News About My Problem With Examiner

Mar 4

Posted by Tony Burton in The business of writing | 3 Comments

Well, it seems that I now have money from Examiner.  Unfortunately, it took over six months for them to decide to pay me!  (Oh, and it also took threatening to expose them through Angela Hoy’s site, Writer’s Weekly.)  I contacted Angela, who has made a practice out of calling deadbeat publishers to task, with all the details.  She contacted Examiner.com and gave them a chance to respond.  Within 48 hours I had a payment in my PayPal account, an email notification from Examiner, and a telephone voice mail from them, checking to make sure I had received the payment and that everything was now okay.

You know, I’m glad they paid me, but it shouldn’t take the threat of being exposed to the world as a deadbeat for them to live up to their obligations.

Thanks, Angela!

Fish nor Foul? (pun intended)

Feb 28

Posted by Tony Burton in Humor, Publishing, The business of writing | 4 Comments

Recently, I’ve had cause to examine my professional standing, and consider exactly where I fit in the writing/publishing/ bookselling hierarchy.  It’s a problem for me for a variety of reasons.

You see, I’m an author.  I’ve been published in magazines, online, newspapers, in anthologies, and I self-published two novels.  (I mean real self-publishing, where you buy your own ISBNs, set up the relationship with the printer and distributors, do your own typesetting, etc.)  I teach creative writing online and at the local arts center.

In the process, though, I also built a publishing company.  It now has a couple of imprints, and other than my own two books, I’ve published a number of anthologies, a couple of other folks’ novels, a couple of books of poetry, a book of plays, and a few non-fiction books.  I pay royalties, by the way, even though I mostly use Print-on-demand printing.

At another point late last year, I got the idea to start a new endeavor, an online bookstore.  I sell print books and ebooks there from a number of publishers.

At this point, I argue with myself a lot.  Think about it: for some reason, a default adversarial relationship has somehow been defined as the relationship between authors and publishers, as well as between booksellers and publishers.  For example:

“Publishers are bloodsuckers!  They take all your hard work and make tons of money, and what do you get? Almost NOTHING!! And they want ME to promote my own book.  Heck, I wrote the thing—isn’t that enough?”  (Frustrated author)

“Authors are lazy primadonnas who aren’t willing to work with the editor, who think their every word is precious and can’t be changed! And don’t they realize that, in this competitive marketplace and economy, I can’t afford to promote them as much as they would like?”  (Aggravated publisher)

“Publishers aren’t willing to give me the discounts I need or accept returns for up to a year after the book goes out of print!  They’re taking bread out of the mouths of my children!”  (Despairing bookseller)

“How am I supposed to pay royalties, the power bill, the phone bill, and promotional considerations, if the bookseller wants such a huge discount?  And why do they return books that look like they were used as puppy toys??”   (Furious publisher)

“How dare a publisher even call itself a legitimate publisher if they don’t print at least 1,000 copies in the first run, and pay at least a $1,000 advance?”  (Elitist writer’s organization)

“How can a writer’s organization ignore the economics of reality, that says in the long run it costs more and can put a small publisher out of business, if they only use old-fashioned printing methods that are ecologically unsound and wasteful of both money and resources?”  (Dumbfounded publishers AND authors)

It’s strange, really.  I get into internal debates all the time!  And for that matter, which professional organization(s) should I join?  I am an author, but when I go to some professional writer organizations’ websites, it’s like there is this big “Them versus US!” mindset.  I wonder: would I be considered an US or a THEM? Would I be found out, and considered a fifth column publisher, secretly learning all the author secrets so I can go back and… do what??

For a while I was a member of an organization that was supposed to be focused on independently-published authors.  What does that mean, exactly?  It’s sort of vague, right?  Does that mean the author’s publisher is an independent, not associated with one of the big publishing conglomerates that control three-quarters of the book sales revenue in the U.S.?  Does it mean that the book was vanity published or subsidy published?  Or does it mean that the author actually self-published the book, starting their own small press, buying their own ISBN(s), etc.?  While I was a member, once or twice I spoke up about some issues (I’m against paid reviews, for example, and I believe an author should have a professional editor work on the manuscript before it is published).  When I did I was snubbed and treated like a pariah dog.  You see, I am not only an author, but a commercial publisher, and sometimes I (ye gads!) reject a manuscript!  How dare I do that!

