I suddenly find myself wrapped up in a project that could very well become a book. I can’t say too much about it yet, but it’s an exploration the spot where I think we’re stuck as a civilization. The basic idea came to me on July 2, and since then I’ve been working like a mad man, researching and taking notes.

It’s exciting, to say the least! I never thought I would get to this point. Apparently self-publishing the collection of early works, Seeking the Upward Spiral, helped me move to the next level. It must have provided adequate closure to a very dark four-year period in my life.

So now, onward and upward! You may see an occasional post from me, if I have some news to share. And who knows, maybe I’ll post updates on my progress. In the interim, please keep an eye on Supraterranean. We really need submissions! Also, did you see the new Thumpme blog? If not, have a lookie!

The second reason is more complex, but it relates to my skepticism over the value of contemporary publishing. I’m sure there’s a long catalog of works that try to explain the reasons for the degraded efficacy of modern literature: people watch too much TV and movies, play too many video games, aren’t educated enough, or are tasteless, unrefined cretins. That’s without even mentioning the publishing industry’s concerns over lagging profits. Of course, the assumption there is that the publishers deserved whatever success they had enjoyed up until recent times.

My opinion is quite different. Media is media; corporations are corporations; profit is profit; greed is greed. From a top-down perspective, book publishers are no different than the people who sell movies, shows, or albums. That publishing model undermines the very mission behind literature: to teach, to open minds, to ask important questions, to unveil fears and insecurities — all in all, to push mankind forward.

Now I’m approaching one of the founding concepts behind Supraterranean: to reinvent the way publishing is done. I don’t expect the site to accomplish that goal on its own, just to state it “for the record,” and to contribute to the evolution that is far overdue. And as e-readers begin to proliferate the market, we all have a duty to try and stop the content industry from controlling what people can access on those devices. If it all ends up being subscription-based stuff filtered through a semblance of the Internet, we might as well throw those tablets in the trash.

At the very least, I want Supraterranean to be a resource to ensure that anyone who wants to present their creative work to the public can do so. My biggest issue with the industry (by which I’m referring mostly to companies who publish books and literary journals for for money) is that it’s founded on the concept of authoritarian control. And, at least with the biggest publishers, the goal is not to identify and support the best writers or books; it’s to find and mold the books that can produce the biggest dividends, that book clubs and academics alike will gush over, that can skyrocket to a bestsellers list after being displayed (courtesy of massive payola) at the front of every mega-bookstore in America.

This is really no different than the way I feel about the major labels of the music industry, and (to a lesser exdegree, in terms of anger) about the big film studios. (I’ve ranted about the music industry many times on my MusicEdge Blog, most notably in this comment reply from April ’08. For more thoughts on the book industry, have a look at this Refractor Blog post about literary agents from about a year ago.)

* * *

Now that I’ve vented, re-read what I wrote so far, and had two glasses of wine, I realize that I haven’t even begun to discuss what I had originally planned. Here’s the story. In August 2009 I read the New York Times Sunday Book Review of Zeitoun, a nonfiction book written by Dave Eggers about a single family’s tribulations as Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans in late August 2005. I had never read anything by Dave Eggers, but I quickly gathered that he is one of the most well-known writers working today. I was more intrigued after learning that his own company, McSweeny’s, published the book. Perhaps, I thought, an independent publishing venture would allow a much more vivid, more experimental, more truthful account of what actually happened down there. Back when it happened, I was admittedly oblivious to the news reports, and I felt it was time that I learned more about it.

However, if I were to rate the book, I’d probably give it about a 3 out of 5. I’ve come to hate ratings, but here’s it appropriate — since I agree with those who gave it that rating on Amazon.com. Follow this link to see a three-star review by “exBFF,” who calls it a “great first draft.” I think that’s dead on. The comment author also points out the heavy, recurring use of foreshadowing — another keen observation.

I can’t think of a more appropriate word for the book than “mainstream.” And clearly the book is selling well, since it’s it’s been sold out everywhere since Christmas, until mid-February at the soonest. There were some redeeming qualities to the book, despite the fact that I didn’t learn all that much about Katrina, and the story itself wasn’t very captivating. But I’ve crossed my 600-word limit, so I’ll have to get to that tomorrow.

I think the take-home point of this post is that I am trying to expose myself to new literature, partly because I want to be more involved in the “literary scene.” It’s just a long, hard process, and I haven’t had any sort of writing or lit/comp class since 12th grade, so I have no guide here. I’m skeptical about whether the Editors can find and support all the talented writers, and I’m convinced that a good amount of worthwhile writing goes totally unpublished. I think one way the Internet will help is to find the right audience for a certain book or writer, instead of forcing every author to aspire to the tastes of the literary status quo. That’s not so unreasonable a hope, is it?

