by ed. Pela Via
The internet isn’t very different in that respect, but it is bigger, more intimidating, more anonymous, and even less patrolled than the amateur journalism circles of a century ago. The poverty of the average internet user’s writing (or “typing”) is not a dirty secret; it’s the accepted norm. YouTube comments read like parodies of impossible worlds, and make us cringe when we realize they aren’t meant to be parodic. Everyone pretends to be someone they’re not, and everyone is right. There is little room, even in the infinite online world, for literacy and culture.
Or so the argument goes. An impatient glance at YouTube and Facebook could seem to confirm the truth of it, too; but that is when something like Warmed and Bound pops up, and the critics shut up. It’s a very comfortable position to take, but being convinced that the “democratization of the internet” will only lead to imbecility is, to put it in terms familiar to the internet dweller, an EPIC FAIL. The internet has Myspace for the narcissist, Wikipedia for the lazy, gossip blogs for the soulless, and porn for the depraved, fine, but it also has The Velvet, a little society for people who want to show that what they’re doing is worth reading, what they’re reading is worth discussing, and what they’re dreaming about is not just a way out of this world. The Velvet collected some of their finest stories, raised money, and revived interest in a genre all too easily dismissed as unliterary — and they proved they could make it good.
Warmed and Bound is selling so well that, even in terms of the market, it has legitimized itself. By virtue of its uncompromising “underground” roots it has broken into the mainstream, and people like it. That should tell us something.
“What They’re Doing Right”
Published August 10, 2011
The New York Times has announced a revival of the book industry. Is this surprising? On the one hand, yes, of course it is. Nobody reads anymore — isn’t that the standard complaint? On the other hand, of course it isn’t. Just because some people still aren’t reading in 2011 doesn’t mean everyone’s illiterate and incapable of appreciating a well-written text. We hear gloomy reports of the publishing industry’s decline every other week. What we don’t often hear about, even though there is evidence of it if you look, is that even if the book industry seems to be suffering, it won’t go away, and it’s been adapting quite well.
I wrote the other week about the unexpected success of the Velvet Press’s Warmed and Bound anthology of neo-noir stories. Since then I’ve done a little more research, I’ve spoken to contributors, exchanged emails with the editor, Pela Via, and tried to understand what it is that made Warmed and Bound such a hit. If the book industry is in decline, then maybe it’s time to learn from the tactics that the Velvet people adopted to make their book the triumph that it clearly is.
The first thing to say, of course, is that Warmed and Bound is a good anthology. That should surprise nobody who’s familiar with its contributors. The stories are short and well-written, and the book represents a suitably wide range of styles and moods to keep a reader interested the way through. I was particularly struck by a story by Blake Butler, which I feel merges poetry and some kind of noir-inspired subject matter quite effectively. There are stories by popular authors like Craig Clevenger and Stephen Graham Jones. I’ve taken classes with both of these authors on the official Chuck Palahniuk website, and I found them both inspiring in their teaching and confidence. It was only to be expected that they’d have good stories in Warmed and Bound. The other stories are for the most part very representative of the kind of strong, dark, sometimes sad fiction that you’ll find the Velvet people writing and publishing in magazines all year round. All this to say that the content of Warmed and Bound should already recommend the book. But that alone very rarely proves enough.
Other factors, important ones, have combined to make Warmed and Bound a success:
A foreword by Steve Erickson
Having an established and reputable author’s name on your collection always helps. It adds legitimacy to your product. In case Craig Clevenger and Stephen Graham Jones weren’t enough, there is Steve Erickson’s little opening essay. Erickson’s foreword is very short; it introduces the collection without overwhelming anyone. He doesn’t overpraise — he lets the stories speak for themselves. He doesn’t try to steal anyone’s thunder. But now, anyone looking up his stuff on Amazon will see Warmed and Bound. I’m sure that, alone, has convinced some people to buy the book. No doubt they were pleasantly surprised.
The combined power of many self-promoters
Many of the authors involved in this project are fantastic at promoting their own work. This is crucial, and yet people just don’t seem to understand how crucial it really is. If you have a couple dozen writers, some with cultish and loyal fanbases already from sheer hard work and readings and frantic publishing, all promoting the same book, you are going to hear the word spread. There is a clear tactical advantage to grouping together as authors. Warmed and Bound is a collaborative effort and for many of these guys and gals it’s a blessing to have had everyone else on board.
A good use of the internet
This is related to the last point but distinct. The Velvet is an online writers’ community. That’s how a lot of these people met. If you google “the velvet” you’ll find it easily. They keep a precise record of their members’ new publications. They congratulate each other for their successes, but they don’t kiss each other’s asses. It’s a productive and friendly environment. Having that kind of online presence is an important ingredient, because it provides a central hub where you can find out information about the Warmed and Bound authors without clicking on a million links. There’s also a site dedicated exclusively to Warmed and Bound and it’s attractive, informative, and up-to-date. These things matter.