And of course, publishing organizations are generally focused on a lot of issues that are not that germane to the kind of publishing I do.  There is one I belong to, which shall remain nameless, that in the last year or two has seemed to morph into an organization primarily for self-published authors.  While I understand and can respect a well-considered decision to self-publish, that’s not my main consideration.  Another publisher organization I have investigated focuses primarily on non-fiction and how-to books—which is not my company’s area.

Because I have an online bookstore and live in Georgia, should I join the Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA)?  Would it really help me, or would it be just one more organization that drains membership funds from me, that I could put to better use paying for promotional pieces or extra ARCs? According to their website, they are for “independent, privately held, brick & mortar, commercially zoned bookstores with a retail storefront, in our region.”  That lets me out.  But then again, I know some authors who are members of SIBA, and they don’t have any sort of bookstore!

I dunno.  Maybe I need therapy.  Is it possible to have multiple-profession-disorder?

Writerly Resources, Take #1

Feb 27

Posted by Tony Burton in Language, Writing well | 4 Comments

As both a writer and a publisher, I know that sometimes we get stuck in one way or another.  Maybe we need something to inspire us, maybe we need a bit of information that is hard to find, maybe we are trying to establish our character’s place in history… in short, we need help.

So I have decided to share with you some of the things that help me when I need it.  You can call them resources, or tools, or lifelines, or whatever you like.  I won’t put them all in here at one time, but rather I’ll tantalize you with two or three in each entry in an effort to draw you back to my blog.  (Hey, at least I’m honest about it!)

Resource #1: Our Timelines.  Sometimes it is really helpful to get a handle on what was going on in the world at a particular point in your protagonist’s life.  This is especially true if you write historical fiction.  One really helpful resource I found is called Our Timelines.  Our Timelines allows you to enter both the birthdate and death date (if needed) of your character, all the way back to 1,000 CE, and it then will create a timeline with major events for each year in that character’s life.  Now, I’m not saying it lists EVERYTHING that happens every year, but it’s a great start, and a super resource to use when you’re trying to establish the technological or political frame of reference for a particular time in history.

Resource #2: Twists, Slugs and Roscoes-A Dictionary of Hardboiled Slang.  From the site: “If you’ve ever read a hardboiled detective story, you may have come across a sentence like,

“I jammed the roscoe in his button and said, ‘Close your yap, bo, or I squirt metal.’”

Something like that isn’t too hard to decipher. But what if you encounter,

“The flim-flammer jumped in the flivver and faded.”

“You dumb mug, get your mitts off the marbles before I stuff that mud-pipe down your mush–and tell your moll to hand over the mazuma.”

“The sucker with the schnozzle poured a slug but before he could scram out two shamuses showed him the shiv and said they could send him over.”

Exactly. Sometimes it’s hard to decode the slang of a past generation… or for that matter of the present generation, but that’s a different story.  If you want your hardboiled dicks, shamuses, and peepers to talk like wise heads, here’s your connection. Go here for the straight dope.

Resource #3: Guide to Grammar and Writing.  No matter how well we may think we write, or how strong a grip we may think we have on the English language, sometimes anyone can make a grammar mistake. It’s not always easy to get things right when you write. So, to help with those little things like grammar, usage, and composition, check out the Guide to Grammar and Writing at Capital Community College.

That’s enough for the moment.  I hope these are helpful for you, but if they aren’t, or if they are and you’d like to see more, drop around again soon.

Closely Examine Writing for Examiner!

Feb 25

Posted by Tony Burton in Day to day living, The business of writing | 9 Comments

Many times we writers try to think of ways to “monetize” our writing, and that’s reasonable.  ”The laborer is worthy of his hire,” as a sacred text says.  I don’t say I won’t write for free—I have done so, and in fact, nobody pays me to write my blog entries!

However, I heard about Examiner.com in 2008, and thought, “Hey, this would be cool!  I’d have this platform for readers, and that platform will be promoted, and not only that, they will pay me something for my readers.”  So, I signed up and was an Examiner for the Atlanta area.

