Part IV – Fragility

by on August 26, 2011

By Rudy Wilson

Over the years since the Knopf published The Red Truck, two other books have come out, with smaller book publishers, never with the clout of Knopf, and never seen by Gordon Lish as he had left Knopf by then.

Gordon continued to be magnanimous. He wrote, “”Excellent Rudy What a dear heart you are to write. I am so glad you are of high heart and I am always happy to read anything you wish me to – for Q or for Knopf… All yours, signed GL.”  He said more than once, “We write for God and art.” I brought up Bret Easton Ellis’s success, and he said, “Well, maybe, but once you get dirt on the floor, you will never get it clean.”

Some years later The Red Truck was published by a second press, which was inept and sold maybe fifty books in a year. Gordon sent condolences and suggested I read his most recent book, Zimzum.  I asked him advice on how to run a Writers’ Workshop and humbly, he laughed and said, “You’re asking me?”

His latest, probably last note to me, last summer was so perplexing. It concerned the third, out-of-mothballs publication of the battered  Red Truck, with Ravenna Press. I sent him a copy, as well as a second book they printed, a collection of short fiction I had published over many years, Sonja’s Blue.

His note read, oddly, surprisingly: “Thanks for the book! Curious – that you did not like Knopf, especially given the citations (from reviews) on the back cover, too, that your kindness nowhere mentions the distance and manner of The Red Truck’s travel from original ms. to finished ms. Do you remember? Are you aware? Are you willing to give credit? Explain, please.” No signature.

I felt confused, even sad. I had no control over the new issue’s cover art or jacket information. Perhaps I should have dedicated the book to Gordon or put his name on the cover. I recalled, thinly, “I wish I could put my name on it…” Maybe I’d hurt or not credited the man enough, somehow.

There was always a sense of isolation about Gordon Lish. He presided in a position of personal power, a master in his world, well-respected, with strong opinions, and a history of making and breaking of authors. And yet, his notes to me over the many years and the most recent one indicate and inform me that he is a man of heart and sensitivity, humor, even with a certain fragility after all this time of infamy in the business. He was my friend. And I give him all the credit he deserves.

I’ve pretty much ridden the Red Truck into the ground. It sits outside in my tall-grassed, back yard, silently, a faded, now red-orangish, 1950 pickup, cracked windshield, birds’ nests in the front seat with wild flowers and weeds in the back truck-bed. A sentimental icon of the years: there’s the worn steering wheel, having been to NYC many times. Somewhere, in the glove compartment would be a black and white picture, twenty or more years old of myself and Mr. Lish, Capt. Fiction, standing close to me on a Manhattan sidewalk, uptown – one of us smiling.

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Part III: The Big Time

by on August 19, 2011

By Rudy Wilson

As the novel release date for The Red Truck approached, my editor Gordon Lish wrote: “Yes, it’s a damn fine-looking and fine-reading novel, and there’s growing excitement here about it. I fully expect a not inconsiderable triumph, certainly one of a critical kind…..Sit tight.  All is good. I will write jacket copy presently.  Cheers, G.”

Gordon asked me to try and find pre-reviewers with some lit rep. I found a few, mainly through The Iowa Workshop. Gordon wanted to get the great Leslie Fiedler to review it, but to no avail.
The book came out in May, 1987.  The reviews, the notice was wonderful and very positive, from Kirkus. LA Times, Wash. Post/Times, NPR, NY Times, twice, once by the ‘only reviewer to be feared,’ Michiko Kakutani, positively. She called it “more of a long prose poem, than a novel.” The 250 pages of narration cut from the book might have accounted for that, but overall I was quite happy with the notice. As was Gordon. When he read the first review, from Kirkus, he wrote, “Call me soonest!”

The book got good reviews and yet just “sat there,” according to a woman at Knopf I talked to some time later concerning paperback possibility. “We expected it to take off and it just sat there.” I always felt that there was no book marketing although the reviews were good all around the country, and even in the International Herald Tribune. But…it wasn’t commercial. Soon it was remaindered and sold for 99 cents, within 6-9 months after publication. So it goes with the big time. My brother sent me a t-shirt that had printed on it, “RED TRUCK FOR SALE 99 CENTS.”

