That place of stillness

TIME magazine, in its August 23rd, 2010 edition, placed Jonathan Franzen on its cover.  This was the first time in years that a novelist had graced the cover of this newsweekly.  I was especially affected by one quote from the interview with Franzen.

"The place of stillness that you have to go to to write, but also to read seriously, is the point where you can actually make responsible decisions, where you can engage productively with an otherwise scary and unmanageable world."

Nicely put, Jonathan.

Fiction, at its best, doesn't involve so much millions of copies of hard-back books having to be inventoried and promoted as it does a quiet one-on-one dialog between the thoughtful, observant writer and the intelligent, attentive reader.
J.P. Cunningham

Traditional vs. Self-publishing

Exclusivity made the film business easy for a relative handful of people in the 1920’s, thirties, and forties.   All aspects of production, distribution, and even film display tended to be owned and controlled by the same company, with only a handful of companies competing against each other.  And then the business evolved into something very different: less simple, less profitable, and of lower quality.  Television intervened in the late forties and the fifties, complicating the situation considerably.   Film companies, in the late 1940’s began to sell off control of key theaters in critically important urban centers.  The business declined until reinventing itself in the mid to late-1960’s and then entered a period of unprecedented profits and success in the 1980’s and beyond.

            Within the context of the book business, traditional publishing is already entering a similar change of life, descending into confusion, lower quality and desperate efforts aimed toward  publishing only authors and works that seem easy to promote.  So we end up with endless self-improvement books, niche marketing works such as romances, mysteries, and other popcorn for the mind; books by celebrities, such as one on poetry by Suzanne Somers and so many other great contributions to world literature.  Once in a while, someone like Jonathan Franzen comes along, gains attention and much-deserved respect within the industry.  But, all to often, new writers go ignored and left aside, for the simple reason that the prospect of bringing along new authors presents too great a financial risk.  Publishing houses have become too big and too focused on the idea that there really is not such an animal as the intelligent reading public.

            Meanwhile, enter the villain: self-publishing.   The print-on-demand industry is in its infancy, where books are printed from one day to the next as each order is placed.  No need for inventory, by anyone anywhere.  But then where does that leave traditional booksellers you ask?  With a problem.   Electronic readers are only beginning to be bought and appreciated by the reading public.   And yet now Amazon.com says that more than half of the “books” that it sells are in e-formatted books downloaded electronically for its Kindle users.  Barnes and Noble has its own similar product; Borders as well; and now Sony is trying to establish itself solidly in that market.

            Once products such as the Amazon Kindle hit price points well below $100 per unit, the market is going to explode, and that is likely to happen sooner rather than later.  Electronically-formatted book downloads could surpass hard-copy book sales within a decade or less.  Considering the public’s appetite for electronic technology, and the speed at which the public has accepted new products and ideas in recent years, it is reasonable to assume that e-books will basically replace most hard-copy books within considerably less than a decade.

            Those of us who dearly love the look, the feel,  the whole reading experience of a truly well-written hard-copy book may feel uncomfortable, to say the least,  with the idea of electronic readers becoming the primary medium for the sharing of literature.  But the trend is unmistakable.  Financial benefits to the consumer are enormous.   A hard-copy book can cost $40.   A quality trade paperback of the same work can cost $15 or so.   Exactly the same text can be downloaded onto an electronic reader for less than ten bucks.  Royalties for authors are outrageously higher on electronic books, paying as high as seventy-percent royalty per download.  Meanwhile, royalties have been steadily falling on books produced by the traditional publishing industry in recent years, and that trend is accelerating rapidly.

            Publishing houses had best learn how to reinvent themselves quickly if they hope to survive.  Authors have huge incentives to self-publish.   Readers can save tremendous amounts by downloading e-books rather than spending on hard-copy texts.   And retail booksellers should watch what has happened to Blockbuster as its core business model became completely irrelevant while it refused to, or simply failed to, adjust.  Literature, and the writers who produce it, are not going to disappear,,,ever.  Traditional publishing might.

The reader's imagination

"But the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; to that in us which is,,,more permanently enduring,,,,our capacity for delight and wonder..."
Joseph Conrad 1898

Fiction rocks

"Fiction matters because it inspires, it consoles.  At its best, if indirectly, it educates."
William Faulkner

Purpose?

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose,,,a mighty one,,,the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod,,,,"
George Bernard Shaw  (1903)


"I don't like work---no man does---but I like what is in the work----the chance to find yourself."
Conrad (1902)

Success?

"Art is long.  Life is short, and success is very far off. "  Joseph Conrad

"Really the writer doesn't want success,,,,,He knows he has a short span of life, that the day will come when he must pass through the wall of oblivion, and he wants to leave a mark on that wall,,,,,"   Wm Faulkner (1959)

Why is fiction so important always?

Readers of fiction should always keep foremost in their minds the overriding question of what makes fiction such an important part of life, generation after generation, century after century.  Fiction, at its best, is far more than  entertainment.  As William Faulkner accepted his Nobel Prize for literature, he suggested that fiction does not simply describe life but instead that its most worthwhile achievement is "to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before."    

One other quote from still another author:

"If you have a tale worth telling,,,,,,,,,tell it." 

  J.P. Cunningham

Somerset by J.P. Cunningham- ISBN 1453839518

New Novel Explores the adventure of a quest for purpose.

SOMERSET  by J.P. Cunningham tells the story of an extraordinary family.

  Set initially in northeastern Arkansas, it builds upon the loss of a husband and father to suicide and the effect this has on his wife Emily and daughter Amanda.  Judge Emily Somerset has raised a family, practiced law, and has served for years as a judge.  Her daughter Amanda,  living in the shadow of her mother’s accomplishments, pursued law school, survived divorce, and established herself in a professional career on Capitol Hill.  Amanda’s older brother, Bogan, has completely lost touch with the family.  After leaving his wife and children , he is rumored to have run off to South America-- to Peru during a civil war stirred up by a revolutionary group called Sendero Luminoso.

Stunned by her husband’s suicide, Emily begins to re-examine her life and decides that she must retire, must find her son,  and must recruit her daughter to join her.  Together, striving to find Bogan, both mother and daughter begin to understand more about themselves.  Bogan becomes entangled within a more treacherous situation than he expected, meanwhile discovering the chance to do something important with his life: something he would not have had the opportunity  to do anywhere else.

“Somerset” is a story about a quest: a search for a particular person but then also a search for  purpose.  It involves a quest for redemption: with different characters struggling in their own ways  to correct what each sees as a life of misplaced priorities.

For more information or to request a free review copy, members of the press can contact the author at jpauthor@jp-cunningham.com.    “Somerset”, in trade paperback,  is available for sale online at Amazon.com,  and through additional wholesale and retail channels worldwide; and will also be available in electronic format for Kindle users and through other channels.