Photos courtesy of Dan Wonderly [WonderlyImaging]

In my last column, I featured a group of poets trying to kickstart their way to literary benevolence by way of crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

No sooner had I published my column than I heard of a local poet and all-around artistic sensation hoping to publish his first book by the same means. “Kickstarter fatigue?” I posited in my last column. On the contrary—Alexander Norelli says Kickstarter is really just beginning to blossom, particularly for literature lovers like himself.

For Norelli, there’s no shame in self—or group—publishing. Not to mention the end result is so much more than just a book—there is also an incredible sense of ongoing community and support.

“I’ve never really tried very hard to get published, mainly because I never wanted to write anything but my own poems,” says Norelli. “I never had much luck getting them published. Now I feel is the time to make a book of it—it’s an intuitive feeling.”

He adds: “2013 sounds like a good year to start out on an adventure.” (We hear you, Norelli.)

Those entrenched in the literary world know there’s a certain stigma surrounding self-publishing, but Norelli is quick to dismiss that.

“My great grandfather did a lot of self-publishing so I never saw it as being a low-brow thing, it was more a way to get your ideas into the world,” he says.

“There is talk about self-published books not having the same editorial process and so the work can’t possibly be as ‘good.’  This is a myth, it’s my belief that good vs. bad in poetry is the wrong question, I think it should be interesting vs. dull.”

A major part of the process for Norelli has been learning the logistical aspects of publishing beyond putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

“The tools that exist today are amazing and make the process accessible to anyone willing to take on a little debt to learn a new skill,” he explains. “Some elitists might fret ‘now everyone can write a book’ but I don’t see any harm in self-publishing, it’s a liberating challenge–like running a marathon.”

Prior to launching his campaign, Norelli did briefly toy with the idea of funding the project himself.

“I remember hearing a story about Spike Lee funding Do the Right Thing with 26 credit cards and was inspired to just take the risk and go for it. I was thinking I would just put it all on a credit card with the hope it paid off somehow.”

But he kept going back to Kickstarter, and what the platform represented to him.

“I just didn’t see much poetry being done through it, and most that I did see was journals and group projects. I didn’t really see any poets trying to get their own books published– though it took me a while to realize that was in fact an opportunity and not an impediment.”

He adds: “I really like the inclusive aspect of it.”

“Doing a Kickstarter helps get people to believe in you, because you really do have to put yourself out there. Making a video made me really nervous, but in the end I just laid it all out there. We are still very early in the age of Kickstarter—few technologies are as empowering to people wanting to realize their dreams.”

Norelli draws inspiration from many sources, but, while times have certainly changed in the publishing world,  he was encouraged to learn Leaves of Grass was initially self-published by Whitman.

“Leaves of Grass wasn’t published by some big publishing house pre-vetted by the greatest poets of his time,” explains Norelli. “It was a risk, a huge one…not only was he a poet he was an entrepreneur, shamelessly so, which I think is truly venerable.”

Some writers have luck with publishing houses, he explains, but Norelli has never been fond of the process.

“I never really liked the set-up of sending your work out for approval and resting all your hopes and dreams on someone else’s judgment—months of anticipation to have some young reader go, ‘boy does this suck!’”

“While a complex editorial process might heighten what is already there, half obscured, it won’t ever put into something what isn’t there in quality to start.”

If anything, Norelli points out, self-published books occasionally suffer from poor design choices. He hopes with his newfound skills he will be able to create “the whole package.”

His advice? “The more you learn to do yourself, the more empowered you will be, and the less expensive the process.”

If his book gets funded, Norelli plans to distribute them himself as “[he’s] always had a thing for the mail.”

“Distributing the books is something I really am looking forward to, not only because I like the mail, but because I look forward to sending the book out to people who are interested in what I am doing,” he says.

And New York City has certainly played a role in shaping the local poet’s process as well: “The loneliness you find here is unlike any other place. Here, loneliness is just another color in your palette. Writing requires more than a bit of solitariness to get done, at least in New York you don’t seem like a recluse because you are holed up in your studio for weeks or months.”

“New York normalizes the habits of the artist and allows them to get work done,” he adds. “Here it seems you are in the thick of the ferment.”

Ultimately, Norelli hopes and believes Kickstarter, and whatever similarly positive, artist-friendly platforms crop up in its wake, will help push the boundaries of what is currently being done in literature.

