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February 15, 2006
Some terms defined.
OK, so I'm throwing around industry words like "chapbook" forgetting that my industry is small, obscure, and not very transparent to the casual observer. So, here are a few steps in the poetry biz as they corrolate to, say, the career steps of an obscure indie rock band.
Indie artists record some songs. Poets write some poems. How do they reach an audience?
A literary journal will publish 1-5 of my poems: this is like getting a radio station to play your single.
Every new journal is like a new radio market. Though the band will have many stations playing the same song, poets give first publication rights to one journal. But they have more poems at a given time than a band has singles, because our product is cheaper to produce - a laser printer and a piece of paper's all you need.
I'm reading a short set before a big featured poet: this is like opening for a better-known touring band.
I'm a featured reader: you have your own show (or are one of three main acts in a bigger show), and maybe some local schmuck is opening for you.
A poem of mine will be included in an anthology: this is like getting your single on a compilation album.
Anthologies are great, like compilations, because more casual readers will buy a cool themed anthology to scope out lots of different poets perhaps before they might buy an individual collection. Same with those themey compilation cds. Obviously, the prestige involved is directly related to who's producing the anthology and how cool/respected your fellow included artists are.
My chapbook will be published: this is like a small indie label agreeing to release your EP.
Shorter than a full-length poetry collection, a chapbook is an inexpensive, portable promise of good things to come. Or you can use it to showcase a series of related poems that don't quite fit into a full-length manuscript. Like an EP, it's a nice little low-risk showcase of your work that you can circulate to try to attract the attention of a press.
Like EPs, you can release your own chapbook. They're inexpensive to produce and if you have design skills and the equipment you can knock a few out in a long weekend. But when a press agrees to publish your chapbook, you have that added stamp of approval that says "I'm peer reviewed and you're not!" You get an ISBN number, which allows bookstores to sell your chapbook if you can convince them to. You can get reviews in magazines, which will raise your profile. Etc.
My full-length collection will be published: congratulations, your debut album is being released on a minor indie label!
You still have to tour the hell out of yourself, promote yourself endlessly, and claw and scrape for every bit of publicity and acknowledgement you can find. But at least your mom can take it to work and be proud of you, and your high school gym teacher can suck it.
If you're talented and extremely lucky, not to mention business-savvy and willing to kiss ass/make connections, you might get picked up for a big publishing house / major label multi-album deal. Don't hold your breath, though ... you're emo-pasty enough as it is.
Now get in the van!
Posted by eek at February 15, 2006 10:37 AM
Comments
Wait, where's the next level, where the poet is filling stadiums, blowing rails off of models' stomachs and living in mansions?
Posted by: sac at February 15, 2006 01:36 PM
I'd laugh if I could stop crying.
Posted by: eek at February 15, 2006 01:43 PM
Way to explain that to the class, Dr. Eek! If it weren't for GSA, I would not know what a chapbook is either. :)
Posted by: Eden at February 15, 2006 03:42 PM
As much as I am a little troubled (still) by the word "industry," which connotes a cheap method of manufacture for mass-marketed goods, I do think your analogy is right on.
Not to be a bitching nag about that "industry" word, but some people think poetry is one of the things that will help us recover, spiritually and culturally, from the industrial revolution.
That being said, I would call EEK's work "spirit and culture building" rather than industrialization. I refuse to work in a poetry factory-- bad enough I work for an "education" factory.
It's a small matter of terminology, but maybe that doesn't matter so much, unless you get a hand caught in the conveyor belt.
Posted by: joe in nyc at February 15, 2006 03:51 PM
Aaahhh. Got it! (Although I knew it was something great)
Posted by: digitalcowgirl at February 15, 2006 06:15 PM
Joe: you will note that the writing of the poems does not have a step in the industry, because that's the art. The industry steps in when we attempt to share that art with a larger audience. We can call it something else, but it is what it is, in my opinion.
Same is true of songwriting and performing in intimate settings. But once a band has t-shirts, they're part of an industry.
What kind of part, of course, is up to the artist.
Posted by: eek at February 15, 2006 06:31 PM
And funny you should mention it, I'm going to work in the Poetry Factory all weekend!
http://poetryfactory.net/workshop.php
Posted by: eek at February 15, 2006 06:33 PM
The Poetry Factory and the Cheesecake Factory should execute some sort of business deal to bring you gargantuan portions of underspiced food along with a side helping of stanzas, metres, metronomes (gnomes), onomonopoeia and the like. Maybe the poetry factory could retool their menu (but make it slyly mocking).
I need to file this away under my list of "how to ruin art and life for everyone while simultaneously taking over the world."
Posted by: monkey at February 15, 2006 07:03 PM
t-shirts? you mean I gotta have t-shirts?!?
Posted by: bryan at February 15, 2006 10:22 PM
More on the troublesome "industry" - if you consult your handy Latin dictionary (mine was a Christmas present, thanks, JC!), you'll see that industria means "diligence," also "intentional." I would apply these two words to the discipline of writing any day.
Sometimes, our own interpretations can cast a negative color on a word or an idea, and that's when a root is a beautiful thing - I love considering a word from all angles.
I really need an OED, man!
I'm sure I am totally bougie, but I feel lucky to have been allowed to partake of the "education factory," myself. My parents being tradespeople, before the industrial revolution I would not likely have been allowed to study etymology at the hands of wacko cranks with more Nehru jackets than common sense. I'm proud to take my lowly adjunct place among the faculty at my alma mater, "less reading, more Jimi" and all. If that makes me a Company Girl, so be it.
Bryan, I think Monkey could devise a way for you to sell out without even having to buy in!
Posted by: eek at February 15, 2006 11:14 PM
I feel lucky to be as staidly bourgeois as I am. It sure beats hauling well water in the third world with a litter of unwashed brats underfoot. This is where I turn into my parents...don't you just feel lucky to be part of the educated bourgeoisie? How and why is it supposed to suck so much? I think anytime you don't have scurvy, you're rocking a pretty good deal.
Cuz you know, those are my origins. Long live the education factory.
(I promise my soul is all art, but I can't be sure because I sold it last May...you should contact my employer to see if there have been any dramatic changes)
Posted by: monkey at February 15, 2006 11:54 PM
Monkey's two comments are poetry. Nice. Especially the scurvy comment, both because it's a true sentiment and because scurvy is a funny word.
Posted by: sac at February 16, 2006 11:54 AM
I'm confused...there's going to be t-shirts? Where do I get my "EEK! - Less Reading, More Jimi Tour '06" in an XL? And does it come in long-sleeve?
Posted by: Hulkster at February 17, 2006 06:22 PM
You laugh now, but I assure you, there will be t-shirts.
Posted by: eek at February 17, 2006 09:22 PM
I want a baby T. I've always been partial to red and blue as colour combos.
Posted by: monkey at February 17, 2006 09:54 PM
As usual, I stand corrected. I will walk crooked no longer.
Posted by: joe in nyc at February 21, 2006 05:12 PM