WW Lectures - Molly Tinsley

Willamette Writers – Saturday February 5th – 2011
(Molly Tinsley – [e-mail])
Muze.com

((www.willamettewriters.com))
((storyfix.com))

Schedule:
March 5th – Steve Scholl – (Personal Pitch Practices) – will build on what Molly says today; (White Cloud – local publisher)
April 2nd – Cynthia Whitcomb (Screenwriting) – Portland President WW
May 7th – Jessica Morrell
June 4th – Alyssa Lukara

Announcements:
1) Portland Writing House – Can rent for 4 or 5 days
2) Writing Conferences
a. South Coast Writing Conference – Gold Beach – 2/18: $150 for two days
3) Contest: Kate Herzog
4) Kay Snow Writing Contest – Award given at WW Conference
5) Donald Maas – “Breakout Novel” (New Novel) – BN Workshop -- 5 Days: $1800
6) SOU Editor: Professor Rhaney – bloggingthequill.com (“Craft of Writing: His book).
a. Stuff about formatting.
7) “Tigress Books”: Small publisher. Cheap. She wants to make side money. Editing at $25/hour.



Molly Tinsley

Bio: Spent 20 years teaching at Naval Academy. Writer, publisher: Fuse Publishing. Works with writing groups.
Book: Satan’s Chamber.
Muze.com


Hard Fact: NY not publishing new fiction writers anymore unless you have connections. Rejections: Not the writer’s fault: the businesse’s.
Example: Nicole Wallace: Author with connections from belonging to Bush cabinet. Title: Politics of Art. (Emperor has no clothes).
Example: Natalie Wexler: “A More Obedient Wife”. Book on communication between 1st Supreme Court. Example of a book that needs to be out there – now had to publish independently.(on lulu).

“Politics and Art” – Art: Really what Writing is: Power in independent publishers – we need to be political activists to get published.

Individual Bookstores: Think “Ingram”? (wholesale rates to supply bookstores)
Ingram: Taking individual writers and publishing companies. Have to deal with one (book?) at a time. Might not think it’s worth it.

Pep talk: Writing is very important socially and politically. Where individual soul, spirit, personality is. (Square peg in a round hole).

Essay: (Pats Hampel – (( “Memory and Imagination)) - (( online?)) ) – Account of how writing process is mingling of memory and imagination. Also goes into perspective: If we don’t write what we can write someone else will fill that void.

Quietly challenging political status-quo. Creating consumers (Normal) vrs. Subversive Writing

Aside: Plays: No room for self-indulgence. Playwrights – At bottom of their hierarchy in their industry. (don’t even usually get mentioned in the credits).



Part I:

Her Promise: She’s a literary artist. (She wants us to say that to ourselves everymorning). We express our own personal vision. Personal story -> Making art.

She is constantly beset by doubt because of above: The Key: It’s not about her. Politics: Have a campaign on our hands.


1979: Thor Power Company: Changed taxes on publishing companies – before they could write off unpublished books. Now they can’t. Storybooks became cheaper for industry to not store them.

Doesn’t cost much to write a book in large quantities. Cheaper to destroy after 6 months than keep them on shelves.

Jumpstart into instant gratification (movies too).


1980’s: (Reagan) – Corporations grew. Big publishers took over industry. Goal of books to become profit-oriented rather than artistically goaled. Maximizing profits kills artistic goal.


Example: Toni Morrison – Molly thinks she will last longer than the others. – Linguistic genius. Like Molly -> Mainstream.

Last year: Publishers merging. Most big houses owned by one company. A German—based company controls almost all houses and new novels that come out (Betelsmen or Bertelsman or Bettlesman?)

Short Stories to contests: University of Iowa Biggest. University presses trying to take up some of the slack from New York companies. Not set up that well for it.

Her Memoir about parents: Her 2nd agent quit. Others thought it depressing.

Last piece: Textbook industry. (Creative process -> creative writing) – Used to be cheap -> now costs much more (exploiting students).
Aside: Textbooks now being sold online.

Molly: Changed her frame of mind: Decided she’s not entitled to go against market.

2009: Bottom fell out of market for publishing houses. Didn’t keep up with technology. No new writers being published. We can’t visualize a platform that will please publishing houses.

She and Corette started own company – Fuse Publishing. Fired gatekeepers so she and Corette now handled writers and all other parts of the publishing business. Had to learn everything by scratch.

Aside: To get profit from 5-15%, have to make too many compromises.

The enemy and competition: Book-like objects - -Stocking stuffers (eg. Chicken Soup books). She’s interested in novels with a global setting and subject. Banking on ebooks: Says small publishers aren’t keeping up either. She believes eventually hardbacks will be left behind. Everything will be on internet.

Hers: Distributed online. Sells 70 copies of Satan’s Chamber a month – an increase over time.
Kindle: (Research) – Backpack Size? (Kindle hardware).


Ipod Technology: Game if you’re a nobody:
1) If you sell on Amazon.com you can get reviews.
2) Now that you’re selling to strangers, Amazon has created interest for you.
(She hasn’t sold any copies on Amazon but the reviews led to sales on Kindle).
a. Good reviews: Send to Kindle for sale.

kindleboards.com – can talk about books on.
smashwords.com – publishes eversions of all formats for free (sony, kindle, etc.) – will guide you with format.

2 Ways:
1) Amazon
2) E-newsletters every week
a. To show what she’s doing
i. Make it contact-click.

Possibility:
Do self (not lulu). Be a designer (book covers), writer, business person.
Amazon: Capacity there to download books for a small price.

“Tigress Books”: Small publisher. Cheap. She wants to make side money. Editing at $25/hour. Molly thinks she would be good at copyright editing.

Quirky characters were enough for a while but now need plot to move.
Part II
Pledge: We are artists (special category). Subversive, special , rebellious writing also a craft. Finished product doesn’t come overnight. Every experienced writer knows a writing project is really a re-writing project.
Good-bye to gatekeepers. New problem: How to differentiate between dedicated and illegitimate. Have a mission to write for an audience.

Multiple Drafts: Everything she works with gets better with later editions (rewriting).
1) First draft: Tell self story - Artist
2) Second Draft: Craftsperson - Writing to an audience. Have audience look over your shoulder for a long time.
a. Some of us don’t want feedback.
b. Need to take negative feedback as data.
i. Just talk about what’s going on when reading.
ii. To her – “Change this” leads to their problem with it, not what to change.
c. Eg. Plays: Have it read by actors. The kind of reaction needed for 2nd Rewite.
3) Commit to the long haul.
a. Hold each other to being a perfectionist.
i. Process of Perfectionism:
1. Has to have a stopping place.
a. Asymptotic curve: But still strive for perfectionism
2. Makes more sense to channel perfectionism into art than life
3.