A Dream Deferred?

The waiting game is what I call it. What am I referring to? The months and months you wait to hear whether your work will be published in a literary magazine. It's like waiting to hear whether you've got accepted into the school of your dreams. Honestly, I don't ever think I have a real chance of getting published, but it's nice to believe you have a shot. During your waiting period, you ask yourself, "What if?" What if your work does get published? I remember when my story, "Elvis,"became published. I received the news on the last day of July via email. It was for The Baltimore Urbanite, New Voices: Emerging Writers Issue, August 2009. I was so ecstatic. Lights, camera, action! I thought being published meant things were going to happen. Maybe someone would contact me...recognize me...phone calls...none of the above...but it is a starting point. So, I just got to keep trekking along and maybe things will start to happen. At least, I hope. Anyway, can you recall your first published story? Did you have high expectations? Did anything come from it?

Creativity and Electronic Publishing

It was cool to see the variety and range of the final projects for my Electronic Publishing course at the University of Baltimore. There weren't too many people who used Twitter (shout out to Tania's Twitter Text Poetry, click here to view). I really liked Courtney's creative use of Facebook--that was so innovative. Create a Facebook account for fictional characters. Basically, everyone did a nice job. Three people did e-books, which are supposed to be the wave of the future. Call me old-school, but I still prefer a traditional book. The E-books were well-designed and were in PDF versions. I wonder how E-books will change the concept of book design. A couple of people used video with images, words, and audio. One person even shot a series of web shows about two fictional characters (click here to check it out). In retrospect, I learned a lot by taking Electronic Publishing. It's funny because I didn't want to take the class at first because I told myself I'm not tech savvy, but truthfully you don't have to be that tech savvy--maybe a little--but not a whole lot. Good job on the final projects, everyone!

Get your Blog on!

Yesterday, in my Electronic Publishing course, there was a group panel: Rose Huber (blogger), Erika Shernoff (non-profit marketing director), and Adam Robinson (blogger and publisher). The panelists gave great insight about their experiences with blogs and electronic marketing. It was cool to see that blogging can actually mean something other than how many people visited your sight, that if you're lucky and persistent that maybe a career can spring from it. For example, both Rose and Adam mentioned receiving free stuff; I would love for publishers to send me books that they want reviewed (knock on wood). But knowing me, I would feel funny endorsing something that I didn't believe in. Anyway, I was very impressed with Adam Robinson's indie book publishing house, Publishing Genius (a few weeks ago, I wrote a post about his press, click here to read it). I hope to one day have my own publishing house, but it takes time, money, and energy. Distribution and marketing are essential to having a successful publishing house. If no one knows about your company or the books that you're selling, it's like you don't exist. Also, it was pretty cool to see how Rose's post, "The Ultimate Vegan Cuisine," was the top google search. So, as you can see, the Internet levels the playing field in a way. Just get the word out about your blog, and hopefully people will become interested, and then you can become a famous blogger, right?

The Last Hurrah!

On May 7th, 2010, students in the MFA Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program at the University of Baltimore will showcase and display their final books on the fifth floor of the Student Center. This year, I know a handful of the graduates, so I'm excited to see their work. Last year, I attended the reading, and it was awe-inspiring to see how the books looked professional and attractive. At the University of Baltimore, students have to produce their own books, which means they can either get them printed using a commercial printer or they can hand-make them. I'm telling you now, I doubt I'll be making my final books by hand--too much work. Lord willingly, I will showcase my book to the world next year or should I say to a roomful of people. I am excited about that--my three years wrapped up in the completion of my final book. I already have an idea of how I want my book to look. It's hard to imagine that I will have wrote, designed, and printed my own book without the help of a publishing house. Anyway, I can't wait to see everyone's books! And hopefully, I can afford them (smile).

My new addiction

The end is coming, and I am excited! May 11th will be my last day of class--Hallelujah! But I will admit, I have learned a lot this semester. For example, blogs! I never knew I would like blogging so much. I like communicating to an audience other than myself (I write all the time, but I only show a fraction of my work to the public). Blogging is cool because you control the content that you want on your blog. You can inform the audience about things you find important and the things that interest you. I never knew I would like blogging so much. Before taking electronic publishing, the word, "blog," intimidated me. I thought I had to be a computer whizz to master the art of blogging. Now, I see all I need is a computer with Internet, and I am good to go!

Hey, can I have my book regular?

