Tag: publishing

Forthcoming Titles & Inclusions by Diana Rajchel 2015

Forthcoming Titles & Inclusions by Diana Rajchel 2015

So you want to read more stuff by me? Well, it’s still witchy – that’s been my wheelhouse for twenty years now.

First, on July 7, amidst the calendars and datebooks and almanacs galore (of which I have contributed to a few) is this:

Mabon

My first of two contributions to the Llewellyn Sabbat Essentials series. Yes, this is about the invented Wiccan holiday Mabon – and also about Michaelmas, the Christian celebration chock full of Pagan overtones. Just think about whose goose this title might get… It’s available for pre-order on Amazon and likely elsewhere, too – just have a click on the book image.

bast

The Queen of the Sky Who Rules over all the Gods – an anthology/devotional to the Egyptian goddess of love and pleasure, Bast. Before she became a love goddess she was also a war and battle goddess – not all that similar to Sekhmet. Well, sorta. Depends on the region. My submission is a ritual that calls on her badass self when somethin’ needs doin’. Presale link forthcoming.

samhain

The second of my two contributions to the Llewellyn Sabbat series – Samhain! Yes, there’s lore – lots of it. I even succeeded in sneaking in some Slavic stuff. There’s recipes, spells, and I wrote all the poems and invocations for easy adaptation to ritual formats. It’s hard to write to all traditions – sometimes you have to adapt. It will release on September 8, 2015 – and is available for pre-order now.

 

 

Taboos and Pagan self-publishing

Taboos and Pagan self-publishing

Image representing Amazon Kindle as depicted i...
Image via CrunchBase

It’s not that Pagans – neopagans, at least – don’t have taboos. It’s that we tend to consciously forgo old-school taboos or be completely unaware we have them. Homosexuality? Stupid, especially since it occurs in nature. Incest? An important taboo, also reinforced by nature. (Deep apologies to any who finds this triggering; it is an example, but not a casual one. There will be nothing further on that aspect .)

It’s the non-conscious taboos that sneak up on us. When pointed out, we do what humans do: deny it, then justify it. We then ignore it and hope no one brings it up again.

Pagans are a paradoxical group. On the one hand, we embrace modern life, modern changes and we welcome scientific advances as Mother Earth revealing herself.  On the other hand, only a minority of us accept the possibilities brought on by computers in magical use at more than a surface level. We try over and over again at publishing periodicals that we very much need but continuously fail to adapt to changes in distribution and communication and we are just plain weird about book publishing.

To be fair, the entire book publishing industry is just plain weird right now. It makes me wonder how horse breeders felt when the car became cheaply available.

In Pagan-land, a Pagan gets fame (sort of) by publishing a book.  In this particular subculture, book publishing is one of the only ways to claim micro-fame. This is not fame or fortune on the Hollywood scale: the best writers enjoy mid-list fame, which means nobody outside the Pagan community knows who you are. There is no fortune – you often have to purchase passels of the book yourself, and peddle it at signings (rapidly going out of vogue, as book tours are expensive and not typically fronted by publishers) as well as market it yourself, more or less. You might be able to afford a publicist, but even then, odds aren’t great: Oprah’s gone, and she preferred Christian New Age to Pagan. There just isn’t much in the way of national talk shows willing to explore that historical analysis of ancient grimoires. You probably do have to supplement your income by teaching workshops.

While the technology of distribution has changed, this situation is nothing new for Pagan or other occult writers. Nor is the the strangeness of the topics, the extreme niches and at times the violent, irrational opposition such topics can receive from the “overculture” of even from within Pagan culture.

Without self-publishing back when it took a great deal more financial and social risk, modern day Pagans and occultists would not have quite a few of our beloved source materials, such as Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

Yet there are many Pagan publications and review sources that refuse self-published work. There’s definitely logic to it, but unfortunately, there’s an increasing chance that the reasons behind that stance stance are, for the most part, not objectively valid.

The common reasons for avoiding self-published work are the following:

Quality

Self-published books are considered a lesser quality than books issued by a traditional publisher. In fact, publishers are viewed as gatekeepers to book quality.

This used to be true, with many flagrant exceptions. Publishers do tend to quality, but it’s a secondary priority. The question an agent or a publisher really asks is, “Can I sell this work?”

Twilight was salable.  Chuck Pahlaniuk, on the other hand, had five of his novels rejected. Publishers may not be the gatekeepers of quality we expect.

Factuality

It’s often assumed that books issued by traditional publishers are fact-checked and therefore more accurate than their self-published counterparts. In the case of larger publishers – those who don’t typically take Pagan and occult books – this is still true. Smaller publishers often have to jettison these positions and leave it up to the author to oversee the work’s accuracy. In fact, this is a niche that desperately needs someone to fill it for the Pagan market – having an independent fact checking service could prove helpful to multiple small publishers as well as to indie/self-published writers.