“Kickstarter is just a means, it is not an end in itself,” he says. “While the many editorial levels in traditional publishing houses can help bring out the best of a work, I would not say they are conducive to trying new things, or testing anything established to make sure what is taken for granted deserves to be.”

A new age of equality is upon us, “losers,” and it’s time to start winning.

The Internet has for a long time been a great place for people to vent their literary frustrations, along with any other complaint they might have about anything. There’s perhaps no better platform for this than Tumblr. The English Grad Student Shaming Tumblr—tagline: “Because We Are The Worst”—recently cropped up on my radar as a place for people who look eerily similar to confide they find Shakespeare boring or haven’t actually read a single classic or still don’t know MLA style despite their PhD status.

When I came across SlushPile Hell—tagline: “One grumpy literary agent, a sea of query fails, and other publishing nonsense”—my mind jumped to a man with whom I formerly interned, one particularly curmudgeonly literary agent who bestowed upon me the responsibility of helping him avoid his clients, before he stopped showing up to his office altogether.

This agent devotes his Tumblr to query letters from amateur “authors” who have zero clue how to break into the game, and seemingly no self-awareness of which to speak.

On SlushPile Hell, the agent recounts particularly absurd, inane query notes that look like this: Dear agent, how are you? The Lord spoke to me again and instructed me to give you a continuation of the last manuscript I sent you. He then follows them up with his own commentary about how clueless these folks are.

A friend of mine who works closely with authors confirms this agent’s frustrations and those of my former “boss.” Authors—like anyone, though perhaps slightly more intensely, as creative types are wont to be—are crazy. There’s no comprehensive guide on how to be a successful author and those who wish to make it in the field are tossed around mercilessly by many brutal forces. Often these individuals get their preposterous ideas about publishing from the media, from films or television, even from books themselves and, sadly, probably just as often live their lives never hearing a peep from an agent, let alone a publisher, or, maybe worse, succumbing to the schemes of a vanity press (forking over loads of money to self-publish with no guarantee of returns or readership). They reach out an unsolicited hand for help and are met with public ridicule and disillusionment (depending on their level of self-delusion).

But they’re crazy, right?

I can’t help but empathize. Who but the most savvy of individuals hasn’t at some point reached out with a glimmer of hope only to be knowingly shot down as pathetic or never acknowledged at all? What hope is there for these fledgling artists (besides reading my past column on how to get published) when, frankly, even the most well-intentioned advice might not help them in this callous world?

I think the answer lies in the 21st century’s great equalizer. Yes, debates about Internet access equality and free networks aside, this is the time for losers to take their lives back.

Take to the Internet and get revenge, “losers.” The losing game is over. Start your own Tumblr. Garner a likeminded following. Your following is out there and it won’t be located in the office of an uppity, narrow-minded literary agent who sees only dollar signs. When you get big enough, wait for the opportunities to start rolling in. This isn’t the age of get up, get out and make it happen, it’s the age of reconsidering—and updating—your strategy.

Perhaps “the Lord,” or whomever, never intended you to be published by, say, Simon & Schuster. Perhaps his plan was different, but no worse. Maybe you don’t know about the Internet beyond email. In fact, chances are you don’t. But a new age of equality is upon us, “losers,” and it’s time to start winning. For all the losers past who never got a chance to leave their mark, for all the non-Shakespeares history churned out for every Shakespeare, it’s time to fill cyberspace with your respective virtual marks.

After thirteen years teaching at the New School, Luis Jaramillo has helped his fair share of students get book deals. Now, with The Doctor’s Wife (Dzank), the Fort Greene, Brooklyn resident, who lives with his boyfriend of eleven years, has released his own. During an interview at his Greenwich Village office, Jaramillo, 37, explained why being in the heart of New York’s publishing community can sometimes be depressing.

JV: Has there been an advantage to being at the center the writing world with your job at the New School?

LJ: Going to publishing events always makes me really depressed because the way the editors talk about books is different than the way the writers talk about books. Editors and agents talk about books purely about how something can be sold. That’s the opposite of how many writers view books. To spend all your time writing something, you have to really like what you’re doing.

The poetic novel is set in the Pacific North-West.  Although it recently became a book of the week on Oprah’s Book Club, it’s not exactly John Grisham or Tom Clancy territory. How did you get it published?