The book did not receive ‘all the awards possible,’ but did receive a Michener Award and an NEA a year later which took me to Maui for a year. From there, I wrote Gordon a letter explaining where I was and that I was living with a ‘terrifyingly beautiful woman.” He responded: “Your life must be grand there – the woman…send me her photograph and I will decide if your description is an accurate one.” He went on to say, concerning the stall of the Truck, “Not to fret, Rudy – I will always be on your side and always concerned to advance your best interests…” And if I recall, he did like the photograph.

Meanwhile Gordon suggested I push on with my new book. When I submitted the finished manuscript to Gordon, his response was priceless: “No writer can twice get away with a novel whose characters’ actions are pointlessly lunatic.” In an interview with my local paper concerning the NEA, they used his quote as title: “Wilson gets national arts grant to finish ‘lunatic’ novel.”

Gordon finally rejected my second book as I hadn’t “re-invented myself enough,” a phrase I was to hear concerning the next three novels I sent him. I think it was a pattern with him and the writers he found, very possibly all fringe lunatics. Meanwhile Gordon published a story I’d written, entitled, Horsie-Child of Mine, in The Quarterly. He didn’t like this title either. He wrote: “Let me call it MEAT …and I will take the story for Q3….Hardly a sou in this, but swell showcase, I can assure you.”

We eventually compromised and called the story Cake, although neither title had anything remotely to do with the story, except the frail possibility that Cake seems softer and more feminine than MEAT, as the story did have a prominent female, child character. He did write and say, “R –I was only funning. “Cake” it is. Cheers. G”
And, lucky me, to show up in The Q! I suggested I come to NY and have a drink with Gordon. He said, “God, Rudy, we’ll have a helluva lot more than a drink…”

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Part II: Cut to the Bone

by on August 12, 2011

By Rudy Wilson

The editing process began, the correspondence with Lish mainly on typed Knopf notepaper, and the calls, after he insisted I get a phone.  Once, I had a very violent scene from Taxi Driver, as my outgoing phone-machine message and came home to a message from Gordon.

“For my trouble today, in calling you, I got the sickest answering message… get back to me soonest. Click.” It was awhile before I heard from Mr. Lish again. But it was basically all very good, amiable work. Gordon Lish was always kind to me and very encouraging. He settled my nerves and suggested I continue on with writing books: my second novel, also with a title he disdained, Shiny Apalaris.

Gordon took The Red Truck to France for a month and finished the edit. “Dear Excellent Rudy,” he wrote. “Here’s the edited version of what I think now is best titled Cartoon. I will not expand on my remarks on the phone, save to aver, once again, that I think you have a first-rate text here, one that will gain you exceptional notice. The work was, I suspect you must realize, tough to do. But it is behind us now; now the next step is to come to terms with what we have here. I hope you will find yourself persuaded to go with it as it is. But the decision is entirely yours, of course….” The note ended with “Be well and feel good. I have a safe copy here, so call if there is anything you can’t dope out.”

I went into shock.  I sat in my old brick house, on a dirt alley, note and manuscript in hand. I couldn’t understand the book now. The ending completely threw me, practically into contortions and panic. It made no sense to me, rationally, irrationally or on any feeling or metaphorical or allegorical way: in no way whatsoever, to me.  He had taken a line from the middle of the book and stuck it at the end, totally out of any humane context. I fell into a two week long, silent depression.

He called. “What’s the problem?”
“I just can’t live with the book like this, and the title makes it sound silly, almost absurd,” I said. “It makes no sense to me now, all the narrative being cut, it’s just not the book I wrote.”

I must add that Gordon Lish did not write one word of the book, but cut, cut to the bone, and rearrange he did, drastically. There has been recent controversy concerning Gordon’s work with Raymond Carver, of which I know nothing, firsthand. From my experience I would assume Lish did what he did to my work, simply cut and arrange the furniture to his artistic perception.
“Ok, “he said. “Put the book together as you will and let’s then see what we have. If you can make it work for you, we will go with that.” I sensed his quiet disappointment after the work he’d done, but for me it was an absolute necessity.

I rearranged the text, adding some narration for a semblance of a plot and we agreed on the outcome.  Later, The Washington post commented: “…Wilson reveals himself as a prose stylist of genuine gifts; perhaps next time he can create characters and plot to match.”

