| For Aspiring or Published Writers and Authors |
Welcome to my writing tips! Here we present interviews with authors, writing and publicity tips, and news about the publishing and broadcasting worlds. Send us an email with your questions or comments. Here's to your writing success! Featured Author Gerard Jones: The EWA Maverick Mention Gerard Jones' name to a literary agent and you might hear a groan or two. After all, he's the man who single-handedly divulged the emails and private business comments of everyone who's anyone in the publishing business. By all accounts, Jones is iconoclastic, opinionated, and certainly persistent. In his push to find a home for his novel, Ginny Good, Jones faced rejection about a thousand times, impelling the frustrated author to set up his now-infamous web site about the powers that be in publishing. His humor and barely restrained anger at the literary establishment emanate from his work on the web, a refreshing change from the bloodless blathering of the usual corporate Internet site. Ginny Good, the novel Jones claims wasn't written for the big bucks, but rather because he "made the best work of literary art ever made," was published (finally!) by Monkfish Publishing, and is now available as a free audio book. Recently, I sat down with Gerard and attempted to find out what was behind his curious comments about media propaganda. I also wanted to discover why he keeps working so hard on his web sites. For instance, his new effort, Propagandaville, discloses media emails, while his Tinseltown Literary and Talent Agents pulls back the curtain on Hollywood contacts. Lately, you've been working hard adding to your excellent sites. Can you tell us what's motivated you to keep contributing to the stockpile of information? Fun, utilitarianism and boredom, mostly. It was (1) fun to find out who runs things, (2) cool having a list to make it easy to send queries to the people who do and (3) I only did it when I felt like doing it. What's with the "Nazi" comments on your web site? Are you becoming even more discouraged with the state of publishing (and the world)? Nazi refers to the overall propaganda apparatus that includes the media and entertainment industries (TV, movies, sports, books, games, blogs, etc., etc.) that brainwash the poor hardworking average person who consumes goods and services to keep consuming more and more goods and services in order for the economy to grow at a rate of at least five percent a year. It's a gigantic, monolithic and completely closed system. Unless you toe the party line by making some form of drivel or other whose sole purpose is to make money, you're kept out. And the other way around...like that plagiarism chick who let an editing service put her name on a bunch of sophomoric slop some conglomeration of editors and publishers and publicity goons put together. "Hm, let's see, what can we sell to these moronic consumers we've made, next." I don't use the term "Nazi" lightly. Multiple forms of propaganda were the mechanisms by which the goals of Nazi Germany were allowed to be implemented and an even more sophisticated set of propaganda mechanisms are being used to implement an even more sinister agenda today. People don't like to hear that, of course. They think there's free speech and a free press and that they can "vote" to change things. There's not. They can't. The Nazi propaganda apparatus is all. Part of the brainwashing that gets done on a person is that he or she doesn't want to hear how brainwashed they are. It's a complicated, chicken-and-egg sort of thing. I'm writing a whole 'nother book about it...which nobody's ever gonna read, either. Ha! How's your book, Ginny Good, doing? Any film plans for it yet? As well as can be expected given that it's not mindless drivel intended to make nothing but money. It's the way I wanted it to be and that was all that ever mattered to me. I also made it into a fifteen-hour audio book, which I'm giving away for free. I'm still sending query letters to movie guys but it's very likely nothing will ever come of it 'cause they tend to ignore people who call 'em Nazis. Call a spade a spade I always say. That's really the point, right there. I can say anything I want 'cause "I don't care too much for money...money can't buy me love." Heh. Have you heard from any writer who's gotten a publishing contract by using your site as a resource? Oh, a bunch, yeah, although that wasn't why I made the site. I made it for my own exquisite reasons and couldn't care less what other people do with it. Thanks, Gerard - and best wishes for continued success! © 2007 Kathy Sanborn |