Always at the edges

Time to change the rules...

That is, if there are any rules...

That I haven't already bent, broke or destroyed.

Moving on... Part 2

So... Regardless of the teen vampires, proliferation of graphic tomes, treasure / secret potboilers* and mummy porn (WTF?! Who considered 'mummy porn' to be an accurate description of what are basically Mills & Boon novels with bondage and the words 'fuck' and 'cunt' littered throughout..?) what represents the largest proportion of books by genre in the entire store?

Actually it is hardly surprising... The writing was on the wall some twenty or so years ago but even the most astute publisher could have foreseen the popularity of the crime / thriller market. Certainly, commanding the largest proportion of bookstore space by specific genre is the crime novel and yet strangely some of the greatest historical and literary crime novelists do not not even feature on the shelves of the modern book store.

The bays and bays and bays of books devoted to stalk-and-slash murderers, devious sociopaths and demented serial killers are so full, it defies accurate analysis of the mental state of the market or the average reader. Just what is the zeitgeist here? What do our reading habits actually tell us about the current state of society and our individual fears? (for after all, reading is an individual pastime)

We are running scared, it appears. We have secularised ourselves and in doing so realised that the real monsters lurking in the shadows of our lives, towns and cities are not scaly, or slimy or horned; they are bespectacled and ordinary and called Colin. God cannot save us from the real demons abroad in society. These beasts have no pity, no mercy, no real function except to mutilate, humiliate, eviscerate and destroy and it will take more than a priest these days to stop them... Actually usually a brilliantly gifted detective, behavioural psychologist, forensic scientist or a mixture of all three.

In our ever-advancing technological world it is less than reassuring to realise that there are people who do not conform, will not fit in and who defy everything except the intellectual expertise of someone who understands them. I don't mean someone who understands society, but who understands those that are not of society; those who do not share the norms and mores of the majority. It frightens us, terrifies us; more specifically, it always has.

Shamefully, there are a growing number of writers - desperate, creative souls - who, in order to be accepted by the mainstream flow of both book publisher and book-seller are willing to sacrifice their intellectualism and creativity in order to deliver up something less than adequate to fulfil a need demanded not by the readership but a publisher exploiting the readership. Yet, surely it is the writer who should dictate the terms of that need, not the readership, not the publisher and not the agent.

The storyteller has, historically, always exploited current trends but in doing so always delivered their own unique tale. Trends come and go. Crime is in. Vampires are on the wane. Pseudo-eroticism has been legitimised. Sci-Fi has been hidden away for far too long. True literature has been stifled except in the case where it serves no other purpose than the continuation of grandiose titular awards.

We need to move on. To damn the eyes of the agent. To publish and be damned. To stand or fall by the strength of our narratives and to deliver new feasts for the reader so that they, like the authors may experience something new, something bold and often something altogether more dangerous...

* Treasure / secret potboilers are thriller off-shoots that are so formulaic that readers are often uncertain from the blurb on the back cover whether they have read that particular story before or simply another one that sounds exactly the same. Generally the plots are the the same, i.e.:

Beautiful / handsome / rugged archaeologist / crypto zoologist / historian finds a priceless / unusual / mysterious artefact and finds herself / himself in terrible danger that involves her / him / the fate of the human race and needs to enlist the help of her / his old friend who is ex-SAS / a mercenary / a skilled weapons expert and together they must fight against an unseen foe / a mysterious brotherhood / a shadowy cabal who have sworn to keep the secret safe at any cost, even at the cost of humanity. See Dan Brown wife's book: The DaVinci Code.

Moving on...Part 1

Contemplating the peculiar state of affairs in my local Waterstones, where, from time to time, I do nothing more than assess the market as perceived by this particular retailer; made manifest in the manner in which their shop is laid out.

Apologies to anyone reading this, say, in Wells or Loughborough where their own branch of Waterstones is not as expansive as the one in my own fair city (which is complete with third floor Costa Coffee franchise outlet, don't you know...) but I dare say that any cursory look at even the smaller stores will give an indication of which direction Waterstones anticipates the book market to be headed.

Gone are the genre specific racks of books which made browsing in the old style W.H.Smith stores such a pleasure, but then gone are the publishing houses who turned out genre specific books for genre specific aficionados. I am not saying that such genre sections are missing in Waterstones, far from it, but they just aren't the same...

Best sellers are at the front of the shop, naturally (commercially that makes sense) alongside recommended reads (recommended by whom? Please remember that Richard and Judy are hardly the cornerstone of literary review) and strangest of all a whole bank of e-readers. I kindle you not. What exactly are you trying to tell us Waterstones? That you would rather have some of the market these machines are capturing instead of losing out entirely by only catering for traditionalists? (again it makes absolute, obvious commercial sense)

Where are the classics? Relegated to a side annexe, the last place you would visit upon deciding to leave the shop.

Where are the new writers, the Independant publishers and self-published novels? Right at the back of the store hidden away from everything. Even the counter staff were unable to locate one particular novel I enquired after, but there it was, hidden away at the back of the shop, isolated and unloved. I did at least find it. Yep, fuck you Amazon!

There is a whole bay and six whole shelves dedicated to manga and other types of graphic novels. An indication of the popularity of this form of literature amongst the masses or a warning about the increased level of illiteracy in the Country? At least, mercifully, teen fiction is still well catered for. They are still reading, thank goodness.

Vampires have all but taken over the horror section, with more than a slight edging in by a growing band of werewolves and the odd zombie. Teen vampires - please keep to the teen fiction section. There is no place for budding breasts in tight sweaters on 12-year olds and pubescent blood-letting in the adult section; not with it so close to the erotica section for Christ's sake...It's only a hop, skip and jump away from from full-blown paedophilia.

Two-faced Charlatan

Another year slides in and the murkiness associated with the previous trip round the Sun becomes less prominent with each new day that passes.
My focus is still a little way off but my direction is certain.
2013 here I come.