So it went.  In Aug. ’87  I received some numbered details from Gordon: 1. MS here. 2. Looking good…. 5. Title is to be The Red Truck. 6. We are in good shape and we have a great book and it is time you started being thrilled… 12. Be happy…Feel good, racing, G.”

What a fine, helpful man he was to me, all those years ago. He wrote about the cover art. “Just in — gorgeous stuff. Can you see the Cross? Feel good – G,” and, “The book is simply wonderful. It reads powerfully – I wish I could put my name on it.”

I told him that he may as well, really, as it’s now cut down from four hundred plus pages to one hundred eighty-seven…

Gordon responded, “Rudy, you are the dearest man. I send all Christmas cheer.. G”
As the publication date drew near, Gordon wrote me many notes.  “Rudy, go over these proofs with a fine tooth comb, combing every speck of the page…(Looks gorgeous to me. Oh, boy, what great times ahead!) Cheers, G”

I found the man to be always magnanimous, generous, and strong, also strongly opinionated but nowhere have I ever glimpsed the ‘frightening’ workshop teacher that scares so many people. “Stop,” Lish reportedly told GQ writer Neal Karlen, who took the class and then wrote about it in the late ’80s. “Karlen, I don’t feel like I need to know this to keep on living.” Well that’s not so tough, really.

However, I asked him if there should be a picture of me on the jacket. He asked me for one. “Do you still have long hair?”

“Well, it’s not long, since that picture, but yes…what am I supposed to look like?”
“I think it best if you have no image of you on this book, because after people read it, it may be best to remain anonymous…for your own good.”

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Part I: Lucky Karma About to Hit the Fan

by on August 11, 2011

By Rudy Wilson

In the summer of 2010, I got a disturbing note from a very tough guy: Gordon Lish, the infamous, New York genius of the literary world– top Knopf editor, prolific author of over fifteen books, editor at Esquire, with his own top literary quarterly that catered to the best writers, especially new ones, ‘Lish’s discoveries,’ of which there were many. He taught, and still does, the most prestigious Writing Worskhop in New York, according to many.

He hung out with Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, in the 60’s, Neal Cassady, and maybe even Kerouac, was often in the news, and is again lately. His note took me back over many years to the communications and connection we once had.

In another summer — 1986, Gordon Lish pursued me. He saved my life: my literary life. I was living in a small, one room house, writing, writing and writing, living obscurely, hiding out in the cornfields of an Iowa town, south of Iowa City, realm of so many well known authors. Saul Bellow, and Dylan Thomas read there: Flannery O’Connor went through the program, among so many ‘well-knowns.’ At that time, I’d never heard of Mr. Lish.

Now, I’m pursuing Mr. Lish, and must simply say: Dear Mr. Lish, it ain’t over yet…

It started in a little pizza parlor in a small, Iowa community, with a phone call.
I had no phone then and lived in a quiet hell.
“A guy named Gordon Leish called you this morning,” I was told, checking my messages. I’d published one story, in The Paris Review in 1984, receiving an award for it, so maybe that was the bait.

I was interested in NYC, so I took the message and called back.

The man who answered informed me he was a senior editor at Alfred Knopf and his name was Gordon Lish. I still didn’t know who he was. I was pretty well read, had my hopeful MFA in hand from Iowa, but I wasn’t too aware of editors, although Mr. Lish was also well known for his books, Peru just coming out that summer.

“Knopf likes your novel. I like it, and can offer you $6,000 as an advance against royalties to publish it.”
I didn’t hesitate. Best book publishers, best editor, well known personality. And I read that he loved Salinger’s For Esme- With Love and Squalor. “Yes,” I told him. “Sounds great.”
“Well, I think it will be a fine novel…after it’s edited.”
“I see,” I said. The book was titled, Samskara and was a 440 page manuscript, submitted to him by my newly acquired NY agent. “Edited?”
“Yes, of course. It’s obvious there’s much here but I will have a real job to carve it out –“
“Oh…sure.”
Who would say no, fumbling, from the pizza parlor? It was the first book I’d written, and Alfred Knopf calling…
“What needs to be done first is to cut out all explanations and apologies. That should reduce it significantly, and the perplexing scenes can be cut, the ones no one will understand, and then I believe we will have a fine book. As it is now, only the lunatic fringe will read and it will get very little, if any notice. Leave it to me and it will receive excellent reviews. Not too sure of sales, as it is an odd book, but we will win every award we can.” I was sold.