I thought it sounded like a great idea, and I was totally willing to foot the $250 for the actual printing of the books. I even rushed to cut my essay down from almost 12,000 to just under 10,000 words, to stay within their submission guidelines. I printed and mailed the literary spawn, and I waited patiently. Then on Sunday night I got an email notification that my essay was rejected. They received 14 submissions and had picked three for publication.

Here’s their email:

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your submission to the Michigan Writers Cooperative Press. Our readers evaluated fourteen manuscripts for this round and chose three for publication. Although your manuscript was not selected, we cannot emphasize how much we appreciate your participation. Receiving so many quality submissions for this fifth year of our publishing project bodes well for the continued success of the Cooperative Press. We hope that you will try again.

Please check the website for further updates. Again, thank you for sharing your work with us.

Sincerely,
Marcy Branski,
Co-President
Michigan Writers, Inc.

Denise Baker
Co-President
Michigan Writers, Inc.

Michael Callaghan
Chair, Cooperative Press Committee
Michigan Writers, Inc.

The rejection itself doesn’t bother me so much as the the nature of the rejection. Here’s a group that charges $35 in membership fees and claims to exist in order to help budding writers. Yet because I my essay was turned away, I didn’t learn a thing about publishing — except what I already knew about it: it’s an extremely flawed process.

You may know that Supraterranean was founded in part to present an alternative to the current state of the publishing industry (more info on the About page). But what I soon realized is that letting anyone publish whatever they want isn’t the perfect solution. There is some kind of value in having to overcome obstacles, if it helps make someone a better writer. But there should be many more avenues to publication than there are currently. The literary world is way too stagnant and stale, partly due to the nature of writing (it’s a slower process than other creative work like music or painting), but partly due to the extreme level of control that currently exists in the industry.

In the coming months I will be thinking often about this topic, trying to identify ways to build upon the current model for Supraterranean. And I’ll be looking for other venues to publish my essay. For now, here’s my response to the Cooperative Press rejection. I’ll be sure to inform you if they write back.

Dear Marcy, Denise and Michael,

I would really appreciate further explanation. According to your website, the Cooperative Press is meant to “help emerging writers” and teach them about the publishing process, and the mission of Michigan Writers is to “[provide] opportunities for networking, publication, and education.” With that in mind, it would seem appropriate for you to provide some feedback to the writers whose submissions were not selected, including but not limited to:

- Suggestions for improving this specific piece
- Recommendations for building our craft in general (which could be as simple as pointing us to reading material)
- Connecting us with a writing mentor
- Pointing us to suitable publications where we could submit our work

I also have a proposition for you. We are at the dawn of a new age of publishing. Print is giving way to the e-reader and the computer screen. Perhaps Michigan Writers could help produce, offer, and/or distribute e-books. If you’re not willing or able to provide help with editing or creation of PDF files, you could at least create a “Self-Published” section on your website, assist us in submitting our work to Amazon’s Kindle store (and other such e-book stores), and offer some kind of promotion services.

Forgive me for being straightforward, but I was expecting Michigan Writers to be a sort of incubator, and not return a bloodstained 10,000-word essay with the same generic two-paragraph denial as any other publication.

Best,
Nick Meador

Michigan Radio and Generation Y Michigan are inviting the audience to submit guest essays for publication on this website. If you’d like to publish an essay, please send it as an attachment to generationymichigan@umich.edu. Make sure to include “Generation Y Michigan Essay” in the subject line. We encourage you to provide a short bio (40-80 words), contact email (if different than the one used for submission), and a photo of yourself.

We are still working out the specifics of this new aspect of the project, and we don’t have too many requirements at this time. The essay should focus on the topic of young adults in Michigan, and the reasons why they would move to, stay in or leave the state. These can be based on personal experience, observation, interviews or research. The length should fall in the range of 500-2,000 words, with some flexibility. Your essay should be an elaboration on a theme or idea — in other words, please don’t submit a list of pros or cons about Michigan. Feel free to include an image to go with your essay, as long as you created it or you have the right to use it (include a link to the original image if it’s a Creative Commons photo from Flickr or a free-use image from a stock photo website like Stock.xchng).