The amount of money being paid was not much, but hey, it was something.  Every time an article of my own was read, they credited my account with a few cents.

But over time, my life got very busy and it got to the point where I just didn’t have the time to do it for the small amount of money that was being credited to me. So, in mid-August of 2009 I resigned as an Examiner and “cashed out.”  Rather, I should say that I TRIED to cash out.  Despite repeated communications back and forth between Examiner.com and myself, despite repeated assurances that I would be paid “soon,” I have yet to receive a dime.

My last email from Examiner.com was sent on February 16, after I wrote them on February 15.  They assured me that I would be paid on or about February 20, “with the rest of the Examiners.”  Well, folks, it is now February 25, and the payment from Examiner.com has yet to show up in my PayPal account.

They’re deadbeats.  They don’t pay.  They don’t care.  I’ve been communicating with them since August, and have been pushed aside, delayed, and lied to.  One email said, “I’ll get it taken care of. Once I deactivate your page you will be paid out in full on Oct. 20th. Let me know if you do not.”  I was not, and I let them know.  It did no good.

Folks, if you are considering writing for Examiner.com, I advise you to examine your considerations carefully.  I don’t mind sometimes writing for free, but I despise writing for someone who promises to pay and who reneges on payment.  It’s dishonest, it’s wrong, and it’s unprofessional.

It’s your choice, obviously, but I’d say it’s a bad idea to willingly work for someone who does not pay their workers as agreed.

Lower Standards for Children’s Literature? I Don’t Think So!

Feb 6

Posted by Tony Burton in Publishing, Writing well | 14 Comments

Recently I was asked to take on an editing job, freelance, for a children’s book.  I had no problem with it being a children’s book–I think kids’ books are great things, and the more of them children have, the better off they are!  Now, this particular job was not a high-paying one, but supposedly a simple moderate-level editing job, comprising both copyediting and some minor corrections of grammar, usage, etc, of a mix of short poems and very short stories.  No sweat.

However, once I received the manuscript and spent some time with it, I understood why the two previous editors who had this particular gig had dropped it.  (Gee, why didn’t I consider this before?!)  The writing was poor, the poetry was inconsistent, the stories tended to wander all over the landscape and most of the time ended up far from any particular denouement.

This was not an editing job.  This was a rewriting job, at the very least.  I emailed the person who had commissioned me for the job (luckily, she was not the author) and informed her of my issues with the manuscript.  It would, I told her, take much more than moderate editing.  It would require substantive editing and rewriting, and would involve much more time than she was willing to pay me to do.  I gave her my feedback on the quality of the writing, and told her that I honestly didn’t think she would be able to find anyone competent to do the job for the amount she was budgeted to pay.  The person who commissioned me owns a pay-to-publish company, by the way, and this book was never intended for the open market—only for the author’s grandchildren.  I can understand having a book published for your grandchildren, something to leave behind.  Still….

The publisher was not happy with me, perhaps understandably, but here are a couple of comments that threw me for a loop:  “I disagree with your description of  [AUTHOR'S] work. I don’t think it’s as bad as you describe. These are stories for children, not adults, and that makes a big difference in what is acceptable.”

I’m sorry, but that is wrong, wrong, WRONG.

Maybe this author didn’t intend to have the book published in order to get it onto the shelves of Barnes & Noble, but that doesn’t mean that kids’ literature should have lower standards for grammar, usage, quality of story, logic, and construction.  Children deserve to have well-written books just as much as adults do.  Why would anyone think otherwise?  The words read by kids, the stories and poems consumed by their minds, help to form their concepts of reality and how to deal with the world around them—especially when these words come in the form of poems and stories written by a grandparent!

Badly-written books leave a nasty taste in the minds of those who read them.  Children especially don’t need to have poorly-written dreck thrown at them.  Do we want to turn off our kids from reading?  Do we want them to get the idea when they are young, that all books are poorly written?

