Is There Room For the Literary Writer on the eReader?
I was reading someone’s “how to” blog recently. The subject
was of course how to be successful (meaning $$) as a writer. The crux of the
advice was write what people want to read. Well what do people want to read?
Paranormal? Romance? Murder Mystery? Erotica? Thrillers? Vampire Stories?
Science Fiction? Urban Lit? Chick Lit? YA Lit? Literary Lit? Oh oh, what’s
Literary Lit?
I consider myself a writer whose work touches many of the
above genres, but not in their purest forms. I find myself amazed at what
Smashwords and a few other retailers categorize as African American Literature.
The online stores blaze with glaring covers of us holding guns and cradling a
big booty chick under such monikers as “Revenge on a Cheater” or “Getting The
Man Before I Get Got.” Well these titles may be facetious, but you get my
drift. I even have a couple of stories that fall near that genre..Betty’s House
and My Manhood is Very Important to Me. I like earthy language and sex like
anyone else. I just hope someone finds a little more to bite into when they
read my stories. I admit my short stories receive very little readership. Maybe
it’s the genre. Full length books do a lot better.
However there is more to literature (African-American or
so-called mainstream) than genre fiction. For us African American writers and
readers and to the retailers, I ask where are our new Toni Morrisons, James
Baldwins, Ralph Ellisons or Richard Wrights? Why isn’t the digital atmosphere
being lit up with modern day Kerouacs and Allen Ginsbergs? How would Updike or
William Styron fare? Is there room on the eReader for the literary writer? My
guess is in these troubled times the only concern for Black Folk is our no good
cheating better halves. And the the mainstream readers, it’s all about a suave
vampire who lives in the kingdom of Yawnyore and shape shifts.
“Discovery” is a big catchphrase is “new era” (another
catchphrase) of publishing. A good portion of writers have decided they are not
going to wait until near death to be found by agents and publishers. They are
taking their writing lives in their hands and going forward to kindle kingdom.
Many genre writers are doing quite well: Amanda Hocking, E.L. James, Darcie
Chan, Joe Konrath and the list can go on. But what if you’re the kind of writer
who decides his/her vampire character should do more navel gazing
(introspection) than neck biting? What if your description reads “Blood burst
from his neck in splatters of ruby exclamations marks” rather than “red blood
shot from his neck”? Do you stand a chance of being discovered?
There are many men adrift and homeless these days. But what?
No modern day “Of Mice and Men?” Sure plenty men are doing women wrong. But don’t
we want to delve deeper and find out why? I’m not sure how it happened, but
somebody had to discover our literary greats. Well I do know there were a lot
more “little magazines” back in the day. So there were more Editors to discover
and give a platform to say a Charles Dickens or a Charles Bukowski. But how
does a Charles Harvey get discovered? Excuse my self-indulgence for a moment.
In the mid nineties I had an Agent to shop around my novel and in doing so she
shopped around some short stories. The stories found a place in some
anthologies and a popular literary publication called Story. Well the Agent is gone now and Story is no longer published. I’m out here winging it in the sea of
vampires and damsels (strong willed of course) getting swept off their feet.
Wish me luck on my upcoming novel, The Road to Astroworld. There’s a serial miscreant
in it but no vampire. You can read a few excerpts on the blog. And don’t let
the discussion end here. Feel free to refute and dispute and point to your own
or someone else’s success as a literary writer.
Charles Harvey
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