Sunday, April 13, 2014 spring "looking ahead" event

[Kimmy Beach]

For years now I've done on-line events with bookclubs all over the country. When I do this I post (or send) various materials, as well as answering questions. When it comes to face to face events, I've moved from long readings of my own writing, to very short readings, so the "reading" ends up being more of a conversation with the audience. It's a starting place, but, again, I'm looking for new ideas/approaches to the face to face events.

Gotcha. I also really like the idea and practice of Q&A or discussion. Not as opposed to, but in conjunction with a reading. The reading I'm doing next weekend is just that: six of us reading for 15 minutes. That's fine, and is the format so I happily go along with it, but I will miss the audience interaction.

 

[Catherine Bush]

I think there's a great flurry of writing out there, published by traditional publishers and self-published. My real concern looking ahead is about reading and book buying. So many want to write and to publish books but do as many want to read. And buy books? Those who write need to be as willing to read and buy the beautiful writing of others.
I look ahead and I see: no more big box retailers: in Canada that means Chapters/Indigo. I do see savvy independent bookstores hanging on. Not so many but those that can manage to make a place for themselves in a niche market. In the present, I think it's crucial that indie booksellers let readers know that you can order online from them rather than Amazon. Everyone: you should do this! My local indie has started advertising this fact and has gotten even more obscure things to me in a week or less. That may not be quite Amazon speed but after reading about Amazon's treatment of its warehouse workers I won't buy from them. Lord knows, I'm tempted. By their prices and their speed. But every time I think about it, I imagine the desperate, overworked, possibly injured warehouse worker who is given x number of seconds to retrieve my order. Or else. Read George Packer's New Yorker piece about Amazon for details ...
My prediction: Amazon will still be around having knocked off the big-box store competition. Their prices will slowly rise because they have no competition. They will no longer use pesky humans who get tired and injured in their warehouses but drones and robots.
People will read on e-readers and pads but not always.
My hopeful prediction: that people will (re)train their brains to read in two ways: in the scattered, link-y way in which we read online, and in the deeper substantive, extended way that most longer form literature invites.
Here's an article about the difficulty of managing this. A researcher on reading practices who loses her ability to read long-form and deeply but gains it back.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...8028d2-b5d2-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html
Maybe there'll be not just writing conferences and retreats but reading retreats and readers' retreats. No online access. Somewhere beautiful and remote. Where you can reconnect to the world around you and the world you can recreate through reading a book.

(I'll try to get back on here but am in transit!)

 

[Kim McCullough]

The idea of book events is interesting to me, and I've floated ideas with festivals here and there lately, but no one has bitten yet. I really think the future of book events is to make them more multi-media, to have authors present or speak along with other creative people. This is beneficial for everyone. I think authors lend a bit a gravitas to, say, hiphop musicians, and I think the musicians bring a whole other crowd to the author. Recently I spoke at PechaKucha here in Vancouver, with all sorts of other speakers: an architect, a guy who builds robots, an organic dairy farmer. It was by far the biggest, most engaged audience I have ever spoken to. I have no idea if I sold any books (maybe one that I know of for sure), but it brought me 30 new followers in an hour and presented me with an audience of diverse, smart people.

So let's suggest that to our festival organizers and publicists. Let's piggyback on other events that usually only ever see dancers or singers. We can do it!

I agree with this. Artists present with musicians all the time - even just a piano player at an opening.
One of my fave events at Calgary's Wordfest are the readings that are backed up with musicians. And if you have good musicians, they can play along thematically as the reading progresses. It's really beautiful.

 

[Sonal Champsee]

When my publishers put my book Wilderness Mother out of print in 2003 I moped for five years, but also continued to write. Wilderness Mother had been a best-seller and also a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. At the same time I saw the writing on the wall and retrieved rights to my book and put it back into print myself.

Sitting where I am emerging into this in-between phase, this feels like a good model right now. I'd still like to be traditionally published as I think it gives me some credibility as an emerging writer. But then, I love to take control of my work and release it myself.

Mind you, given the years needed for the process, who knows what it will all look like then?

 

[Kim McCullough]

Gotcha. I also really like the idea and practice of Q&A or discussion. Not as opposed to, but in conjunction with a reading. The reading I'm doing next weekend is just that: six of us reading for 15 minutes. That's fine, and is the format so I happily go along with it, but I will miss the audience interaction.

Love this, too. As an attendee, I love the words in the book, but I really connect to the conversation afterwards.

 

[Gail Anderson-Dargatz]

When my publishers put my book Wilderness Mother out of print in 2003 I moped for five years, but also continued to write. Wilderness Mother had been a best-seller and also a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.

Deanna, as I recall, you also published through a collective? Can you tell us more about that?

 

[Gail Anderson-Dargatz]

Mind you, given the years needed for the process, who knows what it will all look like then?

This is the exciting part, and why I wanted to host this one. Us writers can invent that future. What do we want it to look like?

 

[Ania Szado]

I really think the future of book events is to make them more multi-media, to have authors present or speak along with other creative people. This is beneficial for everyone.

I agree. These sorts of mixed/multi-media events are so often interesting and engaging. Here in Toronto, Louise Bak has a long-running series called The Box Salon that brings together different creative performances—and it works very well. It mimics how we come to make things, doesn't it? Different types of artistic practices and genres inspire, influence, and deepen each other. Cross-cultural interactions lead to artistic breakthroughs and the development of the truly "new." It adds invention to our artistic potential.