But let me step back to the original concept that bothered me: Kids’ books are not required to meet the same sort of standards as adults.  I will agree that children’s books have a different set of parameters: different vocabulary, shorter sentences, etc.  But a book written for ANY reader should:

  • have good sentence construction and word usage
  • have a consistent voice
  • have stories that have recognizable and distinct beginnings, middles, and endings
  • NOT make the reader grimace at the poor choices of words or the way words are used
  • not confuse the reader with sentences that wander all over the place and end up going nowhere

If you think that kids’ books don’t have to be written well, tell that to J.K. Rowling, Theodore Geisel, Louisa May Alcott, Sir James Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Fred Gipson, E. B. White…. I don’t have room or time to list more.  The point is, children’s literature is not where we try to pass off the stories and writing that are not good enough for adults.  Indeed, probably the writing should be better: more concise, tighter, more creative use of words, more inventive.  Kids’ minds are growing—they don’t need literary junk.

Tell me: would you say that children don’t need food that is up to the same standards as their parents?  What about the things they drink?  I’m sure you wouldn’t prepare food for children that was missing key ingredients, or give them chicken that was only “mostly” cooked, let them drink milk that was only a “little spoiled,” or feed them vegetables that are “pretty clean.”  You’d want the best possible quality for them, even if the grocer told you that such things were OK for children.  ”Standards are different for kids.  They don’t need the same quality.”  Do you believe that?

Stories and poems read by a child are the food and drink of the child’s mind.  Don’t try to tell me that standards of quality are lower for a child—especially not if you are a publisher.

Sailing the Troubled Waters of Bookselling

Jan 31

Posted by Tony Burton in Publishing | 1 Comment

In a recent discussion regarding the bookselling/publishing industry, the discussion moderator asked this question: “How can we get bookstores and the rest of the traditional publishing business into the twenty-first century? Any ideas?”

I replied there, but as I thought about it, I came to the realization that my observations might be of interest to those outside the discussion, so I’m expanding on them here.

Once when I was in the Navy, I had the chance to ride on an aircraft carrier. It was the USS Eisenhower, with about 6,000 souls on board. The Eisenhower was a huge ship, with tremendous mass and thus, tremendous momentum. Once she got going in a particular direction, it was very difficult to either turn or stop her, and it would be impossible without destroying the vessel if those at the helm didn’t want to change direction or stop.

The bookselling and publishing businesses are conjoined in a way that is much like that carrier.

Unless and until major publishers stop making these returnable deals with the bookstores, most booksellers will want all books to be returnable.  People are like that: once they’ve had what they consider a “good deal” for a while, they tend to think of it as a right instead of a privilege.  But the large publishers at the top make so much money from the present system that they don’t want to change it, and most fear that, if they do, booksellers will not order so many books from them.

Those same large publishers also fear that, with a more level playing field, booksellers will order more books from small-press publishers. After all, you’re a bookseller and you have been considering ordering some of those small-press titles, but didn’t because they weren’t returnable.  Suddenly the system changes and no books are returnable, so why wouldn’t you order some of the small-press titles?

So, the larger publishers and the majority of booksellers (the chains, especially) are joined at the hip in this, and they stand at the helm of the good ship Brick and Mortar Book Business. It will take a major blow to the vessel in some way to make them reconsider their direction of travel.

Of course, in the last few months, sneak and not-so-sneak attacks by the Online Bookstore Guerrillas and the E-book Commandoes have made those at the helm nervous. As recently as yesterday, Amazon and MacMillan got into a tiff over ebook pricing, and several MacMillan titles were pulled from Amazon because of it.  Also, recently at least one publisher has decided to shoot themselves in the foot by announcing publicly that they will delay releasing ebook versions of their new hardcopy releases for as long as four months.  This rather graceless announcement cause no small amount of anger in the community of ebook readers, and many of them said they would simply abstain from buying that publisher’s titles, in any form.

We have to remember that Amazon, the largest online bookstore in the world, has recently revealed that on Christmas day sales of ebooks outstripped sales of hardcopy books, and that they announced this week that for every ten hardcopy books they sell, they sell six ebooks.  My friend, those are compelling numbers!

Amazon has also been known to land salvoes amongst the small-press and independently-published authors. (Remember when they were going to turn off the “Buy Now” buttons for any POD books not printed by them?)

My opinion? The only way you will get the industry to change direction is at the point of an economic sword. In other words, both booksellers and large publishers will have to be hit in their wallets, and hit hard. Booksellers must realize and accept that they will have to change their way of doing things and order books responsibly, without being able to return them. Book publishers will have to realize that printing 25,000 (or more) copies of a book in their first run with no guarantee of sales is lunacy and ecologically irresponsible… no less so than driving a Hummer to take  your kid to soccer practice.