At this time guest essays will not appear on the front page of Generation Y Michigan. However, they will be published under a Guest Essays tab in the site navigation and the Recent Posts box in the site sidebar. Essays will be subject to the terms of Michigan Radio’s User Agreement, specifically in regard to discrimination and hate speech. Michigan Radio will not edit the content of essays, but we may make grammatical corrections according to AP Style.

GenerationYMichigan.org is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA license. By submitting, the author agrees to have the essay published under the conditions of this license. These contributor requirements are subject to change at any time.

WordPress is basically a lightweight content management system. Behind the scenes, this will take my workload down from about 40 hours per month to about 4-6 hours per month. The most notable front-end improvement is the automatically populated home page, which displays the most recent items from a variety of categories.

Category/section pages: Anywhere you see a category name (like Fiction or Photography), you should be able to click it and see a list of everything that’s been posted in that section in reverse chronological order. WordPress and the amazing Linoluna theme do this automatically!

Issue archive pages: Same as the category pages, except this will group posts from each month together. You’ll be able to find these links in the right sidebar under “Issues.”

Author pages: This is one thing I’m really excited about! I’ve been wanting author profile pages since I launched the site in June 2008. Once they get updated, these pages will contain a photo, biography, email link, and a list of everything that author has published on the site.

RSS Feeds: You’ll find all of these soon on the RSS Feeds page.
-Main feed: This one is super easy — http://supraterranean.com/feed/
-Recent Comments
-Categories: Anything posted in a certain category. So if you just want to follow Poetry or Video posts, you can do that!
-Tags: Same as categories, but even more specific
-Authors: To get an author RSS feed, just add “feed/” to the end of the author page URL. Example: http://www.supraterranean.com/author/tpierson/feed/
In other words, any archive-style page on the site has an RSS feed. Just try adding “/feed” to the end of the URL.

Front page:
- Most recent posts from various categories show in main area, with featured items in a slideshow view at the top
- Sidebar has Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Most Viewed, Most Commented, Most Recommended, Most Emailed, Recently Tweeted, Most Tweeted (note: I still need to tweak some of these to get them working)
- Also, headlines from Refractor Blog, Issue archive links, and an Arts & Culture news box with headlines from Michigan Radio and NPR

Article pages:
- Recommend function replaces star ratings. This decision was partially inspired by JS-Kit.com‘s ill-conceived decision to drop everything but their comment service, which they’re renaming Echo. It’s totally out of my control, but ratings on the old site will become inactive in November 2009. But also, I didn’t like the idea of rating creative work. I want the site to be a constructive environment.
- Similar Posts: This function should grab similar posts by category, keywords (tags), and author, and display them at the bottom of articles when applicable.
- Disqus Comments: Disqus.com is an amazing comment service that is portable across the web. You’ll notice that many big sites use the service, like Mashable.com. I also put Disqus comments on the Michigan Radio website at work.
- Share button from AddThis. I used this on the old site too, since they provide dozens of social networking links for you to send pages to.

Email updates using Feedburner.com — you can subscribe here. They also provide a mobile page that can be viewed on any internet-enabled mobile device: http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/supraterranean

- I’ll now use a rolling submission process, so there are no deadlines. Posting schedule changes from once a month to more like once a week. Each month will still be collected under issues archive.

Category names: Film changed to Video. Audio was added. Multimedia was removed, since now we can cross-categorize posts if needed.

- Message board has been removed because it was totally unused

- Admin Blog name was changed to the Refractor Blog. This refers to idea of a telescope that brings all sorts of faraway things into focus. Plus I’m an astronomy nerd.

- Your old links should still work if you published material on the old site. I’ll be linking to old archive pages so people can browse content from issues #1 to #14. I tried to keep the new site’s visual feel similar to the old site, while making the necessary updates.

As for me, I’m experiencing a different kind of downturn. I’m the least productive I’ve been in years — that is, in the self-directed creative realm. You can’t force this sort of thing, but I have a duty to persist, darn it. I’m running this crazy website, so of course I can’t just up and disappear! But no oil exists to get my rusty creative gears back into functioning order. Only time…

While I’m working out my own personal creative blockade, I’ll at least try to post on here with news about Supraterranean.com. The most pertinent update right now is that Issue #12 (June 2009) features the the first two audio pieces ever published on the site. I considered adding an official Audio section to the site, but it isn’t feasible at the current time, and I thought that they’d fit just fine in the Multimedia section. So official Audio recognition will have to wait until some kind of major site redesign.

In related news, this issue marks the one-year point for Supraterranean. I can’t believe it! It seems like only yesterday I was spending endless hours designing a table-based HTML website that was outdated by the time it went live on the web. But I kid! I’m just ready and willing to admit that I’m not a web programmer.

