#publishers

[samplerman]

One of four pages published in the collective "autre chose" by swiss éditions Atrabile last year for their 25 years of existence. 168 pages , quadri A4, softcover.

With 44 other artists:

Adèle Maury, Amanda Baeza, Amandine Meyer, Awen Rivière, Barbara Meuli, Camille Potte, Chien-Fan Liu, Emilie Gleason, Fred Fivaz, Geoffroy Monde, Giacomo Nanni, Guillaume Fuchs, Helge Reumann, Jean-Michel Bertoyas, Juliette Mancini, Jung-Hyoun Lee, Laurie Agusti, Léa Murawiec, Lika Nüssli, Lisa Blumen, Louise Collet, Lucas Burtin, Marijpol, Martina Sarritzu, Mathilde Van Gheluwe, Melchior Best, Mia Oberländer, Michael DeForge, Noémie Chust, Rachel Deville, Simon Beuret, Valentine Gallardo, Violaine Leroy, Yannis La Macchia, Alex Baladi, Frederik Peeters, Ibn Al Rabin, Isabelle Pralong, Joseph Callioni, Nicolas Presl, Peggy Adam, Pierre Wazem, Thomas Gosselin, Tom Tirabosco

[simplymauri]

Dear Reader,

I’ve spent the last year writing letters to things that can’t write back— to love, to misery, to my dad, to the body I’ve lived in, and the soul I’ve hid from.

These letters bled into poems. And those poems became Dear.

It’s a collection about what it means to exist in the half-light— the quiet, aching spaces between grief and joy, between holding on and letting go.

The letters are restless now. They’ve grown tired of silence. And they’re waiting for you.

Until the ink runs dry, -M.M

[nando161mando]

critical support to the internet archive

(https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/9/24266419/internet-archive-ddos-attack-pop-up-message)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Middlemen without enshittification

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me next in SALT LAKE CITY (Feb 21, Weller Book Works) and SAN DIEGO (Feb 22, Mysterious Galaxy). After that, it's LA, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix and more!

Enshittification describes how platforms go bad, which is also how the internet goes bad, because the internet is made of platforms, which is weird, because platforms are intermediaries and we were promised that the internet would disintermediate the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

The internet did disintermediate a hell of a lot of intermediaries – that is, "middlemen" – but then it created a bunch more of these middlemen, who coalesced into a handful of gatekeepers, or as the EU calls them "VLOPs" (Very Large Online Platforms, the most EU acronym ever).

Which raises two questions: first, why did so many of us end up flocking to these intermediaries' sites, and how did those sites end up with so much power?

To answer the first question, I want you to consider one of my favorite authors: Crad Kilodney (RIP):

https://archive.org/details/thecradkilodneypapers

When I was growing up, Crad was a fixture on the streets of Toronto. All through the day and late into the evening, winter or summer, Crad would stand on the street with a sign around his neck ("Very famous Canadian author, buy my books, $2" or sometimes just "Margaret Atwood, buy my books, $2"). He wrote these deeply weird, often very funny short stories, which he edited, typeset, printed, bound and sold himself, one at a time, to people who approached him on the street.

I had a lot of conversations with Crad – as an aspiring writer, I was endlessly fascinated by him and his books. He was funny, acerbic – and sneaky. Crad wore a wire: he kept a hidden tape recorder rolling in his coat and he secretly recorded conversations with people like me, and then released a series of home-duplicated tapes of the weirdest and funniest ones:

https://archive.org/details/on-the-street-crad-kilodney-vol-1

I love Crad. He deserves more recognition. There's an on-again/off-again documentary about his life and work that I hope gets made some day:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/free-sample/#putrid-scum

But – and this is the crucial part – there are writers out there I want to hear from who couldn't do what Crad did. Maybe they can write books, but not edit them. Or edit them, but not typeset them. Or typeset, but not print. Or print, but not spend the rest of their lives standing on a street-corner with a "PUTRID SCUM" sign around their neck.

Which is fine. That's why we have intermediaries. I like booksellers (I was one!). I like publishers. I like distributors. I like their salesforce, who go forth and convince the booksellers of the world to stock books like mine. I have ten million things I want to do before I die, and I'm already 52, and being a sales-rep for a publisher isn't on my bucket list. I am so thankful that someone else wants to do this for me.

That's why we have intermediaries, and why disintermediation always leads to some degree of re-intermediation. There's a lot of explicit and implicit knowledge and specialized skill required to connect buyers and sellers, creators and audiences, and other sides of two-sided markets. Some producers can do some of this stuff for themselves, and a very few – like Crad – can do it all, but most of us need some help, somewhere along the way. In the excellent 2022 book Direct, Kathryn Judge lays out a clear case for all the good that middlemen can do:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/

So why were we all so anxious for disintermediation back in the late 1990s? Here's a hint: it wasn't because we hated intermediaries – it was because we hated powerful intermediaries.