But booksellers have been in this mode since the Depression, and large publishers run their business to a great extent on hyperbole nowadays, so large print runs are indicators of “blockbuster” status, and making such a realization hit home will need to be done dramatically. Thus, the economic sword. Both will need to be pushed to the realization that their present business models are untenable, and if they continue they will run their ship aground. But doing so will be very, very difficult, and in the end, may not work at all, leaving the only ships afloat those whose bookselling businesses are primarily online.

Already the vicious cycle is begun: Because of low sales from a poor economy, bookstores are closing all over the country.  Yet, Amazon, B&N Online, and other online bookstores have growth.  As people get out of the habit of going into brick-and-mortar bookstores because they need to drive farther and farther to find one, more and more will close, forcing buyers to go to online sources.  And if the bookstore will not (or can not) keep copies on hand, but rather has to order a copy of the book I want, why should I drive fifty miles to do that?  I can order from an online bookseller, and have it without spending money on gas.  So, bookstore traffic dwindles even more.

It all feeds on itself, and unless something drastic happens to interrupt the cycle, it will not stop.

Publishing hostility

Jan 2

Posted by Tony Burton in Getting published, Publishing | 5 Comments

I’ve come to accept that many conventionally-published (read that as those published by larger commercial publishers who most likely have offices in NYC) are disdainful of anyone who is published by a small press, or who self-publishes.  Though regrettable, it seems sort of natural, like the attitude that was displayed by upper-crust Victorian-era folks toward those who were lower on the social ladder. Thankfully, there have been a lot of advances in social consciousness that have eliminated much of that.  (Not as much as we’d like, but the world is a work in progress.)

However, I’d like to make some observations about the sneering and hostility I sometimes see and/or hear going in the opposite direction, by individuals or groups of those who are unpublished or are published in a less “conventional” way (self-published, independently-published, etc.)

I have a foot in both camps, so perhaps my viewpoint is different.  But the way I see it, as long as self-published and independently-published authors continue to display a hostile attitude toward those who are commercially published, three things are evident:

  1. It validates the lack of professionalism that commercially published authors often use to label the unconventionally-published.
  2. It also shows a remarkable lack of acceptance of those who choose the commercial path of publication.  Isn’t that what the unconventionally-published are seeking for themselves, acceptance? If so, why not give it to others?
  3. It makes the unconventionally-published look just as bad as those others who are acting like jerks because they were published commercially.

Perhaps the unconventionally-published have never read Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM. Remember what happened?  There was a revolution against oppression, and as time passed, the rebels became the oppressors.

Intolerance of a person’s choice of publishing path, and displayed hostility, animosity, or disdain toward that person’s simply because of the way they chose to publish, is a bad thing no matter from which direction it comes. I’ve seen the same sort of reverse snobbery occur when poor people sneer at the middle class, when middle class people sneer at the very rich, or when people on either side of a particular racial divide sneer at those on the other side.

That kind of attitude is not productive. It’s not professional. It makes those who do it look bad, and by association, others who are in the same group with that person. There is enough room in the book-publishing and book-selling world for all sorts of publication paths, and manifesting a sneering, sour-grapes sort of attitude makes for a very ugly reputation.

If you are conventionally published, wonderful!  I congratulate and salute you, and wish you many successes!

If you made a carefully-considered choice to self-publish or subsidy publish, or to go with a small press that does not pay an advance or print huge print runs, congratulations for that, too!  I wish you well, and hope you sell many, many copies of your book(s).

If you are a member of any of those groups, and you sneer and turn up your nose at those who are “the others,” I feel sorry for you.  You’re displaying a remarkable lack of maturity and way too much ego.  Focus on promoting your book by writing well, by showing us how great it is, by letting us know how much we will enjoy it.  Don’t try to make your own work or choices look good by cutting down the other guy’s choice.  It doesn’t work very well most of the time, and you just come off looking like a self-centered cretin.