The quality of the physical product itself
Good covers sell books, and Warmed and Bound has a great cover. It’s also printed on a suspiciously nice “velvety” kind of paper… If you really want to sell a book, you need to put a lot of thought into its presentation. That, too, is often neglected by indie publishers. One of the Warmed and Bound contributors, Bradley Sands, has published books with really fantastic, funny cover designs. They aren’t bland, they aren’t tacky, and they convey the kind of wackiness you’ll find in the pages they hold together. Holding the Warmed and Bound anthology is a pleasure as well. Little things, man. They matter.
Podcasts
If you look around, you’ll find podcasts with many of the authors. If you aren’t invited onto Oprah’s book club, podcasts are a good alternative for letting your readers hear your voice, making them figure out if they like your style, and letting them decide if they’re willing to buy your book. The more authors involved, the more podcasts. That’s a good formula.
Humility
I’m going to let the Warmed and Bound editor, Pela Via, show how to do it. I asked her if she’d learned anything from the ordeal that she wanted to share. “Yes. That start to finish, everything takes six times longer than will make sense to me. A hundred things can cause delays; what I never would have predicted was that good things also cause delays. Unforeseen opportunities, such as contributions from Steve Erickson and Brian Evenson and others. Lastly, that you get lucky or you don’t. I believe Warmed and Bound has been the product of lucky timing. To have this many people in love with the same thing at the same time has been amazing. I will never take that part for granted. And I am nothing but lucky to have been involved.” Of course, she’s right — this has had a lot to do with lucky timing. But it’s also proof that lucky timing is not enough; you need a realistic vision, a lot of work, strong stories and attention to the physical product if you want a serious chance at having the kind of welcome that Warmed and Bound has enjoyed.
I would suggest the future of indie publishing depends on projects like Warmed and Bound — I can’t imagine that everyone will always be this lucky, of course, but when it works, it works wonderfully. I can’t think of a more inspiring way to prove
that people are still reading.
Phil Jourdan Interviews Pela Via
Originally published 8.10.11 on PAJourdan.com
PHIL JOURDAN: What policies did you, as an editor, have to enforce as you were working on Warmed and Bound?
PELA VIA: My standard for quality was weirdly high—I think more than a few jaws hit the floor upon reading my responses to their stories. Whether it was an in-depth critical look at the story itself, or line-by-line notes, or full essays on the use of a single word, we were talking it out.
PHIL: Given the nature of the book — a collaboration between so many writers who also consider themselves friends — did you find it necessary to impose a few rules (on yourself or on the contributors) to make the process run as elegantly as possible?
PELA: Yeah. The important thing for me, though, was that these are my peers; I don’t know more than they do about writing. But I know them. With a small handful of exceptions, I know their work intimately, and if their talent wasn’t on clear and present display, in both a distinctive voice and well-crafted story, we weren’t moving forward. In some cases, we started with a new story. Or three. Till any reader could pick up the work and know immediately why these guys are so special to me.
PHIL: Did you have to be a “bad guy” at times?
PELA: Yes, I was the bad cop at times. But I’m forever in their debt. So grateful they let me do my thing. It was unspoken but fairly obvious some of the changes I requested were imperceptible. But when you have 38 stories held to a very particular standard, the book itself then has a chance to become greater than the sum of its parts. That’s what most of us aim for in our own work and is for me a theme in The Velvet itself.
PHIL: How did you go about doing the technical side of stuff, like formatting?
PELA: I used InDesign to typeset the book. I learned a little more about typography, which is always fun.
PHIL: Was it difficult to deal with the printers?
PELA: We used Lightning Source for printing and distribution. They can be difficult, sure. They handle large-volume publishing. And their reps may be stretched a little thin. But their product quality is high; we endured a few hiccups for that alone.
PHIL: Did you have to hunt for a particular kind of paper that you wanted?
PELA: I guessed. The first proof looked terrible. Cover art was like a blurry photo on vellum. We decided to switch to glossy, since the image itself is a scanned glossy photo. But I couldn’t let go of the very appropriate ‘velvety’ feel of the matte. So, last minute, we enhanced the contrast and sharpness of image, and went with the matte.
PHIL: Who had the final say in these matters?
PELA: Logan Rapp had the final say, definitely. But we work exceptionally well together; I didn’t want his job, his responsibility for The Velvet and the press at large, he didn’t want mine, with the production of the anthology, and what consequently developed was this immense respect for each other. And we got lucky; we never disagreed about individual decisions. Our taste in books, cover art, ad copy, etc. couldn’t be more similar. The only thing we ever struggled with was the timeline. I would come out of some week-long sleepless editing binge and freak out in his general direction about deadlines, PR or some other hallucination. And he had to learn how to sedate me, which is quite an art form in his hands. But discussions about the book itself were quick, ‘I’m thinking this, you?’ and ‘Yep.’
PHIL: Who is behind the cover illustration?
PELA: We wanted Boden Steiner for the cover art but our timing was all wrong there. Our second choice was to use a photo, which is how we involved photographer Chelsea Kyle. When our photo looked a shade too sexual for this book, I whined to my husband. He took a copy of the photo outside, returned two minutes later and it was perfectly distressed. I scanned that then played in Photoshop till the day I was forced to stop, lay out the copy and send it off to print. (Gordon Highland was part consultant, part exorcist, though the whole process.)
