The Marquis de Leech
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Posts posted by The Marquis de Leech
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32 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:
“Anti-Stradfordian” = opposition to teaching Shakespeare?
Anti-Stratfordian = someone who thinks that the works attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually written by someone else. Has sub-varieties, depending on their favoured candidate (Baconian, Oxfordian, Marlovian, Derbyite). Very popular 1850-1950, forgotten 1950-2000, and on the rise since 2000.
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The weirdest thing... I suspect that this episode only gets attention because we're currently going through an Anti-Stratfordian Renaissance (which the internet may well have aggravated). In the second half of the twentieth century, it would have caused some headscratching and nothing more. Now? Anti-Stratfordians are a Thing again.
(It's rather like if Phrenology made a comeback).
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52 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:
Well, given the high number of indie authors on that board, it's pretty easy to go around the rules.
I don't know if you three are friends, but perhaps you could read and review each other's novels. Posting the full review on Reddit, provided it's good and well-written, could get the ball rolling and wouldn't be considered spam because it's not your own book.
Just an idea. . .
Problem: there'd be a conflict of interest going on. The reviews would have an incentive to be as glowing as possible, since you want the other person to be glowing towards you. And ultimately, the purpose of reviews is to assist the reader, not to promote.
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I am on reddit (though I only identify myself via authorial flair on r/fantasy). It's just you have to be really careful with self-promotion there, lest it be considered spam. I generally latch onto any r/fantasy thread that comes up about necromantic books, though I always put the disclaimer that I'm the author in question.
For obvious reasons, I also post a lot on r/tolkienfans. But I don't mention my own works there, because it'd not be relevant - reddit is much more forgiving of you if you actually contribute to discussions.
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4 hours ago, Ser Drewy said:
Also is it me or is judging the adult Tolkien's views on an author based on his possible teenage opinions a bit odd? As if someone's tastes and views don't develop, deepen and potentially change with time.
Exactly. Quite apart from the obvious point that it was a school debate (and hence maybe not his own opinions), the guy was a teenager, and Anti-Stratfordianism was commonplace at the time.
I think the episode is useful to consider in context though, since it clearly gets treated as Exhibit A for Tolkien disliking Shakespeare, when really it was just a reflection of Tolkien interacting with a particular intellectual fad.
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5 hours ago, The Grey Wolf said:
Could you elaborate on the Mark Lawrence thing? Sounds like it would be of interest to me since I intend to self-publish my anthology.
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-official-self-published-fantasy.html
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On what Tolkien thought of Shakespeare (and a fringe literary theory):
That School Debate: Tolkien, Shakespeare, and Anti-Stratfordianism
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8 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:
Well, given those numbers, it wouldn't give you anymore credibility. Selling a couple of short stories to popular online or print venues would be more "prestigious."
But as you both pointed out, at least you didn't lose any money in these ventures. Which is the only silver lining as far as I can see.
Have you guys tried to be part of Mark Lawrence indie book showdown he does every year? Or is it only open to self-published works?
The Mark Lawrence thing is for self-published only. He's been explicitly asked about that.
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Again, expectations. I'd done enough background reading on the publishing industry to know what to expect, so far as sales go (and that even small presses will typically reject 95% of manuscripts).
Different writers have different motivations. For me, I'm happy to consider it a hobby. Would I like to be a Big Name? Sure. But I'm not crying myself to sleep every night, and who knows what the future will bring?
- Kyoshi and Derfel Cadarn
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If all else fails, there's also the H.P. Lovecraft precedent. The guy died a complete unknown in 1937, and is now a staple of his entire genre. History has a strange sense of humour.
- Arakan and The Grey Wolf
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1 hour ago, Lord Patrek said:
I get what you're saying. But if you're only going to move 150 copies, is that really worth it?
Personally, I'd find it extremely depressing. So much so that I'd rather keep that novel on my hard drive and not get my hopes up, only to have my illusions shattered down the line.
How do you guys keep your spirits up?
150 copies is better than no copies (it's also better than the average self-published author, who really does struggle to hit triple digits). It's also a sense of personal achievement - sure, I'm never going to be a Big Name, but most writers aren't, and I have also found a publisher on my own merits, which is nice. Hell, there are few things more heart-warming than noticing that a library copy of your book is on loan. All I can do now is stick at it, and hope I improve. My blog traffic has basically doubled since the Coronavirus hit, so at least a growing number of people know I exist, even if they aren't buying the book.
