Adam Lowe - Author of Troglodyte Rose

Dogcast 3 - Health Warning

2012-02-10T05:07:00.000-08:00

Dogcast 3 is now available.

The Dogcast is a weekly podcast of poetry, spoken word with added atmosphere. This half hour Dogcast will astound and paralyse your reasoning capabilities. Prolonged exposure can result in bouts of anxiety and nausea. Hosted by the emaciated dwarf: Dave Migman. Featuring Wendy Muzlanova, Chris Kelso and Mark Todd.

Manuscript Assessment Now Available

2012-02-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

It's time I updated my Services page on here.

I am now offering individual manuscript assessments, which will be handled either directly by me, one of my colleagues at Dog Horn Publishing or one of a pool of freelance editors and experts. I can discuss which assessor might be best for your work in the circumstances and provide CVs on request.

The genres the assessors cover between us include fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, literary, YA, experimental), poetry, scripts (radio, stage, screen and comics or graphic novels), and non-fiction (including reference and academic).

What is a manuscript assessment?

A manuscript assessment is different to editing work. In brief, it is an overview of a manuscript's strengths and weakenesses by a professional within the industry. Our assessors include editors, publishers, agents, scriptwriters and traditionally published authors. Some of them are Dog Horn Publishing staff, while others are colleagues in the industry who work on a freelance basis (if you would like to be added to our pool of assessors, please email me).

The overview will be tailored to your needs, as agreed in an initial consultation, and will consider overall structure, characterisation, dialogue and pacing. We also consider whether the manuscript is of a publishable standard, which markets might be most receptive to your manuscript, and any marketing concerns.

We will only offer an assessment if we feel it is appropriate. If we do not feel it is appropriate, we will refer you elsewhere or suggest other options, but you will not be charged. We will only offer assessments on manuscripts that are finished or show some likelihood of being finished, and where we feel our assessment will help.

Prose	Prices (vat inc.)
Up to 50 double-spaced pages (opening extract)	£150
Up to 100 double-spaced pages (opening extract)	£250
Full manuscripts of 101-205 double-spaced pages	£350
Manuscripts longer than 205 pages @ £1.75 per double-spaced page for the first 300 pages and £1.20 per page thereafter.	£1.75/page+ £1.20/page

Short Stories	Prices (vat inc.)
Up to 3000 words	£50
Each additional 2000 words (over 3000)	£20

Please note: Stories are charged individually

Poetry	Prices (vat inc.)
Up to 300 lines	£50
Each additional 100 lines (over 300 lines)	£20

Please email me in the first instance.

For full editing services and/or mentoring, please query.

Am I Out of My Mind?

2012-01-31T09:09:00.000-08:00

I've just been thinking about what it is I do from day-to-day, week-on-week.

I work two days a week at Peepal Tree Press, doing their marketing and promotion.

Depending on how much stamina I have, and how much work I have to do, I typically spend the remaining three to five days a week doing Dog Horn Publishing-related activities. But this is a wide umbrella term.

For example, at the moment, I'm lead poet at the Speak Up Festival at the Grammar School at Leeds. That might take up a day a week for a while. Then I have to edit people's books (although I do get a bit of help from Lexi, Vicky, Chris, Deb and Tom), typeset them, design the covers, update the bibliographic data, submit the advance information sheets, process the orders, do the accounts, update the website (with help and the majority of design done by Miki) and pay the bills.

In the meantime I do my own writing, which includes poetry and prose, and occasionally take on other projects to further my own writing career.

All in all, I'm doing this and trying to have a life. Sometimes it leaves me bloody knackered.

But I do love it. And I guess that's the deciding factor.

Christian Campbell Delivers Prestigious Walcott Lecture

2012-01-30T07:54:00.000-08:00

Though a small island in the Caribbean with a population of a mere 174,000, St. Lucia has more Nobel Laureates (two) per capita than any other country in the rest of the world. The nation, rightfully proud of this fact, celebrates Nobel Laureate Week once a week.

Following in the footsteps of respected figures such as the late Rex Nettleford and Nobel Laureate Wole Solyinka, Christian Campbell delivered this year’s Derek Walcott Lecture on 24th January. Campbell is both a Peepal Tree poet (a matter all of us in the office are very proud of!) and an English professor at the University of Toronto.

“This is really an amazing opportunity for me,” said Campbell.

The late Arthur Lewis was the island's first Nobel Laureate, receiving the award in economics in 1979. Literary heavyweight Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel Laureate in Literature later in 1992. Strangely enough, both Laureates were born on the same day: 23rd January.

“Since their living Nobel Laureate is a poet, there is serious respect for poetry in that country,” said Campbell, who himself has serious respect and admiration for Walcott.

Walcott, who turns 82 this year, has previously donated many of his papers to the University of Toronto.

Campbell first visited St. Lucia while a student of Oxford University, here in the UK, seeking to interview the acclaimed Caribbean poet, whom he considers an inspiration.

Campbell's speech, titled Caribbean Poetry and Freedom, was “about commemoration as a critical project: it’s an occasion to reflect, re-examine and revisit certain kinds of ideas and events that make the present possible.”

“I owe so much to his courage, devotion and generosity, as so many of the poets in the world do.”

Campbell, who admits poetry doesn't have a high profile in Canada, also cheered St. Lucia for providing “an opportunity to celebrate the significance of poetry and the way it is life-giving.”

He said, “Think about all the things it teaches us that we may take for granted.”

Christian Campbell won the 2010 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was shortlisted for the 2010 Forward Prize for his debut collection, Running the Dusk.

30% Off Any Dog Horn Publishing Title

2012-01-27T07:37:00.001-08:00

Dog Horn Publishing - Dave Migman MCs Our First Ever Dogcast

2012-01-27T02:46:00.000-08:00

Dave Migman presents the first ever Dogcast at Dogcast Central.

I thought it was time to venture into audio and develop Dog Horn's digital output. So I had a very quick chat with our wonderful author and collaborator, Dave Migman, which resulted in this dark wonder of spoken word mayhem. Listen to it and let me know what you think. Dave is open to submissions from today.

Montague: Loretta Collins and the Caribbean as a Sentiment

2012-01-26T03:39:00.000-08:00

Montague Kobbe: Loretta Collins and the Caribbean as a Sentiment is a review of one of the standout poetry collections of last year. I loved The Twelve Foot Neon Woman. This is a keen writer and a sparkling collection. Read Montague's review for more information.

Moxyland by Lauren Beukes

2012-01-21T05:23:00.000-08:00

I'm returning to this review with a bit of distance. Sometimes it's necessary to let a book settle in your mind before you make an accurate judgement. With this distance, I have tweaked my original review, and increased the book's star-rating as a result.

Moxyland is Neuromancer for the social networking generation. At its heart it is a dystopian techno-thriller that borrows many of the tropes of cyberpunk: a megacorporation/government that practices corporate apartheid; Frankenstein-esque flesh-machine monsters; shifting online personalities; GM art; and a drug-like attitude to branding. What Beukes does well is update the cyberpunk myth to the Facebook generation, so that Kendra is a cyborg by dint of being a walking advertisement for a soft drink, riddled with nanotech like the blurbflies of Jeff Noon's fiction.

Similarly, Lareto is a quasi-terrorist hacker and bored middle-class dilettante who is willing to shatter the system that cradles her just for a bit of perverse fun, and compares well with Toby, the lazy casual criminal, who snorts anything he can get hold of, entertains himself with anarchy and revolution, yet is perfectly happy to live off mum.

My only real problem with this book was the ending, which I'll come to shortly, because it was the thing that stuck with me for a long time after reading it.

Beukes' world is wonderfully rendered, although some of the details of her future world don't quite ring true. I'm not convinced by apartments that constantly rotate (imagine the nausea!), although the megacorps, who prove willing to entertain terrorism and mass-infection of the populace so the government will increase Big Brother-style laws, are an acceptable trope of the cyberpunk genre, and so the suspension of disbelief is easier.

Beukes shifts between perspectives, which I always like, but sometimes her voices use a few too many similar turns of phrase which, although perhaps attributable to a local vernacular, weakens their individuality somewhat. Perhaps a South African resident in the city would notice more subtlety than I did; I confess to ignorance on South African dialectic patterns. I was also, on my initial reading, frequently irritated by the characters' often too predictable behaviour. I'm still undecided whether they're not fleshed out enough or just unlikeable characters. But with time, I have come to enjoy spending time with them in a way I hadn't during my first read-through.

Despite all this, I wanted to give this book a four or five, until I got to the last third of the book. This is where Beukes bugged me for the best part of six months. Throughout the book there is a strong thread of humour (mostly of the dark variety), but as the narrative begins to tie up, it becomes unrelentingly oppressive without enough light to really allow the reader to enjoy the story. There really is no hope and no future for these characters. Too many of them become pointless corporate casualties, which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Beukes' pessimism overwhelms, in my opinion, and the society she has created is weakened by the ultimate revelation that actually the megacorporations are as evil and faceless and ruthless as they are in every 80s science fiction film. There really is nothing these hard-nosed corporate bastards will do for a quick buck, and for me, this sentiment is just too simplistic. There really can be no room for nuance in her denouement.

It's this bleak summation of humanity that remains with the reader, not the hipster references and electric prose, and this makes Moxyland one of the most promising and yet, to this reviewer at least, most disappointing books I've read this year. And yet, at the same time, I have to confess this debut reveals an inordinate amount of talent and its characters and plot stayed with me for a very long time afterwards. At the rate I read, few books have such a long-lasting impact, which is praise in itself.

As I've mentioned above, this reminds me of Jeff Noon's Vurt, with its wry knowledge of science fiction and media savvy, but I felt that book had a more ambiguous ending, which was both more moving and more realistic. That said, Moxyland would be much easier to imagine as a film (and I hear her sophomore novel, Zoo City, has already been slated for a possible film release).

I have higher hopes for her next novel, which seems much cleverer, and presents compelling characters with dubious morals, even from the start. But regardless, I have no doubt that Beukes will be one of this generation's top speculative writers. I'm really looking forward to more of her work.

Rating: 3.5/5

PS Roadshow Coming to a Waterstones Near You?

2012-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

From Pete Crowther himself:

The latest incarnation of the PS Roadshow (our answer to Ken Kesey’s psychedelic bus of Merry Pranksters) is currently being organized to touch down early next year on the English north west coast:

Friday 27 January (6 to 8 pm) at Waterstones in Liverpool
Saturday 28 January (6 to 8 pm) at Waterstones in Lancaster

The expected itinerary will most likely be thus:

6pm Introduction
6.05pm Paul Kane introduction and reading
6.30pm Pete Crowther introduction and reading
6.55pm Ramsey Campbell introduction and reading
7.20pm Discussion panel and Q&A
7.40pm Signing session

Be there or be square.

Are There Any Black & Asian UK Women Writers Out There?

2012-01-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

If so, prepare yourselves for the first UK prize dedicated only to you: SI Leeds Literary Prize!

This is the first year of the prize and already it's set to make waves with the excellent talent on the judging panel and who have given patronage. The prize was set up SI Leeds (Soroptimists International's Leeds branch), with support from Peepal Tree Press and Ilkley Literature Festival.

Patrons include:
Bonnie Greer
Bidisha
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

With esteemed judges:
Margaret Busby, OBE (Chair)
Gail Bolland, SI Leeds
Hannah Bannister, Peepal Tree Press

Join the fan page for regular news and updates, as well as special inspirations to help you on your writing journey.

The entry fee for each manuscript submitted is £15.00, which I think, in this case, is more than justified by the prize. I have blogged in the past about whether and/or what it's worth paying to enter writing competitions, and my advice has always been to weigh up the chances of success and the prize being offered against the cost. £15 is equal to or less than the cost of entry for many of the pamphlet competitions out there. But unlike those pamphlet competitions, what's up for grabs here is a contract for a full length short story collection or novel. There's also invaluable career development from Inscribe (an imprint of Peepal Tree Press) and a slot at a major literature festival. Considering the niche appeal, also, of the prize (black and Asian women writers in the UK), you'll stand a better chance, and your work will be read by judges who understand what black and Asian women are currently writing about (which may or may not be the same as what women in general are writing about).

I will admit my bias upfront: I do work freelance at Peepal Tree Press, and I am a member of their Young Inscribe programme. But that's because I genuinely believe in what they do and have a lot of affection for the organisation (as do many other black and Asian writers across the world). So I definitely endorse this competition, and have even encouraged my own family members to enter too.

Entries must arrive by Friday 1st June 2012. Late entries will not be eligible.

Find out if you (or a friend) is eligible here.

Or for more information visit the prize website here.

Literary Events in the Capital This Week

2012-01-18T07:07:00.001-08:00

When I see the number of literary events in London, I always get envious! Manchester is good, but way behind, unfortunately.

Check out the Londonist's list of great bookish events here.

Cherry

2012-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

I take you down to the cherry trees,
to smear your mouth like a wound,
and kiss you. Because it is forbidden,
we divest ourselves of accoutrements,
paint each other naked in the grass.
You take the fruit I give you, welcoming
the sin knowledge brings, and you know me
there in the shade of the trees, wordless.

January Sale: Buy One, Get One Half Price

2012-01-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

Buy one Dog Horn Publishing book and get another half price!

Valid until 23:59 on 15th January, for up to £50 off any order here.

Enter discount code: SECONDHALFUK305

Details of all our titles in print can be found here. Check out our titles and click on the links to Lulu.com underneath the price, to be taken straight to our retail partners, where you can claim your discount today.

New Acceptances!

2012-01-05T04:03:00.000-08:00

Spending as much time as I do publishing, editing and workshopping, it means I often spend a lot more time on other people's writing than my own. About four times a year, I think, 'Why've I not had more stuff published this year?' Then I remember that I've not actually been submitting. I do contribute quite a bit to magazines and newspapers, but it's all non-fiction and journalism. My creative side yearns instead for poetry and prose publications.

But at the end of last year I did manage to finally send some submissions out (to Cake and Cadaverine Magazine). Thankfully, both magazines have now been in touch, and will be publishing a selection of my poems. I actually set myself a challenge of sending something risky to Cadaverine, after a chat with their editor about how 'safe' modern poetry can be. Luckily my gambit paid off. Hurrah!

I will post more information (and links) as and when it becomes available.

Think You've Had it Bad? Famous Rejection Letters

2011-12-31T09:25:00.000-08:00

Flavourpill was nice enough to post some of the harshest rejection letters to ever be mailed to writers.

If you think you've had it bad, my writerlings, check these out!

Writer Beware: Vanity Competitions?

2011-12-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

So we've seen vanity publishing and even vanity agenting. But various disreputable competitions have served similar functions throughout the years. I ignore most of them, and hope others do too, but it's the ostensibly legitimate outfits (that profess to offer writers much-needed and very valuable support) that sometimes cause the greatest concern, as they slip in surreptitious advertising for what amounts to vanity publishing services.

Here in the UK, at least, it's common for writing competitions to carry an entrance fee. This usually covers costs associated with administering a prize, and usually doesn't net the organisation any profit. I have, however, gone into some detail about the pros and cons of competitions, and whether they're worth the entrance fee (£20 for a £100 prize might not be worth it, for example).

Many of these competitions are aimed at unearthing new writing talent. This is an admirable aim and usually one that isn't very lucrative for competition organisers. Undiscovered writers, you can assume, haven't earned enough money from their writing to make it a livelihood, and therefore can't offer much in the way of patronage to such prizes.

But it is with some consternation that I received an email today, from a competition aimed at seeking out new talent, promoting vanity publishing services. Brit Writers, who offer writing critiques to new writers and have promised in the past to refer worthwhile manuscripts to agents, perhaps naively sent an email headlined 'Publish Your Work on Today Kindle!' I naturally assumed this was just going to demystify the self-publishing process through Kindle Direct Publishing.

