REB #16: “With the advent of ebook self-publishing and the democratization of distribution … the power of publishing is shifting away from publishers and into the hands of authors and readers where it belongs.”

– Mark Coker interview

Mark Coker, Founder and CEO of Smashwords

Yesterday, I found this interview with Mark Coker, Founder and CEO of the electronic publishing company Smashwords. In it, he describes the changing nature of the publishing industry, highlighting his role and understandably praising his own brand of electronic self-publishing. Thisis marketing 101 after all: you do an interview to raise awareness for your product/service, so why not “talk it up”?

Anyway, I love technology. Outside of books and real-life people, my computer and TV are my best friends. However, I’m apprehensive about this shift toward electronic reading. I already do a lot of my news reading online because of all the blogs and Twitter accounts that I follow. So will I want to sit on my futon this winter, next to a roaring fireplace, and cuddle up with a good…LCD-type screen? An iPad, for instance?

Hell no!

But while I love the tactile sensation of having a book in my hands, turning its pages, flipping quickly to a favorite passage, etc., I cannot deny the convenience that electronic publishing affords the reader (we’ll leave the writer out of the equation for now). The simple fact of the matter is that I’m running out of space for books. When I moved to Baltimore in August 2009, I brought with me a small, 3-shelf bookcase and well over 300 books; I quickly bought two 5-shelf bookcases to accomodate the books, as well as my collection of DVDs. Then in late August 2010, I moved from Bolton Hill to Downtown, where my room is actually a little smaller anyway, so it wasn’t too distressing that one of my large shelves collapsed before I even tried to move it. I’m down to a 3-shelfer and a 5-shelfer. As such, many of my books are now stored and, yes, inventoried in boxes in the downstairs closet. I hate that; my books want to be out of the closet, with me, but alas, they aren’t.

With an e-reader, I still wouldn’t be able to display my books – they’d still be in the invisible “closet” of my e-reader’s storage mechanism – but at least I would have room for them. I guess that’s the tradeoff. I can have more books with an e-reader, I can have them almost instantly, and I can have them cheaper in most instances. But they aren’t books. They’re texts, yes, but they aren’t books, per se.

So why, as a writer, would/should I consider using a service like Smashwords? For one thing, Smashwords itself is free. They only take a 15% bite out of the writer’s royalties, when he/she makes money, which is a far cry from the 50-75% that most traditional publishers take. From an economical standpoint, the advantage is clear: if you (self-)publish electronically with Smashwords, you stand to make a lot more money for your work. There’s also the fact that you don’t have to wade through a sea of rejection letters from publishers, because you, my friend, are self-publishing. For “free.” That’s unheard of, isn’t it? We’re talking about guaranteed publication, here, with 85% royalties and coverage on most of the e-book stores out there (even Apple’s iBookstore and Barnes & Noble’s e-book store are included; I don’t think Amazon is one of them, though – not yet, anyway).

That sounds like a sweet deal, and I’ll probably seriously consider it for book-length works because at least I can get my name and my writing out there. But at the end of this M.F.A. program, when I publish my book of short stories, I still want to see my awesome book cover design on a tangible, traditional book in a brick-and-mortar store. And I want the prestige that comes with having my book hand-picked for publication.

Is that so much to ask?

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

REB #13: “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

– Groucho Marx

The Baltimore Book Festival was this weekend. Who went?

If you were there Saturday, chances are good that you saw this guy; chances are even better that you saw his hair. But seriously, Andy Poxon is 16 years old, looks 12, and can shred a guitar like nobody’s business. He’s an accomplished blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist with a full-fledged 13-song album, and he’s not even out of high school yet! You can listen to the songs on his website, download them, or even buy the CD. And I definitely recommend it.

