The Power of Story

The power of story.

I believe in this.

Stories tell us who we are. They tell us who we aspire to be. Stories make us better. And I don’t just mean highfalutin literature, but I mean everything from the dime detective novel to flash fiction and genre.

Look, I tried to write a romance novel once. Dismal failure, really. I had this long, convoluted, outline, stock characters, and followed formula to a T. Really, I had the hope to make money. Lots and lots of money. Because, well, I was broke. When I finished the draft, I sent the novel to publisher after publisher. After the first thirty pages, they always wanted to see the complete novel, and I’d send them the whole enchilada, and they’d write back and tell me that, though the story was good, I hadn’t written a romance. Well, what do you mean? There was kissing and some sex scenes, and even a fight to win the honor of the woman. I mean, riveting stuff. Nobody wanted to publish it.^[1] What I didn’t understand was the nature of story. Why it mattered, and why people who read romance read romance. The romance genre is about empowerment^[2].

I’ve tried my hand at fantasy fiction as well because I’ve always admired authors such Patricia Wrede^[3], Ursula K. Le Guin, and I grew up on Dungeons and Dragons without my parents’ knowledge. Again though, I didn’t really understand why I was trying to write these stories about elves and dragons or why the fantasy genre was even important.  Dave Robison writes on his Mythic Scribes blog that, “With a few rare exceptions, genre [fantasy/science-fiction/speculative] fiction is generally dismissed—even disdained—by ‘serious’ authors and critical reviewers alike.” Yet, many people, such as I once did, miss the point of fantasy. The genre opens to possibilities.
I could go through the entire list of genres: western, mystery, erotica,  whatever. Not really my point though. My point is the power of the story, and how that power has erupted across the Western World, thanks to new technologies and cutting edge companies such as Amazon.  It’s like a new Renaissance really, giving people from all walks of life the opportunity to tell their stories. The best invention since the printing press.

Self-publishing seems to get a bad rap though, especially from, well, “serious” authors and critical reviewers.

But if reading even the so-called junk—the romance, the mystery, the fantasy—if even that kind of reading works to empower with possibilities, how much more so does the actual act of writing empower possibility within the individual and society at large? Self-publishing, of course, is not a new endeavor, just the delivery method is new, easier, quicker, and more subversive to the vanguard publishers and gate-keepers. Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Deepak Chopra, Gertrude Stein, Zane Grey, Upton Sinclair, Virginia Wolff, Rudyard Kipling, Henry David Thoreau, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Beatrix Potter…..  those are the footsteps of far greater authors that I walk behind and into. And that’s pretty exciting. Pretty scary power.

So Shakespeare be damned^[4]. Let’s dig into all that indie stuff^[5]! Write something today.

---

^[1] And now that I have the opportunity to publish myself, the thing will still never see the light of day. It has been shoved into a drawer, and should probably be burned.

^[2] Check out Anne Browning Walker’s article on Huffington Post; it’s from 2012, but still a really good read.

^[3] I met Ms. Wrede on a now, I am pretty positive now defunct electronic buliten board, if you remember what those are you have a pretty good idea of how old I am. Wrede encouraged me to attend the University of Iowa and learn more about creative writing. If I had known what I was getting myself into, I would have never taken her advice at the time, but I am so glad I did. I should probably get back in touch with her, though I doubt she even remembers me. I was just another fan I am sure. Another electronic blip that came across the screen in the late 90’s. Maybe she has a Twitter account?

^[4] Um. Not really. A canon of literature exists that tells us where we’ve been and where we should head. The canon, of course, has been traditionally associated with the British, but that mindset is slowly changing. A way more liberal, global approach needs to be still more fully embraced, but then that raises some amazing issues, like how the heck do you catalog all that information, how do begin to study a world literature. More to the point, when do you stop reading?

^[5] Maybe I’m saying this because I myself am an indie author.  I have an alterior motive. Buy my book. No. Actually, don’t do that unless you think you’ll like my book(s). Heck, I’ll give you a free copy if you want. Just email me at stevebargdill@gmail.com with FREE BOOK as the subject heading.

An Insidious Back Story

The press has been all about the Amazon-Hachette dispute. Authors, such as John Grisham, have even signed an open letter, requesting “loyal readers” to email Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, telling him what they really “think” about the “boycotting” of Hatchette authors. The Guardian quoted Publisher’s Lunch reporting “the number of authors signing up to the letter is ‘growing quickly,’ and Publisher’s Lunch’s own coverage of the letter runs a headline that reads, “Open Letter […] Has ‘Gone Viral,’ and whatever that means (I only count 18 authors having signed thus far).