On closer inspection there were two things wrong with this email. Firstly, Brit Writers recommend a vanity publisher who charges £99 for ebook publication. Secondly, it clearly states this process will take seven days so (I know, I'm nitpicking) it won't be published 'today' at all.

Here New Age Publishers reveals what the £99 covers. It's not very much, and indeed it's nothing you can't manage on your own with MS Word.

You have to pay extra for a book cover and only simple .docs are converted. Since all you need to publish a manuscript (provided it doesn't include things like bulletpoints or references) via KDP is a Word .doc and a book cover, it's hard to justify promoting a vanity publisher to inexperienced writers who might not know any better, when they're being charged precisely for the work they can do for free themselves.

Wouldn't it make more sense to recommend some top-notch ebook cover designers, or some typesetters who can convert the more complicated manuscripts for you so you don't have to laboriously check it for mistakes and formatting glitches?

Brit Writers otherwise looked like they might be a legitimate organisation. But this email caused me to dig a little deeper and reconsider a couple of other things I had seen before but ignored.

It's worth noting that Brit Writers offer promotional packages for authors. I'm not sure how useful those packages are, with promotion offered primarily on their website and through unspecified 'extensive networks'. There are websites out there that offer this for free, albeit with much larger numbers of writers to compete against, but there's little evidence that many publishers or agents have the time (or inclination) to scour these places for talent (regardless of whether they only promote ten writers or whether they promote 10,000). Indeed, many of them are also thinly-veiled excuses to promote self-publishing 'services' and vanity publishing packages to writers.

Publishers and agents get sent heaps of manuscripts every day. For the most part, they're not going to increase their workload by doing internet searches or looking at websites like Brit Writers. The very fact those writers have to pay for the privilege of being promoted suggests, to me at least, that I'd do well to steer clear of the website and those writers. When I see writers ripped off like that, it doesn't inspire me to read their work. It depresses me that they could be taken in.

You'd be better off paying a decent editor to polish your work and then researching your markets to ensure you send it to the right places, rather than paying for online advertising in a sea of voices looking for publication.

Because of their connection to New Age Publishers, I'm inclined to be sceptical for the time being, and issue a warning to writers to beware!

The Publishing Year

2011-12-29T07:14:00.000-08:00

Over at The Guardian, editors discuss which books they think should've received greater attention this year and which books they wished they'd published.

Which books do you think should have done better and why?

Five Tips for Author Marketing

2011-12-28T06:46:00.000-08:00

I'm in the business of marketing books. My own, those I publish, those of my friends and colleagues. So occasionally I stumble upon articles giving a new perspective on the practice. Of course, what works for some doesn't work for others, and I'm loath to say there are any 'guaranteed' methods of marketing anything, but this post at The New Media Melee offers some useful thoughts you might want to consider in your next book marketing campaign. The five 'indisputable truths' offered are:

Readers Are Creatures of Their Own Desires
Readers Are Not All Alike
Just Because You Build It Doesn’t Mean That They Will Come
Quality Will Always Count
All Marketing Is Good Marketing

While I believe nothing is indisputable (especially in marketing), I think these are important things to bear in mind. Check out the full article for more details.

The Select Rush, Part 2

2011-12-27T04:17:00.000-08:00

Continuing the discussion over the Kindle Select programme, today I thought I'd focus on a few more important issues that have been raised across the web. It seems some authors and readers are decrying the limitations Kindle Select places on consumer choice. As you may remember from my first post, books enrolled in the programme must give Amazon 90-days' exclusivity. As I've also discovered, this exclusivity rolls over for another 90 days if the author or publisher doesn't do anything.

In theory, then, many books could become exclusive to Amazon by default, meaning owners of other ereaders may miss out. Authors and small presses might be seen to prioritise profit over readers by preferring one format over another in this way. Kait Nolan, a writer and reader, is mad about the exclusivity, too, as a Nook user. Pissing off her authors is not something she wants to do.

Smashwords' Mark Coker weighs in with a good argument about Amazon's predatory tactics here. In his eyes, a war had been declared. He likens the tactic to tenant farming and the abuses that arose from that (namely, the Irish potato famine). He also brings up the agency model for ebook pricing, which Smashwords supports, but which might be undermined if Amazon's monopoly were allowed to grow. In a nutshell: the agency model allows authors and presses to set retail prices, not retailers, and therefore there can be no discounts of your book without your say-so. Furthermore, publishers (or self-published authors) also get a 70% cut of the retail price. Which makes sense to me. Control over pricing remains in the hands of creators, rather than retailers and wholesalers.

Epublishabook.com also points out:

Currently, the monthly fund is $500 000 that is to be divided between the 47 000 books included in KDP Select program so far. This means that in the unlikely case where all books have the same number of downloads, whether it is one or 10 thousands, each book would earn $500 000/47 000 = $10.64 for that month through FDP Select program.

Do you really want to limit your income stream just to Amazon for the sake of $10.64 a month? Is it worth pissing off all those readers who own Nooks, Kobos and other ereaders?

Of course, there is more at The Passive Voice (which seems to be frequented by plenty of knowledgeable Kindle self-publishers) here. Individual self-publishers discuss the pros and cons, highlighting such issues as the narrowing of exposure for writers who give Amazon 90-days' exclusivity and the per-rental price paid to authors and publishers. As David Gaughran points out:

The pot is simply too small and the numbers of titles participating will be too large for it to work out at anything other than a *tiny* per download fee.

I have huge objections to the way this is set up. A limited pot is crazy. There should be a minimum per download fee that is fair and equitable. This opacity suits nobody except for Amazon – whose outlay is capped. They are risking little and asking us to risk everything for a limited pot. It’s completely one-sided.

He also says:

I think calling it a “lending library” is doublespeak too. Amazon wants us to make the analogy with a normal library – as authors have no objections to having their books there, and have positive associations with them as they are not considered to cannibalize sales and in fact can increase them through word of mouth etc. The real analogy here is with a DVD rental service. DVD rentals cannibalize DVD sales.

He goes into more detail at his blog here. In particular, he argues that we should consider now how we want to be paid tomorrow. It's not just a quick buck that's at stake here: it's the future of author compensation for ebook subscription models. By signing up to Kindle Select, writers are saying we're only worth a slice of that $500,000 per month, which might see writers paid only a few pennies per rental for the rest of their lives. Is this really something we should be agreeing to so readily and with so little thought? Should we really be rushing like lambs to the kebab shop?

My advice: your book is worth more than that. Don't play by Amazon's rules, don't settle for less, because in the future they might be dictating their terms to you rather than inviting you to participate.

Huge Savings on Dog Horn Publishing Books Today Only!

2011-12-26T04:40:00.001-08:00

30% off all Dog Horn books/ebooks TODAY ONLY at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/doghorn. Voucher code BOXINGDAYUK305.
More information about our books can be found here.

Literary Translations . . . This Made Me Laugh!

2011-12-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

Check out this article at McSweeney's, where a simple sentence is translated through the conventions of different genres, with hilarious results!

I'll provide a free book of your choice from this list to the person who posts the best translation of their own before midnight on New Year's Eve. Best of luck!

19 Most Popular Writing Articles of the Year

2011-12-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

Writer's Digest lists the top 19 writing articles of the year here. Take a quick peruse and see if there's anything of use.

Maybe there will be something to spark your creativity or nail that problem you've been having with your latest work-in-progress.

The Adam Lowe Daily - Out Now

2011-12-21T05:18:00.001-08:00

Why We Said Yes: The Golden Ticket to Publication, Part 2 (Guest Post by Victoria Hooper)

2011-12-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

People often ask what we look for in a good submission. Here we look at the selection process for Polluto to shed a little light on how we work and what we're looking for.

This article was written by Victoria Hooper when she was selecting for Polluto, Issue 6: Identity Theft and the Octopus Kid. Vicky wrote:

This was my favourite theme so far and a really great one for authors to get creative with. We had such a wonderful variety of exciting, moving, thoughtful and hilarious submissions. I've picked two of the more unusual stories, both of which are not presented in typical 'story format'. This month, I've chosen to look at these less conventional submissions in order to show that a story does not always have to be told as a story, and that thinking outside the box (while being a very annoying and overused phrase) can lead to some interesting results.

First up: 'Dear Derek' by Alexander Hay. One disgruntled man's correspondence with an uncaring MP, concerning the wormholes that have opened up in his neighbourhood and the flood of alien (some literally so) immigrants that have emerged from it. Alexander Hay explores this bizarre idea through a series of letters, mostly between Morris and his MP Derek, and in doing so plunges us straight into Morris' world in a way that a conventional narrative could not achieve so thoroughly. By telling this idea through the medium of letters, the author has also avoided presenting this as a story at all. Rather he keeps the incredible events confined to the mundanity of a man writing to his MP. In doing so, the tedious and frustrating nature of government bureaucracy is accentuated by throwing it into sharp contrast with the crazy alien activities. Alexander Hay captures the hypocrisy of all the characters beautifully, and delivers his idea with a quick, dark humour. There are some very clever observations wrapped up in a piece that knows how to have fun.

How does it fit the theme? Hypocritical attitudes towards those who are different, fear of change and of the unknown, mutation, aliens, the integration of the bizarre into our own mundane world. Alexander Hay makes a number of careful and accurate observations about our society, without ever weighing the reader down with the need to 'make a point'. Anyone who has dealt with immigration bureaucracy, or the hypocritical attitudes of those who fear change, will know that this story is closer to the truth than anyone would like to admit.

Next, 'The June Parrott Scrapbook' by Victoria Truslow. A freak rain of jellyfish mutilates and mutates the body of a famous model. How does the world react? With delicious intrigue and fascination, quickly followed by scandal and derision. Victoria Truslow dives into the fast-paced world of fashion and takes a look at the media and the public's fascination with trends and celebrities. The story is presented in small excerpts—cuttings from magazines, a blog, interviews, etc—and perfectly captures the immediacy of the strange existence that is celebrity. The excerpts are brief, choppy, to the point, like hastily imparted gossip before moving onto the next big thing. June Parrott is a phenomenon, not a person, here for our entertainment, and quickly discarded once we get bored. The style of this piece works so well because it is so coldly presented—a whole person and her life summed up in a few short scraps of opinion. A traditional story told in the usual way would have been too focused, too personal.

How does it fit the theme? Mutation, freak rains of sea creatures, a look into the attitudes of and towards people who are different, who don't fit the mould, who dare to defy. The end quote from Parrott herself is perfect. In fact, it sums up quite nicely the overriding theme of all the stories and poems featured in issue 6.

So, what did we like about these submissions? Originality, an interesting idea, a little black humour, the ability to present an idea in the format that works best for it, a writing style that fits the story, exploration of deeper issues and themes without becoming too heavy or bogged down by them, and a connection with the sentiments behind the issue title and the ethos of the magazine.

Issue 6: Identity Theft and the Octopus Kid is out now. Visit www.polluto.com for more information.

Kindle News: The Select Rush

2011-12-19T06:36:00.000-08:00

Amazon has recently announced a new fund to pay royalties to writers whose ebooks are used as part of the Owners' Lending Library programme. In much hyperbole the online retailer has announced $500,000 will be paid per month to writers who take part in the lending programme and who provide Amazon with a three-month exclusive on their ebook.

I've noticed some of my friends in the ebook publishing world see these headline figures and leap into action. But my own recommendation, when they've asked, has been to hold back just yet.

$50K sounds like a lot of money on the face of it, but actually, the maths isn't exactly on an author's side. Let's say 100,000 books are included in the KDP Select programme. Even if every book was lent once, that would be just $5 each per month. But the more realistic guesstimate is that a minority of books, say 1,000 or less, would get checked out a lot more than the rest. So writers might expect to get a significantly lower royalty. It remains to be seen how 'select' KDP Select will actually be, as the programme is being promoted far and wide.

Let's face it: it benefits Amazon to invite as many writers and publishers as possible, as the Amazon lending library has so far faced resistance from presses. If this is what entices them to join, it will hardly matter if Amazon get 10,000 books enrolled or 1,000,000. Indeed, if the number of books enrolled were at the higher end, they'd be getting more for their money.

And this is what worries me. Amazon has put a limit on the royalties so the corporation won't pay out more money even if every book in print were to be transferred to the programme. If 500,000 books are enroled for KDP Select, that leaves $1 each per month, if split equally. Since some books might be borrowed hundreds of times and others only once or twice, you might end up with pennies.

I'd much rather see a fixed, lower-rate royalty per 'copy' borrowed. When KDP Select was launched, 8,949 titles were already enlisted in their Owners' Lending Library. It would be safe to assume there will be at least 10,000 titles in the library once KDP Select launches, and that the number will increase over time. If they're launching the programme in the first place, it's because they want more books enrolled. If this is the case, we can estimate that they want at least twice as many books as they currently have (or 20,000, to make it nice and round). But with the wide publicity this has received, I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted five or ten times as many books in the programme.

Also the insistence on authors offering their titles exclusively to Amazon may have promotional benefits attached, but for some writers this means cutting off all revenue from the iBookstore, Smashwords, and other retailers. It depends what percentage of your sales are currently from each distribution channel, but it bears thinking about. Will exclusivity hamper your sales? More importantly: will giving Amazon this much influence of the ebook market be beneficial or not to writers and publishers in the future? Are we merely paving the way towards a future where Amazon is the only option for writers?

The extra marketing made available amounts to, according to Amazon, five days in three months. Not a whole lot of publicity for the deal but better than nothing. What remains to be seen is how many other books yours will be contending with during these five days.

Self-published authors also get the worse end of the bargain. Traditional publishing houses have been paid royalties upfront, regardless of whether their books have been borrowed or not, and this presents the possibility that Amazon will champion their books over all others to make back that initial investment. Self-publishers only get paid when/if their books are borrowed.

What isn't clear is if you can enter one ebook into the programme with one ISBN, and make that edition exclusive to Amazon, but then make alternative editions with different ISBNs available elsewhere. That might be the perfect way to take advantage of the better marketing and retain wider distribution. It might also be a useful exercise for comparing different retailers.

There is another possibility here, though. Other ebook retailers may offer their own exclusive deals in the face of this. It might therefore benefit the patient author, as we see what developments spring up in response to this. I for one will be waiting it out.

Buy A Library Book for Kids

2011-12-15T04:45:00.000-08:00

Lethe Press founder Steve Berman is trying to raise enough money to put a book with LGBT themes into school libraries across the USA. With escalating numbers of teen suicides because of homophobic bullying and isolation, it seems essential that our queer youth can find a voice they recognise in their day to day lives.

You can help the cause here. There's only 44 hours left!

Pride

2011-12-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

Pride by Adam Beyonce Lowe

(Originally published by PoetCasting.co.uk)

The Golden Ticket to Publication (Guest Post by Victoria Hooper)

2011-12-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

When I started cleaning up my old blog at Doghornpublishing.com/blog (now defunct as this blog largely replaces that one), I discovered loads of interesting tidbits by my writers and editors. This is a blog from Victoria Hooper on editors' preferences. I wonder if, two years later, she still feels the same?

I’ve been thinking about that question, the one that plagues writers everywhere and fuels an internet full of blogs, articles, and writer’s help pages (not to mention a few scammy websites).

How do editors choose which stories and poems to publish?

It seems the answers given are at best problematic and more often formulaic and unhelpful. There is no set list of dos and don’ts, though every book, blog or magazine homepage on the topic will happily throw them at you.

There is no magic formula or guarantee. The truth is simpler, and perhaps more discouraging.

Editors choose what they like.