The point of an intermediary is to serve as a conduit between producers and consumers, buyers and sellers, audiences and creators. When an intermediary gains power over the audience – say, by locking them inside a walled garden – and then uses that lock-in to screw producers and appropriate an ever larger share of the value going between them, that's when intermediaries become a problem.

The problem isn't that someone will handle ticketing for your gig. The problem is that Ticketmaster has locked down all the ticketing, and the venues, and the promotions, and it uses that power to gouge fans and rip off artists:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/20/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-will-eventually-stop/

The problem isn't that there's a well-made website that lets you shop for goods sold by many small merchants and producers. It's that Amazon has cornered this market, takes $0.51 out of every dollar you spend there, and clones and destroys any small merchant who succeeds on the platform:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

The problem isn't that there's a website where you can stream most of the music ever recorded. It's that Spotify colludes with the Big Three labels to rip off artists and sneaks crap you don't want to hear into your stream in order to collect payola:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/#stunt-publishing

The problem isn't that there's a website where you can buy any audiobook you want. It's that Amazon's Audible locks every book to its platform forever and steals hundreds of millions of dollars from creators:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

The problem, in other words, isn't intermediation – it's power. The thing that distinguishes a useful intermediary from an enshittified bully is power. Intermediaries gain power when our governments stop enforcing competition law. This lets intermediaries buy each other up and corner markets. Once they've formed cozy cartels, they can capture their regulators and commit rampant labor, privacy and consumer violations with impunity. That capture also lets them harness governments to punish smaller players that want to free workers, creators, audiences and customers from walled gardens. It also hands them a whip-hand over their workers, so that any worker who refuses to aid in these nefarious plans can be easily fired:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

A world with intermediaries is a better world. As much as I love Crad Kilodney's books, I wouldn't want to live in a world where the only books on my shelves came from people prepared to stand on a street-corner wearing a "FOUL PUS FROM DEAD DOGS" sign.

The problem isn't intermediaries – it's powerful intermediaries. That's why the world's surging antitrust movement is so exciting: by reinstating competition law, we can keep intermediaries small and comparatively weak, so that creators and audiences, drivers and riders, sellers and buyers, and other groups seeking to connect will not find themselves made subservient to middlemen.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation

[the960writers]

27 Book Publishing Companies For Authors Without Agents

By Dave Chesson, Last updated on October 10th, 2024

If you've ever considered seeking publishing companies to take a look at one of your books, you could find a literary agent, or there are plenty of legitimate publishing companies that accept proposals from authors without agents too!

[...]

Although small publishing houses don't have the same clout with retailers or the same resources for marketing and publicity, most still have talented editors, designers, and passionate professionals for publishing great books.

Table of contents

Thinking of the Big 5...Maybe Not?!

Publishing Companies To Consider (Even If You're a New Author)

27 Book Publishing Companies That Accept Proposals Directly From Authors

Here's How To Find More Publishing Companies

Beware of Vanity Pressess...

Get After It

[furverse]

This image says a lot about what one of the characters is, he is a detective sergeant from the city of Luna, located in Lyca (fictional country in the Hybrid Society book series) This character is called Dave Wingates and will have a hard time in the series of books that I will launch next year. Believe it or not, this book will have an English version too! This art was made by KevinWolf, one of the first artists to join the Furverse publisher.

Está imagem diz muito do que um dos personagens é, ele é detetive sargento da cidade de Luna, localizado em Lyca (país ficticio da série de livros Hybrid Society) Este personagem se chama Dave Wingates e passará por maus bocados na série de livros que lançarei no ano que vem. Acredite se quiser, este livro vai ter versão em inglês também! Está arte foi feita por KevinWolf, um dos primeiros artistas a ingressar na editora Furverse.

Follow me in Telegram! - https://t.me/+UhZMahCpWb9lYjgx

Siga-me no telegram! - https://t.me/+UhZMahCpWb9lYjgx

[burningvelvet]

reading about edmund curll, an important figure in erotic literature, and didn't know i was about to stumble across the most chaotic wikipedia page ever... i love historical literary drama

critics have always been the same

and of course where there is 1700s literary drama, alexander pope is always involved. no wonder byron idolized him and was involved in a seven-year long public debate concerning him... honoring him the way he'd like to be remembered (see: the pope-bowles controversy). don juan rly was a tribute to him. we need a series about the restoration era (behn/wilmot/dryden/etc) & of course the young romantics (byron/shelleys/keats/etc) and now we also need the augustan era (pope/montagu/now curll, etc.). someone please pplease please let me do an anthology series (in the vein of ahs or black mirror) about literary communities throughout history already!

