Study (the world/the craft) Archives » Page 8 of 12

Social media is a natural fit for authors. Tip your readers!

January 15, 2011

When I’m not authoring mind explosions, I spend part of my time professionally involved with social media. One of the items my company stresses with our clients is that social media is not about pushing a message of product, product, product. It’s about engaging with customers and potential customers on a personal level. This means breaking the traditional advertising bullhorn approach of “BUY THIS NOW” with quips about the weather or TV shows, for example (though perhaps still tangentially related to the company’s product line). For most companies, dialog sans advertising is a foreign concept. For authors, this should be easy. Authors are their books Authors are inextricably linked to their products in a way that traditional companies are not. Denis Dutton in The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, & Human Evolution explores the idea that fiction always concerns and navigates three persons, one of whom is the author. “There is…

Literary critics aren’t dying, but they are threatening suicide…again.

January 1, 2011

The December 31st, 2010 episode of the New York Times Review of Books podcast focused on a conversation on the relevance of professional literary criticism, especially in respects to the ‘everyone does it’ mentality associated with Amazon book reviews, Facebook statuses, and amateur lit crit blogs. Though the entire conversation was extremely interesting, the following point was especially intriguing. Said Katie Roiphe, a professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, about the current position of a critic in relation to what so many people want to call today’s death of literature (slightly paraphrased; dates are my insertions): It is tempting to say that we live in this dangerous death of literature, but the critic has always said that. If you go back to Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), if you go back to Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982), Randall Jarrell (1914-1965) and their generation. There is something romantic for…

Kansas City Reading Coves – Outlaw Cigar (south)

December 17, 2010

I bring you #5 of a hopefully long-lived series: Kansas City Reading Coves. When I can, I like my coves like my vaginas: humid and labyrinthine. Today’s cove: Outlaw Cigar (south) - 13700 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS 66223 I've avoided this place for two reasons: 1) it's a 30 minute or so drive from my house, and 2) the cigars are crazy expensive. The only time I came in here prior to today's visit was a few months ago. That visit allowed me to not only witness the aforementioned crazy expensive cigars first hand, but also to glimpse the cigar lounge. From my vantage near the cash register I saw only a few leather couches and a TV mounted to the wall. Nice enough, but not nice enough to pay more than twice the standard going rate for a cigar. I left, planning never to return. Then today, I had…

The real reason authors get paid nil: content saturation.

November 22, 2010

Another Roxane Gay® observation gets the Caleb jumping-on-board treatment. In her post over at HTML Giant, Gay talks about the James Frey writing factory, and how its existence speaks to the strange desperation of writers (particularly MFA-pursuing writers) to be published, even when facing little to no financial or celebrity gain. The following line caught me, and while powerful in its own right, my mis-reading is what really got me thinking. Brackets: MINE ( I had to insert something of myself into this statement as a meta-nod to the topic) “The desire to be published, for some [reason], is so desperate and so intense they will do whatever it takes.” Why? Answer: We are trained to be ego maniacs. The loudest, most boastful vainglorious attitude gets applauded while humility gets ignored. This is not surprising, as the very act of braggadocia is a stimuli. It doesn't matter that silence (which…

The Velvet Podcast, Episode 009: Does This Novel Make Me Look Fat?

November 18, 2010

Episode #009 of The Velvet Podcast is now live! Authors Gordon Highland (Major Inversions), Brandon Tietz (Out of Touch), and Caleb J Ross (Stranger Will) have a spirited conversation about self- and vanity-publishing, debating its legitimacy, logistics, and financial aspects, as well as insights from their own experiences in this oft-scorned segment of the industry. Please, give it a listen. Subscribe via Feedburner, Podcast Alley, or iTunes.

The Velvet Podcast, Episode 008: Don’t Pull My Hair Unless You Mean It

September 25, 2010

Episode #008 of The Velvet Podcast is now live! You don't have my handsome voice to fluff your ear chubs this time, but I promise you won't be disappointed by the talent here. Featuring three brand new voices to The Velvet Podcast. Make them feel welcome. Writers Richard Thomas (Transubstantiate), Nik Korpon (Stay God), Pela Via and Nic Young grind out the topic of sex and violence in fiction and their complex relationship to sadistic bedfellows, love and shock.. Please, give it a listen. Subscribe via Feedburner, Podcast Alley, or iTunes.

Meta-fiction for babies.

September 19, 2010

Or is it meta-non-fiction? Is all non-fiction meta? Are there any examples of non-meta-non-fiction? If we were introduced to an author who wrote a historical account of Indian bread and Greek cheese that constantly pulled from the text to state bluntly, "I am no expert. This history is just my opinion," would we have met a non-meta-feta-naan-non-fiction author? Okay, that last one was dumb.