Not necessarily the best, or most artfully crafted, or the most meticulous with their grammar. You could write a masterpiece, but it won’t be published unless the editor who reads it enjoys it. And even if the magazine explicitly states NO ELVES or we’ll club you to death with The Silmarillion, if it’s a really good story about elves that made the editor smile, chances are it’ll go in. (Not that we’re encouraging you . . . please, NO ELVES.)

The editor is never wrong. Why? Because it’s their magazine, for stories and poems that they like. Of course, at the bigger magazines and publishing houses you have a better chance of someone in the team liking it. But at the smaller ones you have a better chance of your work being placed amongst like-minded people and complimentary styles and stories. My advice – try both! And never be discouraged. What one person hates, another can’t get enough of. And there are enough weird people in the world to cater for any niche or subversive style (well, have you read Polluto?)

I realise this ‘advice’ is irritatingly vague. So I had an idea. Why not actually explain how and why real published stories and poems were chosen? Rather than a pointless list of ‘things that editors hate’, why not show you what editors really like? So, in my next blog, I’ll pick two of my favourite stories or poems featured in Polluto, and explain what we liked about them, what impressed or amazed us, what sparked our imaginations, what made us say yes.

Part two will follow this time next week, with Vicky's thoughts on short stories from Polluto 6. See you back here at the same time!

Writing Workshop: Dialling Up Your Dialogue

2011-12-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

Allan Douglas at The Write Stuff offers an interesting workshop here on dialogue.

He makes some useful pointers regarding dialogue tags and action, using film as an example of how we can portray emotion through physical mannerisms in our characters:

To learn effective use of these [emotional] cues, read classic works containing emotional encounters or watch good dramatic films with the sound turned off. Study the facial expressions of the actors and take notes of how they signal emotion.

This is a useful workshop, in that it encourages you to think visually as well as in words (something that, as writers, we often fail to do).

As a rule, dialogue tags should be kept to a minimum to facilitate clarity. 'Said' is far less intrusive than 'opined' or 'stammered'. You begin to notice those as they mount up and they make writing look strained.

Another alternative to the dialogue tag is to tag the dialogue with action instead. This has two benefits: it identifies who has spoken but also sneaks in some action, which keeps the momentum of the story going and can be used to develop character as well.

I've been working on this myself. I'm trying to steer clear of using too many dialogue tags in my WIP (the novel-length version of Troglodyte Rose), partly because some of the novel is written in present tense, and when I was re-reading the ms I began cringeing at all the uses of the word 'says'. I don't want to use more conspicuous tags either, so it means I have to work on using action around the dialogue. Here's an example:

'Dahlia!' She looks at me like I'm bleeding all over her doorstep. Which of course I am. I'm the colour and constituency of tallow. With the red threading my appearance, I probably look like the sign outside a barber's shop. Not a hot look this season, kiddies.
'Rose, you look like shit!' Dahlia, to the point, sums it up better. She knew this before she opened the door, of course, because she never opens the damn thing without getting a good look at whoever's on the other side. She probably checked out the tailoring on my jeans with the time she spent peering through beforehand. Never mind that I might be dying out here.
'Care to let me in already, or do you want trogmeat for your new doormat?'
Dahlia grimaces as she lets me in, and checks once again that no one has followed me here. I slide in behind her, close as a shadow, and when she turns she can see the full extent of my injuries up-close. That should teach the bitch to leave a girl standing on the doorstep all afternoon.
'What happened this time?'
'Mercs couldn't play nice, could they?'
'You've gotta watch yourself, Rose, or you're gonna wind up going missing!'
I bristle then. 'Like Flid, you mean?'
She shuts the hell up. Knows I have no time for this. Not raking over raw nerves.
'Sor—'
'It's okay,' I say, interrupting her apology. 'I don't need it or deserve it. Not now, not ever. You're our friend. And Flid . . . per knows what per's doing.'
She nods, takes my hand.
'Come on. We need to get you fixed up.'

This still reads a little clunky to me, but I'm working on it. Elsewhere, I'm really agonising over the word 'ventured'. It's entirely appropriate in the context, but I'm worried it's just too showy.

'I wonder if they’re still alive?' Flid didn't take per eyes off them, enrapt.
I ventured over to the orchid princess—the serpents parting before me as though in obeisance to their slumbering mistresses—and touched her throat. It was warm, but barely. As though she were in the deepest of sleeps. As though her mind swam in dreams of faraway worlds. And I considered that perhaps as we dreamt of her world she dreamt of ours, and her thoughts wandered through cannibal kitchens and slave pits as we explored this derelict palace.
'Maybe she needs a kiss?' ventured Flid.
'From who?' I looked about the room to emphasise that we were alone except for the weeds and the serpents and our own echoes.
'From a handsome prince!' Per face delighted, lighting up like bulbroot, as though this, too, was just a game. And I remembered the drugs. The empty jar of pink Haze. This was just a game. It was.
'Neither of us is a prince,' I said. 'We haven't got a crown to fight over for starters!'
'But I’m the only one with balls.' Flid nudged me playfully with per elbow.
'But they’re only ornamental,' I teased back.

Any thoughts on this would, of course, be appreciated. In the meantime, I think I'll use Allan's workshop as a guide to revisit some of the dialogue in the book.

Try his tips for yourself and see how it improves your dialogue.

Reviewers vs Publishers, Round One

2011-12-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

My friend, colleague and co-host at Bookmarked Literary Salon, Simon Savidge of Savidge Reads, brought up a rather interesting debate sparked by William Morrow in the States. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, sent out this letter, indicating that they were tightening up on which particular individuals with an online presence would get free books. The Guardian jumped on this as a 'crackdown' on book bloggers, and then brought the debate into a whole new arena: that of snobbery against book blogs.

I come at this from a unique perspective, I think, and so I thought I would comment.

I am a blogger (occasionally about books), a book and music reviewer in print media, and a journalist who has reviewed everything else (from restaurants to holidays to nightclubs) besides. But I'm also a publisher.

The sentiment of the William Morrow's letter is entirely understandable. If someone asks me for a free book, I do a bit of research first. Do they have a decent audience? Do their audience read what I publish? Do their blogs get many comments? Will I make back that initial cost (book + postage + my time) either through sales or increased exposure?

There's also the other thing to consider: would it actually harm sales by sending out too many free copies? I.e., if my target audience for a book was composed entirely of book bloggers (a ludicrous example, I know, but bear with me), would my sending free copies to all those book bloggers then mean no one buys the book? Some book bloggers are basically just readers with a blog to chatter on. Which is fine. But if we sent everyone free books just because they're readers, then who's left to buy the books?

My rule of thumb is: if a blogger is popular, shares my book's target audience, and I think it'll either raise the book's profile or improve sales, I'll send out a review copy. I usually err on the side of generosity and send a book out anyway. But you do get some people who will request books to review just to get freebies, and then either follow up with very obscure reviews no one is likely to look at/care about, or don't follow up at all.

Personally, I wouldn't have sent that letter out (or anything similar). It made me cringe in a couple of places and was inevitably going to piss a few people off. The process doesn't need to be so formal, because that defeats the point of all those relationships publishing companies have worked for years to build up. I'd have just been more thorough in deciding where to send review copies in the first place, and if a reviewer kept asking for books and didn't follow up with a review, I'd remember not to send them anything in future again.

As a reviewer for a major national magazine, I get hundreds of CDs every month. I rarely solicit them from record labels, but occasionally I do. I always review the ones I ask for (just as I always review the press trips I go on and the restaurants I have asked to review), but feel no guilt about tossing the rest in the bin or putting them aside for a listen in future. I just wouldn't have the time to review all of them otherwise. But record labels and PR companies know that if they send me 10-20 CDs a month, and I review one of them, then 150,000 people might read that review. So it's probably worthwhile taking that risk.

New Press Spotlight: Dreadnought Press

2011-12-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

I'm always keeping my eye open for new and interesting presses that pop up around the world.

This week I stumbled upon Dreadnought Press. Dreadnought is a Canadian press that will publish in both print and electronic editions, and includes The Empress of Mars spec-fic zine.

Their upcoming list of titles includes work by Mark J. Howard and Alexandra Wolfe.

Their website looks nice, and a few of the folks at The Hive Mind (on Facebook) seem to be involved. I look forward to seeing their books.

Review: The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

2011-12-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson (London: Bloomsbury, 17th October 2011, £7.99)

The Rum Diary is re-released here as a film tie-in. Allegedly the result of Johnny Depp digging out a forgotten manuscript in his friend Thompson's archive, it is a novel that otherwise might never have been published. Depp told Thompson it should be published and Thompson subsequently decided that he needed the money. This presents an interesting tension upon opening the book. Should it have been published, or was it best left alone? Thankfully, Thompson does not disappoint.

The Rum Diary is written with that telltale gonzo style with which readers will be familiar. Here the voice is less relentless, the encounters less surreal, but it is still characteristically sharp, witty and irresistible. Thompson's familiar paranoia is present, although not quite at the drug-heightened levels of Fear & Loathing, revealing instead a younger author hungry for opportunity. His critique of journalists and PR men is hardly breaking news, but the flair for telling a ripping yarn and the deft strokes with which he brings his characters to life makes this a winner.

Looking for Book Reviewers? Look No Further

2011-12-06T06:07:00.000-08:00

Following on from my list of publishers for first-time novelists (and some of you, rightly, pointed out that the list hasn't been updated in a while, so please use it with caution), I've found a more recent (July 2011) list of reviewers here by Pippa Jay.

I'll repeat the disclaimer on the website here too:

We take no responsibility for changes in circumstance of the sites listed - we are offering this list for free and all information is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting, although we'll attempt to check them periodically as time allows.

Also, Matt Stagg's offers Book Shot! Authors here. Matt's speciality is science fiction and fantasy, so writers of those genres should consider sending their book blurbs there first.

Please let me know if you find any other sites like this. It always helps.

Post-NaNo Advice

2011-12-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

The Author Chronicles offers a handy follow-up to NaNoWriMo, listing articles of use to new writers. These range from the craft of writing to the business of writing. Read the article here.

Finding the Right Network: Overcoming the Barriers to Engagement for the Next Generation

2011-12-01T15:23:00.000-08:00

[Note: This article was originally commissioned as a provocation for NALD, as part of their investigation into the future of young writers, and what the challenges are for the current generation to engage and support the next.]

Young people working in the literature sector often find it difficult to discover the networks which will support them. You'd think it would be as simple as typing something into Google, but in fact, most young writers and literature activists will be looking for the wrong things (writers instead of young writers, international instead of local, money and success rather than training or development opportunities). Because of this, unless the young person is already inside the literature networks, he or she will miss the opportunities available and be drawn into the morass of websites dedicated to offering 'advice' on writing (where quality varies and there might be little in the way of peer review).

I found these networks by accident. I was already about 20 when, at a dinner party where I mentioned I was writing a book, a man at the party said he knew a person in publishing (at the nearby Peepal Tree Press). I eagerly made contact with this local publishing house, only to discover they didn't really specialise in the genre I was writing in at the time, and then did not make contact again until, two years later, the woman I had spoken to (Kadija George) began recruiting for their writer development programme, Young Inscribe.

Let me say that my experience is by no means unique. I had been Googling opportunities for writers for years, reading articles about the craft of writing, and taking part in online workshops and discussion groups. And yet the literature networks designed for young people evaded me. Leeds Young Authors, Route, The Writing Squad—I didn't hear about any of them until I had first, purely by chance, discovered and began building up a relationship with Peepal Tree Press. After I was introduced to the networks that were already there, the opportunities (thankfully) came often enough.

Google is therefore of little help if you don't already know what you are looking for, because of the glut of competing articles, and a lack of clarity about what young writers must search for (I, for one, had no knowledge of specific opportunities for young writers and therefore sought out only general opportunities for writers).

It makes sense, then, to target young writers through the spaces they use: bookshops, libraries, schools, but also online networks such as EditRed, Red Room, Critique Circle, etc (which are very easily found by writers). There has been an effort to promote these things, also, through Facebook and Twitter, which should continue and expand. This has perhaps already made accessing literature networks easier for even younger writers, who have begun their writing journeys more recently.

Also of particular interest is the need for funding. As a young person who has been modestly successful with funding applications, I feel more needs to be done to help young people access the funds which will enable them to focus on and develop their work. NAWE's Young Writers' Enabling Fund is a definite step in the right direction. However, there should be opportunities to develop skills in writing applications for funding, and greater accessibility for organisations such as ACE.

When I took over Dog Horn Publishing in 2008 and established Polluto Magazine, I had looked into funding, and was immediately put off by the language and complexity of the application process, which on the surface appears to exclude and discourage those not versed in the language of bureaucracy. It was only with the guidance of those more expert in these matters that I was then able to 'decode' the requirements of funders' guidelines and begin to experience my own successes in accessing funding. It is the responsibility of those who have already reaped these rewards to share those skills with the Next Generation.

The Young Writers' Hub and Enabling Fund are working. Due to money from the Enabling Fund, I will be working with Alexa Radcliffe-Hart to develop an imprint which is committed to making sure 25% of its output will be created by emerging writers from the North. Dead Ink Press will also open opportunities, connected as it is to The Cadaverine. Leeds Young Authors' annual slam and writing festival, Off the Shelf and Pick Up Your Pens suggest a movement towards a Yorkshire-wide programme of youth literature events and should be applauded. Young Inscribe and various other writer development programmes offer Arvon residentials. Yorkshire, especially, caters well for its youth.

The goals for supporting the Next Generation should be continuing this great work. It is especially important to provide the time and space for writing, and I encourage any scheme that offers free or low-cost places at writing retreats (such as Arvon and The New Writing Centre in Wales). These retreats are invaluable in developing a portfolio of work, or starting a longer project (such as a collection or novel). The weekly costs for such retreats, although less than £500, are still restrictive for young people.

It would also be helpful to offer those writers over 25 (and in some cases only 18), who in some programmes are no longer considered 'young', continued opportunities. Perhaps they might be given bursaries to act as peer mentors to other young(er) writers. Or perhaps they will see an increase in the kinds of placement I had (an Arts Council-funded arts management placement) with proper compensation for their work and an opportunity to pick up invaluable skills and on-the-job training from the current generation of literature activists.

Finally there needs to be a greater recognition of the changing face of literature. A written work may now include multimedia and be interactive. There is a continued blurring between writing and performance, writing and art, writing and music. Often young people think they should be either novel writers or short story writers, or poets, or playwrights. I also began my journey believing I could only be one type of writer. It was only much later that I decided I could be any and all of them, and that it was only my willingness to experiment and explore or not that would hold me back. Making a living as a writer or literature activist can be hard—those who are most successful look at it in holistic terms. There's more than one way to make money in the industry, and so we see writers becoming publishers, facilitators, teachers, journalists and producers. This should be encouraged and celebrated. This is how the Next Generation will create their own opportunities and support themselves.

First-Time Novelists: Are You Looking for a Publisher?

2011-11-30T08:24:00.000-08:00

Rather by accident, I found this website. It helpfully lists (by name) many top mainstream publishers who have accepted debut novels in the past few years.

Save yourself the hassle and check it out.

Review: Lye Street by Alan Campbell

2011-11-24T04:05:00.000-08:00

Lye Street, Alan Campbell (London: Amazon Media, 2011)
Available here

This is a wonderful novella. There are a number of reasons I say this: it is concise, yet it describes a vast fantasy world in clever dashes of detail; it stands alone and is, contrary to a couple of the reviews on Amazon, satisfying both in length and content; and though it sprawls and swoops and dazzles, this breathtaking journey is over before you know it--the read effortless.

The novella is a form that has fallen out of favour in the English-speaking literary world. The reason for this is that it denies our obsession with indulgence. Its strength is restraint, which many writers and many readers unfortunately don't seem to value any more.

