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6/13/05
:::
QUOTE FROM PAUL AUSTER
"We
all have inner lives. We all feel that we are part of the
world and yet exiled from it. We all burn with the fires of
our own existence. Words are needed to express what is in
us…"
--Paul Auster, in the introduction to I
Thought My Father Was God, a collection of true tales
from NPR's National Story Project.
6/15/05
::: Publishing
101 -- by
Barbara Rushkoff
Barbara Rushkoff, FRESH
YARN CONTRIBUTOR and author of Jewish
Holiday Fun... FOR YOU! rants about the publishing industry.
So
you got a book deal? Are you excited? Do you have daydreams
about it being the Next Big Thing? Do you wonder how it will
look in the front window of Barnes and Noble? Are you ecstatic
about all the press you will get for it? Is that Oprah on
the phone for you?
Aww,
poor baby. I feel sorry for you BECAUSE THAT IS NEVER GOING
TO HAPPEN (unless your name ends in Safran Foer.) I don’t
mean to be all sour grapes or anything. Ok, maybe a little.
I just had grand illusions about book publishing. See, I’ve
watched the movie Peyton Place and imagined myself
as Alison, toiling on her manuscript with her editor nearby
with delicious deli sandwiches, piping hot coffee and shoulder
rubs. My experience didn’t even come close.
Many
years ago I started a zine on a whim while working at a temp
job. I wrote and produced it on the man’s time and on
the man’s dime or during long weekends when Planet
of the Apes marathons ran. I would buy special snacks
like Cool Ranch Doritos and lots of Snapple and stay in my
pajamas the entire time. I would write the zine listening
to the television and lay out the graphics in true cut and
paste fashion. It was totally fun and at the end of the weekend
when I had the mock-up pages to send to the printer I felt
truly accomplished. A week or so later when the finished copies
arrived I felt proud. “I made this,” I would say
as I handed it out to people or dropped it off to bookstores.
That was a great feeling and made me see how writing could
not only be fun, but worthwhile as a creative outlet. So what
if it had typos in it? So does The New York Times.
During
the height of zines, I got some attention for mine and a few
years later, after many book proposals, I finally got
a book deal. Mind you, a tiny book deal, but a book deal.
My head floated, my heart zoomed, and I was determined to
make my book the hidden gem on the humor table. A friend of
mine that also did a zine agreed to design the book for me.
I was in heaven. This was going to be the bestest book ever!
I
painstakingly wrote this 100-page book over the course of
eight months. I used to whip out the zine in a weekend but
this book took me months. I was stretching it out, making
it last, looking for the fun. It felt different though. I
was still trying to write as “me” but in the back
of my mind kept wondering what my mother’s friends were
going to say if I used bad words. I handed in the book early
and waited for a few months before it was even read. The edits
weren’t too bad (although there were no piping hot coffee
and shoulder rubs to get me through the editing process.)
All I had to do was re-write a chapter. Totally. And change
the art. And figure out another cover design. I wanted to
do something irreverent, as the book was totally tongue in
cheek but the publishers didn’t want that. They wanted
a cover that someone could figure out in 2.2 seconds. That’s
the thing when you are dealing with a huge company. Their
salespeople decide the cover not you. Not ever you.
This didn’t sit well with the designer and that’s
when all hell broke lose. Communication broke down, people
were mad, crying and threatening each other and there I was
suddenly pregnant and nauseous, working on edits while in
bed sipping on ginger ale. Oh what a time we had!
The
book ended up being late, the publicist who was evidently
assigned to a whole roster of books didn’t do all that
much for me (she booked one radio show – a Christian
station in the Midwest) and I was too tumescent to even think
about doing readings. Bookstores ran out of my book because
they only ordered a few copies and unlike zines, they don’t
call you to say they need more. A certain hip young chain
store refused to carry it (having the word” Jewish”
in the title seems to be a real turnoff, even in New York
City) and the local reading series didn’t think the book
would be “right” for their crowd (“Too Jewish”
I was told by the big Jew who ran it.) I spent many nights
wondering why I gave up the zine. All this business about
making books made me unenthused about writing because when
you make a deal and money is involved, even small potatoes
money, you have to relinquish control. In my case that meant
a late publication date, virtually no marketing, poor distribution
and a cover that doesn’t work. Just didn’t seem
worth it.
I
think about this as I wheel my daughter Mamie around the neighborhood
for her afternoon walks. Last week we checked out Jonathan
Safran Foer’s new seven million dollar house. Do I want
that? Well, I’d like a house for sure, but do I want
to be embroiled in the business of books to get it? Nah uh,
not for me. The dirty secret of publishing is that very few
people actually make a good living from it. So I’ll take
feeling creative making books or zines myself -- from writing
to designing it to even binding. I don’t think that makes
me any less a writer. It just makes me poor!
The
real question is: do I regret the experience? Hell no! Just
like making a zine, I did in fact make a book. There is something
incredibly satisfying about holding a real live book in your
hand with an ISBN number and everything, especially when your
neighbor knocks on your door during your postpartum depression
to tell you that they got your book and want you to autograph
it for them. That’s what it’s about for me. And
whether I do it myself or with a multi-million dollar corporation
behind me, it really doesn’t matter. Whether you believe
me or not is up to you. This really isn’t sour grapes,
it’s just one reality.
But
I kinda know what you’re thinking anyway. SEVEN MILLION
DOLLAR HOUSE?!
Barbara
Rushkoff's first paying writing job was interviewing MC
Hammer for a teen magazine. After that she started a zine
about Barbie dolls which promptly bought her a highly-publicized
cease and desist order from Mattel. Then she published the
acclaimed jew zine Plotz (which is alive on
the web at www.plotzworld.com).
Her writing has also appeared in Index, Rolling Stone,
People Magazine and Venus. Her book
is called Jewish Fun... FOR YOU!
Why
not check
it out?
6/16/05
::: QUOTE FROM Saints Preserve Us Inspirational Journal
FRESH
YARN contributor Rosemary Rogers has co-written several
fantastic books along with Sean Kelly, including the best-selling
humor/reference book Saints Preserve Us. Here's
a musing from their Inspirational Journal based on the book.
"I
think you are too anxious for the fruit of your little tree…
if there is a true danger, it would be to push her too fast
and force an exterior look without the interior spirit."
-- St. Elizabeth Seton, from "Saints Preserve US!"
Inspirational Journal by Rosemary Rogers and Sean Kelly
TAKE
ME TO THE PERSONAL ESSAYS
FRESH
DAILY ARCHIVES
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