Then there are the short stories. I was a bit harsh to say that they haven't worked at promotion. They haven't worked at getting more readers for Wise Phuul, but my blog occasionally records search terms used to find it - and there are people out there google searching for my sword and sorcery piece, "A Breath Through Silver." From which I can conclude I'm OK at writing sword and sorcery (why else would people google it?).
- Starkess, Kyoshi and The Grey Wolf
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Anyway, here's what I consider to be the various pluses and minuses:
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Speaking as another small press author... I think it really depends on knowing what you're in for. Small presses have advantages over self-publishing, in that you don't have to organise (and pay for) cover or edits, and even if the book doesn't sell more than three copies, you aren't losing any money. Sure, you have to do significant promotional leg-work, but it's arguably a less risky (and arguably slightly more respectable) option than self-publishing, where you are putting your own money on the gamble. Self-publishing requires one to be business minded, whereas with a small press, one can treat writing as a risk-free hobby. I personally consider royalties (and the money I get via short stories) to be a happy bonus.
With the Big Five, sure, you're going to have far more promotion, but they're also much less likely to treat you as a human being (and you get zero say over the cover art).
Incidentally, I have just requested that my local library stock Resurrection Men. I'll let you know if they decide to stock it.
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15 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:
Resurrection Men has sold roughly 150 copies (ebook and paperback). Not sure exactly.
If it's any consolation, that's about the figure for Wise Phuul.
The promotion obstacle was a key reason for temporarily switching to short stories. That doesn't seem to have worked, though I do get a fair bit of online readership as a Tolkien blogger. Well, that, and the past six months have seen a 3230% increase in readership of my article on the best order to read Plato. Yes, really. People this year aren't reading small press fantasy novels. They're reading Plato, for some reason*.
*My hypothesis is that COVID Lockdown has spurred an interest in the classics, rather than contemporary stuff.
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As an update... my sword and sorcery piece has been finished, polished, and sent off. Bluebeard Retelling still hasn't found a home though.
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21 minutes ago, Vaughn said:
Side note: was Ulysses was the original Gary Stu?
Nah, that's Gilgamesh.
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12 hours ago, Vaughn said:
I was being snarky but I guess my quibble with Tom is just that I feel like he's very under-explained and ultimately is just a deus ex machine to get the hobbits out of the barrow.
I'm sure it wasn't, but it feels to me like originally Tolkien wrote the hobbits into the barrow, couldn't figure out how to get the out without bringing in Strider too quickly and then came up with Bombadil. The wight is also a bit odd in that a lot to the bad stuff the characters run into (orcs, trolls, balrog, Shelob, etc...) are explained within the 'ecosystem' of Middle Earth and the barrow wight seems like something from another world/story. Are there a lot of other undead/spectral creatures like this I'm not remembering in Middle Earth? Other than getting the dagger into Merry's hands for later on, it's all a bit out of place for me, both Tom and the barrow scenes.
Tolkien didn't know about Strider (then called Trotter) until he hit Bree. And even then, he had no idea who this guy (originally a hobbit with wooden feet) was.
Bombadil started life as the toy of one of the Tolkien children (Michael, I think). Tolkien put him into the story because he was still figuring out where the story was going.
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I love the idea of Tom Bombadil. It's just that the execution is off - Tolkien made him too silly.
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6 minutes ago, BloodyJollyRoger said:
Actually 3 books, because the whole hero journey thing.
One book, cut into three by the publisher due to a paper shortage in post-war Britain.
- baxus and Ser Scot A Ellison
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10 minutes ago, BloodyJollyRoger said:
Lord Of The Rings is trash. 3 Books just to throw a ring into a Volcano.
A failed attempt to throw a ring into a volcano.
As opposed to an emo-dude with a Freudian fixation on a phallic object? See I can play this too.
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35 minutes ago, Ser Drewy said:
Perhaps a good book requires several on-screen rapes as well as endless death?
But Moorcock doesn't do on-screen rapes. He has rapist characters (both as protagonists and as villains), but it isn't on-screen.
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Boarders writing a novel
in Literature
Posted
I've been on r/fantasy for three years now... I do make a point of trying to contribute, though this past week I was a naughty boy, and posted too many of my own blog links/references to my works, earning me a mod warning. In my defence, it was relevant to the discussion at hand, it's just that there were too many links at once. So I'm keeping my nose clean...