Travel’s Value for Writers, My Mediterranean Poetry, August Highlights and a Hypothetical Literary Business
If you love literature, my late-summer wrap-up offer a wealth of diverse options
Dear readers,
August’s last TLS post is a big one; a late summer literary harvest, it’s rich in references to other articles, events, publications and readings beyond my own work, both on and off of Substack. I’ve even convened an expert panel on an imagined job role in ‘literary brokerage.’
So please do share this post, sit back with a drink, and enjoy- if you make it ‘til the end, you’ll also learn where we’ll be traveling to in the next four months on my 1st Ephemera section- and, why I’ve eased Paid subscriber rates.
A Fictionistas Guest Article: My Essay on Travel’s Importance for Create Writers
On 14 August, Substack’s major fiction community, Fictionistas, published my essay ‘The Value of Travel for Creative Writers.’ Drawing on my 22 years of professional experience, the article gives specific tips, and explains why travel is so important to fostering creativity, and enhancing story-telling skills far into the future. The advice is not just big-picture but details-oriented too.
An Unexpected Adventure: My Foray into Mediterranean Poetry
Also on 14 August, I published three Byzantine-themed historic poems here, for the Mediterranean Poetry website. The poems really are historic- I wrote them in 2000 while living in Crete. Mediterranean Poetry is a friendly virtual community of international poets, all influenced by the Med. It’s a non-paying market, but they are very kind and open to submissions from poets with a love of the Mediterranean. If interested, read some of the many poems on the website, follow the Submissions steps, and I’ll see you there soon.
Speaking of Poetry: a Great Poetry Event, and a Beat Legend
My return to poetry considered, it was auspicious timing that 16 August rewarded with an online presentation by Kimiko Hahn, an award-winning author of 10 books of poetry. Organized by Author’s Publish, the presentation focused on the key (but often overlooked) factor of how to end a poem. The goals of building resonance and impact on readers, including tactics of repetition and diversion in both formal and free-verse poetry, was what Hahn sought to instill in the many interested attendees.
For theoretical support, Hahn drew on Barbara Hernstein Smith’s Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (1968), a very interesting book I’d not previously encountered. Hahn fleshed this theory out with readings from her own work, Wordsworth, and modern poet Lynn Emanuel. I was impressed with Hahn’s lucid and clear explanations of theory and poetic ‘jargon,’ and her demonstrations of why the sample poems’ endings resonate. Judging from the variety of follow-up questions from the poets in attendance, many others were intrigued too.
Some TLS subscribers will recall that from the very early 1990s, Gary Snyder was among my favorite American Beat Generation poets (though he has long outlived that era), his influences drawn from nature and Buddhism manifesting in sagacious, yet apparently simple lines.
It was a nice surprise, thus, to receive on 18 August a short interview with Chinese-American poet Wang Ping (professor emeritus at Macalester College) recounting a meeting with Snyder, from Simon Warner’s Rock and the Beat Generation stack. “Still active at (age) 93,” Warner says of Snyder, “he has been described as the ‘Poet Laureate of Deep Ecology.” In the interview, Wang Ping discusses meeting Snyder while also serving as Allen Ginsberg’s Chinese interpreter at his 1980 America and China Poetry Festival. The article, which fits in with the stack’s overall historical bent towards interviews with people related to (often, lesser-known) Beats, is a good short read.
More August Articles and Events on Substack
I also enjoyed Elle Griffin’s (The Elysian) article, ‘How to sell your books for $1 million each’). It actually concerns a rare-book dealer catering to high-end customers. This reminded me of my old idea of releasing limited-edition letter-press publications (best for short literature or poetry). While production costs are relatively higher, the collectability factor of art books is a long-term benefit. So, do get in touch if you’re a letter-press publisher, paper-maker, calligrapher, artist or ‘supply-chain’ expert- I’m interested.
Another great August Substack piece was Irish novelist Aisling Maguire’s ‘Lost In Adaptation?’ from her What’s the Story stack. Her question is: what makes some authors (and books) better than others for adaptation in different media? Maguire examines the under-expected case of a 1999 French film adaptation of Melville’s unfinished Billy Budd, which was originally set during the Napoleonic Wars. Maguire notes that the adaptation’s director “moved the action forward to the late 20th century and set it in the French Foreign Legion on duty in Djibouti.” Since I’ve always loved anachronisms and playing with time and setting, in both my work and in the critical evaluation of other writers, this was a fun read.
Shortly after, I was glad to see another chapter appear from Simon K. Jones’ fantasy mash-up in-progress, Tales from the Triverse. He defines The Triverse as comprising ‘Mid-Earth, an alternate 1970s London, Max-Earth, a vision of the 26th century, Palinor, where magic is real.’ I believe Tales from the Triverse will become, at very least, a cult classic someday, but probably more. You can start from the beginning at this link.