Campbell's strength here is that the world he draws is real and enthralling, and yet it is constructed with an economy of language not present in most novels. Campbell switches between two primary characters as he narrates this story: an angel and the man she seems fated to kill. Their stories are interwoven from the start, of course, but Campbell's skill is that the two stories diverge in the novella's middle, apparently moving away from the course we have been expecting, and then gradually, gracefully their stories converge again. This creates the narrative tension. Campbell's ending becomes more delightful as the anticipation guides us to a fulfilling and interesting resolution.

Though this is a prequel to Campbell's Scar Night, the novella stands alone. I hadn't read any of the Deepgate Codex trilogy, but I didn't feel I needed to in order to understand this sublime little book. I have, however, now bought the entire series and hope it is as dark, delicious and delightful as Lye Street.

(P.S.: I read the ebook version of this novella, and now I really wish I'd bought the hardback version from Subterranean Press when it was available. If anyone can help me get hold of a good copy at a reasonable price, please let me know.)

Tranny Hotel

2011-11-22T05:14:00.000-08:00

Friday 11th to Sunday 13th November saw Liverpool's first ever Tranny Hotel set up in the Britannia Adelphi, Liverpool, as part of Homotopia 2011. I was lucky enough to attend both the Saturday and Sunday, and to be invited to deliver my 'Cut Me Up Good' workshops, working with themes of gender, body fascism and popular culture.

It was a wonderful, transformative weekend. I felt rather that I had been changed as much as any of the participants, and I found it truly inspiring to connect and share with such a diverse group of individuals who encompassed the LGBT/queer/hetero spectrum.

The list of artists included in the project is here.

The turnout for my morning workshop was perfect: with me and Paul involved, that brought the number to 10. The collaborative spirit was definitely there. The focus of the session was on creating new work which would be shared as a warm-up for the main evening show with Jonny Woo and Rae Spoon.

In the afternoon I worked with a smaller group to develop performance skills, in preparation for the evening event.

Those who got on stage for the evening sharing definitely took something from the experience. I think they gained confidence and contributed very personal testimonies, which were moving and showed an engagement with language, spoken word and performance skills.

I also think the experience was very transformative for my companion on the trip, Paul. He had never taken part in that kind of workshop before, and yet he was very excited when he realised he was able to produce his own creative work. He was also very inspired by the whole weekend and certainly felt he had learned something new from the experience. He was certainly not the only one.

There were other excellent activities throughout the weekend. Alternative Miss Liverpool, although contentious (with Voodou sponsoring the contest, supplying a judge, and represented by Miss Voodou . . . who won), was a thorough delight for all involved. David Hoyle MC'd, in his typical inimitable style. The Debutantes were especially brilliant.

Mandy Romero and Timberlina's Subversively Yours saw two trans artists lead the public on a promenade through the Bluecoat's Democracy Promenade, discussing the exhibits from a trans viewpoint.

Thom Shaw's Drag Mountain invited the public to drop in on a drag queen laid out on a hotel bed. There they were asked to pick from a pile of clothes and scraps, to take part in making a growing dress, which extended some fifteen feet or so behind her in what I called 'tranny tentacles'. On the Saturday evening, participants took the reins of the vast dress and embarked on a Tranny Trail through Liverpool city centre. This was part bar crawl, part pride parade in miniature, and ended up at Alternative Miss Liverpool.

I missed The Torn Dress, where Mandy wore a dress made of the Liverpool phone book, and tore pieces off in a hotel window. These pieces she wrote words on and stuck to the glass, composing an improvised poem, and ending with a naked Mandy sat in the wndow.

I missed the ritual wedding and a few of the performances, which I would've loved to see, but I'm glad I saw what I did. I only hope I get invited to take part next year as well.

Are You Satisfied with Your Package?

2011-11-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

There's much debate about royalties and contracts for ebooks at the moment. The Jackal tried skipping publishers to keep royalties higher for writers. Amazon offers a 70% (or 35%) royalty for self-published writers. But is there more to book contracts than royalties? As a writer we also have to ask what we're getting, beyond money, in any publishing contract.

A 70% royalty is great, if you manage to get it from a publisher who will handle editing, production and distribution for you. That's a great royalty, matched with a good level of support from dedicated professionals. But how much input will you have in the cover design, editing and marketing of the book?

Similarly, a 70% royalty where you have to do all the work yourself is perhaps misleading. Why do I say this? Well, to produce a book of the same standard and quality as the mainstream publishers, you have to pay for editing, proofing, layout, etc. That's also overlooking marketing and promotion. So even though you're earning more per ebook sold, you've already forked out a grand or two. If your book sells less than 100 copies (as 80% of all books do), you won't make back your investment. The amount that a self-publisher can actually consider profit for themselves, after all other costs have been paid, might work out lower than a 35% royalty deal with a major publisher.

I would also add time into the cost for a self-published ebook writer. A writer with an indie or mainstream publisher will spend time writing their work and then editing it with the publisher. They may also do some marketing. But they will have support from the publisher which a self-published writer will not have.

The level of support between indie publishers and major publishers, however, is also different. An indie press might dedicate more time to a one-on-one relationship. A major publishing company may have a huge marketing department, but you may find your work passed over to their promotions machine without much input. Budgets will vary from book to book, author to author, publisher to publisher. It's worth asking what budget (if any) a publisher will allocate to promoting your book.

So ultimately a higher royalty might not, in itself, be the best thing for you. You as a writer have to work out which option fits your own needs. Some writers cannot fathom the idea of doing anything but writing. Others are happy to self-promote every minute of the day. Most are somewhere in between. Decide what it is that's important to you, and stand your ground. But don't just get sucked in by great royalties.*

*This is also why agents may still be useful for some writers, since they will argue the details of the contract for you.

Amazon vs the Book Trade, Part 2

2011-11-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

There are some very interesting points made about my Amazon vs the Booktrade post, most notably at The Passive Voice.

Julia Barrett's comment, quoted here, is a very important one. She says:

I won’t miss gatekeepers because gatekeepers were guilty of an abuse of power and they have been humbled, whether they realize it or not. I will, however, miss a sense of organization, for lack of a better word.

I’m increasingly concerned about the wild, wild west attitude in self-pubbing. Everyone is trying to grab a piece of the pie and believe me, the pie is shrinking fast. It’s like one of those sales where women trample each other to get a handkerchief or something!

Leaving aside the issue with gatekeepers (she's mostly spot on, but that deserves a separate blog), Julia raises two key points:

1. that the pie is finite, so there's only so many slices that can be taken before there's none left;

and

2. indie and mainstream publishers offer invaluable organisation (and support) to writers.

As someone who has experience of both ebooks and print books (and has published in both), I do see the opportunity ebooks present. I think they’re very useful and it’s always a good thing that more people are seeing their words in print.

But many self-published writers who use Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing see ebooks as the be-all and end-all, and then wonder why their books aren’t selling millions. There’s lots of hype about ebooks, and while ebooks are selling in huge quantities, these quantities are spread over a vast number of titles. It’s only a small number of writers, as with traditional publishing, who are making a killing. In that respect, we need to temper this hype with a good dose of reality.

Dan Meadows says: 'I believe, with the advent of cheap, accessible readers and tablets, and falling prices of books, that the overall pie is going to increase. Besides, if a customer can get three or four ebooks for the prices they traditionally paid for one Big 6 book, that alone increases my chances dramatically of landing a sale even if the pie stays exactly the same. And I’m getting a bigger cut per book than the Big 6 author.'

I think he misses an important point: if book prices fall, authors will end up with less money.

Let's work out what the cover price of a book actually pays for.

If you want your books in stores and supermarkets, or anywhere other than Amazon, you need distribution. This costs money.

To sell those books on behalf of the distributors you need sales reps. This costs money.

Covers need to be designed. An editor needs to be paid. The book needs to be typeset. Unless you're very lucky and crossing your fingers always works for you, you probably won't be expecting readers to just accidentally stumble upon your book. That means you'll need marketing. If you're talking a print book, you need to print the book (although, this is only about £2). Overheads have to be met. This all costs money.

If book prices drop, then you need more sales to make up the difference. But this still only benefits retailers. If an author can manage to write one book per year, it doesn't help them that their £10 book is now only worth £5, and that of that they only make 50p instead of £1. They'd need to sell twice as many books, or work twice as hard to write twice as many books as they were doing, in order to make the same amount.

The mistake made with ebooks is that they should cost a lot less than print books. But unless you've literally just uploaded a Word document (which I don't recommend anyone should do if they want to call themselves a publisher), the only costs you're saving on are the print costs. The distribution costs are still there, but they go to Amazon or the iBookstore. A £10 print book should be an £8 ebook, to cover those same costs. Self-published writers might take a larger slice of the pie, but it is they, not the publisher, who forks out for the costs above. In effect, then, the increased royalty only serves to claw back some of that initial outlay. Also consider that 80% of books sell less than 100 copies, and most self-published authors who produce their books properly will be out of pocket.

I would also like those surging to Kindle en masse to consider what they're sacrificing for their higher royalties, increased 'creative control' and quick-and-easy publishing.

Modern mainstream publishing doesn’t always invest in writers and new talent as much as it should. But ebook self-publishing, while allowing new talent to be heard, can’t really be said to offer much of an investment in writers either (since it’s the writers who are doing all the investing).

Amazon (and Nook!) isn’t giving writing classes, in-depth editorial support and career development to self-published writers. Traditionally, this is what publishers would have done for their own authors (although, it seems, many no longer do this outside the small press scene). This, I think, is part of what Julia Barrett means by 'organisation'.

What is undeniable is this: bookstores are closing all over the world. Perhaps they do need to adapt. Ebooks will be a good impetus for that. But those who don’t see that Amazon is developing a worrying monopoly over the booktrade, which is destroying local businesses and brick and mortar bookstores, are perhaps as biased as those with an investment in traditional publishing. And the problem spreads to agents, editors and publishers, too.

Without agents, who will argue for proper remuneration and rights for authors? Without editors, who will weed out errors, give feedback, and help writers’ work flourish? Who will organise and pay for book tours and events? Is anyone at Amazon really doing all this for the self-published Kindle author? If we see traditional publishing die, every author will be a self-published Kindle author, and your fate as a writer will be in the hands of a retailer rather than someone whose job it is to develop and nurture your talent.

That is what worries me. I don't want to see the livelihood of authors turned over to an online retailer who cares only about its profits and not about the creative talents who supply the goods. But if speed, ease and convenience are what you prefer, go ahead and feed the monopoly.

Fruit

2011-11-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Fruit by Adam Beyonce Lowe

(Originally published at PoetCasting.co.uk)

Who Likes a Bit of Violence?

2011-11-12T03:20:00.000-08:00

I just saw this wonderful video to promote Eat Your Heart Out's new show, Violence. Check it out for details of the show (17-26th November at Riverside Studios, London) below:

Be sure to check it out!

Currently Reading

2011-11-10T03:55:00.000-08:00

I'm always reading a wide range of books all at once. I can't help myself. It takes a lot for me to get into a book, so I dabble in a few until I get hooked on one and manage to force myself to finish it.

I'm reading the following:

The Kid by Sapphire
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
King Rat by China Mieville
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson (still!)

A slight SF/F bias, I guess, although on the literary/poetic side.

I hope to get some more reviews out soon. Watch this space.

Digital Literature: Amazon vs the Book Trade?

2011-10-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

So how is digital literature affecting booksales? How can you, as a writer, reach your audience? And what exactly is Amazon doing to the marketplace? I hope to address some of these issues here.

Online Marketing is the Be-All and End-All, Right?
Online marketing is cheap and can be very effective. But there are so many books being promoted, people can switch off rather easily. Try searching the Twitter hashtag #free. About 80% of posts seem to be about books. That's what you're contending with. Ask yourself what you can do differently to wade through all that and reach your audience. 'But my book is better' isn't a good answer. If no one knows about your book, how will they know that? The trick is to get them to notice the book in the first place. That's the hard part.

What About the Ebook Revolution?
I think the ebook revolution is a revolution in one sense only: that it gives an even larger share to Amazon and technology producers, rather than to writers and publishers. If you're a digital-only writer, you're competing with so many other books it's hard to be heard. If we open the floodgates to anyone with MS Word or OpenOffice (which Amazon's ebook publishing programme does), you're not necessarily making it easier for readers to find good books or for good authors to find readers. You're just widening the range of books that are out there. Most readers, however, won't spend hours and hours trying to track down your book if they're not even aware of it. Why should they?

So There's No Point in eBooks Then?
I think ebooks are a new way of reaching audiences which should be embraced, yes. Although, I'm still a big believer in supporting small presses and indie publishers, and they are the people who will support, nurture and promote writing talent. Amazon, on the otherhand, while a great retailer, is first and foremost about the bottom line--not the worth of literature. Bear this in mind when you decide whether to go the traditional publishing route or self-publish through Amazon.

Derek Haines' blog post here outlines the problems writers face (80% of books sell less than 100 copies). Haines also points out that Amazon seems to be trying to cut out the middle men (a fact the NY Times has also picked up on).

Haines' summation is bleak:

It would seem to me that Amazon are intent on attacking the book industry from the bottom and the top. That is, enticing the ‘cream’ to their new publishing houses and undermining the traditional publishers. While at the same time, encouraging self publishing to enable them to have a huge stock of cheap and ultra cheap ebooks to use on ‘el cheapo’ advertising supported Kindles. Not a bad plan. Rake in the cream of publishing profits and add a new stream of advertising revenue from the other end.

But if I'm honest, he's absolutely right. It's true that there is a glut of cheap ebooks on Amazon, which I doubt anyone but Amazon is making money from. In the meantime, publishers' revenues fall, writers continue to be unfairly paid, and many good books are overlooked by a reading public swamped by chaff.

Review: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison & David McKean

2011-10-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Arkham Asylum is an example of the comic book as work of art. A quick glance at the detailed script at the back of this book (included in newer editions as a bonus extra) reveals the layers of symbolic resonance and forethought that has been gone into its creation. Arkham Asylum is not a narrative-driven work. Expect no greatly plotted superhero adventure or crime caper here. Instead, this is a literary descent into imagination, nightmare and the subconscious. It moves downwards, sideways and in, reaching towards something felt rather than understood.

Arkham Asylum has the same kind of poetic density as T. S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland', and yes, that might be considered an indulgence. But that's entirely missing the point. Here the Joker is a primordial, Jungian archetype, and so is the Bat. Therein lies the revelation at the heart of the graphic novel: both are aspects of the complex, conflicted human mind, and both are relevant (correction: absolutely important) to the human imagination. Batman is the Ego, kept in check by the disciplined, idealistic Superego, but threaded through with the dark desires of the Id, represented here by the chthonic, chaotic Joker himself. Just as the Joker is part of Batman, Batman is that part of the human psyche against which the Joker must define himself.

The medium for storytelling here is not one of plot and time, in the linear sense of most comics. The medium here is the image as space: the image that opens itself up to interpretation like a Rorschach test, that encourages penetration by the reader. The reading experience is one of exploration, with the reader as active participant puzzling out the meaning of the story in his or her hands. This is not passive entertainment.

If you like the films of Michael Bay, you can probably leave this. If you like Guillermo del Torro's Spanish-language films, this might be the book for you. But be warned: this is not a straightforward story of heroes and villains, with bold primary colours and a Caped Crusader who fights for a clear-cut concept of good.

Writing Wrongs

2011-10-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

I've said this before, but I just want to reiterate to make it very, very clear.

"It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong they could possibly do. That's actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking. Because everything they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from it. And people assume that if I hated it then they'd changed the script...but it wasn't so much they changed it, they executed it in such a ghastly fashion they rendered it unwatchable."
-Joss Whedon

If something isn't clear in your script, then that's your fault, Joss. Actors and directors can only work with what you give them.

Kids, bear this in mind.

