Operation Agent/Publisher

Last year I quit The Underground Literary Alliance because I wanted to devote more time to writing rather than getting sucked into another time-consuming albeit fun project such as organizing The F Independent Literary Festival (2006). The result has been Blog Love Omega Glee (the serialization of the second part, Love, commences tomorrow by the way, thanks for being patient during this brief intermission). Unfortunately, the publisher who collected my first novel was ULA Press, who obviously is devoted to publications by Underground Literary Alliance members, so since I'm not a member anymore, then you can probably do the math and arrive at the conclusion: I need to find a new publisher or agent who will find me a new publisher. I enjoy self-publishing (which is why I serialized The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus as a zine and I am currently serializing B.L.O.G. on this blog), but I enjoy writing more, so I like to self-publish in short doses (the serializations) and then find a publisher to collect the work and keep it in print afterward (and, of course, getting paid is nice too). So, if you are a publisher (no vanity presses please), whether you're part of the vast conglomerates, or think I'm the next Charles Bukowski and you're the next John Martin, and you're interested in collecting B.L.O.G. in book form, please get in touch (wredfright AT yahoo DOTT com) and let's talk. Or, if you're an agent (no fake literary agencies running scams please) looking for a new writer to take on and think you can get me a nice advance and yourself a nice commission from a publisher to publish B.L.O.G., then come on down! Consider this an open call for publisher/agent auditions! I'll be doing the more traditional author groveling in a query letter approach as well, but since this is the age of the brave new world Internet, I thought I'd post the announcement here too and let the magic of online social networking work. And, if you aren't yourself an agent or acquisitions editor, but know someone who is, then please feel free to pass this along to her or him. In print, B.L.O.G. will probably have to be a series of four novels because it's very long as one single novel (probably 250,000 words) and publishers love series. Fortunately it neatly divides into four parts (the recently completed Blog, Love, Omega, and Glee) of about 60,000-65,000 words each. And, of course, I don't plan to leave the blog serialization up forever. Once the novel is collected, then all the posts, except for maybe the first few which will work as a sampler, will be taken down, so enjoy it while you can, folks! As for the novel's marketability, I think works such as Good Omens and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy have proven that humorous fantasy and science fiction can be very popular. And, though B.L.O.G. is slightly more realistic than those works (not by much, how many vending machines after all are heads of state in the world, with "head" being very literal in this case?), it's in a vein that follows the fantastic whimsy of Tom Robbins and Robert Anton Wilson, also very popular with readers. Furthermore, the elements of the novel from professional wrestling to politics to conspiracy theories to comic books are all subjects popular with readers. The Harry Potter generation is coming of age and ready for sex, drugs, and rock and roll (oh, sorry that's my first novel Emus); well, anyway they like to blog and read so they would no doubt enjoy a story of two bloggers falling in love as the world falls apart. And, no I'm not going to make them vampires who eat bears instead just because Twilight is popular. I do insist on creative control. But the publisher can market the book as they want. A cover photo of someone blogging naked. Sure! A picture of Obama since Obama books are selling. Why not? Marketing it as a feel-good Oprah book club novel to women worried that 2012 means the end of the world? Go for it! Publishers are the experts at selling books, so I'll leave that up to them. And, if everybody decides B.L.O.G. isn't marketable? No worries, I understand. It's a brutal economic world out there. Good luck with that great new novel Paris Hilton is "writing"! I'm sure that will sell for generations to come. In any case, if anyone's interested in this novel, get in touch!

Emus Holiday Sale!

Want to read what Harriet was reading in the last chapter? To celebrate finishing posting the first quarter of Blog Love Omega Glee, I'm putting my first novel, The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus, about a garage rock band, on sale for the rest of 2008. I still have some copies left over from last year's reading tour, and I think they'd be happier stuffed into somebody's holiday stocking than sitting around in a box in the corner of my living room. That's right! Emus make great stocking stuffers! Well, the book, probably not the bird (the bird is pretty big so you'd need a very large stocking to stuff it into, plus it might kick you and you wouldn't want to ruin the holidays with a concussion from a large Australian flightless bird, would you?). So from here until the end of the year, copies of Emus are on sale for $10 each. I'll sign it and throw in a bonus zine too. To take advantage of this special deal, don't order them off the website (which has the standard pricing) but email me at wredfright (AT) yahoo.com with your address and the number of books you want and I'll figure out the shipping costs (typically for the U.S. I can send the books media mail, so one book would cost $2.23 to ship for example) and tax (but only if you have the honor of living in Ohio), then send you a bill with the total, which you can pay via PayPal, or check or money order. Once payment is received, then I'll ship out your book(s). The novel has a nice red cover so it's perfect for yuletide cheer too. Have a cool yule, and make it cooler by drinking eggnog with Emus!

Books And Beyond!

Books And Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of New American Reading includes an entry by me on zines. Read it at your local library (unless you have $400.00 to spare)!

Underground Literary Alliance Box Set!

The publisher of my novel The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus has included it along with seven other books in a box set, and they're having a sale! There's some other classics in there including Crazy Carl's Fat On The Vine, so that's a good deal for someone who's looking for a holiday gift or just a spot of reading for herself or himself over the winter. A set of ULA trading cards including one of me is thrown in to sweeten things even further. I imagine they make good bookmarks.

Textnovel.Com

I have begun to post a few chapters of Blog Love Omega Glee on Textnovel.Com, a website that allows members to follow serialized novels on their cell phones. Reading novels on cell phones is very popular in Asia, so the folks behind Textnovel are hoping the activity catches on here. So if for some reason you want to read the new novel on your cell phone, check out the site!

Blog Love Omega Glee Ad

Frank Walsh of the Underground Literary Alliance was nice enough to offer to run an ad for the new novel, so I whipped one up. Here it is:
(You can find a better copy of the ad at Wredfright.com since Blogger reduces the size a bit here). I haven't read all the other novels this year so the tagline is a bit of puffery, but I am fond of the novel so it very well could be. If you're fond of the novel, then feel free to post this ad wherever you want, and just link it to http://wredfright.blogspot.com with my thanks. One thing's for certain, it's the cheapest novel of the year since it's free with computer and Internet access. It'll probably be collected down the road in print, ebook, and audiobook (though I couldn't tell you when that will be) and it probably won't be free then so enjoy the wonders of blog serialization while they're here, and please use the ad to share it with friends. Tooting my own horn! Toot! Toot! Oh, and if any bookstore owner takes offense at the tagline, then you're welcome to sell the print copy of my first novel The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus, which is in bookstores!

Yip!: Train Wreck Girl by Sean Carswell

This is the second novel by Sean, and I think I like it even better than the first, Drinks For The Little Guy, which I liked a lot. Set in his Yoknapatawpha County-like setting of real-life Cocoa Beach, Florida, the novel has some recurring characters, also like Faulkner, from Carswell's other work show up such as Helen and Lester, but most of the novel focuses on Danny McGregor, who has to deal with the guilt of an ex-girlfriend's death, and his own living past the youth when he expected to die from living fast. Publisher's Weekly complained that the novel lacked "emotional depth", but you know PW loves Harry Potter and lots of terrible mainstream fiction so maybe there just wasn't enough dragons in Train Wreck Girl for their taste. I found the novel engrossing myself. Filled with humor, suspense, and genuine philosophizing about what to do with one's life, it read like a combination of Charles Bukowski and Jim Thompson. You know, a drunk being tossed into a film-noir, sort of like The Big Lebowski, except with not as many White Russians. A great read!