 

[Kimmy Beach]

My editor story is nightmarish - not her fault, really, as she was misdirected by the publisher, but my substantive edit was geared to make my book appropriate for 13 year olds. Um. I think an editor is crucial. I hear such wonderful stories about good editorial relationships. That's what I want next time, if I get another chance!

Hi Kim! Yes, your story is the stuff of nightmares. I suppose I just feel so lucky right now with my editor that I'd like to keep him forever. I'd pay him myself if I had to in order to ensure that he edits everything I write for the rest of my life!

 

[Kim McCullough]

I teach junior high, and one thing I try to keep in mind is that those kids are our next readers. They will want multi-media, they will want more access to the author. They are connected six ways to Sunday. And while the book is still paramount, they look for more - twitter relationships, online readings etc. I'm not seeing a lot of them reading on e-readers - they still like hard copies. They like to own something they love - touch it, re-read it.
At the same time, they connect online with other readers and the writers, so it's important to meet them where they live.

 

[Georgie Binks]

I look ahead and I see: no more big box retailers: in Canada that means Chapters/Indigo

I think if Indigo wants to stay in business it needs to move the pillows to the back of the store and the books to the front. I would love to see them have, say five writers on hand, Canadian writers too, not just someone like Jim Carrey promoting his book, walking around the store and talking to people about literature, about their own books and the books they like to read.

 

[Kim McCullough]

Hi Kim! Yes, your story is the stuff of nightmares. I suppose I just feel so lucky right now with my editor that I'd like to keep him forever. I'd pay him myself if I had to in order to ensure that he edits everything I write for the rest of my life!

Haha! I thought you meant my novel! (It very much is the stuff of nightmares!) But yes, it was quite the experience.
Yours is one of the stories that made me realize how good it could be.

 

[Sonal Champsee]

Cross-cultural interactions lead to artistic breakthroughs and the development of the truly "new." It adds invention to our artistic potential.

Even beyond different genres, different venues. Diaspora Dialogues recently did a 905 tour (the suburbs around Toronto.) So much gets held downtown here... reaching out into non-traditional venues is something I would have loved growing up.

 

[Gail Anderson-Dargatz]

I think authors lend a bit a gravitas to, say, hiphop musicians, and I think the musicians bring a whole other crowd to the author.

One of my favorite festivals (where my husband and I had our honeymoon!) was the Woody Point festival. Musicians and authors on stage together. Great mix and, as you say, pulls another audience to the writing (and music).

 

[Kim McCullough]

Different types of artistic practices and genres inspire, influence, and deepen each other. Cross-cultural interactions lead to artistic breakthroughs and the development of the truly "new." It adds invention to our artistic potential.

Yes, good point on the cross-cultural!

 

[Mary Novik]

Gail

For years now I've done on-line events with bookclubs all over the country. When I do this I post (or send) various materials, as well as answering questions. When it comes to face to face events, I've moved from long readings of my own writing, to very short readings, so the "reading" ends up being more of a conversation with the audience. It's a starting place, but, again, I'm looking for new ideas/approaches to the face to face events.

Readings have changed so much over the past five years. I can remember writers coming to speak to my students at Langara College and reading one story/chapter that took up the whole hour. Sometimes they didn't even leave time for the students to ask questions. Now, most authors mix it up with short readings spiced up with comments. And Jen Sookfong Lee has a great idea about authors jumping into mixed-media events. I can really see Jen doing that! At the North Shore Writers Festival yesterday, she was the moderator for our panel (me, Daniel Kalla, Roberta Rich, and Sandra Gulland) and she prowled up and down the aisles with her mike like a panther pouncing on audience members to get them to interact and ask questions!

 

[Deanna Kawatski]

I hear you, Nikki. It does seem overwhelming. It's already tough to find time to write in our busy lives (or time/energy to focus long enough to write ...). On the other hand the learning is kind of, well, exciting. Looking forward to hearing from our self-published authors on this one ...

Yes, there is lots to learn but once you've gone through the process once or twice, like anything it gets easier. I find it fun too. I live in the country and likely have less distracted time than my peers enmeshed in urban life. That said, I think we need a team as well. I've designed two book launches with the help of the Gracesprings Collective, to which I belong. They have been Events with music, readings, food, decorations, and an atmosphere of celebration. Each time about one hundred people gathered in the local country hall to take part. Maybe that's not much compared to the city but I so enjoyed them and sold enough books to pay off the print run.

 

[Kim McCullough]

Maybe there'll be not just writing conferences and retreats but reading retreats and readers' retreats. No online access. Somewhere beautiful and remote. Where you can reconnect to the world around you and the world you can recreate through reading a book.

This would be so lovely.

 

[Sonal Champsee]

This is the exciting part, and why I wanted to host this one. Us writers can invent that future. What do we want it to look like?

Somehow, I still like the idea of gatekeepers... whether that's a publisher or some sort of curator of taste or whatever. There's huge problems with that model, I know, but when anyone can publish anything, anyone can promote anything, I'd like some way of determining a bar.

But perhaps there are simply multiple gates. I balk at the idea of simple popularity being a mark of credibility, but hey, popular means sales...

 

[Georgie Binks]

Have any of you promoted your books through youtube.com? We created a video for mine at little cost

although it hasn't exactly gone viral. Are traditional publishers using them?