Writing in the Margins MAY Newsletter

I thought I would share the May Writing in the Margins newletter with the community, as I thought there were many pertinent points that people might wish to comment on and debate about..

Continuing on from last month, and my love/hate relationship with the Internet, I watched an excellent programme on the BBC last night – It was their weekly rant also know as the Money Programme and it featured MySpace in an article about the downloading of music from the internet (even though they managed to miss most of their comments about this out of their on-line review !! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4987480.stm

The thrust of the commentary was regarding how this has eaten away at the monoliths of the music, and destroyed their dark destroying power – at least that was what I heard !

It also struck me that this could be equally applied to the publishing and writing community. We are no longer reliant on the antiquated powers of publishing houses, to have our voices heard. Gone are the days where you just had a choice of a very few top, commercially successful authors. Now we have a lot of mediocre ones as well. but agents and commissioning editors don't yet seem to have realised their powers are being curtailed.

In fairness though, these publishing houses do often get it right, their limitation is that they can only bestow their “magic wand” on the very few - to raise them to the elite and the “A” list literati that we must bow down before, worship and seek to follow in their footsteps (I personally just wish they would sort out their book covers - another argument – take no notice – I digress)

The DaVinci Code was the “must have” book in summers gone by, but not because it was constructed of any intellectual prose (the general accepted view of critics), more because the “hype” declared it should be so and it became a status symbol, the must have attachment, along with the mulberry handbag and the boss sunglasses. (That said, no book is a bad book, and it is better we all read something, rather than nothing at all)

I would much rather we all had a true choice and not just distorted opportunity – the right to read what we actually wanted to read from the vast choice out there in the literary community, not just the commercially viable selected offerings from the top publishing houses (please note I have given up on this argument regarding supermarket sales as I think it is flawed and hypocritical, even though on paper it sounds good – I except even I can be wrong occasionally and am now including Tescos on my site…say no more). This systematic selection of only fashionable words at great profit (not for the author but the publishing house) - still feels to me like censorship no matter what anybody calls it and makes me feel very uncomfortable about getting involved.

I write because I have something to say, not necessarily something to sell. I work out my thoughts and feelings by debate, and that is how I move forward in my life both creatively and emotionally. I am happy for someone to disagree with me, in fact need spirited debate to fuel further though, but this wouldn’t be possible if my words were never published.

So this is where the Internet is offering our generation of writers an amazing opportunity, one which enables us to connect, communicate and scatter our words in cyber space (hopefully also making a small buck or two and gaining satisfaction of a published word whilst doing so.). It has also brought to my attention one or two authors I wouldn’t have touched, based on book covers alone (ouch – sorry), and my world would have been a much shallower and uneducated place without reading their works.

I don’t think downloading music is bad, at least people are listening to music rather than playing games, and this is then encouraging creation of new music as there is an outlet – proactive not passive, so beneficial to all and self-perpetuating. Now extend this argument to books – ebooks, blogs, forums, self-publishing sites, such as LuLu and Writing.com –the outcome will be the encouragement of proactive writers, not just frustrated readers – everyone wins.

Your task for this month – new or experienced writers - get your old rejected manuscripts, scraps of paper, poems, short stories, memoires, whatever you have written over the past few months/years/lifetime and get them out there in whatever form or format suits. Don’t give a second thought to any rejection letter you might have had, or discouraging grunts from next-of-kin. If it is truly bad, you will see that for yourself once you expose it to the light of day, and once you stop cringing, that is then your chance to revise, reformat, review, consolidate and re-present a new version for consideration.

There is no limit to the number of times you can do this, go for it… nobody will laugh, strike you off their friends list, call you stupid (and if they do – just dump them anyway, they are working for your inner editor, not you !!) - The majority I assure you will admire your courage, because that is what it is, courage to expose those words to the light, and then the more you do it, the more confident your words will become, and they will contain the greater ability to stand on their own feet.

The internet is solely a medium like any other, use it is a platform, firstly to getting published and then to spread the news about your good fortune and to encourage booksales - you also get an added bonus – freedom of speech and the benefit of my words of wisdom – shame - you can’t win them all

Are you still reading this? - shoo...

Best wishes everyone…Keep writing

First published on:http://www.writinginthemargins.co.uk
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