Most of my communications from Gordon Lish were through notes, and phone calls, and looking back reveal his style, his stand on art and what writing is about.

Without Gordon Lish, I’d have been digging ditches in those years and the many that followed, as Knopf opened doors for me, two more books published with other presses and some awards. The book he edited is The Red Truck, and was published three times, the third in 2010 with Ravenna Press. I sent Gordon a copy, as we have remained in touch over the years, and he had also printed a story of mine in The Quarterly, his NY literary magazine.

He never liked the original title, Samskara and I see why, of course: it’s eclectic and few know what it means, even myself. ‘Scars on the soul,” I explained to him. “Nonsense,” he said. “Make a list of possible alternative titles and get them to me.” He laughed most of them off but found The Red Truck suitable. “Ah, what a swell title,” he said.

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Publish Fast

by Chamaigne on October 18, 2010

Have you got a little money to spend on self-publishing, but not a lot of time before you need the finished product?  Companies like instantpublisher.com offer subsidy publishing with orders shipped in as few as 7-10 days. It’s also very affordable at under $100 for your first 25 copies.

What I like most about instantpublisher.com is that they offer two options for your ISBN number. For $75 you can purchase an ISBN which lists them as the publisher. For $95, they’ll sell you an ISBN which lists you as the publisher.

They offer a 58 page publishing guide, which is a well written and easy to follow policies and technical manual complete with screen-shots. They also provide a PDF uploading video tutorial. Of course, any site will give instructions for use, but in browsing around I found that instantpublisher.com was well organized to take me from curious web-surfer to understanding the whole process in record time.

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Publish for Free

by Chamaigne on October 11, 2010

When it comes to your publishing project, is “shoestring budget” an understatement?  Well, there are actually a number of ways to publish for free. I don’t mean blogging or creating an e-book, either.

You can end up with a nicely bound book offered for sale on the web, with no money for setup, on websites like lulu.com. You set the selling price, taking into account their cut for printing, and you don’t pay until you order yourself a copy of your book.  It can stay as simple as that, or you can buy additional marketing services. My favorite feature is that you can order yourself an ISBN number through lulu and skip the step of becoming a “publisher” yourself, which involves registering a business name and buying a batch of ISBN numbers.

Another way to publish for free is through a company like PublishAmerica.  Their motto is, “We treat our authors the old fashioned way – we pay them.”  This is a traditional publisher that doesn’t charge a publishing fee, pays royalties, and will even pay an advance. They make their money by selling books. Unlike many traditional publishers, they are marketing to the self-publishing audience, actively seeking submissions. You don’t need an agent to submit.  One nice feature I notice about them is that they are happy for the author to include their own illustrations. PublishAmerica does the layout and cover design. The process can take a few weeks to several months.

With so many publishing options, it really pays off to take the time to shop around, read the fine print, and find the publishing company that is uniquely tailored to your situation and goals. Happy publishing!

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Comparing Subsidy Publishers

by Chamaigne on September 24, 2010

I’m embarking on the task of comparing publishers and publishing methods, to decide which way we should go to publish a novel written by Monica Hadley, founder of Writers’ Voices.

Now, my nature is to want to get a comprehensive list of all the publishers IN THE WORLD, or at least the country, and compare and contrast them all.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, there are way too many choices out there to consider them all.  They even defy categorization by offering a huge range of financial arrangements. It would be neat and clean to draw a line between “traditional royalty publishers” and “subsidy publishers”, or between publishers who carefully select what they’ll publish and those who don’t. But, some publishing houses who publish anything will pay royalties, some do-it-yourself companies are free, and some have traditional royalty arrangements and take submissions from anyone.

The good news is that if you look around enough, you can find just about any arrangement you feel comfortable with.

The main questions to ask seem to be these:

SIZE AND REPUTATION OF PUBLISHER

How does one submit a manuscript?

Is an agent needed to submit?

Does the publisher specialize in a certain genre?

What percentage of submissions get accepted?

What is the reputation of the publisher in the industry?

What well known books has the publisher published?