Now, I’d thought my own novella of 2000 (the still-unpublished Third Emperor of California (which posits a future island-empire in an antiquarian condition) was complicated enough, but having seen Simon’s example of pushing the boundaries, I am considering finding a point of fusion with another, yet-to-be-announced project… this may manifest as soon as this November. So, thanks again to the general Substack experience for fostering professional interactions that help my writing improve.
I also saw Winston Malone of the Storyletter Xpress Publishing stack help the Substack fiction community at least twice this month. First came this article, asking ‘should you attend writing conferences?’ Specifying his own experience in this area, and how it has evolved from attending panels to volunteering and networking, Malone then opened it up for comments from the community here.
As some of you know, Malone was also kept busy in August as guest-judge of Brian Reindel’s contest, ‘The Lunar Awards' Season 3. Once again getting many great entries, the latest iteration of this speculative short story contest was won by ‘a sword and sorcery tale,’ as Malone dubbed it- "Riding the Vipers" by Caroline Barnard-Smith. A big congrats to her on winning.
And Not To Forget- A Cracking Good Mystery with Max Carrados
Earlier in August, I enjoyed another epic mystery narrated by Simon Stanhope of Bitesized Audio Classics over on YouTube. (Long-time TLS readers will recall his narrations highlighted in my essays on Irish author L.T. Meade and on G.K. Chesterton’s “The Blue Cross”).
Simon performs flawless narrations of mysteries and ghost tales of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. One character whose adventures he’s long recounted, and who I’ve long promised myself to cover here, is the ‘blind detective,’ Max Carrados. This character was the very popular creation of Ernest Bramah (1868-1942), an English author about whom little is known. I’ll devote a full article on both in 2024; for today I’ll introduce the story for your listening pleasure (pour a glass of wine and sit back on the couch- it’s almost 80 minutes long).
The Carrados story narrated, “The Last Exploit of Harry the Actor” (1913) involves an impossible theft from an ultra-secure environment. Max Carrados, referred to by his author as ‘the blind amateur,’ accompanies his more professional friend Mr. Carlyle to the ‘Lucas Street Safe Deposit,’ famed for both its security measures and the high profile of its clients. Without giving away too much, I can say that Carrados uses his senses of hearing and smell to predict that a heist is imminent at a safe considered “hopelessly impregnable.” When Carrados gives subtle indications that he’s on to something, Mr. Carlyle begs his friend with a ‘superhuman sixth sense’ to explain… so begins an intriguing mystery involving a safe-cracking prodigy and Carrados’ unique method of uncovering him. I will not explain further, but simply note the high quality of writing.
A Hypothetical Literary Business Gig? My Expert Survey on the ‘Literary Broker’
Just for fun, I also convened an impromptu expert panel, for a survey on the potential for a hypothetical publishing-industry role. I asked exerts (on and off of Substack) to provide feedback about a role I termed a ‘literary broker’; somewhat different than a literary agent, such a role could be filled by a reasonably informed and skilled person who would work one-on-one with authors to place their work more widely and even make a profit from the author’s up-front ‘investment,’ which would then be shared by previous agreement.
The analogy I gave was to stock-market investing, something about which most people are not expert. Often, therefore, their brokers will recommend a broad basket of index funds of major traded companies, instead of spending time and risk speculating on individual, and perhaps undependable stocks.
I have no actual interest in this model; I was simply interested in the input of others as to its possibility as an industry trend. There could be benefits. Such a role could help solve the writer’s chronic problem: that is, a lack of time to not only write and research for writing, but also market oneself, research the details of new markets, and jump through all the varying hoops of the submission process.
Whether through technological or human engagement, some sort of system should be possible to ameliorate this situation. Every different publication has its own, often random and even downright petty, submissions caveats and rules, plus erratic timetables. Then there’s the issue of fees, which are built into almost every contest submission- and an increasing number of general submissions.
And what if you write in multiple genres? This reduplicates the research time and effort required. One must not only know their market(s), but be sure to follow every imaginable (and many, unimaginable) obscure formatting request, style and presentation preference, all of which differ from publisher to publisher.
Online submission portals like Submittable and Moksha are useful for listing publications seeking submissions. They’re searchable according to various parameters, but journal publishing remains an inexact science, and one with a very low success rate. This reality makes it tempting to simply publish all of one’s work on own platforms (such as Substack); but doing so runs the risk of forgetting that the ‘outside (if equally virtual) world’ still exists, with all of its broader worldwide audiences.
I believe that authors can and should balance self- and traditional-publishing markets, and that some clever person or group will figure out how to do this for everyone’s maximal benefit. I don’t pretend to have answers, and I don’t know if the hypothetical role I suggested is possible. So, I asked others more expert than I.
The idea of a ‘literary broker’ role “could have potential, especially for smaller markets like literary magazines where payment is more likely,” says writer J.M. Elliott, founder of The Problematic Pen stack. “The one pitfall I could foresee is that the financial incentive cuts both ways. In the interest of reaping greater returns on their (time) investment, these brokers (like literary agents) would prefer works and authors that would be a sure thing in an uncertain industry, while rejecting the riskier ones.”
