Self-Publishing: Democratizing and very Punk Rock

This post about self-publishing was written for a contest on Goodreads.

The rules: We want to hear your thoughts about self-publishing – a blog post about the merits of self-publishing and how it might change the face of publishing in the future. What will self-publishing look 25 years from now, 50 years from now? How has self-publishing made strides in recent years? That sort of thing. Basically, we want to know: What’s your opinion about self-publishing?


I seem to have made a career in self-publishing, so it seems only natural that I would be a staunch supporter of it. I’ve always had a very do-it-yourself mentality about my writing. Self-publishing is very democratizing. It is in the spirit of punk rock, getting up and doing what you do because it needs to be done. It does not need to be dependent upon a record label or in this case, a publishing company. For me, it’s always been about getting people to read my stuff, and doing it in a way that made sense for me.

A little background: I have been writing for about 20 years now, and the brunt of my work has been in a 20-40 page photocopied and stapled book I call the Davezine. It has never been a big money-maker for me. There is a lot of expense involved and at times I have wished for the help of unpaid interns for the collating and stapling. But it is a labor of love. It has taken many years to finally come to a happy medium in re-producing these publications, and not letting my personal space become overwhelmed with too many copies of something when I don’t need them. Now I simply make them per order, keeping a small number on hand. Recently (here’s my free plug) I wrote and self-published my first book, building off of a model that I have been using for years: do it yourself, get it out there yourself. http://davecookson.tripod.com/thunderjohnson.html

Self-publishing, in either a zine or a book form provides an immediate avenue for readers, as well as being a fulfilling way to connect with readers. I may not have the largest audience, but I have a very loyal one. If it is all about building True Fans, people who will read whatever you write and go great lengths to follow you, that is empowering in a way that I feel cannot be achieved otherwise. People who have been reading my stuff for years are people that I know, people I have met, and people who feel an inclusiveness that they would not get out of a more polished and mass-produced work.

Self-publishing is limiting in that you can produce only so many items to so many readers, but it can also be a very viral thing--I’ve picked up many readers by having someone finding my ‘zine in a restaurant, coffee shop, or waiting room. Those people who find me then get to feel that inclusiveness, and then spread it to others. And that is what is gratifying about doing it yourself: it happens purely because someone out there picked it up and thought it was good. There was no heavily financed marketing campaign backing it.

Obviously, self-publishing has gotten easier over the years--the first zines I made were written by hand, later by manual typewriter and only within the last few years have I upgraded to a better computer and printer. I imagine that for people like me, the future is already here, with new programs and applications that I am still unfamiliar with.

We’d all like to be able to have someone sell our work and have nothing to do but write and count our millions. But writing is not so kind to everyone. At least when I make my own work and put it out there myself there is a chance someone will notice it. It has happened before with others who have made zines like mine (Pete Jordan of Dishwasher or Zoe Trope of Please Don’t Kill the Freshman come to mind ). I aim to produce work that is true to what I want to write, and have people (even a small number of people) actually read it. To that end, I self-publish.



www.backwordbooks.com

http://www.backwordbooks.com/2009/09/16/the-backword-books-contest-win-7-books-by-backword-authors/

My new zine will be available Monday!

After more than a year since the last one, Davezine #13 will hit the streets this Monday, March 31st. Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective. Look for it on-line (look for the link here soon!) or at many local stores (also to be listed here.) Initial readings of the zine have been positive, and I can’t wait for everyone to check it out.

Read Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective! THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE THE COLLECTIVE …

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

Something Very Special for Tonight.

Although the scheduled release date for the new Davezine #13 is not until March 31, for a limited (and I mean very limited) few, I have made advance copies, which will be available tonight at the Davey G and the Keyboard show at the Sidebar.

So if you are thinking about coming out, and need another reason, put availability of Davezine #13, The Rise of the Collective on your list.

See you there!

Doors/show at 8. 5 bands, me last. With Markitect, Pieness, Entertainment System, and Scout. Come!



www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

Davezine Myspace Page

Hey Everyone,

Davezine is my personal fiction zine, which I have been doing for about 13 years.
My stories are often about desperate people in unusual situations--comedic political stories, messed-up quasi gay Porn, stories about childhood issues, what have you. If you are the type of person who would enjoy reading a story about a person whose impotency medication makes him retarded, you are my kind of reader.

