If any of the three people (and bless you for sharing your time with me!) who read my blog also read any of the other blogs I write for (or Facebook, of course), you might get the impression that I don’t really like electronic publishing much. You would be correct. But rather than tell you why (and make myself more of a hypocrite) let me just say this: I’m not selling out, I’m buying in. (That’s a line from SLC Punk!).
I’ve decided that there just isn’t a way to get my stuff out there in the time that I want to put it out. If I waited on the perfect, dedicated and involved agent, editor, or manager…well, the only thing I’m going to do is slow my whole process down considerably. So after months of deliberation and thought, false announcements and retractions, I have decided to shake hands with the Beast and hope he doesn’t bite. I’m publishing electronically, baby.
Now, though I have technically three eBook projects in the works I’ve decided to try it out with publishing for Kindle/Amazon through Raised By Bats Press my first two books of poetry. Before you roll your eyes too far, I don’t call the stuff I write poetry…even if it rhymes. A lot of this stuff falls under the “Words” category. That way if the Masters of Poetry do not deem me worthy at least I have not lied: they ARE words. Some of them go back to the late 1980’s, so this is quite a collection. It will probably be the only one of its kind, as after publishing it I intend to jump right into fiction again and finish the first novel already! To spice things up again, I may include a few stories and essays. And I may include art and photography by other artists I respect. If it is possible, I may include some music by a former recording partner of mine. I haven’t asked him yet, but I just think it would be cool to have “reading music” especially for the “poetry” (words).
It will be called “Stripmine” because that is the name I gave it. I don’t have the time to explain what a strip mine is but it doesn’t involve strippers. I will go into the name in mind-numbing detail in the “Notes” section. I have published pieces of the first book before, in blogs. Most of this material has been re-edited or rewritten.
I will tell you when it is uploaded to Kindle/Amazon. I hope you get a copy (it will be priced inexpensively) and I hope you enjoy it enough to recommend it to ONE other person at least. Look, writing isn’t difficult for me, I will admit it. But trying to develop an audience and do all the social media stuff is excruciating. If anyone would like the job as my agent, I am currently accepting resumes. An email saying I WILL DO IT! would probably be enough.
Much Love.
Gregory Purvis aka James Edgar Purvis
#poetry #ebooks #electronicpublishing #writing #essays
SOMEWHAT TRUE LIES 