In other news, I walked away from the festival with 4 books for $9. I probably shouldn’t have bought anything because I don’t really have room for any more books, but I couldn’t resist. I got a book of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings (by Nancy Frazier), because of a conversation I had with an acquaintance of mine about the best way to practice painting – copy other people’s work. Over and over. So that’s what I’m going to try to do because I like to paint, but I am so out of practice! I also got John Hedgecoe’s Complete Photography Course, which is a little antiquated because it’s all 35 mm (but I think that’s actually kind of cool!), The Art of Gift Wrapping by Jane Cornell (an awesome and beautiful $1 find), and another book that I intend to use as a gift, so I won’t mention the name, in case that person is reading this.

And that’s about it. Sorry these updates are coming so late in the week; I’ve been rather busy with other school work and with looking for a second job. One more post coming tonight or tomorrow!

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

REB #6: “There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

– Unknown author/coiner, but I found it at Board of Wisdom

I’ve been making websites since I was about 12 or 13, when I taught myself HTML (HyperText Markup Language) from a book. Yes, I was a geek—am a geek. That said, I’ve worked with HTML (and the newer CSS) off and on for over a decade.

In 7th grade, I redesigned my school corporation’s website, and the director of my jr./sr. high school’s computer club (called Buddy Step-Up, which is since defunct) liked it enough to ask if we could take over the corporation’s web design. We got it approved, and my design went live. It went through a couple of different iterations after that; it’s now unrecognizable, and frankly, I’m not a huge fan of the latest design, which uses Javascript and is rather slow (sorry Ben, if you’re the designer; it’s nothing personal!).

In any case, I’m not yet up-to-date on the newest version of HTML (which is 5.0), not that it’s officially “released” yet, but it is available for people to use while the bigwigs work out the bugs. So, I guess I would like to learn some of the new tags added in version 5.0. I know about the video tag, and it’s very easy to use. What I don’t know, however, is how to make something like this nifty little page that lets the user drag the text boxes to the trash can. While this looks very simple and, at first glance, not very useful, I think there could be some interesting applications for it. One thing I could do is make a website with short stories on it, and then use this code in order to provide the reader with a way to track what he/she has already read. The reader would drag a story to a trash can, or something else, and it would disappear. He or she could then go through the rest of the stories (or other website elements), out of order, until there is nothing left to read. Then it’s time to log off.

Granted, this trash can webpage is actually done with HTML and Javascript, which I don’t know at all, but I do know that it wouldn’t be possible without the update to HTML. Maybe it’s time to learn Javascript, at least the basics.

I’ve done programming before but never with Java or Javascript. On the other hand, I did use Alice for a class in undergrad; it’s like a front-end to Java, and it’s very cool. The user can program in Java without realizing it. It’s just like making an animated story. Seriously, it’s just drag-and-drop, moving characters and other elements around to create an animated Java program. It’s designed for high schoolers and college students, so it’s very use to use, once you know the basics of the program. Check it out if you’re interested in programming; ignore this paragraph if you’re not.

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

I. Am. Wally.

I recently received an e-mail from my alma mater (Wabash College), asking me to take a survey on the effectiveness of a program called Linking Education and Alumni Development (L.E.A.D.). At the end, I had to write a brief statement as to how I see myself as an alumnus of the college, what my responsibilities are as a graduate.

It wasn’t something I could just whip up in 30 seconds. I knew I had to put some thought into it because, once I hit reply, that would be it; my words would be etched in “stone.” Even if they would only be used internally, for the evaluation of the L.E.A.D. program, they would serve as an honest and potentially deep reflection of my time at Wabash, and I would have to life with whatever I happened to write. Those would be my official feelings about Wabash, and it seemed a little too soon to be making such an important reflective judgment. I only graduated a year ago.

However, it is only now dawning on me that my perspective of the college will probably change with each passing year, decade, and so on, even if only slightly—and perhaps in ways I might not be able to perceive right now. I guess I have that to look forward to. It’s exciting to think that my life, when I look back on it from any given point after 2009, will ultimately tell me how good my college experience was.

