Timeless world of leaky similes

[hirez]

So the thing that gave me pause when I announced that one could go out and buy a book with words that I'd written in it, was the subset of people who went 'Jolly good, I'll buy one from you at Whitby.' As if I were some no-mark bedroom g*th band with a bag of CD-Rs and/or an 'internet fetish model', and this was just an epic vanity project that I was financing myself so people could blow smoke up my arse about being A Writer.

Which, no.

The obvious view is that those people are steeped in the history of the punk rock, where doing it your bloody self and fuck The Man is the entirely correct thing to do. (See Albini's 'Some of your friends are already this fucked'. It's old, but I don't think it's even slightly out of date.) Hell, I'm steeped in punk and DIY culture and most of my favourite records would make The Man shit himself with hatred, which is perhaps why I like them. Yet here I am, being all Yog's Law compliant, as if I were some shiny twonk fresh from stage-school and ready to bend right over so I can sound like Arctic Patrol or Tenchy Sillyboy or the Pigeon Botherers. About as punk rock as Chris fucking Coldplay.

So what's the difference? Are we having cognitive dissonance yet? Answer that and stay fashionable.

Skiffy publishing != The Music Industry. (Though I suspect it's all owned by the same six corporates. Hurrah for blue-sky synergies.)

I'm just not entirely sure why, yet. I suspect it's because SF is already its own DIY scene, so to consciously work outside that is the sort of Individualist Anarchist thinking that misses the point of Collectivism. Or, to put it another way, if all you have is a pile of Crass records, every other problem can be solved by delving through the small ads in Maximum Rock&Roll. Or, if you will, the subcultures have a problem with impedance matching.

Or maybe I should stop mixing coffee and patent medicines. Yes. Perhaps that would be best.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

You mean you're not an internet fetish model?

By all means pursue the mainstream SF publishers. You'll get a better end product, better editors and generally more kudos. And I'm sure they'll let you have a suitcase-full to flog to your mates at dodgy goth festivals.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I guess in a kind of disturbing and emergent application of Rule 34, we are all Internet Fetish Models. See also 'communicating your personal branding statement' and 'famous for fifteen people'.

Yes. Better editors mean better end product.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Aye. Also, professional publishers can afford better print quality (am I alone in having a geeky love for the little notes about the font and typesetting that some publishers have taken to including in the front- or end-papers?) and nicer cover art, which while not contributing to the text, make a book a more pleasing piece all round.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

You are not alone in your colophonic appreciation.

The thing is though that good quality production is available to all. It just seems to be a feature of the vanity presses that they're about maximising their own profit at the expense of both ends.

There was a tiny press a couple of villages away from where I grew up. I believe they made their own paper, upon which they printed things using old letterpress founts in ancient flatbed presses, and the result was finally hand-bound and sold as art objects for £CHING!

Aha! Here you go: http://www.whittingtonpress.com/

They had open days when the village fete was on, and I wish I still had some of the handbills they printed up for the various events. Gorgeous things they were.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

The problem with the vanity presses is often that they're small operations, so your finished product is limited by the imaginations and abilities of a few dozen people at best. With larger publishers you have access to more talent. Which isn't to say that small operations can't produce things of astonishing beauty, just that you gets what you pays for.

Whittington Press, yes, I've heard of them - I believe they did a stonking Mabinogion a few years back. There's also the excellent craft bookbinder and leather worker Rook's Books in Crystal Palace, who make wonderful books and leather art as well as having a leather-clad car.
http://www.rooksbooks.com/

[inulro.livejournal.com]

am I alone in having a geeky love for the little notes about the font and typesetting that some publishers have taken to including in the front- or end-papers?

No. You are not.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

If you like colophons, find yourself a copy of "The Design of Books" and have a wallow in the high-tech of the '60s book designer.

[miss-soap.livejournal.com]

this was just an epic vanity project that I was financing myself so people could blow smoke up my arse about being A Writer.

I am sayin' nothing.

When can one purchase the tome off've Amazon/the like then?

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Since about last April. Or you can look at it for free on the Google Books.

[miss-soap.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am Out of Touch. Apologies :)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I am sayin' nothing. (Although for the purposes of comedy, I clearly am.)

[miss-soap.livejournal.com]

Heh - bought it now, so ner.

Since we're talking books, I am going to email you for assistance/

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

I think the difference is the desgree to which the two industries are (or are thought of) as essentially evil.

IOW, the music industry is controlling and exploitative of musicians, whereas the publishing industry is just trying to flog books that will sell, so all you need to do is write one of those. Much more democratic.

I have no idea if these stereotypes are actually true, of course.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Heh... precious. :-)

You'll be glad of those people wanting to buy copies at Whitby if they all get remaindered. A mathematician I know from York uni could have been killed when remaindered copies of his text book fell through from the loft space crushing his bed (fortunately he was not in said bed at the time).

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I'm told that book avalanches are a mortal hazard in the library trade. I had no idea that jobbing scientists were similarly affected.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Would I count as a scientist? There's enough literary hazard around here.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I believe you're into Antiquarian territory. Are you perhaps working on a book in which all the Masonic lodges in the country are connected by pentagrams triangles?

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Penfold tiles.

Irregular. Tesselatable. Dug by moles.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Mind you, the "pitiful books that hardly any bugger looks at" section of York uni library had acres of motorised bookshelves to facilitate storage. If you think about it, having a gap for humans to squeeze in takes up lots of space if nobody looks at them. So there were dozens of long long bookshelves and a movable "gap" like tetris or sokoban so if you want a book you move the bookshelves so the "gap" is near the book you want. Except obviously the bookshelves are super duper heavy so the motors are similarly super duper powerful (because they have to be able to move a big roomful of books). You would not believe the number of colourful warning notices about this -- because then to get the book you have to enter the gap which can be shut by incredibly motors. I wonder if any librarians were lost in prototype accidents.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Perhaps in early beta-tests, there was a section of shelving kept clear as a haven to dive into should it all go a bit bugfuck. One would imagine they'd have to advertise for reasonably narrow volunteers.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Heh... I can just imagine the screaming narrow librarian diving for cover as the coders go "Hold on, did you say the 14.2b version of the device driver?"

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Coffee and patent medicines? 12 pints, blow and a good swig of Benylin? I'm not sure that I didn't prefer the original as published in installments hereabouts though, but I'd have to read them both again to be sure.

[jendama.livejournal.com]

I have a pile of Crass vinyl and I'm sure I could scare up some old MR&R mags but neither of them do me any good, and that is a good thing thanks to technology improving over the last 25 years. I purchased my copy from Amazon and I was planning to bring it to Whitby in the hopes that you might sign it. Now I'm not clear if that is all k00l or not. :-/

[hirez.livejournal.com]

No, you're fine. It's just me trying to work things out longhand.