well.
I look at all our Journalism majors graduating in May and wonder which McDonalds they'll apply to.
Monda, I wonder how many of your Journalism graduates will go on to join or found journalistic blogs. I don't buy the argument that individual bloggers are "journalists" (they lack objectivity and editorial oversight), but there are a handful of legitimate reporting blogs out there. There's a future for that medium if they play their cards right.
In an unusual twist, my creative writing students stand a better chance online than the journalism students do across campus. The CW students are being snatched up right and left to create online content, while it seems the online news folk are stretching their old reporters online and hiring no new faces.
When the online papers want someone to cover food, books, entertainment, etc., they choose creative writers. It's a shift.
NewPages, will do. My goal is to read more new books and authors this year, and if I attain my goal, I'll see if I can write some reviews.
Seems like the consensus is somewhat of a "meh" regarding the demise of newspapers. I guess most people's local papers have degraded to a point where there is no sense in mourning a dead horse. (Mixed metaphor, anyone?)
Olivander, au contraire, there is a whole mess of individuals and organizations who collect, catalog, and resell papers, which I think is... strange. To your other point, as someone who creates content for a living, I too am puzzled by the "everything for free" mentality of web content, applications, and services. I use any number of applications on the web today that I would readily pay for, if given no alternative.
Kanaia, some article I was reading recently said, regarding the demise of newspapers, "well, I guess I will be burning my corneas out looking at a screen an hour earlier each day," which I think sums it up. I like to think of that time in the morning as a respite from backlighting and battery life in conjunction with consuming information, but it looks like that time is coming to a close.
Monda, I am thinking that the submissions should be mailed, and then all scanned by whoever is putting the journal together. Is that insane? Too much work for the recipient? Perhaps the envelopes in which they are mailed could be part of the project in some way, at least a few of them? At this point, I have few people committed to participating, so the future of the project looks uncertain. I still have hopes that it will come together nonetheless. Duffy Moon, are you in?
And, who would ever have thought creative writing majors would have new career options? It my company, there is a move away from dry technical content toward social media marketing and blogging with an "authentic voice" and other flavors of corporate creativity. Indeed it is a shift across the board.
Ebooks and ipad seem to be taking over. Our local paper has declined greatly in quality and content, so I stopped subscribing two years ago. If it should stop printing, I may not even notice.
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