What probably won’t ever change is that I am quite proud of my education and my mature decision to attend the college I did. I think that a great number of young men in my position (senior in high school) probably would not have made the same choice. I say this because Wabash is a rigorous liberal arts school with rather a unique structure; it totally kicked my ass the first semester (mostly academically), maybe even the whole first year. Coming from my high school, with its limited resources, I was not prepared for the workload, the professors, the pressure, or the course contents. I’d rarely had homework in high school because I’d always gotten most of it done at school. At Wabash, I worked almost constantly. Thankfully, I figured out how to balance things better after that first year, but wow, what a ride! I feel comfortable admitting that my G.P.A. started at 3.33 and steadily rose every semester, peaking at 4.0 for two of my final three semesters. The last semester went down a tad, but I managed to graduate magna cum laude with a cumulative 3.71. My B.A. is in English, with a history minor, and I am a member of Phi Beta Kappa (which legitimately shocked me). I think Wabash was very good to me.

As I wrap this up, I want to offer some context. Remember that Wabash men—it’s an all-male college (and no, that didn’t affect my decision to go there, because I didn’t really begin to understand my sexuality until I was already a senior at the college)—are called Wallies and that there is one all-inclusive rule that governs our lives both on and off the campus. The Gentleman’s Rule states that “the student is expected to conduct himself at all times, both on and off the campus, as a gentleman and a responsible citizen.”

So, if you’re wondering what my 2010 perspective was, here’s the statement I wrote for the survey:

Even as a child, I was a lover of knowledge, literature, and technology. At Wabash, my unique college experience served to add new and important layers to these passions. Now, as an alumnus of Wabash College, I am forever bound by the Gentleman’s Rule and by the many life and academic lessons I learned at the college. This cherished Wabash education exists as a foundation for my M.F.A. studies and for my life in general. My job as an alumnus is to ensure that future generations can benefit not only from my knowledge and experiences—and the knowledge and experiences of my fellow Wallies—but also from the values added by my continued contact with, endorsement of, and donation to the esteemed Wabash College.

I. Am. Wally.

Announcing the Summer 2010 to Spring 2011 Television Season

First, I want to say that I just updated the Favorites page with the latest information on my TV shows. I haven’t updated it in a while, and there was a lot to change. I added the new shows that I am considering watching this fall, made changes for all the canceled shows, and made changes for the shows that are coming back in the fall.

That said, of all the TV series that I followed this season (for more than 1 episode), the following will be/will have been canceled by the end of the season: The Beautiful Life (CW), Dollhouse (FOX), Eastwick (ABC), FlashForward (ABC), Heroes (NBC), LOST (ABC), Nip/Tuck (FX), and Ugly Betty (ABC). LOST was not canceled in the traditional sense, though, as it was planned for this 6th season to be the final one about three years ago; thus, we might say it is ending vs. canceled).

Although I have yet to watch it, Happy Town was canceled as well (I do plan on watching it this summer, though, just because of Amy Acker’s involvement). The NBC series Day One was downgraded to mini-series, then 2-hour movie, and then it was canceled; as such, I have never seen it, nor will I. Heroes was canceled, but there are ongoing discussions about doing a limited-run series next season (mini-series consisting of around 4 episodes) or a 2-hour movie, to wrap things up. With one of the most successful international audiences in the history of television, Heroes sure is getting star treatment here; most shows don’t get a wrap-up like this, and such a thing wouldn’t even be considered. On a similar note, the cast and crew of Ugly Betty have also shown interest in making an Ugly Betty movie somewhere along the line, whether on TV or the big screen. I would enjoy it, I’m sure, but the series finale was actually quite satisfying for me. So I would be okay if the movie never surfaced.