When I first showed the book to my agent he said, “Sometimes writers write things that they only write for themselves.” Of course we want to sell the things we write but it’s hard to write a something that you’re not emotionally vested in. I put this book aside for year. Then my grandmother died and I thought, “Screw it, I’m just going to send this thing out. What’s the difference, who cares?” Basically I sent this book out as a manuscript for the Dzank literary contest in 2010 and totally forgot about it and got a call three months later from Dan Wicket, the editor of Dzank Books. I’d won and they wanted to publish my book. They are a small publisher from Ann Arbor, Michigan known for their experimental fiction.

You started off as a student at the New School and are now the Associate Chair of the writing program. Did you get free tuition?

In a way. While I was doing my MFA at the New School I started working as a receptionist. After the MFA I worked as a secretary and did some teaching. When the Creative Director of the writing program left, I was offered the job which was around 7 years ago.

Name some of the authors who have changed your life.

Abigail Thomas,  Mark Twain, Graham Greene, Tolstoy. Hilton Als and Abigail Thomas were great teachers. I got to know them well. Abi’s advice to me was “Everything can be used” which is a nice way of living in the world as a writer. Hilton’s advice was “write everyday.”

I heard you are also a yoga instructor?

Yes it’s something that runs alongside everything else I do. It helps you live in the world in a mindful way.

What’s your advice to aspiring writers?

Write a book. I teach a novel class and I meet lots of people who want to write a book and a lot of times they think that an idea is all that they need. You really have to put the time and effort into it and then, good luck. Persistence can never be under estimated. My advice is “keep on trying.”

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

The blustery winter months are fast approaching, days are getting shorter and mulled wine, fireplaces and Snuggies (a safe distance from those fireplaces) are starting to sound pretty good, just about all the time. It’s the perfect time of year to hunker down with a trashy novel, tucked discreetly behind that Snuggie.

So how’s that novel — the one you’re writing — coming along?

Two weeks ago, The Protagonist featured two Seattle-based folk, both in the tech field, who were respectively trying their hands — or keyboards — at NaNoWriMo, an almost cult-like collective of sorts that annually urges its followers to write a novel throughout the month of November. Like something you might bring to a potluck, the novel doesn’t have to be great, it just has to get done.

Two weeks ago, our amateur writers were just starting out. The Protagonist decided to catch up with them to see how — and if — things were coming along.

“I’ve been telling lots of people about my novel so I’m going to feel really lame if I don’t finish,” said Mark Phair, in what struck The Protagonist as an optimistic tone.

“Things traditionally fall off for me around a week in, so to still be moving along is pretty exciting,” said Phair. “I think the secret this time is a combination of accountability…and amusing myself way too much.”

Unfortunately Phair’s real, live writing group has fallen apart, so, aside from his fellow NaNoWriMoers, he’s going it solo this time.

Phair draws the inspiration to keep going from his inspirations themselves. “Sometimes I read or re-read some of the things that I’m parodying in the book,” he said. “I have to look back to Da Vinci Code now and then and I’m in the process of reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I actually watched Twilight last weekend, in the interest of getting source material.”

The Protagonist did not push Phair to find out if his interest extended beyond mere “source material.”

“My cast of characters is growing at a somewhat silly pace, but I think that is one of the things that has kept me moving. Whenever I’m worn out on a particular plotline, I just introduce a new one. I’ve got some characters that only show up in a single chapter so far,” explained Phair.

“With conspiracy novels…it always pays to get more people involved,” he added.

Phair also amuses himself with extraneous internet research: “I’ve never been to Sudan, but that isn’t stopping me from sending my characters there,” he explained. “I can see what it looks like on Google Maps; that’s good enough, right?”

“In the spirit of poorly-researched best-sellers everywhere, onward!” he said, concluding our interview.

Molly Watson appeared slightly more flustered about the process. “Curse you Netflix instant play!” she tellingly “shouted” at The Protagonist, via email.

Watson, who spoke more philosophically about the experience, cited author Steven Pressfield as an inspiration.

“Resistance is that little, sometimes very loud, voice in the back of your head that convinces you not to work on the thing that you want to work on. It reminds you… ‘who are you trying to fool, why don’t you go become a sandwich artist at Jimmy John’s?’” explained Watson, of Pressfield’s definition of “resistance.”

Watson said some days she manages to overcome this resistance, but other times her attempts seem futile. Though Watson finds herself behind where she’d like to be, certain things help urge her along, including regular NaNoWriMo pep talks, which are disseminated to WriMoers every few days.

Other motivations for Watson include public radio personality Ira Glass, and advice that extends well beyond the realm of fiction-writing:

“This is just today, tomorrow will in all likelihood be different.”