I’ve had a great time with Supraterranean despite the amount of work it requires. I am proud of every issue we create together. I appreciate that you open yourself up and contribute your creative work. I truly feel that we’re painting a new kind of picture of our culture. I was fortunate enough to achieve clarity in expressing exactly what I wanted the site to be (in the Goals section of the About Us page). Those goals haven’t changed at all. I feel that such a specific mission gives purpose and strength to our online community.

In other words, it’s your magazine; I’m just the voice behind the curtain. If I can do anything to improve your experience at Supraterranean.com — as a reader or contributor — please let me know. I can be reached at admin [at] supraterranean.com.

I write to you with mixed tidings for the new year. It’s hard for me to believe that Supraterranean has existed for six months. It has been a wild ride, for me at least. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on the development and maintenance of the web site – some for grad school credit, most enjoyable, but all unpaid. The positive support of contributors and the audience has kept me motivated. I try to view the site as a long-term commitment, since it will take an extensive effort to make Supraterranean a permanent fixture on the web.

If my impression is correct, the founding goals and ideals represent something the world isn’t used to. And in some cases, people are downright bewildered. Therefore, it’s been extremely difficult to convey to the public exactly what I had in mind in the first place. The past six issues have been an attempt to show instead of tell. I’ve tried to accelerate the process by contributing much of my own material, as well as writing at least weekly on the Admin Blog. I continually edit the “About Us” page, as I further refine the mission of the site. But through it all, I’ve stuck to the core idea: to publish all valid submissions without applying a selection process.

I’m also putting to use the digital marketing skills I accrued in a fall 2008 internship in an attempt to boost site traffic. Since its founding, Supraterranean.com has seen almost 2,500 unique visitors, with a monthly average over 300. I still have many plans for the site, which I have described to you on various occasions thus far. I want it to be a fully interactive community with profiles, tags, recommended content, cross-categorization of articles, RSS feeds, and more. Of course, that would probably require some kind of funding to get the help of professional web developers. I also never got to have a launch party, and I’d still like to schedule some kind of celebration, if only a one-year anniversary.

This can all be put off, as long as the site sees a steady flow of contributions and traffic. However, that hasn’t been the case. In December, I only received poetry submissions. I need contributions in fiction, nonfiction, essay, film, photography, art, and multimedia in order to publish a complete issue. In the meantime, I’m considering switching the site over to a rolling publication process, where new content would be posted as it is received. Supraterranean.com was intended to be a showcase for creative exploration and personal expression, and it’s up to all of you to take advantage of this resource. And remember, while most literary magazines require a paid subscription, Supraterranean.com will always be free to use.

I appreciate your interest and attention, and I hope you choose to submit your creative work to Supraterranean now and in the future. Please make sure to follow us on Twitter and join the Facebook group and/or become a fan on the Facebook page (see the Links page). Best wishes in 2009.

Sincerely,

Nick Meador

Creator/Administrator of Supraterranean.com

“I have been helping authors self-publish for eight years and self-promote for the past three years. I have a kit called ‘Self-Publishing in a Box’ that takes authors through a step-by-step process to build a business around the book. I am currently working on an online training course called ‘The Author Platform’ that should help authors build a strong platform. This is scheduled to release in January ’09.”

Davis was kind enough to mention and link to Supraterranean on his blog. He quoted my email, which is a pretty good statement of how I feel about self-publishing. I said:

“I developed Supraterranean with little knowledge of the existing options for writers and artists to self-publish using the power of the Internet. However, I’ve been realizing more and more that this is an important thing to explore and build upon. I personally was unsatisfied with the concept of fighting against the traditional obstacles built into the journalism and book industries. Plus, those industries are facing difficulties — some common, some unique — that make me want to find a better way. I have yet to write a book of my own, but I may very well need help with self-promotion in the near future.”

Naturally all of us who enjoy books are hoping that there will always be some way to publish them. But book publishing as a mass-production business might not survive. With the economy suffering and the cost of paper and other production materials increasing, I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, paper publishing is far exceeded by electronic publishing. Maybe book publishing will become a totally “on demand” enterprise, since it’s apparently not a profitable one anyways. Davis also linked to this blog post by Moonrat, an editorial assistant in the publishing industry — but he argues that the publishing industry can still bounce back. Who knows.

Q: You have an idealistic site, aimed at showcasing the output of creative people. Do you get a lot of hits? Do the folks you showcase find an audience?

Q: How many other sites are there that are trying something broadly similar to what you’re doing? What kind of audiences do they pull?

