Starting the New Year with a Bang!

After a hectic Christmas of seeing lots of folks, and just after taking down the decorations, it was time for last night's Storyclub on Twelfth Night, very appropriately. There were many top notch tales on offer with Jon and Dave doing two very fine stories each including a hilarious explanation of how come the cuckoo lays its eggs in other bird's nests, and a post modern twist on a Zen what's luck anyway? wisdom tale. Jenny Moon turned up and did a great tale from China about a potter, with her usual wonderful dance-like movements. Deor did a truly epic tale from the Finnish Kalevala about the suitors of the Maiden of the North. I was impressed, as it was right at the end of the evening, and we'd had a whole lot of stories, when he embarked on the epic (in all senses) song from the cycle, and it's quite a depressing tale too (despite the marriage at the end) but the audience made such a racket at the end that they'd obviously been held in its grip all the way! It went down a storm. I was going to tell my tale on my own, but had been torn between three tales - a tale about lighting (which Deor assured me I'd told there before!), the Plat Eye (another from the American Deep South tales of the supernatural which I've been telling a lot of lately) and finally, a ghost story set on Christmas Eve from Cornwall. I favoured the last, but the 'voice' wouldn't come. The first two and I knew how I'd tell them, but the third? 'I can't hear it' I said. To which Deor replied as the central character 'Hrumph!' and so it turned suddenly into a duo tale! I told the tale, framed it, and was the two other characters, while Deor was Ezekiel Gross. It seemed to work, and was fun to do for the first time! It was a really good evening, and our book stall had more stock than ever, as, in addition to the Books of...Trilogy, 'Porlock the Warlock' and 'A Brief History of the Concept of Justice', we also had the fourth in the Trilogy, AND - having taken advantage of (rather than getting cross about) the snow having cancelled so many things, in addition to the Christmas break, to work on projects instead, Cartwheels Collective Press has now just issued a booklet of my short stories - 'The Dream Realm'. So the stall could offer seven books, chapbooks, etc. in all, and very kindly, people came up to buy 'Porlock'  and the first copies of 'The Dream Realm' to be sold! Then I remembered something I'd heard somewhere about marketing - that when there are just a couple of things, folks don't generally buy. But when there's a whole lot of things to really choose from...that's a different story.
   Then today, I got paid for a couple of articles which I wrote before Christmas for a web content provider, and Pemmican Press e-mailed to say that the poem they accepted last Autumn is now up on the website! What a great start to the New Year...I hope good things come to you all too!

Highs and Lows in the Arts

So much keeps happening, the highs and lows of working in the arts. On the the former front, today a heap of thank yous arrived from Instow School, with lots of words for sound, and material that appeared to be from a lesson or session where the idea had been run with, and the pupils had written more structured poems as a result, as well as photos including a picture of one pupil holding up his list of 56 words - hopefully with pride! but who likes having their picture taken?! It made one feel that the workshops had gone even a bit better than we'd thought.

This followed hot on the heels of a print copy of 20x20 Magazine arriving - and what a delicious addition to any library of literary magazines it makes. Beautifully produced, in its trademark square format, I was as ever really struck by just how good the work is (and not just because I had a piece in it...).

And these followed on from a great review of the stories we did at the Garden of Awen in February, in Tasty Fanzine! Always nice to be appreciated. Apparently Widsith & Deor 'are genuine entertainers' - well, we do (with some tales anyway!) aim to make people laugh as well as think.

We also got a thank you from the person who booked our 'Temptation and Redemption Show'. And 'Not What One Was - A Brief History of the Concept of Justice' a series of political philosophy short snappy essays on current affairs (Cartwheels Collective Publishing's latest book) is starting to sell.

On the downside, the wonderful Northcott Theatre (Exeter's largest theatre) has gone into administration, incredibly. This is very bad news for the arts in E.Devon, as they not only put on a great range of productions from ballet, opera and conventional theatre to contemporary dance, visual/physical theatre and puppetry, but also have a gallery space, massive outreach in the form of a community company and youth theatre, and too much else to mention. It would be disastrous if they were allowed to close. As well as being a huge blow for Exeter University students as it's a resource for drama students and does cut price tickets for everyone who studies or works there.

And of course there are funding cuts everywhere. We storytellers are organizing a fundraising gig in aid of the Centre for Contemporary Art in the Natural World (CCANW) at Haldon Forest Park over Easter, as they, like Spoken/Written, had to resubmit a funding application, and were set the unenviable challenge of raising £20,000 in two months.

Moreover Spoken/Written will, in all likelihood have to split into two with the larger newsletter becoming a paying only service in early summer, as of course, it has only been given funding until the end of July. Shoestrings are getting thinner, and more organizations, groups and artists are having to exist on them. Here's to a spirit of rising to the challenge - it's the only attitude that will keep the arts sector afloat in difficult times.

Check out; 20x20 Magazine

http://www.20x20magazine.com/

Tasty Fanzine

http://www.tastyfanzine.org.uk/gigs64feb10.htm#GardenOfAwen

'Not What One Was' at Cartwheels Collective Publishing's Webshop

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/Web_Shop.html

Fundraiser for CCANW

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/W%26D_Host.html

Centre for Contemporary Art in the Natural World

http://www.ccanw.co.uk/

To ISBN or not to ISBN?