Moving forward, the broadcast television networks have announced their fall 2010 plans, and the following series are currently of interest to me: Lonestar (FOX), Nikita (CW), No Ordinary Family (ABC), Raising Hope (FOX), and Undercovers (NBC). I’m still debating on a few others, but there’s little to no chance I’ll actually be able to add any, and I may not even get to watch these that I’ve listed because of school, etc. If you’d like to check any of these out, you can find promotional videos on YouTube. I wasn’t expecting to like Raising Hope, but I was pleasantly surprised by the promos. Ditto Lonestar.

Currently, I’m just waiting for Glee, FlashForward, Parenthood, Breaking Bad, and The United States of Tara to wind down for the season (or forever, in FlashForward‘s case), and then I’ll be ready for the highly-anticipated third season of True Blood, beginning Sunday, June 13th! Mad Men starts season four on Sunday, July 25th. And although I have watched the first seasons of the aforementioned Breaking Bad and United States of Tara, I have yet to see any subsequent episodes, so I’ll be getting caught up over the summer. I also plan to watch the first season of Parenthood this summer so I can be ready for season two this fall; I’ve heard great things about it, and since it teams actress Lauren Graham with producer/writer Jason Katims, I’m sure these things are very true indeed. 🙂

Classes won’t begin again until August 30th, so I won’t have them to worry about until then. Couple that with the fact that I don’t have a real job at present (although I do have a work study position at UBalt that I can continue until June 30th), and we can see the makings of a very productive summer in terms of reading and TV/movie watching. 😉 I’ve already read/finished four books since the semester ended (Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol). I’m making a dent in my ever-expanding library of books that I have bought and not read. I’m going to re-read The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy soon, because it’s short and I loved it in high school, and then I think I’ll read another mindless Koontz book. And then who knows what!

But I do need to find another job soon. I saw on the Financial Aid calendar that loans for the fall semester won’t be dispersed until August 30th, which means I won’t get my refund until September 10th at the earliest. Although I have gotten, or will soon get, some help from my family this summer, I still won’t have enough money to last until August/September.

Back to the drawing board!

I think I’m going to heat up some spaghetti and watch a few episodes of Sliders. I’m almost done with the fourth season, and then it’s on to the last one, which I’ve heard is terrible, but I’m sticking with it because Sliders was one of my favorite shows, growing up, and I’m glad I can finally watch the episodes I never got to see. Thank you Netflix streaming!

The End Is Nigh

My first year of graduate classes at the University of Baltimore is almost over. This semester, I’ve been taking a class called Experimental Forms, in which we read experimental works of fiction and write experimentally, based on these readings, as well as a workshop in screenwriting and my second graduate-level workshop in fiction (I’d only taken a single undergrad workshop before I came here, to a grad program). Last semester, I took my first graduate fiction workshop and a class called Creativity: Ways of Seeing. All of these, except Screenwriting, are required for my degree. Screenwriting is just an elective—it’s the icing on the cake, considering that I want to write movies and/or for television.

Since late last week, I’ve managed to write three short stories and a reader’s response essay, but I still feel a little overwhelmed by what I have left. In retrospect, it was not a good idea to take three grad-level writing classes in one semester. Anyway, by next Monday at midnight, I have to have my screenplay and treatment finished/revised and turned in. Monday is also the due date for my final experimental piece, but that is one of the short stories that I’ve written in the last few days; I just need to edit, and it will be good to go. Furthermore, my professor said we don’t have to turn it in on Monday, since we won’t be meeting for class; that means I’ll turn it in on Wednesday, which is when the rest of my final projects are due (for Fiction). For that class, I have to put together a portfolio of everything I’ve written this semester, including any revisions, and then I have to write a reader’s response to a short story from our class’s anthology. I’ve already done that, but I’ll still need to find time to edit before next Wednesday. It’s based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s incredibly touching “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine.”

For now, I’m mostly/only worried about my screenplay. It’s not done, for one thing, but I also don’t feel it is up to par on a line level. So I have to finish the storyline and do at least one revised draft of the entire thing, if I can manage that.

