What do you want for Christmas?

If your answer is more time, world peace or true love, well, mine too. But I don’t think I can do a whole lot to get them, so I have a few other ideas for gifts that might do a tiny bit of good in this world. Since I’d almost prefer being run over by a Hummer (at least it’s quick) to having to brave the mall on a Saturday, I’ve come up with a different list. This is a tough Christmas for a lot of people, and an awful lot of businesses, too, and I’d like to see people who put out a creative and useful product stay afloat.

My first suggestion is, shop locally. No, I don’t mean your local Ann Taylor or Coldwater Creek (okay, please shop at Coldwater Creek—I have stock in them and it stinks lately), I mean creative, single store merchants that have a personal vision and are selling something unique—the individual clothing shop, the local antiques merchant, the floral or plant store. People that own and run these stores are doing it as much for love as money, and they’ll be willing to talk over your problem giftees and help you come up with something. Shop there before all individuality is eaten alive by mega-corporation homogenization.

Second idea is, how about donating to a charity that has a nifty premium for a gift? National Wildlife Federation has a lot of adorable plushies and great magazines for adults and kids. Ditto World Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club, Audubon, Defenders of Wildlife, etc. I admit I don’t get a real gift thrill out of just making a donation, but these organizations have figured out that it’s a lot more fun if you have something to wrap up, or a nifty magazine.

While we’re on the subject of magazines, most of them are struggling. You can find a magazine for nearly anyone on your list—New Moon is terrific for tweens, and Carus publications has a ton for different age brackets (literary, social sciences and science). For adults, too—go to your local (preferably independent) bookseller, look through the racks and racks, pick one out, mail one of the hundreds of blown-in subscription cards and wrap up the sample. Me, I love Somerset Studio, Belle Armoire, Threads, The Washington Monthly, Marie-Claire Idées, Poets & Writers, Piano, and an armload of others (hint, hint).

A more unusual variation of the magazine gift is the literary journal subscription. In my book these have some distinct advantages: they don’t publish as frequently, hence they don’t remind me of the kind of machine that keeps spitting tennis balls at you, and I don’t add to my six foot bedside stack; and they’re smaller and you can stuff them in a pocket or purse more easily. Ones that I really like or have liked in the past include Alimentum, Granta, Glimmer Train, The Believer, and The Sun. I’ll be reviewing these in more depth one of these days.

If you’re really broke and live near a major city, I have three ideas. Do a search of second hand stores and library used book sales. The stuff at second hand stores can be unbelievable—recent finds include an Irish fisherman handknit sweater for $5, a sequined top for $1 and a Kenneth Cole dress for $5. Call it “vintage” not used and add instant chic. The Nikipedia is the queen of finds, but it really just takes a little browsing, particularly if you can find one that specializes in upscale second hand. Library book sales are amazing—it just makes me heartsick to see books for which I’ve paid $29.95 (still unread) going for $1. A lot of libraries in our area have permanent for-sale shelves or even for-sale rooms. You can come up with a nice armload of mysteries or historicals or biographies, wrap it in a big box and give a huge present for $10, while helping the library. Cheaper than the fines some of us pay, ahem.

Those same libraries, or nearby universities, have concert series for no or very low cost. How about making up a schedule and buying tickets, or designing some fake ones and provide the transportation and companionship to go with them. Me, I’d be delighted to have a friend make a commitment to attend a free series with me—so often I don’t go if I don’t have someone to go with me. And wouldn’t it be fun to have a regular “date” with a friend to do such a fun thing? Or if you’re going to purchase tickets for someone, how about favoring small theater groups, new music or early music ensembles, or student performances? These people can really use support in building an audience, and you’ll be giving something a lot more original than a gift card to the local megaplex.

Finally, don’t buy jewelry as gifts until you check out your local crafts fair or bead store. To my intense aggravation when I’m a seller, people at craft fairs often price jewelry ridiculously low, and have said to me that they just want to get their materials costs back so they can make some more. Grrrgh, but it’s great if you’re the buyer. Also, if you have the slightest jewelry making skills, at a bead store you can put together a nice gemstone bead necklace (often with loaner tools on the premises and the help of the owner) for a fraction of the department store cost. One of the bead stores in my town used to display pictures from the Sundance catalog next to nearly identical beads that you could use to make your own for about 25% of the cost. Also, take a look at the stuff on Etsy.com. My New Year’s resolution is to put stuff in my own “store” there, but in the meantime, there’s plenty of nifty things to buy, all made by highly creative kitchen table entrepreneurs.