P.S., Joss, you claimed you wrote Alien: Resurrection to be playful and tongue-in-cheek. I.e., Buffy in Space. But the Alien films always had been, and always should be, serious, by their very nature. Otherwise they just become parodies (which your script did).

P.P.S., watch out for my Auntie Jane. She hates your ending for Buffy and holds it against you. That woman can really hold a grudge.

Cellophane

2011-10-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Cellophanealowe by Adam Beyonce Lowe

(Originally published on PoetCasting.co.uk)

Address to the Congregation

2011-10-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: This is another Zion commissioned piece.]

Raise your drinks, blow your whistle, and brandish your UV glowsticks in celebration! Here we are, in the heart of Hulme, ready to make some shapes. This is the weekend and the night is ours. Let's get ready to party.

Our hardcore, art of the Haçienda,
acid be thy name. Thy disco come,
thy pill be done, at home as it is in Sanky's.
Give us this rave, our daily sweat,
and give us our guest passes, as we
forgive those who've queue-jumped before us.
Lead us not into Trance Nation, and bring
us euphoria, for thine is the dancefloor,
the bass and Morning Glory, forever
and ever—gay men! In the name of the
big fish, the little fish, and the cardboard box.

ASYLUM: A Mesostic Poem for Zion

2011-10-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

    Abode
posSession
     dYing
slowLy in
     slUm
harleM

Harry, Time Traveller (Zion Poem)

2011-10-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

They move through his memory like
record keepers. He the guardian of ancient
texts, a librarian of lost histories, blinking
out of existence. He takes with him
apocrypha in language that won't
translate, knowledge he knows can't
be passed on as easily as breath.
Alexandria. Censored. Dead Sea Scrolls. His
is an archive under siege, blitzed
by the tirade of age, not decimated
but eroded slowly, brick by elegiac
brick, by an unwillingness of
community to retain, remember,
regress. Regret creeps in, oily,
between syllables, and as he speaks
the time-traveller journeys back.

Zion Acrostics & Mesostics

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

Eric Hoffer Award News

2011-10-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

Best New Writing 2012 is moving into production, and in a few weeks the contributor's copies will be sent out. I'm looking forward to receiving my copy!

The results of the Eric Hoffer Award are avaible to view at www.HofferAward.com and the cover on www.BestNewWriting.com. The table of contents is listed below. I'm very excited. It will be a fine issue.

Grand Prize Winner
'Peep Show' by Louise Beech

Editor’s Choice Awards
'West Bank Afternoon' by Randy Rosenthal
'Solastagia' by Noelle Adams
'The Last House at the End of the Street' by Erin Khar

Short List Finalists
'For the Love of Ciderpunk' by Avery Oslo
'Stars' by Mercedes M. Yardley

Finalists
'Taking Vicky' by Leon West
'Reunion' by Eric M. Witchey
'Some Mother’s Son' by Colin Asher
'The Last Orphan in Cincinnati' by Lee Patton
'Saturday' by Steven Mayoff
'Save Me' by Teresa Burns Gunther
'Pomegranate' by Adam Lowe
'China Cabinet' by Rachana Rahman
'The Whipping Boy' by Richard Gibney

Incidentally, I gave my old friends Kurt Huggins & Zelda Devon a sneak-peak of the story a few months back, and they produced this. How cool is that?

Earning Your Crust, Part Two

2011-10-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

So in this second half of my treatment of writers' pay, I will look at US conventions for short stories, poetry and novels. Please note that mainstream UK publishing does not have the same strict definitions of 'professional' payment, etc. In the UK, most magazines do not pay for fiction and poetry. Some do, but prices vary wildly.

The following rates are given based on the entry requirements for the Science Fiction Writers of America and the Horror Writers of America. These professional bodies only admit members who fulfil certain publication criteria (i.e., publication by certain qualifying markets).

Short Stories (US)
SFWA and HWA state that $0.05/word is the suggested minimum rate for professional publications, with a minimum payment for any story of $50. Any magazine paying equal to or more than this, with a readership in excess of 2,000, is considered professional. Any magazine with a smaller circulation, or that pays $0.01/word or above, but less than $0.05/word, is considered 'semi-pro' instead.

Roughly converted, that's just over £0.03/word. So for a 1,000-word story, you'd get about £30-35. Not all prestigious magazines in the US pay this much, but they do not qualify in terms of the entry requirements for either the SFWA or the HWA.

Poems (US)
Duotrope's Digest states $5/line (minimum of $50 a poem) is professional payment. That's about £30-35 a poem, minimum.

Novels (US)
In the States, the SFWA and HWA only consider certain publishers as qualifying a writer to join their ranks. In short, the publisher should pay an advance of $2,000 plus minimum royalty rates. SFWA and HWA also vet contracts, and give examples of their standard/preferred contract on their websites. The Science Fiction Writers of America's sample contracts are available here.

There are similar rules for scriptwriters, too, although I won't go into those in detail.

What About the UK?
The figures stated above, as explained, are for US writers who wish to join the SFWA or HWA. But I think the payment amounts above are a good indication of what writers should, ideally, be looking for.

That is:
£35 per 1,000 words for fiction
£35 per poem (or £3.50 per line)

I'd be tempted to say, in most cases, that you should expect a minimum payment of £40 for any story or poem. Or even £50, to give you a bit of leeway when bartering. It is worth noting that most magazines in the UK, if they do pay, don't advertise their rates. So bartering is probably expected, and therefore you should always go in higher rather than lower.

But do also bear in mind whether a magazine pays or not before you submit. Duotrope is great in this respect. If a magazine doesn't pay, either don't submit there or resign yourself to the fact you won't get paid. But instead consider what benefits, if any, it might get you. For instance, if the magazine is owned by a press, then that might help you build up a relationship with an editor, which may be advantageous if you're shopping a manuscript around. Also think about how prestigious or well-read the magazine is. Who will see your story or poem in that magazine? Will you be making the right impression by appearing there?

Many UK publishers (on the indie scene, at least), prefer and appreciate a good track record in magazine publications. However residencies and commissions (which usually pay better) might be another/better way to get recognised for your work.

Streets Have Changed that Seemed

2011-09-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: Again, this is another poem commissioned for the Zion centenary.]

concrete before, reaching out in new
directions, beneath feet that have travelled
far, opening opportunities, forking,
where the choice was once black or white,
ahead or back, right or left. Now
we move upwards, down, across,
tread inconstant circles. The change
came slowly, inevitably, and the old
ways are hidden in a maze of possibilities.

Friend Roulette

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

[Part of the Thrasher/Royal Exchange attachment scheme]

A dark stage. Two young men at their laptops. A fantasy begins—imagination the language, desire the destination.

Moderator: Welcome to FriendRoulette. Log in or register?

A: Log in.

Mod: Would you like FriendRoulette to remember these log in details?

A: Yes.

Mod: You are home. You have ONE new message. You have had 23 profile hits this week.

A: Messages.

B: Hey, what's your pleasure?

A: My pleasure?

B: What you looking for? What's your poison, dude?

A: Looking for chat, fun, mates. Etc.

B: Okay.

A: You?

B: Etc.

I unfold you. I speak into the blank, open book of you. Breathe words across your pages. You are starting to take shape: listing lines of black. Forming a story. I reach out. I poke you.

This is my space. Take a look at me.

Come inside, I say. Come inside me.

Thrasher Attachment Scheme

Local writers Adam Lowe and Joanne Sherryden were invited by writer Conor McKee to write their own ten minute plays in response to a rehearsal of his new play Thrasher. These were workshopped by McKee and director Wyllie Longmore, along with directors on attachment Ekua Bayuna and Mairi MacFarlane.

The plays were workshopped by the group, using the company’s method of actor-driven script enquiry. The results will be shared with the public on Saturday 1st October at 6pm in The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

The sharing will be accompanied by a Q&A with cast, writers, directors plus Wyllie and Conor. A chance for theatregoers and professionals to get an understanding of how the company's process works and how they can use it for themselves.

Showcase @ 6pm, followed by Q&A
Thrasher starts at 7.30pm
Venue: The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
Price: £3.50 (showcase) / £7 (BOTH Thrasher + showcase)
Tickets: Royal Exchange website / 0161 833 9833

Earning Your Crust, Part One

2011-09-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how much you should be getting paid as a writer? This question comes up a lot and I've had to argue for proper compensation for writers and literature activists in all arenas.

With blogging and digital content so easily (and freely) available, there has been a downward trend in some areas. There are many people who write for a hobby, or as a side-line, and that's fine. These people should be able to publish their work for free if they so wish. But it's essential that if we want to have a free, unbiased media and a dynamic literature scene that offers a range of diverse voices, we need to support those writers who write full time. Journalism and literature should not be entirely the product of part-time or hobby work. That way lies the path to poor quality, lazy journalism and a lack of thoroughness and understanding that comes from a full-time commitment to writing.

The Arts Council used to list its suggested rates for artists of all tropes here. However, you will now notice they duck out of this issue by referring artists to the relevant professional societies and guilds instead, quoting the Office of Fair Trading's competition rules.

Here is a brief summary of what I could find on the internet, and what I know from personal experience:

Self-Employed
A base rate for freelancers/the self-empoyed is [expected annual salary/100]. So if you expect to earn £20,000 p.a., you would charge a minimum of £200 per day, plus expenses. However, on long-term contracts you might be offered the equivalent of a pro rata wage. Bear in mind that you may have to pay for your own expenses, do your own accounting, and won't get paid for holidays or training. Therefore I would strongly recommend going with the salary/100 calculation instead, or asking for expenses to be paid, at the very least. Research suggests an employee actually costs a business twice what their wage is (because of the costs in doing taxes, admin, training, holidays, sickpay, etc). So in essence, they're saving that money by using a freelancer. They can therefore afford to pay you more.

Schools, Colleges & Universities/Festivals
Day rate for an appearance/reading/workshop: £350 (full-day), £250 (half-day) + travel (Society of Authors)

Alternatively: £150/appearance (less than one hour) when touring multiple schools/venues in one day.

For residencies and commissions: pro rata, based on annual fee writer expects to earn.

Journalism
Freelance rates are available, in detail, at the NUJ website here. Here you can compare what different publications have offered, to see what you should be asking for. However, there isn't a simple 'ask for x amount', as there is with the Society of Authors.

Translation
Poetry - £1 per line (min. £30)
Prose - £83 per 1,000 words

BBC Rates
Often paid per minute, but these vary based on the writer's experience and the medium of publication/broadcast. Full details are given here.

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain
There are some differences in rates suggested by the Society of Authors and The Writers' Guild, but the two organisations have broad agreement on rates for writers. The Writers' Guild seems to offer per day or per project guidelines, giving broader figures, whereas the Society of Authors suggests per word, per minute or per hour rates, making them more complex.

Editing & Proofing
The Society for Editors and Proofreaders has suggested hourly rates here. These fall between £20-30 per hour, as a minimum.

In Practice
In practice, I have seen writers offered £200-300 per day for appearances, and £100-200 for half days. However, this is generally seen as the lower end of the scale by the Society of Authors and The Writers' Guild. A friend of mine who books writers suggested charging £300 for a reading or workshop, and £400 for a reading and workshop, regardless of whether it's a full or half-day.

For plays and big commissions, taking up several months, I have generally seen £6,000 offered. In terms of days' commitment, this is usually 20-30 days, spread over a longer period of time (say, a day a week for six months).

If anyone has any experiences they'd like to share, please do!

Streets of Gold

2011-09-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

[Note: This poem was commissioned as part of my residency at Zion Arts Centre, which has been to develop writing for a centenary celebration in Hulme on Sunday 9th October.]
Front room parlour games
tasted of malt and hops; local
men together; smell of sweat
and leather. 666 pubs and beer
houses, as the Devil squatted
over boozy-breathed 'Ulme:
the streets ran gold with lager
and piss, women mopped wet flags
and painted steps with donkey
stones pressed atop, casual
lovers. 'Ulme without an aitch,
the way it was, the way it should be.
Hear the march of the approaching
Boys' Brigade. 'Ulme. Home. Forever.

In Pieces

2011-09-14T03:52:00.000-07:00

[originally published in Ex Plus Ultra, this is the definitive version]

Dismembered, corpora disjecta, your
fragments bound in muslin
to be buried, unavailable,
in farflung colonial corners.

I start with your heart, interred
like a dark amber fist, clenched
at the crossroads, to hold
you, junctional, at the crux.

Your hands I find coffined
under the raven jaw of Paris’
finest grand piano, fingers
tightrope walking over the strings.

Your feet, a beach
in Bangor, flexing like
pale crabs in the sand,
begging for ice cream.

Your head, found bobbing down
the Nile, then misplaced via
water jugs filled with discs of lemon
and tossed over Victoria Falls.

Your limbs grew like trees
in decimated Amazonian jungle,
and your shoulders supported
a doorframe, broad, mahogany.

But when I pieced you together,
fractured by desire, the only piece
missing, I missed the most:
your shrivelled, lifeless phallus.

Five Original Ways to Make Money from Your Creativity

2011-08-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

It sucks being poor. Especially during a recession. But as creatives, we often find ourselves poorer than almost everybody else—even though we're meant to be the ideas guys. So it's time to scratch that noggin and see just how easy it is to make money and use your talents as a creative individual.

Bus-stop performance art. You can set yourself up as a roving mini-theatre and regale innocent commuters with monologues about the painful banalities of wage-slavery. Keep a hat to catch those pennies, yeah?

Poetry prostitution. Get yourself a furry purple hat, a cane and some poetry bitches of whichever gender you prefer. Set yourselves up in some squalid, pokey little flat on a council estate and hire your poets out for closed-door one-to-one sessions with hungry punters. Going the whole hog (say, a nice, hands-on workshop) can be £20 and you can give a bit of oral (quick and dirty readings) for £10. A quick hand job (custom poetry dashed of as the clock ticks) can be £5. For the more . . . unique customers, you can satisfy their particular tastes with something more bespoke (multiple partners in a steamy poetry slam, poems that—shock horror—don't even rhyme!).

Posh busking. Have you ever seen an opera singer busking outside Harvey Nick's? Well you soon will do, baby! Imagine middle class white girls in huge ballgowns, singing librettos with a full band behind her, sipping tea from a Hendrick's gin tea cup. Perhaps a sign that reads 'suggested minimum donation: £5' will help part the up-market shoppers from their money.

Banksy-style interior design. Painting walls and buildings has worked for graffiti artists and those wishing to leave interesting memorials all over the world, from Britain to Brazil. But why not turn things on their heads and do the spray-painting inside, instead? Sod Changing Rooms—do it the guerilla way!

Rush-hour tube cinema. Take your laptop, your short films and a bunch of your mates. Partition of part of a tube carriage with blankets, newspaper or whatever you can get your hands on, and set up a mobile rush-hour cinema. Ask for £1 for each person who comes to see your films, and then you can flog copies of the DVD afterwards for £2. A bargain, right? You just might have to watch out for commuter rage.

And there you have it. Five simple ways to earn some cash by being creative. Note that we're not endorsing, promoting or encouraging . . . we're just suggesting you might like to think outside the box.

Why don't you come up with some of your own ideas and share them with us here?

Science Fiction/Fantasy - The Genre of Queers?

2011-08-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

There's something about science fiction and fantasy that draws queers in. Whether it's the thread of change and transformation, rewriting bodies along physiological and psychological lines, or the otherworldly allure of a place far, far from reality, there seems to be something inherently queer about these weirdest of genres.

In films like Ghost in the Shell, the concept of individuality and humanity is called into question, so that the very human soul is called into doubt. For viewers (or readers of the original manga) who might be struggling with their own individuality, and wondering whether they're normal, there is a seductive allure to a world where even computer programmes can become 'human'.

