conventional publishing is for people who wanna play by the rules

Much like Peter Sellers' character in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, I am hatching an evil plan. The plan is literary in fashion but no short of military in production. I'm compiling a collection of ten or so short stories, (several of which have already been published in various places), to be published as an ebook for kindle, iphone, android and so on. It'll be downloadable off Amazon and all those sorts of places. It'll be cheap - I mean no one knows who the hell I am, know what I mean?

After reading several articles about Youtube Indie music sensation ALEX DAY, whose channel I regularly chuckle at, ebook publishing sensation Amanda Hocking and many others, I have felt empowered to take the plunge into the web pool of the vanities. Of course, nothing could come of it, sure, but that's the worst that could happen. I'm aiming for it to be up and ready inside the next month. Let me tell you a bit about it to wet your appetite.

The title is, as yet, unconfirmed, but it's going to be a selection of vignettes all centring around the theme of disconnection - whether that's from the world, from a loved one, from yourself, or more literally because of a bad wifi signal. The idea is that they are digital stories about emotional disconnection in a digital age - to be downloaded and enjoyed purely digitally. Because they are shorts, they can be read on your phone or kindle in a small space of time - as your travel to work (not by car, hopefully. I'm not recommending dangerous commuting for the sake of literature), wait for the doctor etc, etc.

I really like collections of short stories and mercifully they are coming back into the mainstream after a substantial absence. They are great as they give you an insight into the writer's style and interests without demanding total attention for 300 pages. They are the non-commital approach to reading - and I like it.

A particularly good contemporary collection is No One Belongs Here More Than You by artist, film maker and writer Miranda July. They address themes of love and unfulfilment in a not dissimilar way to my own growing anthology. Except mine is obviously much more relevant to everyone's lives - quick, everyone open a new tab and click BUY on Amazon marketplace!

You may be asking yourselves, 'But, author of Pop Philosophy Blog, why don't you try and get it published conventionally first?' A valid question. The answer: I don't want to. I like the freedom that comes with self publishing. Shit, that's why I started this blog in the first place - to have total freedom over whatever the fuck I put on here. It feels a lot more like websites such as Thoughtcatalog, Storybleed Magazine and The Rumpus.net (links in side bar), which genuinely feel like online artist collectives. I can do it exactly how I want - and who knows, maybe some people might even like it. I am sick of sending shit off to lit journals who sometimes send polite apologies and even more rarely polite acceptances. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to anyone who gives me a platform for my art; but on this occasion I want to be the one with the screwdriver and hard hat who is putting the platform together.

I'm thinking of it as a sort of trial. Who knows what will happen. Watch this space. Literally this space - I'll be uploading details along the way - including potential covers, names and stories. In fact, here's one if you're interested: a story previously published on the VOLUME MAGAZINE blog. I've mentioned it a couple of times, it's called PIG POY POETRY. Enjoy.

happy to judge a book by its cover

Because I have been reading so much recently, I have, as invariably happens when you are over-saturated by one medium, become a bit of a book snob. I wouldn’t be so egotistical to suggest that this applies in terms of the quality of the writing (although of course it does – but I’m no great literary master and I need to at least attempt to crawl back out of my own arse). No, it’s more about the design, layout, and yes, the cover, which I do shamelessly judge the book by. I think any author who lets a publishing house slap on an ugly or inappropriate cover on their book is perhaps not worth reading in the first place, as how far will this bad judgement go? Surely it will make itself heard in the ugly or inappropriate style of the prose as well?

A few of the covers in the Great Ideas Series

Luckily, if you are an aspiring or established author this aesthetic problem can be overcome by getting yourself published by one specific, distinguished publishing house: none other than the Penguin Paperback. They transcend my snobbery, always having good, appropriate covers, for both classics like Jane Austen, contemporary titles or reworkings of classics, with a very good cover designer on board. Their text is laid out well on the page; not too much margin, not too little; nothing over complicated like the title AND the author AND the chapter AND the page number crowding the headers, just in case you had forgotten what you were reading – like when rappers worry that you haven’t heard their name enough times to make it memorable, so interject it sporadically throughout their song, just so you remember (Yes, I’m thinking of you WALE, and yes, we have already forgotten you, despite the early Gaga collaboration, so nah nah nah nah you’re name sucks ass no matter how many times you say it. Boo yah.). Penguin also do a range or recycled paper paperbacks, such as one copy I have of Gulliver’s Travels (not the Jack Black version, you philistines!), with the plain coloured cover and simple font that has become synonymous with the brand: Orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime.

Um, shouldn't this be orange??
Mixed signals, Penguin, mixed signals

It is fair enough to say that Penguin revolutionised the face of literature. Founded in 1935 by Allen Lane – incidentally, a friend of Agatha Christie – the first Penguin Paperbacks cost the same price as a packet of cigarettes, and, also like cigarettes, were sold everywhere, from corner shops to train stations, as was the original intent. Before that books were expensive, the only affordable ones being fairly trashy, while Homer’s Odyssey and the Communist Manifesto lurked only – and slightly ironically in the case of Marx – in the libraries of the rich, in hardcover. Penguin democratised reading, publishing many books that had previously been banned, bringing them to anyone who wanted them, such as Lady Chatterly’s Lover, which, when published in 1960 caused the company to be charged under the Obscene Publications Act. However, Penguin were acquitted and in six weeks two million copies were sold. Come on freedom of speech!


Basically, Penguin books are my favourite books, so if you’re reading this Penguin, well done, thumbs up on facebook, I LIKE you. Fairly recently they have brought out five series’ of short literary works, from Nietzsche to Orwell to Freud to Chuang Tzu, under the title of Great Ideas. They all have individually designed covers, all of which are enough to make me want to purchase an entire small library on existentialism just to look at. They are all around a fiver and, if nothing more, are great things aesthetically (Christmas presents, anyone??). Proof indeed that with a good publisher and a good author, you can judge a book very accurately by its very well designed cover. Becoming a Penguin Modern Classic has become my new goal in life – providing the design is right, of course.

Covers from the Great Loves Series

A lot of this info I got over at the Penguin website, HERE. Info on the Great Ideas Series HERE.