Now, do I get an award as Santa’s little helper?

Personal stimulus plan for the arts

If everyone who ever has ever thought about writing a book or majored in English would subscribe to one literary journal, those tiny and usually struggling publications would see their circulations skyrocket. If everyone whose child has ever taken dance lessons would attend one dance performance a month (hey, once a quarter), many dance troupes would find they could actually afford to continue. If everyone who ever enjoyed acting in a high school play would attend three or four experimental theater events or independent movie festivals, these projects wouldn’t have to function in borrowed spaces and decrepit venues.

My point is, all of these things are the training and proving grounds for the arts. If we want to enjoy innovative and creative arts, there has to be an audience that supports them. Plenty of us are interested in being seen ourselves. Couldn’t we benefit by seeing what others are doing? Wouldn’t it just be fun to get our car out of the usual ruts and drive somewhere different?

Not only do the arts desperately need support, but artists also crave feedback. Personally, I have really enjoyed meeting writers at bookstore signings. Hearing Robert Coles speak years ago, I’m still thinking over some of the things he said, and it was a great thrill to meet him in person, to find out how soft spoken and shy he appeared. That kind of opportunity has really diminished in the last year or so, and why? Because publishers are reluctant to take on the expense of sending an author on a book tour where she may find herself sitting alone at a table for hours. People just don’t come, unless the writer is a blockbuster. If we do read a good short story in a lit journal, would it kill us to drop a line to the author? Ever considered that it might be helpful to tell a director of that play what staging you thought worked? Sure, bestselling novelists get more mail than they can handle, but the mid-tier artist often gets very little feedback. At its best, art communicates; it would be nice if the conversation were two-way.

Most of us have cut back on eating out, and perhaps traded first run movies for discs from Netflix. If there’s any room for a tiny bit more belt tightening, perhaps those savings could be put into supporting the small arts production of your choice. I’m currently trying to pick up at least one literary journal per month at the local bookstore, with an eye to finding one or two to subscribe to that I really enjoy and will actually read. Artists and people who would like to see a vibrant arts scene might well consider the wisdom of Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, then what am I? If not now, when?”

Seen any good dance performances lately?

Self-publishing, traditional publishing or somewhere in between

No doubt about it, publishing a book is a pain no matter which way you go. If you go with a traditional publisher, you get a pittance of the sale price. (I don’t say profits, because I’m not so sure publishing houses are seeing much of that these days.) If you self-publish, your sales may be minuscule and your costs high. Still, the relative boom in the self-publishing industry of late says there are a lot of us out there that at least consider the possibility.

Last night Jim Kepler of Adams Press spoke at the Independent Writers of Chicago meeting (great organization—check it out if you’re in the Chicago area.) Jim’s an old friend, and his operation is the old-fashioned kind: honest, full-disclosure and service oriented. He had a few warnings and war stories about what kind of contracts the new self publishing industry can put out, and more than ever it’s clear you better read the fine print and know what you’re signing.

Can self publishing ever work, or is it the last refuge of authors who have been rejected by 75 editors, or think someone will actually be interested in their poems, autobiography or Vietnam War stories? Well, if you’ve made a serious effort at peddling your manuscript (not 2 or 3 lame letters, but a well researched campaign), and everyone’s rejected it, maybe you do need to take a second look or hire a rewrite person. But what it really comes down to is platform. Do you have a way to move a lot of product on your own? Unless your book is a blockbuster (but then, your agent would have already auctioned it) you’re going to get the plain vanilla marketing plan, and most of the marketing will really be done by you, or not at all. At that point, most of us will start thinking about the spread between our 10% royalty on a $19.95 book, the $5.00 in printing costs, and how we could better spend the remaining $12.95. If you’re a speaker who can sell your book in the back of the room, have a company that will use the book as a promo, or can find a way to peddle it yourself (how big is your car trunk?), you might break even or be better off publishing it yourself. Do the math—if you sell 500 copies, and make, say, $10 a copy for a $19.95 book, a publisher is going to need to sell more than 2500 copies for you to make the same amount in royalties. Many, many conventionally published books sell 5,000 or less. Not much for 6 months or a year’s worth of work.