In V for Vendetta, we see fascism and oppression challenged, and rooted out by human defiance. That there is a lesbian love story motivating anti-hero V adds an additional level of resonance for queer readers.

Even The Little Mermaid, where a half-woman princess dreams of becoming a real girl, has shades of the queer in there. Disney allegedly based the camp villainy of Ursula the sea witch on the drag queen Divine. There's something decidedly queer too about her sucking, grasping, swallowing skirt of tentacles, which, like the biting vagina dentata of horror film Teeth, promises a terrifying sexuality that troubles and unsettles heterosexual norms. Ursula is the most sexualised character in the film, boisterously claiming all Ariel needs to win her man is 'body language' and draping herself over every surface she can in languorous, tempting fashion. There's something parodic about her sexuality, like Mae West, but in place of where a vagina should be, she has monstrous tentacles that suggest a depth most penises would not boldly go.

Perhaps in being a genre of monsters, halflings, and (quite literally) fairies, science fiction/fantasy provides room for us to question, explore and imagine our own sexual and gender transformations in a way the real world can't.

Plantation

2011-08-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

[originally published in Ex Plus Ultra]

I planted the corpse

in Massa's garden,

to see if a slave

could bear fruit.

I watered, fertilised,

and hoed the land that hated

him, while waiting

patiently for blossoms.

He spreads roots, in need

of some, crossing

map lines; reaching,

I guess, back home.

And when the roots burst

through soil, I could see

they were iron

chains, growing from his feet

In spring his head was a cloud

of cotton, and slowly, through

to summer, his bones, grown massive,

yawned into a branching corona.

Birds nested in his arms,

children sat on his shoulders,

and ghosts clung to

the rungs of his frame.

He never bore leaves,

instead telling a story

through silence: witness

of a history best forgotten.

How Soon is Now?

2011-08-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

How Soon is Now? was a devised performance piece created with Amy Lame and Scottee.

As part of the tour for her work-in-progress show, Amy Lame's Unhappy Birthday, writer/performer/DJ/modern wonderwoman Amy and her director/performance artist friend Scottee are conducting outreach workshops with young writers and performers to develop the How Soon is Now? shows.

The night came together as a cabaret of sorts, with Afreena Islam giving a striptease out of her burkha and into her normal clothes (jeans and a T-shirt), while Bekke Platt did a reverse striptease from her underwear into the burkha. Meanwhile Philip Brankin was a Jewish tiger, I was a dragged-up 'Tabloid Wino', and Amy Lame interviewed us in ridiculously postmodern fashion.

The night was fun, emotional and powerful, and I genuinely think the audience was moved. A number of people came up to me afterwards and thanked or congratulated me for my Amy Winehouse poem.

How Soon is Now? and Amy's interactive scratch performance afterwards have both opened my eyes to new possibilities with performance. I was out of my comfort zone (as was the audience) and I loved it.

You'll be seeing more of this kind of work from me. Just you wait and see.

Beyonce Wants Groceries

2011-08-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but love this when I saw it! Thanks to Cameron for sharing:

Opportunity for Writers & Performers

2011-08-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Want to perform your work as part of the Manchester Pride Fringe?
Want to rub shoulders with the very best of Black and Asian queer talent?
Fancy being recorded for a 'Queer Peepal Pride' film?

Local writer, journalist and performer Adam Lowe will be hosting an outreach workshop on themes of identity, gender, celebrity and speaking out, which will be held earlier the same day as Peepal Tree/SABLE's Sections of an Orange Manchester Pride Fringe event (Friday 19th August), 3.15-5.45pm, at Friends' Meeting House.

Writers/performers from any background, and of any experience level, are welcome to create and devise new work, with the chance to be included in the evening's showcase at Taurus on Canal Street, alongside legendary poets Rommi Smith, Dorothea Smartt and Seni Seneviratne.

Participants should bring with them one magazine and one newspaper, plus a pen and paper. It is also helpful, but not essential, to be familiar with Sections of an Orange by Anton Nimblett and Caribbean Erotic (ed. by Opal Palmer Adisa and Donna Aza Weir-Soley), as themes from these books will be explored in the session. Signed copies will be available to purchase if needed.

Places are limited. Please RSVP to secure your place. As some of the material written in the session might be recorded, remember to get your gladrags on!

Upcoming Appearances

2011-08-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

So here's a quick roundup of where I'll be over the next few months. These will be updated as and when I get more details:

August
Friday 19th - Queer Peepal Pride - Peepal Tree Press/Inscribe workshop,
part of Manchester Pride Fringe Festival
Venue: Friends' Meeting House, Manchester
Time: 3.15-5.45pm
Price: FREE (RSVP to adam@peepaltreepress.com)

Friday 19th - Sections of an Orange: Black Queer Pride Speaks Out
Venue: Taurus Bar, Canal Street, Manchester
Time: 7.30-10pm
Price: FREE (RSVP to adam@peepaltreepress.com)
with Rommi Smith, Seni Seneviratne, Dorothea Smartt, Thomas Glave, rukus! Federation, Peepal Tree Press, SABLE LitMag and guests

September
Thursday 22nd - Chapman & Scarecrow Leeds Alumni Reading
Venue: The Brotherton Library
Time: TBC
Price: FREE
with Ian Duhig, John Whale, Ian Parks and David Tait

Saturday 24th - Peepal Tree Press 25th Anniversary Showcase
Venue: The Carriageworks, Leeds
Time: 4.15-5.30pm
Price: £7/8 (buy tickets)
with Seni Seneviratne, Simon Murray and Zodwa Nyoni; introduced by Jeremy Poynting.

October
Saturday 8th - Leeds Lieder+ Composers & Poets Forum
Venue: Leeds College of Music
Time: 11am
Price: TBC
with Rommi Smith, Ian Duhig, David Tait, Nikki Franklin, et al.

Sunday 9th - A Pleasant Sunday Afternoon
Venue: Zion Arts Centre, Stretford Road, Manchester
Time: From 10am, throughout the day
Price: FREE
with Afshan Lodhi, Gerry Potter, et al.

Bookmarked: A Huge Thanks

2011-08-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank everyone for all their support at the launch of Bookmarked on Monday. It was so positive to have something like this despite some of the more chaotic things going on in the UK at the minute.

I have to say, Sarah Winman and SJ Watson were absolute stars. I loved their readings, and they were so incredibly laidback and welcoming. Sarah even gave Simon and I a huge hug and a kiss at the end of it all.

It was also truly wonderful to meet the publishers, Alison and Helena.

You can find more details and pictures here.

Queer Peepal Pride

2011-08-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Thomas Glave of Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG) doesn't see himself as an activist. Dorothea Smartt takes umbrage with the assumption that she's heterosexual, that because she's black she must be homophobic and that because she's a black woman who speaks out, she must also be angry. She doesn't consider herself an activist either.

I have never considered myself an activist, although I am undoubtedly political and involve myself regularly with politics and pro-human rights activities. You only have to see my Twitter feed to see that.

But I think it's important for queer people, and black people, to speak out. That's why I decided there should be an event that catered for people like me, like Dorothea, and like Thomas at this year's Manchester Pride Fringe.

In the last year, we've seen members of the LGBTQ community murdered abroad just for being queer. Gay magazines still prefer to put white muscle Marys on their covers over skinny black guys. And there's always been a level of uneasiness around women who speak out, whatever their sexuality or ethnicity. My mother, although straight, used to get accused of being a dyke all the time, simply because she stood up for what she believed in and had a shaven head. It's hardly any wonder she became good friends with the outspoken Julie Bindel.

But speaking out doesn't always mean shouting and cussing, standing in the street waving placards or performing a citizen's arrest on morally dubious heads of state. We can speak out in more subtle ways. For example, Rommi Smith's appointment as the only ever Parliamentary Writer-in-Residence was a seminal moment. There was a queer woman of Nigerian descent, writing about political matters, from inside the establishment. It was a moment when British politics allowed people like me to speak out in the most public of arenas. It's something that makes me proud to be British.

Rommi's forthcoming sequence, Mornings and Midnights, tells the tale of an African-American soul diva who strives for a comeback but instead gets the opportunity to speak for and about herself in an industry that has seen others take credit for her own work. It speaks volumes, in a fun and deliciously musical way, about the empowerment had by speaking for yourself, no matter who you are.

Seni Seneviratne's Yorkshire accent is something that sends delight coursing through me every time I hear it. Her poems in Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin deal with the unique perspective of a queer woman raised in Leeds (my own hometime) by an English mother and a Sri Lankan father. Her tendency to sing traditional English ballads is juxtaposed by the poems of life from another culture. She is both British and Asian, and the two things are inextricable. They cannot be separated, because both elements inform each other. And in doing so, they speak out for difference and togetherness and all the spaces between. She reminds us that whether we're queer or we're black, we're all in this together. We're all part of the same world.

These writers speak out in various ways, combining music, politics, passion, food, sex, fashion and love, and that's what I wanted to show. I wanted people to see that our community is wonderfully diverse, and that you don't have to be Peter Tatchell or Ben Somerskill, or even Nelson Mandela, to make a stand for what you believe in. There are little ways, lots of little ways, that we can make a stand every day, and the words of these fabulous writers can help us celebrate that.

Adam Lowe is a writer, publisher and journalist from Leeds who now lives in Manchester. His novella Troglodye Rose came out in 2009 from Cadaverine Publications and will be reissued in an expanded novel-length edition from Lethe Press the other side of the Mayan Apocalypse.

Terror Scribes

2011-08-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Mark West has posted his write-up of the Chesterfield Terror Scribes even here. Unfortunately, I had to miss it because of a last minute meeting at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, regarding my BBC-funded attachment as a young writer there.

I'm totally gutted (to coin a phrase) that I missed it! But it gave me the idea to throw my own at some point. As a member, anyone can organise their own event—and I think Manchester would be a great location!

However if I do it, I'd want to do some kind of writing workshop as well, or a seminar on publishing. I like value-added things like that. But of course, the drinking and reading is welcome too.

Tragic Amy's World of Pain

2011-07-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: This poem was created as part of an outreach workshop by Amy Lame and her director and collaborator Scottee at Contact Theatre in Manchester. The result was How Soon is Now?, a cabaret-style performance which preceeded a scratch performance of Amy's Unhappy Birthday. Both elements of the show went down spectacularly, and you can see my ridiculous 'Tabloid Amy' outfit here.]

Reporter: I bring before you the death of Amy Jade

Winehouse, aged 27, born on the 14^th September

1983 in London. She was a divorced lady

living at Camden Square, NW1. She was

certified dead at her home on July 23^rd.

She was a singer-songwriter at the time

of her death and was identified by her family

here this morning. The scene was investigated

by police and determined non-suspicious.

Witness 1: Here lies the heart of Amy Winehouse.

Father: Amy was about one thing . . . and that was love.

Amy: Love is a losing game . . .

Reporter: Tragic Amy's world of pain.

£1,000 a day on a cocktail of drugs.

Sylvia Young: She changed schools at 15—I've heard it said

she was expelled; she wasn't. I'd never have expelled Amy.

Scotland Yard: Results of toxicology tests will take two

to four weeks, which help establish the cause of death.

Father: We're devastated and I'm

speechless, but thank you for coming.

Reporter: Amy Winehouse's tortured life was last

night laid bare by her stylist:

Stylist: Amy, you were a beautiful, shining light.

Too fragile, too beautiful, too big a talent for this world.

Mother: Amy's problem is always in my face.

If I want an update on what state she's in

I just have to turn on the television.

Witness 1: Here lies the heart of Amy Winehouse.

Mother: I knew I could turn on the TV and learn the worst.

Father: We're devastated and I'm

speechless, but thank you for coming.

Mother: She was never a bad child.

Amy will always be my little girl

sitting on the window singing.

Witness 1: Erratic, brash and out of control.

Mother: But it's not just the famous kids, is it?

Stylist: She was a supremely kind, modest, loving girl,

and I should know—I was her stylist.

Mother: I reached the stage with Amy where I planned

to ask her where she'd want to be buried.

Witness 2: We are fans and came to get a feel for the moment.

Father: We're devastated and I'm

speechless, but thank you for coming.

Witness 1: That scene where she throws dirt on her own grave

in 'Back to Black' . . .

Stylist: That video was tragically prophetic.

Reporter: The latest member of the 27 Club.

Stylist: She loved food.

I watched her as she swallowed

seven £300 wraps of heroin

before boarding the plane.

Witness 1: So huge, and yet so dark.

Stylist: At the heart of it, Amy

was simply a lovely, bubbly

Jewish girl who wanted to be loved.

Reporter: The Venn diagram of her appeal

was an endless series of bubbles.

Stylist: She was very generous.

She bought all the drugs.

At one point she was basically

I Love West Leeds Young Writers Mix

2011-07-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

ILWL YoungWriters Mix by ilovewestleeds

Gregor Dallas vs the SoA vs Publishers

2011-07-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

There's always lots of doom and gloom in the publishing world. I see myself as an optimist. In my opinion, many people are missing the opportunities a changing publishing sector can offer.

"We’re going through a major crisis in publishing and authors are suffering a great deal," claims historian Gregor Dallas. "I see marginalisation and poverty and good books which are not being published. Authors are angry. The SoA could point out to the public that there has been a precipitous decline in the quality of books in the past 10 years, be vocal about it. They could question publishers over the way they are selecting books at the moment."

Others seem to be in agreement. Author Mary Hoffman adds: "I could wish publishers had been more supportive of authors and not gone down the road of deep discounting. But that’s the past. The only way forward is for writers and publishers to work together."

Now, while I agree there are more books of lower quality, this isn't in itself a bad thing. What it suggests is that reading is now a populist pasttime as much as an elite one. Books shouldn't be the preserve of academics and the rich. More books is always a good thing, so long as there are methods to sort the wheat from the chaff (such as book bloggers, reviewers, and word-of-mouth). If we get more bad books, that can only be a problem if the number of good books drops. If it stays exactly the same, or even increases, because of bad books, then I can see no problem at all. Instead there are more opportunities being created, not fewer, and perhaps this new generation of writers can pull the oldschool into the digital present.

Former Scottish chair of the SoA, and writer in her own right, Nicola Morgan, says: "I agree that life is very difficult for many writers and there is a narrowing of choice and a cheapening of what we do. There are times to speak out robustly about this and times to work more persuasively behind the scenes. What I like about the SoA is its ability to do both at the right times."

I disagree, again. I like doing that, don't I? But put simply: while old avenues are no longer proving viable, there are ways we can explore new avenues, which can only multiply as writing goes online, goes live, trickles through by SMS and email, appears in subway stations and on billboards. You just have to be creative--which is what writers should be, right?

Agent Claire Alexander of Aitken Alexander has also weighed in: "It’s true that the big corporate publishers are narrowing their range. But they’re businesses. And it’s never been more easy for authors to find ways to readers outside of the big publishers, through independents and through e-books and print-on-demand."

Of course I would argue it's often just as difficult to get an agent too, focussed as they are at signing authors with the big publishers. But both Morgan and Alexander are missing the point: there will always be more people writing more books if literacy levels increase. There will also be more bad books if the means of production are distributed more widely, and if publishing becomes more accessible. To argue against this would be madness, in my opinion. Don't we want more people to read and write?

"Our job is to further the rights and interests of authors and you can see the work we do on our website," said current secretary general of the SoA, Nicola Solomon.

Solomon is open about her bias, her vested interests, and they are noble ones. But bad writers are writers too. Populist writers are writers too (and arguably, very successful ones). Perhaps what she needs to understand is that she's actually trying to preserve an archaic set of conditions, priviledges and opportunities which are dying out.

There's more than one criterion for success as a writer. For some it's literary accolades. For others it's entertaining people, or reaching out to as wide an audience as possible.