Previously, everybody who published a book thought of ISBNs as a must have. For a start, before the copyright libraries got totally overwhelmed with works (some drivel, and others so poorly made that they needed to be held up with an elastic band), bookshops only stocked titles that had them. Now however, sure Waterstones will only stock them if you have one. But who buys books that aren't travel guides or the latest t.v. promotion, 'celebrity' ghost-written books or recipe books in Waterstones? Most of the independent or smaller bookshops are increasingly hard to find and hard pushed. Certainly some famous ones strong on a certain type of book (radical, poetry, cookbooks or whatever) survive, but tend to be specialists. A friend of mine has published many books, and stocks them in Waterstones, where they only ever shift if he holds a signing or related event.

Also, what guarantee have you got that the big retailers will stock (never mind sell) them when you have to badger their distributor first, and they may turn you down anyway?

People say you have to have an ISBN to be stocked on Amazon. This is true, but how many small press publications have you bought from Amazon lately? And what of the cut they take? True they stock obscure and wonderful books you can't get elsewhere, but most of those I buy, for instance, tend to be by authors known in classic circles, like Cocteau, or Kandinsky. And if I do want to buy a poetry book by a fine author whose collection isn't in the mass media's narrow circles a lot, (say James Turner's 'Forgeries') then I already know enough of either author or publisher to contact them directly to buy my copy knowing that they'll get more of the money than if I'd gone through Amazon!

If someone's heard of The Books of...Trilogy, it would be surprising if they also didn't know of either my name or that of the Cartwheels Collective & Publishing arm. Anyone looking up 'Porlock the Warlock' on Google should get the Cartwheels Collective website and hence Webshop. Why bother with Amazon? The same goes for Barnes & Noble.

Most people don't need the 10 ISBNs you have to buy for £110 plus £18 postage. In their dreams they might, but other friends of mine who have bought 10, they have helped sell no copies at all and they've only ever used one. Cartwheels Collective Publishing has eight titles out (well, the last one will be available in a couple of weeks) and two more in the pipeline. It was at this point that we were always going to review editorial policy as to ISBNs. We've thought about it and rejected it - indeed my co-editor is at this moment writing a piece about the decision on the Cartwheels Collective Publishing google site.

People have got to hear about your work (and it should be work) because of your efforts. ISBNs are not a magic bullet to help shift copies. Once sales are comfortably at the next level, then they will have been issued along the way - when to bother will be self-evident. But starting selling books in limited editions, and the way you get people to know about them is at events, small mags, recommendations, word of mouth and via the web - including (see the last post) tools like Facebook. Never ever expect ornamental accessories from a vanished past like the ISBN (and when it did make a book stand out simply because there were less of them) to do the work for you.

Since ISBNs have effectively been privatized (they are now run by Nielson Book Data), it has become about making money out of book publishers and authors not for book publishers and authors. Hence the end decision of CCP's editorial board not to have them.

An independent publisher with an explicit 'no ISBN' policy is Magic Realms Publications. Check out their well argued case at;

http://magicrealmspublications.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/isbn-the-self-publishers-choice/

If ISBNs have done you any favours, I would love to hear from you! Either via comments below or by e-mailing.

Works referred to;

James Turner's 'Forgeries'

http://thesamsmith.webs.com/originalpluscollections.htm

The Books of...Trilogy;

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/The_Books_of...Series.html

Webshop; http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/Web_Shop.html

Latest Book from Cartwheels Collective Publishing!

And today the new proof copy of 'Not What One Was - A Brief History of the Concept of Justice' arrived! Cartwheels Collective Publishing's latest book with all the required changes, including a red cover instead of blue, and looking good! It should be printed and ready for sale by mid-March. And excitingly, after all the hard work and heartache of agonizing page number layout and font size alterations, the nightmare of Contents page number switches and all the rest that goes with the printing process, we have our first pre-order, having only announced the book a couple of hours ago on Facebook!

There's been a lot of tough administrative stuff lately, and never mind printer-stress, some negative scene things on the work front, as well as more financial worries, so this is all the more heartening and cheering for our tiny editorial team of two at C.C. Publishing!

The new book is a project I'm really proud of. 'A Brief History of Justice' by Matthew Hammond, is a brilliant series of 67 short snappy essays, charting the history of the concept of justice in bite sized pieces from Plato to pretty much the present day. As illustrations/practical examples, the essays take each week's news from last year (and some of the year before) and show how they're influenced by philosophical ideas. It's a completely unique take on both current events, the political landscape, and how the media presents us with the news! Think Roland Barthes' seminal book of popular essays on pop culture 'Mythologies' combined with the lyricism of Walter Benjamin's terrific 'Illuminations' and then mix them with a dash of Pierre Bourdieu's iconoclastic 'On Television' with a dollop of the wonderfully perceptive Michel Foucault, and you may have some idea of what the book's like. It's a great book to 'dip into' as each essay is short, and a fantastic bargain at £9 for a 426 page paperback plus 50p P&P.

The author is an inspirational lecturer, storyteller and stand up philosopher, who has lectured in universities and cafe bars, delivered papers at many academic conferences and performed at many festivals. The essays are taken from his 'Rants of the Week' essays on the Cartwheels Collective website, so if you want to check them out, go to;

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/Ping_Pongs.html

It will soon be available to order from the Webshop at;

http://www.cartwheels-collective.co.uk/Web_Shop.html

(alternatively e-mail me at; bulletin-editor@blueyonder.co.uk)