Format

As ebooks do make inroads on the book market as we know it, the design that makes a book work changes drastically. Epub is the new source of most swear words, and utterly unavoidable in a world where more and more people want to see an electronic edition first. This leads to the downside: self-publishing isn’t easy, but it’s free (aside from the marketing effort.)  This gets us a world of unprofessional covers, weird layouts and a slew of books such as “Voodoo Love Spell to Prevent Divorce.” Painfully opportunistic, but in the grand scheme of things, this is not new. These works have simply moved from ads in the back pages of National Enquirer to Ebay and now on to Kindle, where you can send Amazon $10 on your debit card instead of $75.00 on a cashier’s check to some woman in L.A. you don’t know.

The ground has shifted, and while we experience it utterly differently from those who went before us, we are experiencing some of the same things in different ways. Self-published alone is not a strong enough reason to reject reviewing a work; in the occult a work that finds a publisher can sometimes be just as bad as standard vanity work, or the person self-publishing may have profit motives that are perfectly valid given that most authors make less than $1.00 per copy of any book sold.

The perception filter by which we assumed a quality Pagan/occult book had to have a non-author publisher no longer applies. We’re all stuck taking these books on a case by case basis.

So much for that taboo.

My Llewellyn contributions are out

My Llewellyn contributions are out

You can always check this on my website page that lists my publications, but for those who look for ’em, here’s where you can find me in the 2012 Llewellyn annuals:

Llewellyn Publications

Contributor: Llewellyn’s 2012 Magical Almanac: Inner Demons: When You Are the Bump in the Night
Contributor: Llewellyn’s 2012 Herbal Almanac: the Future of Herbs
Contributor: Llewellyn’s Witches’ Calendar 2012: Applying Your Apps: Magical Tips for Smartphone Use

And remember – it’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of the world as we know it. My best are against giant meteors or aliens. Maybe someone will come up with an alternative fuel that works with planes. The pilot I chatted with at Dogwood Coffee was not optimistic, alas.

I have an extra copy of each. The Witches’ Calendar got a touch beat up, but is still usable. Make me an offer, and they’re yours.

 

My proposed newspaper model

My proposed newspaper model

File:African American boy selling The Washington Daily News.png

The major newspapers are scrambling for a new model, because thanks to the Internet, they’re just a bit obsolete. Now that it’s not possible to hold a monopoly on information these organizations are in a scramble. Since the news is a cornerstone of the US check and balance system, we do have a vested interest in keeping them around even if they’re not always the most objective pieces in the world.

So my proposition: total throwback. Go back to the Extra! approach. Run the daily information as usual, and then print extra editions throughout the day that are only available when purchased from live sellers. There’s the entertainment value of someone screaming “extra! extra!” and it creates a source of information not immediately available online.

Blogs have gone far enough into reporting that the objectivity standard has disappeared, so why not?

Evaluating Non-Paying Markets

Evaluating Non-Paying Markets

Tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck, al...
Image via Wikipedia

There’s a lot of demand for free writing – too much, really. For the most part unless you’re only starting to build up your clips or if you’re the sole author (usually self-publishing via blog) these freeby feels don’t offer much. However, once in awhile, a non-paying gig is well worth doing.

  • When looking at a publisher that might not pay you but may have other things to offer, consider the following:
  • What’s the circulation? How many people are reading this pub?
  • Who is reading the publication? If a small market is filled with powerful readers – especially ones who fit your market niche – it might be worth giving up a little bit of your skill in order to reach them.
  • Will you be given an opportunity to market your own projects? If, for example, you teach workshops in tarot reading, will this give you a chance to talk up some aspects of tarot right before a convention in that area?
  • If you’re new to the area, does this help you introduce yourself and establish a foothold in your given market? Will it make it possible for you to network with individuals who share your interest?

If the market offers any of the above small payoffs, it may well be worth pursuing because of indirect payoff. As in all businesses, writing is partially in who you know – and being strategic about how you get your writing out there will help you develop those contacts.

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On e-books | By Umbra Fisk | Grist | Ask Umbra | 10 Dec 2008

On e-books | By Umbra Fisk | Grist | Ask Umbra | 10 Dec 2008

Dear Umbra,
I have noticed that digital book readers have started to enter the market and wonder if they are more ecologically sound than conventional books. I am interested in buying one but suspect that they are full of metals that damage the environment in their production. Also, they would use up energy when in use, but I have heard that this is minimal. On the other hand, paper books take a lot of production and transport to reach the reader. Which would be the more eco option?Jonathan A.Glasgow, Scotland

answer Dearest Jonathan,It hurts to say it, but e-books are looking like a good option, even perhaps the better option. Ouch. Usually for these which-is-better questions we have to gather a few tidbits of Life Cycle Analysis, paste them together with our assumptions, and call it good. But Life Cycle Analysts are excited about e-books and e-newspapers, for some reason, and there is a shocking amount of data analysis out there. Enough to make my head feel all fuzzy inside. There are caveats as usual, but I am forced to report the general conclusion that e-books produce less CO2 emissions and use less water than conventional newspapers and books.

On e-books | By Umbra Fisk | Grist | Ask Umbra | 10 Dec 2008

So, our books are moving to electronics at last. There is technology that lets you hold the book in your hand but still has it on an electronic page. It’s not just the Amazon kindle. I want to try it; I can use the bookshelf space for so many other things!

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