My influences, if this helps you: Christopher Buckley, Kurt Vonnegut, The Simpsons, Arrested Development (the TV show), Charles Bukowski, the city I live in, the city I used to live in, my messed up family.

The latest ones have been the Low Level Bureaucrats saga, about a troubled city not unlike Baltimore, who elect a mayor on the basis of his promise to eliminate meter maids.

My long dormant myspace page has been updated to serve as the page for all things relating to Davezine, and I am inviting you to check it out. It has links to the Davezine catalog, covers to all the zines, and a new blog with previews of the upcoming Davezine #13, which will be out this March.

Visit the page, be my friend, be my friend, be my fucking friend. And then look for the new Davezine, coming soon!

Thanks!

Davey G.

myspace.com/davezine

News about the up-coming Davezine 13!

At the risk of cursing myself-- with the exception of some proof-reading, some editing, a change or two here and there, I am proud to say that
Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective is done!

Working nearly every available day, getting frustrated with dead ends and a story that has gone through multiple re-workings, now I have a (mostly) finished story, which concludes the Low Level Bureaucrats Trilogy--at least as far as the print version goes. I have decided that any future adventures in Beatown will live on-line.

I started Low Level Bureaucrats way back in 2004. It was an idea I had to write a story about a guy who runs for mayor on a platform of eliminating meter maids. That story took me about 8 months to write, and ultimately it played a role in returning Davey G and the Keyboard to the stage at the 2005 Davezine 11 release after a 3 year hiatus.

In 2006, I wrote Low Level Bureaucrats 2: (Karl) Love Story , which turned out to be one of my easiest writing experiences ever, with none of the usual hesitation and re-working that had gone into previous stories. I had the idea, I worked on it steadily for 3 months, and it just came out.

Part 3 was not so easy. As some readers may know, I had worked on Part 3 for months and months and struggled along to get 12 pages of a story that I just didn’t like. Not that it was bad, but it appeared that I’d been watching the Simpsons too much, and had maybe unconsciously copped a plot-line that, while not bad, just wasn’t one that I was happy ending the trilogy with.

Then I came across the article about how a drug for Restless Leg Syndrome leads to the side effect of gambling. This inspired me to re-imagine Karl Love’s gambling addiction of LLB 2 into a side effect from a drug used to treat his Freudian Slip. And then I thought about things in my adopted home town of Baltimore that really irritate the hell out of me, and it morphed into a story that I feel effectively wraps up the trilogy, and serves as catharsis for…those things that irritate the hell out of me in Baltimore. (see: the Parochialist).
And even that story hit a snag. I blasted something out in two months, then had to go back and rework at least half of it. (The lesson here: plan your stories before you write them, you will thank yourself for it later.)
But very soon, Davezine Number 13, featuring Low Level Bureaucrats 3: the Rise of the Collective will come out for all to read.

Look for my new Davezine at the end of March! I will announce it here, on my blog, on my site, on myspace, mailing list--wherever you are reading this!

For back issues, (Davezine 1-12) here’s the link to my catalog!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/testcatalog.html

Deleted Scenes.

I haven't posted much lately, what with just getting married and work and all, but I've really been workng my ass off on my personal writing projects. Plus, I have this idea for my next Davezine, which will feature Low Level Bureaucrats 3, and...deleted scenes from the story I scrapped!
This is the intro to that section that I am working on. I hope you enjoy it!
--Dave G.




Low Level Bureaucrats 3 has taken many turns since I began it so many months ago. I thought it might be fun if I presented the version of LLB3 that I scrapped as “deleted scenes,” like on a DVD.
The basic summary of that story was this:

Karl Love, disguised as a younger man named Kyle Jones, seduces Loretta the meter maid to get an “in” to the heavily fortified Beatown Parking Authority. Jones waits for a crucial piece of equipment to arrive that will enable him to execute his plans. While he waits, he stumbles upon a fetish for women in meter maid uniforms, which makes the sex between him and Loretta amazing. Meanwhile, Loretta, happy in her current position, gets summoned into her supervisor’s office and is promoted to a job she doesn’t want. She quits her job in protest and comes home to Jones, only to find that he is no longer as attracted to her now that she is not a meter maid.