While such a service might be ‘convenient’ for some writers, Elliott continues, they “might also perpetuate the same race to conformity and mediocrity we see in the current system.” Noting that she has worked with a literary agent in past, Elliott says “when I was pitching agents, I'd have been very interested in a kind of concierge service that, say, for a flat fee could have compiled a list of viable candidates for my specific book, worked on the queries, and even handled the submissions for me… Someone please find a comp-finding app or something.”
Another author who only half-jokingly invoked some technological solution to the submissions problem, like even AI, is British writer Christopher Fielden, who runs the annual ‘To Hull and Back’ short-story contest, as well as a very useful regular newsletter of writing contests and other opportunities (one of his new stories also featured in the 2023 anthology, The Book of Bristol: A City in Short Fiction from Comma Press).
Questioning whether such a hypothetical role could ever find a niche, Fielden says “a writer should understand the market they are writing for. Writers who don’t like market research and choose not to invest any time in it are much less likely to succeed as writers.”
Pointing out the need to understand market interest, Fielden gives the example of his main genre, fantasy. “Through reading fantasy, I know which publishers publish fantasy – both large well-known publishers and smaller indie publishers that specialise in the genre. I attend events and am a member, or have been a member, of groups in that genre, like the BFS and Clockhouse London Writers. My interest in the genre has allowed me to understand the market better, meet more people in the industry and that has resulted in more publication success.”
Noting that traditional literary agents work on a percentage share because it incentivizes them, Fielden adds that it “also means they are picky” and most likely to take on writing clients who are sure will sell. As my hypothetical model would require a writer to invest money upfront without any guarantees, and as many writers may not have the budget, anyway, Fielden asks rhetorically if the model would not be “targeting lazy writers who don’t take an interest in reading / the industry?” Whether or not the model could work “would depend on the agent/agency and how they like to work with their clients.”
A third expert I surveyed really helped me better understand where my idea of a ‘literary broker’ has existed in the industry ‘til now. Caitlin Jans, editor of the invaluable Author’s Publish newsletter and organizer of writing events, said that “in a lot of ways the position you are describing already exists.” According to Jans, the best-known variant of this role is called the ‘professional submitter.’ Further specifying, she said that most such submitters “are small scale, and only have a couple of clients at a time. Most are found via word of mouth or professional networking groups.”
However, even here, my hypothetical model hasn’t been tested. “The only thing that is different from my perspective is that the firm and individuals who do this, are usually paid by the hour, rather than percentage of profits,” Jans clarified. She added that a different model is ‘hard to imagine’ because many literary journals do not pay at all, and because winning contests is a long-shot. “The margins are too slim to support someone paid in the way you suggest,” Jans assesses.
“Some people find these services helpful,” Jans concludes, “but I honestly think, in terms of most writers who want to have a sustained career, learning to submit yourself is more important, and there are obviously lots of organizations that focus on facilitating that (including ours).”
The last expert on my panel was an established literary agent, who did not wish to be named as he’s not currently seeking new clients. “Personal ‘brokers’ as you define them, seeking to cash in on the impatience or inexperience of new writers especially, could possibly try this,” the agent said, “but probably not with sustained success.”
However, he added a caveat: “in my opinion, nothing will ever really replace the experience and trust – not to mention legal capacities – of a traditional literary agent who has a legitimate agency behind him or her.”
So there you have it. I’m not sure that my survey definitively answered the main question, but it did raise several interesting points, and I think this alone made it worthwhile for thinking about our position as writers in a constantly-changing (and, sometimes not) ‘media landscape.’
A Final Note: The 1st Ephemera Section and Reduced Rates
I’ve eased Paid subscriber rates to just $7 monthly ($80 yearly), because I want more people to enjoy my best work, in the (paid) 1st Ephemera section. These pieces help you start out each month right, with vivid classic images and very unique stories and essays. This section complements the free stories published monthly on the 11th and 22nd, as I explained in late June’s article on the TLS’ next six months’ publishing structure.
Readers should understand- I would LOVE for everything to be free. But with each new article, the tough decision has to be made: whether to try and sell it on the open market, or post it on Substack (whether paid or for free). If one is a professional writer as I am, this is a crucial question and there is rarely an easy answer.
Anyway, I believe you should know what you’re investing in. So here’s a sneak-peek at the upcoming 1st Ephemera stories: a visit to the Georgian-Russian border (1 September); a fantastical Italy (1 October); Istanbul and the philosophical (1 November), and a comic piece on Kosovo, when under UN rule (1 December). Sound interesting? Well, my friend, sign right up.
Of course, the free articles and stories will continue on the 11th and 22nd (and occasionally, other dates). Along with my short stories in varied genres, fall 2023 on the TLS will cover the history of terrorism in Greece, the travel writing of J.M. Synge, a now-ceased religious experience, Adriatic history reading and more.
So, dear readers, thanks for taking part in this writing adventure, and enjoy the last weeks of summer in splendid fashion. I very much appreciate your support and interest in my work.