But it’s going to cost you in other ways, mostly in huge amounts of time. I’m not talking about promo here, because you’re probably going to have to do that anyway. I’m talking about shipping, printing, design, editing, order processing, etc. You’ll either do it yourself or find services that you can contract to do it for you, but it’s work, and hours and hours away from actually writing. The whole self publishing industry has thrived on doing all that for you, but that’s going to cost you, too. So, self publishing really comes down to how bad you want to see your book in covers (they don’t call it “vanity press” for nothing) or how good you are at peddling your wares.

Don’t do it without reading up on it first. Dan Poynter is the granddaddy of self-publishing, and it’s worth memorizing his book before you take the plunge. He’s very pro self-publishing, but very honest about how much work it takes. My friend Jim’s operation puts out some good looking books, in case you don’t want to do it all yourself. Elizabeth Lyon’s and Michael Larson’s books are great on the real mechanics of pitching a book. For a dose of reality, check out Elaura Niles’ book. If you read that and still think you can publish a book, my best wishes to you. I’m still thinking it over, myself.

Not a book review

Reviewers hate to give a sincere effort a bad review. Sure, if the book is an obvious stinker—say, a children’s book by a so-called celebrity author—it’s easy to pull out the long knives. When the book obviously entailed a lot of effort and research, and (even worse!) the author appears to be a decent and dedicated person, it’s a lot harder.

Years ago I’d read and enjoyed the first book by she who will not be named. Recently, I even heard her speak, and she seems like a serious and thoughtful writer, my kinda girl. So I was prepared to like her book, and picked it up with great anticipation. It’s an absolute train wreck. Billed as an historical NOVEL, it is blissfully free of any semblance of plot. As one editor put it about bad historical fiction, you can almost see the index cards laid out on the dining room table. I don’t think there was a single fact about the book’s subject that wasn’t crammed in somewhere. Often, the facts were foisted upon the reader by the execrable and neophyte practice of having characters tell each other about facts that each of them had every reason to know already. I probably ground my dental work down by several millimeters while reading those sections.

On and on it goes, for 870 pages. Doesn’t anyone at her (major) publisher own a blue pencil? Is the delete key missing on their keyboard? I wasted night after night of bedtime reading, hoping against hope that somewhere in this phone book this author would eventually hit her stride and give me something to think about. Plus, her main character is such an impossible twit that by page 350 I was rooting for the bad guys to do her in, and ready to cheer when they finally did.

All serious authors by now are asking themselves how this stuff gets published. Disabuse yourself of the notion that you have to be good to get published. There’s a huge greenbacks factor here—the first book made a ton of money, and I’ll bet the presales on this one were enough (ahem) to cover the paper costs and gold foil on the cover. I can’t believe I did my small part by purchasing this brick.

Still, I’m not going to out her. She’s gone on to publish a bunch more books, so someone must like them, and she had many fans when I heard her speak. A lot of work went into this book, and I do applaud that. I’m also a chicken—if I run into her again, I don’t want to have to hide. But if it’s 870 pages long, a Literary Guild Selection, and published by St. Martin’s, don’t buy it!

Used books use authors?

Blogs are all aflutter with countless schemes on how newspapers can find a way to “monetize” their content in an on-line world where we all expect to get our info for free. The Author’s Guild has fought the good fight in trying to secure electronic rights for authors, particularly those of us who signed contracts before there WERE electronic rights. I regularly see a 26 year old article of mine pop up on websites. Needless to say, I never gave away those rights. So, given these huge issues, maybe my concern seems a little trivial, but here goes.

What about used books? Hasn’t an author’s work always been sold and resold without any further compensation paid to the author or publisher? Once upon a time, this wasn’t much of a market. Used bookstores were mostly on college campuses or hidden away in quaint neighborhoods. You poked around and found interesting books you’d never heard of before. But attend any library book sale these days and you can hardly get within spittin’ distance of the shelves and crates. The place is swarming with desperate looking people with portable bar code readers who are checking market prices (used) for every book on the shelf, and dropping the books into crates without even looking at the titles.

Used book selling must be a decent business (if you have sharp enough elbows). Like every other business you can imagine, there’s even a book on how to do it: The Home-Based Bookstore, by Steve Weber. As a seriously addicted book-buyer, I adore used books. Don’t we all love getting something for a buck that used to be $24.95? As an author, not so much. So many writers make so little off their labor, I wish the author’s groups would give a little re-thinking to the whole area of copyright, resale, and author/publisher compensation.