I can’t wait for this semester to be over. But then, that breaks open a whole new problem: I need a job so I can afford to stay in Baltimore. I will almost have enough to cover my fixed expenses for two months—almost. But I wouldn’t be able to spend any more money than that, and that’s just not going to work. So I need to make up for those extra expenses, and then pay all my expenses for August. It’s not a ton of money, in the grand scheme of things, but for a poor graduate student in Baltimore, it’s still a lot.

I just hope there are jobs to be had. In the meantime, I’m seriously considering ChaCha, but I don’t think that will really help that much, and even then, it will only help at all if I can pass all the required tests and get “hired.” I can’t believe I’m actually considering this, but I may end up having to go to the nearest Burger King or something. Since I worked for Burger King for 4 years, under both terrible and amazing management, you should consider that a sign of desperation.

It wouldn’t be so bad. Would it? If I’m making money, who cares what kind of crappy job it is?

Which reminds me, I need to find out if taking a graduate assistantship would affect my loan eligibility in any way because there’s a chance I could end up with a (bad but still paying) assistantship next year.

Snow Update

All this snow was fun for a few days, but in the last couple of days, it has officially become a pain. Thursday, Kari and I spent about an hour digging her car out of the snow so she could go to a follow-up job interview the next morning. The wall/gate around the parking lot had fallen down on one side because of the snow. Some protection that was!

And I had to skip The Vampire Diaries (while we were digging) and Supernatural (while I was making myself some dinner) because of it. I just watched 30 Rock at 9:30 while I ate. I plan on getting caught up today.

Last night, Justin came over, and it was annoying finding a place for him to park. The parking lots are, of course, not plowed very well, so people were just parking wherever they could find room. So that’s what he did, too. We considered going over to Lori’s to hang out with her and Mike and Kari, but as we had just found a parking space and hadn’t seen each other in over a week because of the snow, we decided to stay in.

I’ve been staying up until 4 a.m. and sleeping until around 11—this snow has messed up my schedule—so it was nice that Justin had to leave early this morning to be back in time for a dress fitting. I think he’s done with this particular freelance job. On to the next one! Anyway, I got up about 9:30 today, so I’m hoping that will get me back on track. By the end of today, I plan to get caught up on The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, and The Office, as well as finish reading The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, for class. I pretty much hate it. Everything in my Experimental Forms class has been difficult to get through. *sigh*

Oh well. Another requirement down, after this semester (two actually, plus an elective). In three months, I’ll have a year of my program done. If I think about it like that, it’s going a little too fast (but we still have summer)! I guess that’s why we are planning as many events as possible while we’re here—me, Lori, Kari, Mike, Danielle, Wendy, Eli, Tykia, and some others, plus Justin for some of them. We might go to the aquarium tomorrow (there’s something special there on Valentine’s Day), but Justin and I will probably go to dinner or something to have some alone time.

I guess I should get to work on my plans for today. Vampire Diaries, here I come!

P.S. If you couldn’t tell, Justin and I are still dating and are official (have been for over a month at this point). I apologize for the confusion, if you care enough to be confused (LOL), but I had to wait until after I was fully out to my family, which happened over Christmas break. Finally.

Welcome!

Salut mes amis,

As you may have guessed after reading the title of this blog, if you did indeed do so, my name is Roger William Market, and I am a budding writer from Indiana. In May 2009, I graduated from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN with a B.A. in English and a minor in history. See my About the Writer page for all the poop on my education and my literary, TV, and movie tastes. If you are interested, that is.

With that out of the way, I’d like to welcome you into my life, or at least the online portion of it. I’m not entirely sure what this blog is going to be, but I imagine it will serve as a documentation of my M.F.A. journey and my life in Baltimore (and who knows where after that), a dumping ground for some of my writings and ideas, and a source for my musings, reviews, and/or rants about literature, TV, movies, and probably some other topics that I can’t foresee at 3 o’clock this fine morning. I really should be getting into bed.

And on that note, I think I will!

Until my next post,

Roger