The dispute, for me, is a non-issue, but what’s troubling is the insidious back story that no one’s talking about. The one we should be frightened of: traditional publishers trying to turn public libraries into the next, new, all-improved Amazon. Michael Kozlowski covered this for Good E Reader on June 28^th. It’s a short article, well worth the read. Simon and Schuster now require libraries to offer a Buy It Now button when lending an eBook to a patron. Penguin offers an opt-in program, and had tested the program through the New York public library.

Traditional publishing is scared. Amazon seems to be running away with profits because trade publishers are unable to accept the new paradigm shift in business—similar to what happened in the music industry. I don’t understand why publishers simply don’t create their own Amazon-like online-retail outlet as opposed to corrupting a public institute.

Something needs done about this. I’m not sure what yet, and I am open to suggestions. But this needs stopped. Our community institutions should not—cannot—be turned into commercial enterprises.

Hugh Howey the New 'Gangman Style'

Why are people posting articles on the decline of ebook sales? This article by Nathan Bransford doesn't really answer that question, but it does point out how faulty some of these articles are that claim ebook sales are slumping.

And even though 2013 has seen a plateau, ebook sales are still up in comparison to paper copies. The music industry came into the digital world of mp3 players kicking and screaming, and I don't see the publishing industry doing anything differently. Because the music industry's evolution was so incredibly recent, you would think the publishing world would realize what's happening to their books.

#

Interestingly, hard copies of music (read CDs) still come out on top of the sales charts in the music industry. Last year, 2012, CDs held the market share of music sales at just over 35%, according to Digital Music News. DMN’s Gif doesn’t take into account the increase in the overall size of the music industry though; or the music industry’s 1999 decrease in revenue; or the current plateau the music industry is predicted to have over the next five years (PriceWaterhouse Predicts Near-Zero Music Industy Growth Over the Next 5 Years, Digital Music News).

 

Seems like every time we had a new tech advance though, the music industry experienced an uptick in sales. Just over a year ago in June 2012 ebooks outsold the traditional hard copy paper book, and according to a 2010 survey people who owned a Kindle or Nook purchased more books than they would have if they did not own an ereader. This was all about the time I also decided to self-publish my Wasteland series, when a couple years prior (2009-2010) I made fun of people who self-published. But then came along authors such as Hugh Howey of Wool fame, who brokered an unprecedented print publishing deal with Simon & Schuster. Thanks to literary agents contacting him—not the other way around; not authors contacting agents, begging for representation—and Kristin Nelson was not the first agent to have contacted Howey.

Howey is not the only author to be contacted by Nelson. For example, have you heard of Jasinda Wilder? Wilder has sold 70,000 ebook copies of new adult romance Falling Into You, and Nelson picked her up sometime around April as a client. Wait and see: more literary agents such as Nelson will emerge, picking up indie authors who have made big sales on their own in the e-world.

The e-reader world has become the new proving ground for authors. Soon, novels will no longer be acquired by publishers or agents as they have in the past. The agent query letter may indeed soon be dead, perhaps replaced by the author query letter.

Which brings me back to music, and in the words of David Bowie, “The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it” (excerpt from the 2002 New York Times article “David Bowie, 21^st Century Entrepreneur” by John Pareles). Music CDs certainly haven’t disappeared from the marketplace, but the way we discover our new pop idols has radically shifted. Think about Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Park Jae-sang—a.ka. Psy.

 

Eventually, the music industry embraced the new paradigm, but why hasn’t the publishing world embraced the emerging new paradigm of empowered artists/authors? Why are they running so scared they have to publish pieces concerning the fictional decline of ebook sales?

 

---

WASTELAND: THE END OF WINTER

 

“I thought this book was beautiful. Having just finished it, I feel like I have just woken up from a really disturbing dream” – Rose Actor-engel, Amazon

Christine and Jack sat on the back deck of their cottage and watched the stars fall into the lake. They whispered to each other, "Beautiful." But Jack did not know his life was to forever change. A plague came. Christine died. Aliens landed and they put things in his food and soap. The sidewalks lit up blue to let him know when he was allowed to go to the store. Filled with drugs, sex, and cigarettes, the first of six inter-related short stories that make up the entirety of the Wasteland series all styled after Winesburg, Ohio and As I Lay Dying. Based loosely off T.S. Elliot's poem of the same name, The Wasteland is told from the perspectives of the people living inside Jack's head.

 

 

Would you like your book featured here? For free? Email me!

 

---

 

Steve Bargdill writes “literary stuff” with the occasional foray into speculative fiction. Originally from Ohio, he has lived in Dayton, Columbus, Troy, St. Marys, and New Knoxville as well as West Branch, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; Muncie, Indiana; and currently lives in Laramie, Wyoming. Bargdill is the author of The Wasteland Series available on Amazon. He’s written for several newspapers and is currently a first year English graduate student at the University of Wyoming. You can read his short stories for free on Wattpad. You can also like him on Facebook where he posts a daily poem, Monday evening writing prompts, hump day videos and more nonsense!