Travelling Back In Time

Dec 15

Posted by Tony Burton in Day to day living, Writing ideas from life | 1 Comment

Did you ever get the feeling that you somehow had stepped back in time, or maybe fallen into a time warp?  I got that feeling today.

As Buddy and I were out running errands for building our house (picking up pressure-treated 2×8 planks for garage door header beams), I also had to pull into WalMart to pick up a couple of items.  Buddy was eagerly awaiting me in the truck, but I had to slow down and finally stopped, uncertain of what I was seeing.

If you are as old as I am, you can remember back in the late Sixties and early Seventies, how the people usually called “hippies” had a predilection for tie-dyed clothing, a laid-back lifestyle, and Volkswagen microbuses.  (For you younger folks who don’t know about hippies, think organic alternative lifestyle combined with tree-hugging, rock music, a desire for peace across the whole world, and recreational drug use.  Got it?  Good.)

Well, right here at the edge of the Calhoun WalMart parking lot, was an old Volkswagen microbus with a peace sign hand-painted on the side.  It was like stepping back through that old television show The Time Tunnel.microbus-door

Sitting in the open side door was a dynamically-dressed Earth-motherly type with a profusion of dreadlocks, braiding colorful fiber (I can only suppose it to be hemp) into a rainbow of braided cord jewelry.  In a few moments I saw some movement inside the microbus, and a male figure with a beard came into view, a brightly tie-dyed kerchief covering his own dreadlocks.

I didn’t want to be rude and stare, but I really wanted to know more about these two folks.  So, after arguing with myself and discussing it with Buddy in the comfort of my pickup truck, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet: I walked over and greeted the folks in the microbus.

Jay and Donna (Jay has the beard) live in Seattle for most of the year, but as the holidays are approaching, they are on their way to visit family and friends in Key West.  (They got their cell Jay-and-Donnaphone the last time they were in Key West, thus that’s why they have a south-Florida phone number instead of a Seattle number.)

I should say they “hope” to be with family in time for the Christmas holidays; failing that, by New Year’s Day.  Their 1970 Volkswagen microbus, named Janis after the famous singer whose image on a jacquard throw adorns the ceiling of their vehicle, is getting on in years and needs occasional work. In fact, Jay told me they had spent some time in Chattanooga because a large part of their transport’s electrical system had issues.  Several items had to be repaired: turn signals, tail lights, etc.  I asked them, as I saw the advertisement on the side of their vehicle, if that was what they do for a living.  “Yep, we do the tie-dye, custom patchwork, make jewelry, all that sort of thing,” Jay told me.

“Jay has some painting work lined up down in Key West,” Donna added, “and I’ll be selling my work at the Key West Craft Show.”  She gestured to an array of braided bracelets, anklets, etc., that she had hanging on large rings nearby.

While I was there, a car pulled up with customers for their wares. They were running short of cash, so they were in a very low-key manner raising money to pay for gas to continue their journey.  I admire that work ethic, although I did warn Jay and Donna that Calhoun is not a very artsy-fartsy sort of place, and that he might have better luck selling their stuff down in Little Five Points in Atlanta.  “Yeah, we’ve heard about Little Five Points,” Donna said. “We usually stay out of the big cities, though,” put in Jay.Jay, Donna, and Cheech

As I stood there chatting with the two of them, I saw more movement inside the vehicle and realized that they were not alone.  Their traveling companion was a small chubby chihuahua by the name of Cheech.  “He’s a rescue dog,” Donna told me. “When we got him his name was already Cheech, so we stuck with it.”

Jay grinned.  “People are always asking us, ‘Where’s Chong?’”

It’s a long drive from Seattle to Key West… about the farthest you can go across the Lower 48 of the USA without backtracking somewhere.  “We go down there every year to visit family,” Jay said.  “Usually at the holidays.”

Donna grinned. “We’re following the sun.  Getting away from all that rain in Seattle.” She looked up at the cloudy sky. “There was almost as much rain in Chattanooga as in Seattle, though.”

I had things I needed to do, so I asked if I could take a few photos and blog about them.  They very graciously acceded to my request, so here they are.  As I drove away, another car had pulled up and was purchasing some braided bracelets.  If you happen to be in Key West in January, go by and see them at the Key West Craft Show.  They make some great handmade cord jewelry.  And if you see Janis the microbus rolling down the highway anywhere between Key West and Seattle, honk your horn and wave at Cheech.  He’s the one without the dreads.