Q: Why should anybody go to your site instead of one of the others – or vice versa?

Q: Ever been to one of the really large creative showcase sites like allpoetry.com? How easy or hard would it be for a good poet to get noticed there? How many people would be likely to notice them?

Q: So, some creative product “goes viral”. How would the audience of a successful viral product of today compare with the audience of guys like Kurt Cobain or Tupac Shakur? Is the difference due to quality of the work, or structure of the media?

Q: Do you think creative work that “goes viral” does so because it’s better than the stuff that doean’t? Or are there other reasons? If so, what would those be?

Here is an excerpt from my response:

To address your point about finite human attention, the core of my argument is that the FM radio and MTV model of music distribution is dead. My stance is more like, “Nobody has power, because power is an illusion.” I say the “center” isn’t worth fighting for, because music is an art form, and the center is based on manipulation and deceit. I think it’s safe to say that mass-produced garbage is usually the opposite of art. American Idol is crap, but it’s not intended for music lovers; it’s for pop culture addicts and those who like being indoctrinated. It’s our monetary system (capitalistic or otherwise) that turns music, books, and other artistic creations into trashy consumer products. I think it’s worthwhile to express yourself, search for truth, and work for progress — but not on the condition that you must be paid for it. Yes, I’d like my passion to be how I make a living, but it might be a long time until that happens.

I am also interested in the back and forth shift from underground to mainstream, especially with music. However, I have become convinced that musicians aiming for the center are looking for a music career, and that undoubtedly removes them from the realm of art. Talk about a paradox: indie music has taken over the public consciousness, turning many bands into the exact opposite of what they first stood for (e.g. — Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, Death Cab For Cutie). I’m not sure that I’d want another Nirvana, but I was never a huge fan. They probably did take advantage of that “psychic desolation” you mentioned. But I think we’re approaching a point when everyone turns their attention inward. We must work on the evolution of human consciousness if we are ever to move beyond the repetitive failures of the last 60 years (or 4000 years, depending on how you see it). And somehow, this always returns me to Fight Club.

I just watched Zeitgeist: Addendum, so I’m sure that is flavoring my lingo here. Essentially the Internet is the best modern example of how our world is constantly in an emergent state. There is no stationary point. It’s ever-changing, ever-growing, ever-improving (hopefully). What has happened in the past decade with music and the Internet does seem like anarchy, but that’s simply because methods of finding music are constantly emerging, and they’re being refined and improved.

The Internet provides many options for finding new music, none of which involve searching through thousands of albums. But then again, I feel that if a band is important enough or valid enough or determined enough, they will somehow find the route to their audience. I get a weekly release newsletter from AllMusic.com, which I can scan for band names and genres, then link to the page if more info is needed. Pandora and Last.fm are both tailoring playlists to the listener’s tastes. They work on slightly different systems, but are both pretty effective in introducing new music. There are also online publications and music blogs. (However, I wrote an essay about Pitchfork. You might be interested in reading that one as well.) Then there are the traditional, but always less used methods of talking with a record store employee or frequenting your local indie music venues. Personally I didn’t have that option before the Internet, because the area I grew up in had neither in close proximity.

I wasn’t familiar with AllPoetry.com or any creative showcase sites. It seems like a good idea. Initially, I’d say my site is different because of the various types of content published here. Secondly, I modeled my site after my favorite print and online publication design, so that people can self-publish their work in a professional, attractive setting. I admit that I needed a place to publish my work, and I was largely unsatisfied with journalism, book publishers, and literary journals. But my work is in no way showcased here, especially if more and more people start to submit (eventually I want them to be able to submit themselves, so that there only need be moderators to check that the creative work is legitimate and not an advertisement, etc).

As for traffic and audience, Supraterranean was launched on June 23, 2008, only four months ago. The site currently gets about 300-400 unique visitors per month. I’m hoping that will continue to grow. I did create the website with an idealistic foundation — the most extreme goal being a revolution of the publishing industry. However, I won’t be disappointed if I don’t meet that goal. Even if this site becomes an incubator for writers, filmmakers, and artists to learn and grow, so they can then move into some aspect of traditional publishing, that wouldn’t disappoint me. I don’t expect Supraterranean to be the end point of progress. It’s just (in my eyes) vastly better than the current system. I think that the publishing industry is about to face what the music industry just went through. One example is Amazon BookSurge, which provides self-publishing opportunities for authors.

~~~~~~~

As you can see, some of these topics have already been addressed on this blog. But I’m hoping that interactions such as this will become more commonplace on Supraterranean.