I wonder with all of this technology, what will happen to the book? Will technology replace the physical book? What will that mean for brick and mortar bookstores? What does that mean for book design? It's hard to believe that books will become relics of the past. There are some things that we must preserve and the book, the traditional book, the one that is held in your hands, and have actual pages you can turn, and you can place your cheesy bookmark in, and write on its physical pages for posterity, must be preserved. I know for myself, I don't want to read a book on a book reader. I want to be able to smell the book, look at its cover, finger through the pages, and after I'm done reading it, I want to place it on my bookshelf and admire its beauty. Having said that, E-books are the new wave of the future, but they shouldn't replace traditional books. Not all new things are better. Long live the printed book!

The Fame Game

You've sent out your manuscript to your favorite literary magazine. You imagine yourself reading the email, "Congratulations, we have selected your story for our publication..." And to top it off, you get paid a couple of hundreds, and before you know it, you become a household name...okay, I'm getting carried away. But honestly, who doesn't wish that one of the above scenarios wouldn't happen? What prompted these fantasies? I have submitted a collection of prose poetry entitled, "Black Codes," for Tin House's issue about class in America. I guess, I'll find out, if my submission made it by August. If not, the game continues. If so, YAY! I gotta be like Jesse and keep hope alive. What is your motto that motivates you to keep writing?

Confessions of a New Blogger

Blog statistics. The first thing I do when I turn on my computer is to checkout my dashboard to view the stats of my two websites, The Writing Zone and The Diary of a Black Prophet. Some days, my stats are so dismal. There are days when no one has visited my sites, and I think to myself, What is the point of maintaining a blog that no one reads? But on the flip side, there are days when you have a couple of clicks, and you become excited. So, I guess, I'll hang in there. Maybe one day, I will have daily traffic of hundreds of visitors on my websites. Wishful thinking? You never know.

P.S. For those of you that have blogs or websites, what do you do to attract visitors to your sites? And most importantly, how do you get them to come back? Help a novice blogger in training (smile).

The end is almost here

The semester is almost over. It's like the countdown to freedom, but I'll admit there is nothing like getting up in the morning with purpose. I like to feel productive, although school can be stressful. Right now, I have a couple of major assignments due: Pedagogy presentation, Electronic Publishing final project, and an experimental writing assignment, but by the second week of May, it should be a wrap! But when I'm an old woman, I'll remember my days at UB--the days when I would stay until the closing of the Design Studio Lab to design work, taking the shuttle that drops me off at Penn Station, and definitely making those books by hand--and how many people can say that they handmade their books? Not many.

What's behind the doors, MFAers?

The deadline is looming. You feel antsy. You've had this feeling before. The fear of what's on the other side of the door...is it wealth and stardom? Your name on The New York Times Bestseller? Or is it a bag of regrets and broken dreams? A nice little note with the word, "Sucker," scrawled across it? What am I talking about you might ask? Graduation. In 2007, when I graduate from college, I just knew my Bachelor's degree was going to get me a job ASAP! Wrong. As a result, I learned that you have to plan early. I'm beginning to think about the transition from school to the workforce. What should I do with my MFA? Teach? Write? Purse owning my own publishing house? Who knows? So that leads me to my next question, what are your plans after earning your MFA?

Easy as 1, 2, 3?

Today, I tested my website's usability and navigational tools. I used my parents as the sample pool. It was interesting to see how they navigated my blog. They are traditional readers, meaning their reading paths are linear; they didn't go to the archives and "play around;" instead, they just scrolled down the blog. My father does not have much experience with computers, so he needed help to navigate to older posts. My mother is a bit more tech-savvy; she was able to locate items on my sidebar, while my father was unable to find them without my guidance. Now, it would be interesting to see how a younger testing pool would have "behaved" on my site. I wonder if they would have "noticed" the sidebar more? Would they have clicked on the posts and the links? Who knows?

So you want to write, right?

Am I kidding myself? Who in his right mind wants to be a writer? Being a writer means keeping up the fight even when you hear the word, no, no, and no continuously. It's about submitting your work to journals, and journals, and journals just to get a cute little note that says, "Thanks for submitting to our journal, but blah, blah, blah." It's about people thinking to themselves, "That chick needs to get real and get herself a real job!" It's about being in debt to pursue your dreams which involves selling your book that no one has ever heard of. It's about dreaming about being on Oprah looking fabulous, darling, but damn, Oprah is supposed to be off the air in a year! Anyway. What can I say to all these roadblocks? Am I supposed to fold like a jackknife or will I stand tall like a oak tree? Time tells all, kiddo.