cartoonish levels of opportunistic behavior. manipulating every situation to work in his favor like a sitcom character...

the most informative thing i've learned from edmund curll's wiki page is that in the 1700s, the name of the U.S. state "maryland" inspired a whole genre of erotica novels based on puns of the idea of a "[woman's name]-land," as evidenced by "bettyland." staples of the genre included colonization as a metaphor for patriarchal sexual conquest, & erotic descriptions of the female body which borrow from descriptions of natural landscape. much to think about re: postcolonial feminism - this quite literally proves the idea that colonization is inherently patriarchal

[thesorcererpoet]

Today, I began writing some poetry with the idea in mind of submitting it to an agent or a publisher. I am not sure if my work meets the mark yet, but you always miss the shots you don’t take.

I am pretty terrified to be honest. I have no formal education outside of high school, I am dyspraxic, dyslexic and possibly on the autism spectrum. I work a normal job by day, as a support worker for disabled adults.

I hope one day I can, in some capacity, find formal recognition for the things I create; although I will keep creating anyway, no matter what, because I need to and I love it.

[victusinveritas]

[mysharona1987]

[wronghands1]

[simplymauri]

Dear Hair,

I cut you as punishment.

Force you to stare

As pieces of your body

Float to the ground

Where we are both bound

And you screech and screech

In agony

You dare ask me why

When you had spent

Most of your time

With your long tendrils

Coiled and knotted

Sometimes so tight

I found bits of you between my

My pearly whites

But you grow and grow

Even with a blade to your throat.

~M.M

[nando161mando]

"The walls are the publishers of the poor" (EN: English)

[republicanidiots]

...“As publishers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and the right to read, the rise in book bans across the country continues to demand our collective action,” the six attached publishers said in a joint statement. “Fighting unconstitutional legislation in Florida and across the country is an urgent priority. We are unwavering in our support for educators, librarians, students, authors, readers— everyone deserves access to books and stories that show different perspectives and viewpoints.”...

[shabdforwriting]

7 Tips to Help Make your Characters Feel Real and Compelling

Here’s a detailed description for each tip to help you develop realistic and engaging characters:

1- Give Them Depth with a Backstory

Flesh out where your character comes from. A rich backstory provides context for who they are and why they act as they do. Small, specific details about their past can add layers to their personality, whether it’s childhood experiences, pivotal moments, or personal losses. Remember, you don’t have to reveal everything at once; let these pieces emerge naturally in your story.

2- Give Them Realistic Goals and Motivations

A character’s actions should be driven by clear, believable goals that make sense based on who they are. Whether it’s a simple desire, like finding a safe home, or a complex ambition, like gaining social respect, grounding their motivations in relatable needs and dreams makes them more compelling. The more readers understand what drives them, the more they’ll care about their journey.

3- Create a Unique, Consistent Voice and Speech Pattern

Every character should have their own way of speaking and thinking, informed by their background, personality, and emotions. Is their dialogue straightforward or evasive, formal or casual? Do they speak with slang, a dialect, or a refined vocabulary? Consistency in voice makes characters feel distinct and helps readers identify with them more deeply.

4- Make Them Struggle

Real people face hardships, and characters should be no different. Conflict and challenge force them to confront their flaws, adapt, and reveal their inner strengths (or weaknesses). By letting your characters struggle—physically, emotionally, or morally—you make their victories feel earned and their failures more poignant, creating moments that resonate with readers.

5- Give Them Relationships with Other Characters

Characters reveal themselves through interactions with others, whether those connections are positive, strained, or complex. Relationships add layers to your story and allow characters to show vulnerability, support, envy, or betrayal. Even a seemingly independent character benefits from relational context—whether it’s family, friends, rivals, or mentors—that enhances their realism and growth.

6- Let Them Evolve

Static characters quickly lose their appeal. Let your characters grow, change, and adapt in response to their experiences. They may overcome flaws, deepen their understanding, or change goals. This evolution, whether subtle or transformative, makes them feel more alive and mirrors the real human experience.

7- Show, Don’t Tell Their Personality

Rather than labeling your character’s traits, let readers discover who they are through actions, dialogue, and inner thoughts. Instead of saying someone is “brave,” show them facing down fear. Instead of “kind,” show them offering a small, selfless act. These moments build a vivid sense of character without forcing an impression, allowing readers to connect on their own terms.

Each of these steps helps shape well-rounded, relatable characters that draw readers in and keep them invested in the journey.

Source -

https://shabd.in/blog/7-tips-to-help-make-your-characters-feel-real-and-compelling/