The problem, perhaps, isn't a decline in quality. It's an outdated publishing model, which sees huge amounts of waste, snobbery, exclusion and little financial reward for your average writer on the street. Perhaps it's the way we've traditionally thought of paying writers: per copy sold only. There's too much emphasis on the book. This seems silly when the time it takes to write a book is compared to the measly amounts writers get in return.

I prefer to see things more holistically.

If you look at music, you can see the industry is changing. People no longer put monetary value on music, because they flick on the TV or radio and hear it for free, or download their favourite tracks illegally at any one of the various torrent sites out there. As music has become more accessible, it has become less valuable as a recorded artefact.

But conversely, music-lovers are paying more and more to see their favourite artists live. The recorded, digital, online, printed experience is something everyone can have. It's no longer special. It's on-demand, at the fingertips, 24-7. But a live performance is something very different. I've noticed that at book readings, most people present will buy a copy of the book. Many will pay to see poets onstage. This reflects what I've witnessed as a journalist at music festivals and gigs. That in-person, live experience is something that isn't everyday. It is rare now. And for that reason, it's where the value lies for consumers.

Musicians used to do gigs to promote their music. Writers used to do readings to promote their books. But I think now we're seeing something different: the CDs, the books, the music videos are all marketing materials. What we're selling is the performer and the real, lived experience of a show. And for that, an audience will pay. It fits into everything we can see around us: people are interested in people. Celebrities make money from everything but artistic endeavour, it seems.

So maybe the big publishers need to pick up on what the small presses have intuitively known for years: books sell, but they're not exactly profitable for all authors; performances are popular, and people place value in real experiences over digital/solitary/recorded ones, because they're now the exception rather than the rule. If a writer can get £200, £300, £400 for a performance or workshop, that's the equivalent of selling a few hundred books and can be done in a day. Plus the audience will carry the memory of that experience with them, and hopefully buy some books at some point too.

Maybe the SoA, the agents and the publishers should just get with the programme, and recognise there are other ways for writers to make money, and look at how they can adapt to those instead? Just a thought.

Nefertiti

2011-07-14T03:43:00.000-07:00

[originally published in Ex Plus Ultra, this is the definitive version]

We ate sunsets for supper

as my passionately distracted,

dedicated husband pulled

Venus and Vesper from the sky.

Mornings were a celebration:

serenading dawn, as he

handed us fistfuls of molten gold,

splashed in honey and milk for breakfast.

Noon was intense, baking

the clay of our backs into

reluctant bricks, regimented

into a broad daylight temple.

By sundown we were withdrawn,

and I withdrew, taking my bone

chalice from under the bed

and cutting down to the river.

There I bathed in the whaling

ultrasound of the gravid Phoebe,

cooling to silver, becoming mother-

of-pearl in her gaze; remembering

as I lusted for limbs of pallid light:

all that glitters is not gold.

Bookmarked in Stylist

2011-07-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well it seems the latest Emerald Street newsletter from Stylist has brought a fair bit of attention to Bookmarked! Already we've had frantic emails asking for more details.

Well, folks, do not fear. We should have all the details confirmed early next week. In the meantime, you can sign up to Bookmarked updates and news (along with news on events and launches, my own work, and a variety of other things) over here. We promise not to flood your inboxes or anything, and you can subscribe only to the newsletters you're interested in (poetry or fiction, for example).

Newsletter subscribers will get all the ticketing information and headliners' information in advance of everyone else.

Tanith Lee and the Perplexing Publishers

2011-07-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

I mentioned last month that midlist authors sometimes struggle if they get 'disappointing sales'. It's worth mentioning that some great authors, too, occasionally get the cold shoulder from their publishing houses for reasons that seem less than clear. Tanith Lee is one such author.

It truly is perplexing. Tanith, who has sold consistently (one gathers) across the years, and who has a sizeable body of work behind her, can't work out why the major publishers no longer want to work with her.

In the comments section of the same interview at Lambda, someone also pointed out that it isn't as simple as bigger authors moving on to the small and indie presses. Naturally, these smaller publishers don't have the same economies of scale, and so their reach and the financial rewards involved can both be much smaller.

But it's not all doom and gloom. I do know writers who make a decent living from small press publications. You just have to work in a different way to make in the money, which is perhaps another challenge in itself, but one most creative individuals could overcome if they embrace it.

With the big publishers, you need a book a year, on cue, and you need to play ball. With the small publishers you need to be willing to put yourself out there and do, for example, festivals and workshops to supplement your book sales.

£300-£500 a day is relatively normal in these circles for festival and workshop appearances (at least here in the UK). An author might have to sell 500 copies of a book to make that same amount of money. If you can get one or two bookings a month, that may be enough with book sales and the sales of short pieces to magazines. It may make up for a lack of an advance and fewer sales.

Another option is writing residencies, fellowships and commissions, although these don’t allow as much time for working on one’s own projects and require some element of performance, teaching or ticking boxes.

It would, of course, be better if writers could just get a decent living wage for their work . . . but that’s not going to happen and isn’t feasible under current book trade and publishing models.

I’m curious to see how shifting/developing platforms for writing change things. Even novelists like Salman Rushdie are considering other options (such as writing for TV). Clive Barker has also, unless I’m mistaken, written for computer games. I once got commissioned to write SMS poetry to send to visitors at a local museum. It’s strange, really.

Are there any writers out there who'd care to share their own experience of the change from big to small press?

An excellent review of Tanith's collection Disturbed by Her Song is available to read here. Or, if you trust me, you can read my own review from last year here.

Uncovering 'Overlooked' Fiction: A Contradiction in Terms?

2011-06-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

My friend, book blogger, and fellow advice columnist at a certain national gay mag, Simon Savidge, recently made a blog about 'overlooked' fiction (and his post deals with fiction only, and not poetry, non-fiction or drama). He asked his readers where they discovered the kinds of fiction Fiction Uncovered features, which he describes as 'hidden gems'.

But for me there's an inherent problem in trying to discover/uncover this writing that's 'under the radar'. ‘Overlooked’ is a difficult term to quantify. In the comments, one person suggested Iain M. Banks' speculative fiction writing might be such overlooked fiction. But while Iain M. Banks’ SF writing may not be as widely known in non-genre circles as his work as Iain Banks, it’s still pretty mainstream and shifts lots of copies, depending on who you ask. In fact, I’d say most industry people would see all Mr Banks’ work as mainstream with strong sales, regardless of genre.

‘Overlooked’ and ‘under the radar’, in book terms, would really only mean a title that’s sold less than 1,000 copies (around 4,000 copies is the midlist authors’ average, again depending on who you ask), or a title that's sold a few thousand but perhaps over a very long period of time (I leave this interpretation necessarily vague). More specifically, it might mean a book that’s only sold a few hundred copies and that probably comes from a small or independent press. Or, as often happens, a book with a mainstream publisher that dropped off the radar and was buried because of low/disappointing sales. But remember also that 'disappointing sales' can vary wildly by author, publisher and book.

Fiction Uncovered still pretty much deals with what would otherwise be considered midlist novels. It doesn't really claim to unearth hidden treasure, although the 'uncovered' part of the title subtly places that suggestion in the back of readers' minds. It's very clever marketing--I mean, who doesn't like to support an underdog?

There is, of course, a very good reason to promote our midlist authors--especially since midlist authors are often left in limbo when ditched by bigger publishers, and they may subsequently struggle to settle into the very different expectations and demands of a small press outfit. Some midlist authors find the idea of self-motivated book promotion, and sales led by events and readings rather than big chain bookstores, a very different environment to the one they're used to. I have a few midlist friends (one whose book was even adapted into a TV show on the BBC), and they all speak of the frustration of editors who no longer return their calls, or don't want to hear about their new project unless it fits a very small niche. I feel for such writers, and have seen many turn instead to the small press. Tanith Lee has even bemoaned the disinterest of bigger publishers, and has had a wealth of small press releases in the last few years.

But, as usual, I digress, and this is a very different topic which I will address elsewhere.

Getting back on track, I guess the problem with trying to find real overlooked novels is that, by definition, you’re unlikely to stumble across them.

Once such gem I absolutely adored was Rhys Hughes’ The Percolated Stars. It was such a polished, yet satirical and whimsically beautiful novel, but is only available in a handful of places (you probably can get it on Amazon now, but 8 years ago when I first bought it, you couldn’t).

Discovering those real overlooked books would be a difficult feat, but I venture it's also an important task that should, if someone had the time/energy/masochistic tendencies, deliver some truly 'under the radar' greats.

Save a Word Today!

2011-06-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sponsor a dying word today at Save the Word. One of mine is odynometer: a device for measuring pain. For example, the pain of rapping my knuckles with Caribbean Erotic is an 11 on the odynometer. There are other great words too, like panchymagogue, miliaceous and frutescent. This is a wonderful resource for all you poets out there--but remember to use these words judiciously if you plan to submit the work to an editor afterwards, eh? ;)

Bookmarked: A New Literary Salon for Manchester

2011-06-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well some of you may have already seen over at Savidge Reads that my co-conspirator and I are setting up a new literary salon in Manchester.

Bookmarked will be like Richard & Judy, but with two guys, in a bookshop, and with a bar.

Details are coalescing pretty quickly and we hope to have some concrete information coming forth soon.

At the moment, I just want to thank Gav Reads for designing our logo, and will ask that you kindly hold your horses (I know how excited you must all be!) until we can shed a bit more light on this wonderful new venture.

In the meantime, happy writing!

With Thanks to Jill Scott (Audio)

2011-06-20T07:46:00.001-07:00

For those of you who liked the last poem, here it is as read by me:

With Thanks to Jill Scott by Adam Beyonce Lowe

(Originally published on PoetCasting.co.uk)

With Thanks to Jill Scott

2011-06-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

As I listen to Jill Scott,
careless of the clock in my kitchen,
I dream you into my arms.

You are warm
and snug as foetal.
Enveloped tightly,
so I can feel your breathing.

As I listen to Jill Scott
I am elated,
as time slows to
an elliptical rosary of full stops.

And although you're not here,
and indeed never were,
she leads me to believe
maybe you can be
or even
that it doesn't matter;
that as long as I hold these feelings,
I stay real.

As I listen to Jill Scott,
remembering the whisper
of your hair
against my ear
as you pull me near in embrace,
I know, without a doubt,
that this is love.

originally published as July 2009 Poem of the Month at James Nash's website.

Bestseller Checklist: Why I'm a Cynic

2011-06-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

Over at his blog today, author Arthur Zulu offers a wonderfully detailed and well researched article on bestselling/famous/enduring authors and what helped them get to where they are (the first in a series). But while I agree his pointers are, by and large, excellent advice for writers, I'm not convinced any checklist can make a bestseller.

Am I a cynic? Or perhaps it's the naivety of thinking good writing transcends checklists?

Well let me point out, it's probably not so much the latter. I am well aware certain kinds of writing dominate the bestseller lists, but I'm also well aware that the criteria by which these books were chosen is mostly different to the criteria which saw Dickens get to the top.

You see, I think it's a lot to do with marketing. Which is the cynic in me. I also think it's a lot to do with accessibility. People are omnivorous when it comes to entertainment and culture now: more people are reading, they're reading more formats, and reading is a less high-brow pursuit than it might have been a hundred years ago (and necessarily so). But people are also tweeting, watching a greater variety of TV and film, and generally enjoying creative output as widely as they can (in a suitably disposable fashion).

Note that I don't think there's anything wrong with this. I'm glad some forms of culture are no longer the domain of an educated elite, but are becoming part of the readily-consumed mass media.

But I think this lends a different culture of success. It's no longer, strictly speaking, the best writers who are lauded and/or successful (if indeed they ever were). The bestsellers are your celeb (and I like the term 'sleb' here, for its mirroring of the term 'pleb') autobiographies, your cinematic thrillers, and whatever's on Richard & Judy's Book Club reading list. Often great books become great not because of how well written they are, but because they create a space for social discourse. (We mustn't forget, too, that Dickens and Shakespeare were, in their time, popular writers, although with clearly more talent than some similar writers of today.)

Dan Brown echoes our obsession with TV thrillers, but also the increasing weight given during times of war to conspiracy theories, and our increasingly agnostic/atheistic unease with organised religion.

Harry Potter not only allowed adults to re-engage with their own childhood, but it also allowed them to reconnect to kids who might otherwise be drifting away with the advent of computer games and Facebook.

Similarly, you might want to argue that Twitter has grown as a conduit for self-expression as governments increasingly fail to listen to the people they're said to represent and commercial entities gain further control over representation and popular ideology.

So . . . yeah, this has turned into a rant. But to summarise: I think there's more at work at shaping the bestsellers list than good writing (for better or for worse). But go check out Arthur's post anyway if you're at all serious about good writing.

And the Dead White Poets Came Down and Imbued Him with Their Glory

2011-06-15T03:09:00.000-07:00

A few months back, Magma Poetry started an interesting debate about the word 'poet' and who the 'title' should be given to. The debate has just started up again, so I thought I'd share my thoughts. Further details are available here.

Some of the definitions of the word, given in the comments section, seem needlessly elitist and snobbish to me. But I think the problem is a semantic one. Magma used the word 'title', which suggests being a 'poet' is an honorific, perhaps only granted by the Queen and Parliament, rather like 'knight'.

But surely it's a job description as well? The original blog author, Rob Mackenzie, offers this interpretation, and as a working poet you'd think he might carry some authority on the matter. However, not all the blog readers agree, which seems an odd contrast to me.

Must a poet wait for the great Dead White Poets to descend and grant her a title? Must he wait for a conclave of Oxbridge professors to ratify him? Must they speak only in iambic pentameter and only write poetry all day, even while they starve?

'Poet' may, in various cultures and at various times, be a title. But I live in the 21st Century, and the dictionary says a poet is a person who writes poetry. That's good enough for me. Anything else is an argument about 'worthiness', which is something modern poetry has been trying to disentangle itself from for decades.

Let people call themselves what they like and enough of the prescriptivism already.

Leeds Lieder+

2011-06-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Rommi Smith and I joined Ian Duhig, Joanne Brandon, David Tait, Adham Smart and Shamshad Khan at the Leeds Leider+ Composers & Poets Forum. This wide-ranging army of poets has teamed up with composers such as Nikki Franklin, Edward Bell and Ella Jarmin-Pinto to produce fusions of classical music and poetry. I always said I had class (and no one believed me!). Somehow I also agreed to perform my own poem, unlike most of the collaborators, who will be drawing in classically-trained singers. But don't expect any operatics from me . . .

VS Naipaul's Silly Rant

2011-06-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

VS Naipaul has now claimed women are 'unequal' to him in the writing game. He says they write 'feminine tosh' and they are 'not a complete master of a house'. I guess he's neither met my mother nor visited her house (which she rules entirely and unquestionably).

Not only are his comments very old-fashioned and clearly sexist, I'd also say they're grossly uninformed. Naipaul claims he can tell if a writer is male or female from the first few paragraphs. He seems to be referring to the idea of 'feminine language'. But while it might be said some women write in 'feminine language', others clearly do not. Moreover, some men write very florid, feminine prose (and poetry) too. I also don't think the 'boy's language' of certain male writers can be said to be any less inhibiting.

I'm not sure which female writers Naipaul has been reading, but they're not the same writers I read. Angela Carter is frequently full of gore. Deb Hoag writes scenes that'd make a monkey blush. Candy Caradoc is clearly a madwoman. Poppy Z. Brite writes about cannibal, serial-killer homos delighting in human flesh. Nancy A. Collins writes about arse-kicking punk vampires that could show Uma Thurman's Bride a thing or two about coldblooded murder.

It troubles me, too, that his target is Jane Austen. Yes, her writing is about (as Kryten from Red Dwarf puts it) 'penetrating 19th century observations of middle-class manners', but it's hardly what you'd call modern. If his whole basis for female writing is a handful of books written when bussels were bigger than The Bible, he's showing his ignorance.