WriMoers now have 14 days to finish their novels, or reach the 50,000-word mark. (NaNoWriMo official rules make it explicitly clear this cannot be the same word repeated 50,000 times.)

—Alissa Fleck 

Author photo by Sigrid Estrada

If Ian Frazier were in a buddy movie, he would play both the straight guy and the comedic nit wit. His non-fiction books Travels In Siberia and Great Plains are both tour de forces in travel writing. It is his comic persona, however, that he has mined to uproarious effect with his latest offering, The Cursing Mommy’s Book Of Days (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux), his debut novel. It’s based on his popular Shouts And Murmurs character in the New Yorker magazine, where he has been a staff writer for twenty years. The Cursing Mommy character follows the daily boozy tribulations of a stay-at-home mom of two boys who possesses the vocabulary of a sailor and the liver of Keith Richards.

In a Q&A session at the New School, the 61-year-old former Brooklynite, who now calls Montclair, New Jersey, home, sat down to talk about The Cursing Mommy’s Book Of Days.

JV: How did you come up with this crazy character?

Frazier: My wife was driving with these little girls in the back seat who were Mormons and very well brought up and something happened in the road and my wife said, “Shit, gaddam!” The little girl said to my daughter, “Lauren, your mommy cursed.” Just from that we started talking about the “Cursing Mommy” and I did a short piece in a newsletter and I just started writing more of them. My editor at the New Yorker saw it and thought it was funny so I wrote one and they bought it. My first one broke by a long margin the record for the greatest amount of curse words on a page.

How did writing a novel differ from non-fiction?

It was more like a performance. I regarded it as improvisational theater. With a non-fiction book you have notes and something you’re going to talk about. To promote Siberia I went on the Steven Colbert show and I’d never done that before. I was very up for doing his show in terms of adrenaline and fear. It was really fun. I thought I’d like to do something like that in writing rather than having notes and a place I want to go, so it was more like improvisation

Did you fear your Mommy wouldn’t grow and change?

I’ve heard novelists say that there is one thing they concentrate on. For me there is one phrase, “A client of Larry’s.” There’s something about that phrase, the guy’s client. This book is based on the mother of a friend of mine who would say things like, “Oh we out with a client of Don’s and we all got drunk.” I kept hoping that the voice would suggest things.

Did you have any real life inspiration?

All this stuff really happened. I live in New Jersey, I have two kids, I have two sisters. I never heard my grandmothers come close to swearing. My mother would say damn and hell. My sisters and I and many women I know talk like the cursing mom. They wouldn’t restrain themselves from saying the F-word. My sister was making a pie for me and she came over and said “I was making a pie and the recipe was on the the f-ing bottle and once I filled it I couldn’t do the rest of the recipe.” You should write down things that kids say and keep a list because a lot of being a parent is an incredible drag.

Did you have an audience in mind?

My wife is in a book group and I think that book group is one of the greatest things in town. I really like it but I don’t participate, it’s just for women. They would say, “God, you should do a cursing mommy book.” I also got a letter from someone who read a Cursing Mommy piece in the New Yorker and said that they said it was the first time they’ve laughed in two years, since they were widowed. It was a heartfelt letter.

Did you rewrite much?

I did not rewrite it much, but I had a plot line and my wife read it. She reads a lot of mysteries and she said, “this plot line is terrible.” Originally I had gypsies coming in. I stepped back from it. What I don’t want this to be is something that could be senseless and gypsies could be senseless. So I went back and changed it.

This is your first fiction book but you’ve written a lot of non-fiction. Have you previously tried to write fiction?

I really wanted to write fiction to begin with and I tried. The thing that I found tough about fiction is that I’m embarrassed by plot, thinking about what happens to the character. It’s a modernist thing. That’s why I tend to rely on voice. If you look at great modernist works like Ulysees, there’s no real plot, the guy’s walking around Dublin. What’s the plot? What’s the plot of Remembrance Of Things Past? Plot is not a big feature of modernism. With non-fiction you have the plot already. Whatever is happening out there in the world, that’s the plot. If you take a trip to Siberia, there’s the plot. You start here and end up there. Late in my life as a writer, I realize that plot is a tough thing. I had no idea it would freak me out as much as it does.

Ian Frazier will be appearing at the NYU Bookstore, 726 Broadway (btw. Waverly & Washington Place) on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 6:30 p.m., as part of a “Secrets of Book Publishing” panel with authors Patty Marx, Susan Shapiro and New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs editor Susan Morrison.