Copyright ⓒ2009   Tony Burton

The Aggravation of Extension-In-Lexis

Oct 6

Posted by Tony Burton in Day to day living, Language, Writing well | 9 Comments

No, it’s not related to the heartbreak of psoriasis. But this condition, extension-in-lexis, can be just as irritating to many confirmed lovers of language. So many of us who work with words want our tools to be well-defined and clear in meaning, but that is not the way it is to be.

Extension-in-lexis is defined as an: “Increase of the range of meanings of a given word, often through increase of figurative use.” And it happens all the time. For example, how many of us use the word blizzard to mean a snowstorm? The truth is, blizzard originally meant violent blows, a volley of words, or even a rifle shot… not a snowstorm. But on March 14, 1870, it was used in a newspaper to denote a violent snowstorm, and since that time constant usage in that context has reversed the preferred meanings. We talk about snow blizzards and assume that people know what we mean, but if we are referring to a boxing match where an person showers his opponent with violent blows, we may say “a blizzard of punches” as though to clarify this usage. Of course, the reality is that this was one of its original definitions.

Many words have their meaning changed over time, and as with blizzard, we modern writers may not even realize that we are contributing to the changing of language. Recently there was some discussion on a list I frequent, about the usage of the word tarmac. One staunch protector of original usage stated, and factually, that actual tarmac, or tar-macadam, is no longer used for runways because modern aircraft weigh too much for tarmac to support them. But because of constant historical usage, the meaning of tarmac has been extended to cover any sort of paving material used to construct runways and their associated taxiways, parking areas, and aircraft handling areas.

My own personally-aggravating word is decimate. Part of the word is “deci,” meaning one-tenth, and originally decimate was a way for the ancient Romans to achieve discipline. If a legion was being fractious and uncooperative, the leader of that legion might walk along the line of the formation and select every tenth legionnaire to be put to death–a strong deterrent to bad discipline. It was also used sometimes in controlling rebellious towns, by putting to death one tenth of the populace, or burning one tenth of the homes, and this meaning persisted into the 16th Century. Now, solemn-faced announcers proclaim that a town was decimated by an earthquake, when they really mean it was destroyed or devastated.

The word silly in the Middle Ages actually meant happy or blessed. Over time, it came to mean innocent or harmless… then to mean weak… and now denotes foolish or weak-minded. (Of course, the opposite side of this coin is the word nice, which in the 13th Century meant foolish or stupid, and now has a much more pleasant definition, though rather soft-edged and vague.)

Of course, it’s not just ancient times that created extensions-in-lexis. How about the word boot? Sure, it’s footwear, but as often as not nowadays we use it to talk about starting a computer, or restarting (rebooting.) And whence came that meaning? It came from bootstrapping older computers, which in turn came from the expression “to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps” or to get oneself started without assistance.

There are also words derived from real words by seemingly logical extension, but which have no root in reality. The word uncouth in Old English originally meant unknown or strange, but over the centuries came to mean not just unknown, but unknown to be used by polite society; in a word, impolite or rude. So, we now have people who say, “He has no couth.” But there never was a word couth that meant anything in the original language, Old English. It’s a new coinage, really.

I suppose what I’m getting to is this: language is a mutable and constantly changing thing, and extension-in-lexis is only one small part of how it grows and develops over time. No matter how much the anal-retentive among us might like to keep a corral around the language, strictly defining how words are used, it can’t be done. Language is a maverick thing, and very much alive, and will not be caged.

Copyright ©2009 Tony Burton

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Why would you do this?

Sep 13

Posted by Tony Burton in Uncategorized | No Comments

I’d like to ask a really pointed question:

Given the difficulty of producing a book yourself, with the attendant business issues (purchasing an ISBN, setting up a relationship with a printer, trying to get it into stores) and the mechanics (editing, formatting, cover design), why does anyone who probably is going to produce at most one or two books elect to “do it yourself?”