I also fail to understand how writing about 'sentimental' or 'feminine' subject matter makes for a more 'narrow view of the world' than writing only about unsentimental or 'masculine' issues.

Does Toni Morisson's Beloved express a 'narrow view of the world'? Or does it highlight the attrocities of slavery, the effect on an entire race of people, and the aftershocks that still ripple through American society today? It doesn't sound too narrow to me.

Literary journalist Alex Clark said: 'It’s absurd. I suspect VS Naipaul thinks that there isn’t anyone who is his equal. Is he really saying that writers such as Hilary Mantel, A S Byatt, Iris Murdoch are sentimental or write feminine tosh?'

Helen Brown, at The Daily Telegraph, said: 'It certainly would be difficult to find a woman writer whose ego was equal to that of Naipaul. I’m sure his arrogant, attention-seeking views make many male writers cringe too. He should heed the words of George Eliot – a female writer – whose works have had a far more profound impact on world culture than his.

'She wrote: "Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact."'

Most of my favourite writers are women. I love male writers too, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't be writing today if it wasn't for Douglas Adams, Jeff VanderMeer and Rhys Hughes. But neither would I be writing if it wasn't for the women I've mentioned above.

Quite frankly, he's the one talking a lot of tosh.

Writing Competitions

2011-05-31T07:20:00.000-07:00

Writing competitions are the subject over at Derek Haines' Vandalism of Words blog.

Guest blogger Tiffany A. Turbin Santos discusses her methods for picking writing competitions. I like her suggestions. As Tiffany points out, the cost of entry must be worth it. I read about a competition recently where there was a £10 entry fee (high in most cases), with a possible £10,000 prize (which is very good). However, in the small print, it said the prize awarded would be limited by the amount recovered in entry fees. So unless 1,000 people enter the prize, you won't win that advertised £10,000 (you may only win £100, or £200).

These are things to bear in mind. Is the chance worth it? Possibly. If it's a highly respected and competitive prize, it'll get lots of entrants. On the otherhand, if you're up against at least 999 entrants, your chances of winning that £10,000 prize money are greatly diminished. If your story doesn't sync with the preferences of the judging panel, it might be a waste of money you resent paying.

My own personal preference is to enter contests that are free first. Then enter prizes with a low cost but a decent prize. Then finally, if I have money left over, enter the more prestigious but costly contests, only if I think I have something which fits 80% or more with the tastes of the judging panel.

The last bit is the hardest, because it means research and (possibly) shelling out even more money as you hunt down obscure books to gauge the judges' tastes.

Duotrope's Digest has plenty of competitions in its listings. I'd probably start there, although you can also try here.

What criteria do you have for selecting contests? How have you fared?

At the moment it seems I'm making my choices wisely, because I have had a number of respectable nominations and shortlistings, but only one actual win.

Maybe 2011 will be the year, huh?

Picnic

2011-05-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

From Tupperware containers, in the shade
of Kirkstall Abbey, we assemble
elderflower jam and scotch eggs into a tale
of origins, of stolen red bicycles
on holiday in Wales.

The wasps' intrigue reminds us
to keep our hands clean.

You end up sitting on a daisy
without realising, and when you stand
it's pressed flat against your 501s,
tacky with chlorophyll.

Time passes, throwing
the Abbey's shadow around
like the silhouette of a drunken sundial.
When the sky begins to bruise,
we pack ourselves up,
discard the wrappers and take
empty Tupperware back to empty houses.

originally published at I Love West Leeds

Sackville Gardens

2011-05-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is a short poem I wrote the other day while basking in this unusual sunshine in Manchester. Sackville Gardens, for non-locals, is on the edge of the Village and is always full of gay men.

Sackville Gardens

Beneath the boughs, clusters of lovers and friends,
bunched like blossoms
along a slender spring branch
crested with watercolour pinks, whites, blues.
The steady chatter of companions,
the delicate birdsong clatter,
of the fruiting loom
of community. The perfume,
gentle, a colophon
of unity through diversity,
of colour between
strokes of light and shade.

Royal Tipples

2011-04-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

iDrinks have more than 20 recipes for royal wedding-themed cocktails this bank holiday. Here are a few:

Wedding Cake Martini

2 oz Cranberry juice
1 tsp Sugar
0.5 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 oz Vodka

Place all ingredients in shaker with ice. Shake. Strain well.

Kir Royale

7 parts Champagne
1 part Creme de Cassis

Fill a glass 3/4 full with champagne. Add a few drops of
Framboise or creme de cassis.

Royal Romance

1.5 oz Gin
0.5 oz Grand Marnier
2 dashes Grenadine
1 oz Passion Fruit Syrup

Mix together with crushed ice in a glass and garnish with mint
leaves.

Check out the full list here.

Workshops in Barnsley Tomorrow

2011-04-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is short notice, I know, but it's been one of those weeks/months/years!

If anyone is passing through Barnsley tomorrow, why not pop into Wentworth Castle for one of two workshops:

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Precious Cargo

Join author Adam Lowe as he leads you on a creative and imaginative journey through landscapes real and imagined at both Cannon Hall and Wentworth Castle.

Explore the stories and histories of Barnsley through the five senses and develop your own responses to the gardens, landmarks and plant collections. This is at once a tour of the sites, using storytelling and poetry, and a workshop in you are witness and creator.

Aimed at people of any experience level, the workshop will culminate in the opportunity to read your work, get feedback from an award-winning writer and publisher, and have your own writing developed for inclusion in the Stories of the World project.

The Precious Cargo project is led by young people and more than 15 museums in Yorkshire. It is part of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme Stories of the World, which is led by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

8th May and 5th June 2011 12 noon to 1.30pm and 2pm to 3.30pm

Outdoor clothing needed as you will be walking around the park and gardens.

FREE, booking essential contact 01226 790270

Carrion Flight of the Harpsichords

2011-04-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

[with thanks to Ian Duhig]

Son of Norman McCaig, anatomist
Ewan builds harpsichords with vulture
quills to make his own kind of poetry
when the bony keys are tapped like ribs.

Flemish-style virginals; open casket
muselars, ottavini and spinets;
katabatic instruments assembled with passion,
hunger and flair. Compassed and pitched,

when played they flew him on scavenger wings,
to soar rapterish above Gott's park.

originally published at I Love West Leeds

Branching Out: Peepal Tree Press | Spike Magazine

2011-04-12T05:27:00.000-07:00

Check out this great post by Peepal Tree's publisher, Jeremy Poynting (I get a brief mention in there too):

Branching Out: Peepal Tree Press | Spike Magazine

Workshop: Joe Orton Exercises

2011-03-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here's quite an interesting workshop using 'Joe Orton exercises' over at the Untold London website: http://www.untoldlondon.org.uk/article/joe-orton-writing-exercises.

Try them out and see what they yield for you.

Workshop: Defeating Writer's Block

2011-03-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have several ways to defeat writer's block. Here's an exercise that you might find useful.

Preparation
First of all, grab your pen and paper, or your PC, or your typewriter. Choose whatever medium and/or instrument you feel most comfortable in. However, if you have been doing that and are still having writer's block, try switching media instead. Sometimes something as simple as changing from blue to black ink, or moving from paper to PC, can be enough to get that spark going again.

Then switch off the TV and kill all distractions. Seclude yourself if need be.

The Exercise
Take an object. Something that interests you. First of all begin describing that object in purely physical terms. Describe it exactly as you sense it, using as many of the five senses as possible.

Next describe how the object might change over time. Does it stay locked in a bottom drawer until discovered years later by a nosy teen, who then learns something that changes them? Does it wither and die? Does it become something better?

Alternatively, go backwards. Delve into memory. What was the item doing in the past? Who held it? Why? What significance does it have?

Finally, give the object context. Where is it? How does it relate to that space? How does it reflect upon its owner or its surroundings? What is the impact of the object upon the lived world?

Send me your writing samples and I will critique them on here (in a constructive way, of course).

Spindle

2011-03-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

It becomes clear
why Sleeping Beauty
needed sleep.

She was too enamoured
of pricks.

originally published at I Love West Leeds

Workshop: Wave Theory Plus

2011-03-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

There is a pretty famous writing technique called the Wave Theory. In practice, it's about characterisation and breaks down into three things:

emotion
dialogue
action

So you would write first the emotion, then the dialogue, then the action (or reaction). Such as:

Harry was furious. 'How dare you tell me my wand isn't up to scratch, Hermione?' he said, as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door.

Now, as you can see, the technique has some benefits and some drawbacks. It does indeed show us how the character feels and characterises him as a bit of a big baby. But it also tells us his emotional state upfront, which has become exceedingly unfashionable among fiction writers.

I propose, then, the Wave Theory Plus. Complete the exercise as before, for any character you can think of, but afterwards, go back and delete the 'emotion' part. From your writing it should be clear how the character feels and acts anyway:

'How dare you tell me my wand isn't up to scratch, Hermione?' he said, as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door.

Better, no?

If this doesn't work for you, perhaps layer in more action, or more dialogue, and take it from there.

Workshop: Props

2011-02-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

Do you ever use props in your writing? I don't mean a skull to gaze at or a quill pen to write with. I mean a prop within the scene. Is your hero doing the washing up, for example? Or is she filing her nails?

Erika Marks offers a good workshop on props here.

Can you try writing with props? Fancy sending me some samples to discuss on here?

Freedom, Money, Time

2011-02-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

I've just been reading a rather interesting ebook called Lateral Action by Mark McGuinness. In it he claims creatives need three things to achieve happiness in their day-to-day working lives:

freedom
money
time

Freedom to do what you want (creatively and as a 'job), and the freedom to do it when you want. For many this means flexible working times, variety and, most importantly, choice. For me this is especially important. I get bored doing the same things over and over again. While routine is sometimes welcome, repetition and rote are not.

Money means financial rewards and proper remuneration for what a creative person does. There's nothing more demotivating than slogging your guts off for something you love and never seeing any financial returns. It makes you doubt your own skills. It makes you question whether you should continue. It's also the number one reason many creative individuals end up taking 'normal' jobs at the cost of the creative industries. Creatives need time to be creative, which means they need money to free them up. If they have to work three part-time jobs in restaurants, bars and call centres, they're less likely to be out there making art or contributing to our cultural economy.

As a young writer I understand this problem most of all. For a long time I had little to no money, and this was very deflating. My productivity dropped and I began to wonder if it would ever happen . . . but luckily, I soldiered on, determined, and convinced I would one day be rewarded for my hard work. I did all those awful jobs no one wants to do, and pretty much lived off the support and goodwill of friends. Then I got a lucky break--and before I knew it, people were actively commissioning me for new work, or getting in touch to book me for workshops and lectures. Things came together. This inspired me so much my productivity went through the roof and my happiness with it.

Time ties in with both freedom and money. If you're always working hard, desperate to pay your bills, then you don't have time to pursue artistic endeavours. You don't have the freedom to be creative.

This is a very interesting argument, and one I wholly agree with. Why don't you check it out and see how you can increase not only your productivity but your happiness as well?

Here's the link to Mark McGuinness' free ebook.

Hattersley Loom

2011-02-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

Iron dragon
rags girls around
  by their dyed cotton hair, 
leaves them
torn.

originally published at I Love West Leeds

Creative Motivation

2011-02-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

Orna Ross blogged recently about the difference between 'payoff motivators' and the internal motivations of creative individuals. Payoff motivators would be the impetus of bankers chasing big bonuses. The motivations of a creative person, however, might be in whatever interests them, in the creative stimulus they get from completing their work. One is goal oriented, and results in processes that focus entirely on completion of a given task or reaching a fixed point, with very clear outcomes. Once that point is finished, that project is put on the shelf and a new goal is sought. Creative individuals, however, might pursue things in a more conceptual fashion, or for the enjoyment of the pursuit itself.

Perhaps, as Orna suggests, moving away from payouts and bonuses, and towards a system of recognising individual talent and skill, and the needs of the individual, should be the focus not just of the creative industries--but of our society as a whole.

What motivates you? Reaching the finish line for a specific reward? Or the rewards of the pursuit itself?

The Deep Blue Sea - Reflections

2011-02-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

Check out the Facebook event here.

BBC Writersroom & The West Yorkshire Playhouse
present . . .

The Deep Blue Sea - Reflections
Saturday 12 March at 5pm
Quarry Theatre

Five young writers, Maisie Barker, Jo Brandon, Grace Cunnington, Adam Lowe and Zodwa Nyoni, have written 15-minute plays inspired by The Deep Blue Sea.

Join us for this showcase of five brand new pieces by five brand new writers on themes of love, death, betrayal and desire. The plays will be directed by James Blakey.

The WYP Young Writers' Group is supported by BBC Writersroom.

This event is free to ticket holders of The Deep Blue Sea but must be pre-booked. Otherwise tickets are £5 each.

The WYP Young Writers' Group came through a residency at I Love West Leeds Festival 2010. Extracts of their work can be seen at http://www.ilovewestleeds.co.uk/

Workshop: I Am

2011-02-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

This is a very short workshop I usually give to kids or people who've never written before. I'm presenting it as something you might use in your own work with kids or new writers, although it's equally fun to do this yourself.

It's very, very simple, but quite effective. Its power lies in the act of completion. The most intimidating thing for most writers (especially beginners) is starting a project--because their focus is on the finish line instead. Because they see a big project ahead of them, they panic. This workshop allows those writers to finish something by focussing on the simple--on small steps--on detail--to render an effective poem without it taking a lifetime.

Firstly, the writers are invited to use their senses and/or their awareness of detail in their surroundings and in stimulus objects made available to them. For instance, if your workshop involves walking down a highstreet, point out a few poetic images: the perfume of asphalt and car fumes; the jingling pockets and purses of shoppers; the ching of stopping buses.

If you're presenting stimulus objects, your examples might be the rustle of screwed-up cellophane, the cold-smooth of a new silver spoon, or the elusive smell of hard plastic.

The focus is on two things: detail and the senses. That is, the specific as rooted through the subjective. The detail paints a picture; the use of one or more senses brings that picture alive in the mind of the reader.

Now get your writers to write their own. The trick is that the description has to begin with the word 'the', like my examples above. This point is important in structuring the descriptions in a way we can use later.

Have a read-round of everyone's lines (their noticings of the world around them), which should between them utilise a variety of senses. If everyone has defaulted to sight, which is the most obvious of the five senses, give them encouragement and then ask them to write another description, perhaps similar, but using a different sense. So if they write about the rainbow gleam of oil on water, for instance, they might instead think of the garage smell of that same water. (Writer's note: smell is the most effective sense to use in writing, as it conjures the most actual memory and feeling of place in the reader. Smells are more specific to us than descriptions of sight and touch.)

Once this is done and you feel you've covered a few different senses between the writers involved, get them to add the words 'I am' at the beginning of their sentences. This may require adding another word or two in order to make sense, but should be pretty straight forward.

Now read round again. If done properly, the result should be something like this (using my examples above):

I am the perfume of asphalt and car fumes;
I am the jingling pockets and purses of shoppers;
I am the ching of stopping buses.

I am the rustle of screwed-up cellophane;
I am the cold-smooth of a new silver spoon;
I am the elusive smell of hard plastic.

Now this doesn't have to be a masterpiece (and most likely won't be), but it's a simple exercise to get those who might have little experience of writing to put pen to paper and create something. It gets them to think creatively, to use their skills of observation and their awareness of their surroundings, and finish a poem in a short space of time. It also makes poetry more accessible.

This technique can also be used to develop description for prose, although you probably wouldn't add the 'I am' at the end, unless it was for specific effect.

Have you tried this workshop yourself? Post your own examples below, if you dare.