Wednesday, February 18, 2004
The Weather Channel is actually forcasting a high of 64F for tomorrow and Friday. I may actually be lured out into the world.
Yesterday, Spooky and I made it through chapters Six and Seven of Murder of Angels. I know that I'm probably hard on copyeditors and I'm pretty sure my ce at Penguin is convinced I'm a hell bitch at this point, put it seems that after my protestations over her sillier changes to Low Red Moon, she decided she'd be better off not even trying with MoA. We're catching lots and lots of simple grammatical problems, most involving commas, hyphens, and misspelling. I'm a frelling writer. I can't be expected to know how to spell. Anyway, catching all these legitimate, but uncaught, errors means we're having to take a lot more time with the ms. than I expected. I'm anxious to get it back in the post to New York, so I can go back to work on "Rappaccini's Dragon."
Isn't it odd for an author to sell T-shirts? I have been asked this question, because of the CafePress Species of One shop, and last night I gave it some serious thought. I have a fair number of friends who are musicians and a substantial portion of their income is derived from merchandise such as T-shirts. Most fans don't seem to think it odd that, although the bands are about making music and producing recordings, they sell lots and lots of T-shirts (and other things). But think about it. When's the last time you saw anyone wearing a t-shirt decorated with the image of a book cover or an author (excepting comic books)? Have you ever, even once? I can't even recall ever having seen Stephen King or Anne Rice T-shirts, and they sell more books than God. And yet we are surrounded by T-shirts emblazoned with logos and images of rock bands, sports teams, video games, television shows, comics, movies, and even magazines. So, what is it about novels that's somehow different? Americans treasure T-shirts as a means of establishing identity. The shirts you wear, the forms of entertainment you endorse by choosing to wear any given T-shirt, act as a signpost to others, advertising who you are, the sort of lifestyle you lead, how you look at the world. So, how, exactly, are the works of prose writers any different from these other forms of entertainment? I mean, "geek" isn't a dirty word anymore, right? So it can't be that we're worried that wearing shirts promoting our favorite authors is too geeky, can it? I don't think so. I think that we're just a little hidebound, that's all. We continue to see books as somehow stodgy and outside the flow of pop culture.
To wit, I propose a smallish revolution. No. It's is not the least bit odd for an author to sell T-shirts. It is, in fact, quite logical. That it isn't done all the time is merely an oversight that we can easily correct. Novels are just as cool as video games, movies, and rock bands, right? Right. Sure they are. They are forms of popular entertainment and are deserving of their fair share of the T-shirt market. And if you agree, and would like to get in on this modest revolution of mine, go to the Species of One shop and make a purchase (or two, or three). Do not be ashamed that you read. Read proud! Tell the world with a Low Red Moon T-shirt. Do it now, and, in a week or two, when it's all the rage, you can tell people, frell, you've been wearing those damn geeky book T-shirts since waaaaay back in the day.
Trust me.
I am wise.
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