I suppose I can understand the desire to “be in control” or to “bypass the gatekeepers” of the publishing industry.  I can also understand when someone has a book that is for a very niche market, or simply for personal use, such as a family genealogy.  But I’m afraid that a lot of people think that they can just jump into publishing and be successful.  That’s about as likely as just jumping into a pool full of sharks and surviving.  Sure, you might be able to do it, but chances are….

(By the way, I’m not talking about the individual who goes to a legitimate subsidy publisher and has his or her book published.  That, to me, makes a heck of a lot more sense.  The subsidy publisher handles the grunt work: cover design, page layout, getting the book printed, etc.  Sure, you pay the publisher, but it’s an exchange of money for services rendered. You probably do the same thing with getting your car repaired, your heating system fixed, or getting your teeth filled: you pay the expert, so you don’t screw it up yourself.)

As someone who works in the industry, and who once upon a time self-published a book, producing a book of good quality and that looks appealing, can be a much more difficult than it appears!

I asked the opening question above specifically because of a discussion going on in an online list where I am a member.  There an individual is seeking an affordable POD printer for a hardcover 200-plus page book, letter-size and full of color photos.  The person in question was shocked to see that the wholesale cost of such a book when printed-on-demand is about $50 or more per copy.  The author has already devoted almost a year to the project, has release forms in place for all the color photos, and is only now realizing the financial realities of printing such a book, whose ultimate retail price would approach $100 per copy.

Don’t people who are thinking of self-publishing ever stop to investigate the true cost and trouble associated with self-publishing?  It takes planning, investigating the options, putting numbers down on paper and asking yourself, “Can I do this?  Do I want to go to all this trouble?  Can I even afford this?”

I’m not talking about the content.  Obviously that has to be good or the book usually won’t sell (unless it’s written by someone famous.) I’m referring to the business aspects and the mechanics: setting up relationships with printers, gaining a distributor, marketing and promotion, cover design, book layout, editing, etc.

For example, covers are enormously important for commercial viability, but I see a lot of self-pubbed books with covers that are really, really ugly. For example, the current trend in fantasy and sci-fi books toward using 3D modeling software to produce “people” on the cover who look like characters from The Sims is just sad.  And many people don’t realize that the colors on their monitor are not the same colors that will show up on the printed page… they might be, but most likely they won’t match, unless you have a monitor-calibration device.  So that lovely blue sky may look purple, or sort of greenish when you have the book in hand.  The fresh skin tones in the original design may actually print out as a glaring-red blush.  Having a tacky-looking cover will not be an encouragement for a browsing customer to even pick up your book, much less to buy it.

Format and layout are important, too. I’ve seen self-published books where the individual made the text too small to read in order to save on printing costs, or so large that it looked ridiculous, to up the page count and make the book look thicker.  I’ve seem one printed it all in Courier, without proportional spacing, so it looked like someone’s bound typewritten pages—and it wasn’t done for effect! I’ve seen self-published books where the individual used cheesy graphics from a clip art book, mixing them with poorly-composed photos, or photos that were at too low a resolution for successful printing.  If the book looks amateurish inside or out when I look at it, I’m not going to buy it.  I’d venture to say that is the way many, if not most, readers think.

Each book needs an ISBN.  ISBNs can be purchased individually (rather expensive) or in groups of ten, one hundred, one thousand, and up. If the book is going to be in a store, it must have an ISBN and a barcode. If you don’t have the software to produce an EAN-Bookland barcode (the approved barcode for books), you have to pay someone to produce it for you, unless your commercial printer will do that for you.

There are so many small details about producing a book, more than I have listed here, and getting any one of them wrong can make your project less than acceptable. I know, there have been people who have successfully and happily self-published their books.  That’s great, and I applaud them.  But for every one of those, there are ten or twenty more who are left with boxes of books in their basement, that nobody wants.

Self-publishing reminds me so much of Amway, Shaklee, and other multi-level-marketing businesses. The very few people who are making lots of money with Amway (or similar plans) are very appealing, and convince thousands of others to go for the brass ring, when the chance that those thousands will do as well is very, very small.  We hear the stories of the author who self-published and has been offered a $500,000 contract with Simon and Schuster.  But the thousands of people who self-published and sold only ten or twenty copies of their book… nobody trumpets those names to the world.

It’s too much reality, and reality bites.