PHIL: You've no doubt learned a lot of lessons from being on the editorial side of the process. Were there any surprises? Is there anything you wish someone had told you before you'd started?
Yes. That start to finish, everything takes six times longer than will make sense to me. A hundred things can cause delays; what I never would have predicted was that good things also cause delays. Unforeseen opportunities, such as contributions from Steve Erickson and Brian Evenson and others.
Lastly, that you get lucky or you don't. I believe Warmed and Bound has been the product of lucky timing. To have this many people in love with the same thing at the same time has been amazing. I will never take that part for granted. And I am nothing but lucky to have been involved.
The Multiple Voices Inside Your Book
22 Warmed and Bound Contributors Answer 3 Questions
by Jay Slayton-Joslin
Originally published 7.22.11 on JaySlaytonJoslin.com
1.) Tell me about your story: what relevance it holds to you, personally, and what you were trying to achieve with it?
Caleb J Ross: Click-Clack is honestly one of the best things I have written. It’s a culmination of everything I try to accomplish with storytelling. It is grotesque, heartbreaking, meta, and full of the sort of velvet prose that keeps me, as a reader, engaged and me, as a writer, interested in continuing this whole author thing. I truly think this story represents a next step in my life as a writer.
Sean Ferguson: Inside Out is the story of a celebrity addressing America as he dies right before their eyes. You follow his rise and fall from stardom, how he’s come to be bleeding out on camera, and how all of that is actually connected. We live in a time where regular are made into superstars for being contestants in competitions of survival in places where people already live. They’re famous just for the sake of being famous, or born into money, or married into money. There are so many people in this book, the good people behind this book, they’re way more interesting and deserve the attention far more than these fake reality stars. That’s what Inside Out really is, my contempt for the mainstream.
Anthony David Jacques: At the time, I was writing stories inspired by music, focusing on the mood or aesthetic that a song or album achieves. Being an audiophile and musician as well, the project made for an interesting mash-up of two of my passions. Much of my writing music ends up being instrumental, and that held true for many of the stories. Not so with this story. I was listening to Team Sleep, a side project lead by Deftones’ frontman Chino Moreno. It’s actually quite fitting as musical inspiration for this kind of fiction since a lot of their music is inspired by Edgar All Poe, or the Jonestown Massacre. As I was listening one afternoon, the line “Your skull is red” in the eponymous song really stuck out to me. I hit repeat and started writing a scene about someone’s skull, thinking about the reality of it, the bones, the structure, what might drive someone to getting more acquainted with another person’s skull, and it developed into this story. A lot of the atmospheric cues and sensate details come from other Team Sleep songs as well, not necessarily the words, but the feelings.I wanted to capture the mood of the album, and I’m pleased with how everything has turned out.
Gordon Highland: I can’t resist a good twist, and there are a couple in my story, “Headshot.” Same goes for the metafictional aspect, where it begins as a script and then smash-cuts into a traditional narrative, nonlinear though it may be. This duality allowed me to contrast two different styles of writing: the tightly-focused just-the-facts reportage of camera and sound against a more fluid voice without such restrictions. My tendency to write characters who are media-types continues here, with a Hollywood producer who hasn’t had a hit in awhile thrust into a “bottle” scenario with a pair of women at opposite ends of their careers who’ve both been exploited by him.
DeLeon DeMicoli: “Blood Atonement” was inspired by Ronnie Lee Gardner. Gardner was on trial for the 1984 murder of a bartender. During his trial, an accomplice slipped him a gun. He attempted to escape and
killed an attorney. He was convicted and given the death penalty. Gardner did the unthinkable and chose to die by firing squad. Out of 35 states that had the death penalty, Utah was the only state that had firing squad as an option. The state also allowed death row inmates to choose their method of execution. But, that changed in 1994 when legislators made lethal injection the standard method of execution. Those inmates convicted before 1994 still had the right to choose, which meant no one could stop Gardner’s decision. Deciding to choose firing squad as a way to die had put a fear into me that I had not felt in some time. Seriously. I had a hard time sleeping. I would daze out thinking about Gardner while my wife’s mantra “What do you want for dinner?” lingered in the background. After reading several articles on Gardner, I had a helluva time accepting the fact that he chose to be shot. Wouldn’t it be more painful than lethal injection or the electric chair? After doing some more research, I learned firing squad was a painless way to be executed. There were rifles pointed at your heart. Surely there was no way these marksmen could miss. Death was instant. Well, what about other methods like lethal injection and the electric chair? With lethal injection, if the drugs were not injected properly or if someone was not given the correct dosage, they could awaken if the anesthesia wore off, but remain paralyzed and suffocate. With the electric chair, there have been instances where men needed to be electrocuted multiple times. Some of those men caught on fire. Then there’s public hanging, but that’s so ancient and wild west. We’re civilized people now…right? Maybe the firing squad wasn’t a bad choice?Another interesting fact was how this tragic incident occurred in the Mormon state of Utah. Fundamentalist Mormons believe the only way to resolve your sins is to spill your blood on the ground and offer it as a sacrifice to God, or blood atonement. Gardner was a Mormon, and I wondered if this was his last opportunity to be right with God.
