Thanks so much for this lovely post, Philip! I am a collection development librarian in Colorado (buyer of non-fiction) and agree wholeheartedly with you about the publishing industry. I'm so tired of having to buy half-baked celebrity memoirs (as just one example) because that's where they put their advance and marketing money. I do want to put it out there that we public librarians are doing our best to bring hidden gems to our patrons. I also appreciate your nuanced commentary on the political situation in the US, especially the notes of hope you sound. I wish your book the best of luck and wish we could have it in our collection. I'll see about getting the digital version for myself even though I am usually a hard-copy old-school print girl. :)
My wife and I dropped off over twenty copies in Little Free Libraries in Colorado (Fort Collins, Boulder, and Denver), though I doubt any of them are still on the shelves by now.
Though I have very few print copies left, I do love the idea of one of them finding a home in a brick-and-mortar public library . . .
Samuel Johnson, who will be remembered long after we are forgotten, was quoted as saying "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Is that a bit of archaic 18th century wisdom or is it true today?
There are ways, and yet again more ways, to make or not make money from one’s writing! Poets don’t expect much return for their labors, and yet still they write poems, while novelists can at least always hope for a big payday.
With my odd project, I’ve tried to create a different model than the one I’d been following all my life as a writer. The long journey of the print edition of What the Dead Can Say was pure literary gift-giving, a direct line from writer to reader via Little Free Libraries. Now, though, the novel has been reincarnated in an expanded digital version (with over 80 pages of bonus content, audio readings of chapter excerpts by nineteen writers, illustrations for every chapter), and access to all that is dependent on reader support. Perhaps reader sign-ups will return my initial investment, perhaps not. But that’s the risk I was willing to take in order to give myself agency as a writer.
I was inspired by this quote from the great slide guitarist and singer Ellen McIlwaine (which appeared in her NYTimes obituary): “I’m tired of being on labels. It’s people with temporary jobs making permanent decisions about your career.”
Thanks so much for this lovely post, Philip! I am a collection development librarian in Colorado (buyer of non-fiction) and agree wholeheartedly with you about the publishing industry. I'm so tired of having to buy half-baked celebrity memoirs (as just one example) because that's where they put their advance and marketing money. I do want to put it out there that we public librarians are doing our best to bring hidden gems to our patrons. I also appreciate your nuanced commentary on the political situation in the US, especially the notes of hope you sound. I wish your book the best of luck and wish we could have it in our collection. I'll see about getting the digital version for myself even though I am usually a hard-copy old-school print girl. :)
Thank you, Terzah!
My wife and I dropped off over twenty copies in Little Free Libraries in Colorado (Fort Collins, Boulder, and Denver), though I doubt any of them are still on the shelves by now.
Though I have very few print copies left, I do love the idea of one of them finding a home in a brick-and-mortar public library . . .
Samuel Johnson, who will be remembered long after we are forgotten, was quoted as saying "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Is that a bit of archaic 18th century wisdom or is it true today?
Hi Ralph, thanks for your comment.
There are ways, and yet again more ways, to make or not make money from one’s writing! Poets don’t expect much return for their labors, and yet still they write poems, while novelists can at least always hope for a big payday.
With my odd project, I’ve tried to create a different model than the one I’d been following all my life as a writer. The long journey of the print edition of What the Dead Can Say was pure literary gift-giving, a direct line from writer to reader via Little Free Libraries. Now, though, the novel has been reincarnated in an expanded digital version (with over 80 pages of bonus content, audio readings of chapter excerpts by nineteen writers, illustrations for every chapter), and access to all that is dependent on reader support. Perhaps reader sign-ups will return my initial investment, perhaps not. But that’s the risk I was willing to take in order to give myself agency as a writer.
https://www.whatthedeadcansay.com
I was inspired by this quote from the great slide guitarist and singer Ellen McIlwaine (which appeared in her NYTimes obituary): “I’m tired of being on labels. It’s people with temporary jobs making permanent decisions about your career.”