PRODUCTION

Who pays the cost of printing the book?

Does the author pay to get copies of their book? How much?

Is the book printed in large batches or is by print on demand?

Does the publisher offer editing services or print the book as submitted?

Who covers the cost of these services?

Who makes the final decision on editing? The author or the publisher?

Does the publisher offer graphics services?

Who covers the cost of these services?

Who makes the final decision?

Does the publisher offer page layout services?

Who covers the cost?

Who makes the final decisions?

DISTRIBUTION and FULFILLMENT

Does the publisher have the ability to get your book onto mainstream book store shelves?

Does the publisher have the ability to make your book available by order through major book stores?

Does the publisher fulfill wholesale orders?

MARKETING

Does the publisher market your book on their own website?

What else will the publisher do to market your book?

Does the publisher reserve the right to discontinue marketing efforts?

What are the publishers expectations of the author in terms of marketing efforts?

What are the consequences to either party if marketing follow through does not meet the agreements?

RIGHTS and ROYALTIES

Who maintains the copyrights to the book?

Are royalties paid to the author for books sold by the publisher?

Generally speaking, a mutually beneficial relationship has to be established where the author and the publisher strike a balance between risk and reward. Publishing companies advertise what they are offering, and the savvy author will shop around until he or she finds a company that offers an arrangement comfortable to their situation and goals.

A publisher who takes all the risk by paying for production costs, may retain more of the rewards, like keeping the rights and a healthy share of sales proceeds. Whether this is a good deal for the author or not depends on the size and reputation of the publisher and their marketing prowess. It’s better to end up with 10% of $100,000 than 50% of $100.

Another thing to consider is that a publisher who is willing to take a large risk by putting up all the money upfront and even paying the author an advance, is more likely to want more creative control.

Choosing the right publisher involves clarifying what is more important to you, the author. Creative control? Retention of rights? Financial reward? Financial risk?

In future blog posts, I’ll be reviewing and comparing some of the more prominent and interesting non-traditional publishers and self-publishing methods.

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Interview With Allan Cobb on Print on Demand

by Chamaigne on October 6, 2009

Our interview with Allan Cobb on 4/13/ is a great tutorial on Print on Demand publishing.  Allen did everything himself and got his first 50 books for a total investment of $300.  He breaks down all the costs, right down to shipping.  He also discusses the pros and cons of self-publishing verses traditional publishing, purchasing ISBN numbers, listing yourself on Amazon, and much more.  If you’re looking into self-publishing, this is interview is a must-listen.

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Different Kinds of Pay-to-Publish Publishers

by Chamaigne on October 1, 2009

Pay-to-Publish companies can have an array of contracts and services.  They all require money from the writer to print the book, but they often do some marketing, retain rights to the book, and take a percentage of proceeds.  They may give the writer a few complimentary copies and sell books to the writer at a discount. In some cases, you pay at the front end to be published and marketed, and you pay again to get copies of your book.

Print-On-Demand companies are pay-to-publish companies who are set up to do very small runs of a book.  This means that the initial total cost can be much lower, but the price per book is much higher. This usually means that the selling price of the book needs to be much higher to cover the printing cost.

My research for this project will yield a self-publisher comparison chart that I’m looking forward to sharing on the site.

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“Vanity Publishing” Isn’t So Vain

by Chamaigne on October 1, 2009

When a royalty publisher considers taking a risk on an author, an already established fan base and track record of book sales is a big plus.

I remember when, in music circles, self-produced CDs were known as “coasters”, anticipating the eventual fate of those stacks of CDs most of us had of our own work.  But now, the tables have turned, and producing your own CD is an important step in getting a record deal.  Record companies woke up to the idea that they needn’t risk millions of dollars on new artists when they could select from self-produced artists with an established fan base and already impressive record sales. Why gamble when you can invest in a sure thing?  I saw this first hand when I travelled with a friend to Nashville for a meeting with a major record label.  The label was very interested in her work and encouraged her to keep writing, and to contact them again when she had reached 50,000 sales on her own.

This wouldn’t have been possible in the past, but in both music and writing, this is now possible, and for many artists, it is the way to go.  Among successful “self-published” authors are Mark-Twain, Mary Baker Eddy, and Deepak Chopra.

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