Loretta spends her days looking for another job. She goes to job interviews and feeds the meters. Jones spends all day on the internet looking at meter maids and waiting for the device to arrive. Eventually he finds a meter maid that he brings home and has sex with, while stealing her security badge. Jones tries to pick up his package, but is frustrated by the incompetence of Shit Ex (the corporation formed when a local shipping company merged with a popular laxative) and is told to wait at home tomorrow. Loretta looks around at the crop of meter maids which are a “disgrace to the position,” but she turns her back to it-- “the world is just going to have to get by without the best meter maid in the department.”

Loretta becomes suspicious of Jones, who only stays because he waiting for his package. She goes to a job interview that takes three hours, thinking that she will be getting a parking ticket--then is pissed off when she doesn’t get one. “What the fuck! I was in there for three hours and I don’t even get a parking ticket!” She marches back to the Beatown Parking Authority to get her job back, roughs up William Shatner (the boss who was a dead ringer for the Canadian actor, who in fact changed his name to confuse everyone) on his way out to his car, and then suits up in her old powder blue uniform and goes on a tear, writing tickets left and right.
Meanwhile, the detonator arrives, and Jones is thrilled. He is just about to leave the apartment when Loretta comes back, full of confidence in her powder blue uniform. He drops what he’s doing to make love to her on the floor…
…then afterward discovers his cheating, and is more incensed that he is cheating with a meter maid of inferior quality.

He leaves, sneaks in to the BPA, plants his devices in the meters--”all I need is one!” and then she finds out what he has been doing on-line, and stumbles across his plan to destroy Beatown. She calls the authorities (“Don’t put any money in the meter!”), then follows him where she thinks he will be. The two confront one another, and Jones destroys Beatown.

I thought the idea was really funny, but as I worked on it for months and months and got stuck, I came across the idea that I really wanted to be working on. It came from an article about a drug used to treat Restless Leg Syndrome, which claims compulsive gambling as one of it’s side effects. For whatever reason, it got me to thinking: what if Karl Love’s gambling compulsion of LLB 2 had actually been the result of his taking a drug that he used to treat his Freudian Slip? And the idea morphed into the story I have presented as Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective, which I wrote in two months.

And I was left with 12 pages of material destined for the trash can (or the recycle bin on my desktop). But one again my plucky resourcefulness kicked in, and I thought, what if I just made Davezine 13 a sort of a collection of the best of the gags that would otherwise be lost…like the deleted scenes/alternate endings on a DVD? So here we are.

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

ps--new show announcements soon!

To Hell with Writer’s Block!

I read somewhere once that when Inventor Thomas Edison’s Lab burned down, his reaction was something like “What a great opportunity! Now I can start over!” (not an exact quote) and I have experienced a somewhat similar feeling with my writing.

I was at work and it just totally hit me: “Scrap the story! Start over!” and as crazy as that sounded to me after having done so much work, it seemed really appealing. It occurred to me that in this great wonderful world of satire and ridiculousness, there is (theoretically) just too much to write about for me to ever claim writer’s block. Suddenly I’m having ideas left and right about where I want to go with the new story-line, and I’m filling pages and pages with them. And just now, today, I sat for a solid two hours and banged out the rough outline and some scenes for the story: Low Level Bureaucrats 3: A New Beginning. And finally, I can truly say that it will be the story I really want to write. Inspiration is crazy like that sometimes. But I’ll take it.

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
ps--this inspiration hit while reading some article about how the drug they give for Restless Leg Syndrome has a side effect of making people want to gamble. I'm not making this up.

The One Month Hiatus Debriefing.

I didn’t want to panic anyone, but I basically took the last month off from Davey G and the Keyboard. I didn’t practice, record, write, or, for that matter, even take my keyboard out of the case after the last show at the Sidebar. Breaks can be tricky, as sometimes they just sort of start and then go on forever, but I think this one was necessary, and my future projects will be better for it.

A few announcements:

*Have you ever wanted to get your hands on old issues of the Davezine (the self-published fiction ‘zine I have been writing for the last 12 years) but don’t know how? Well…I have rectified that problem. For the first time ever, issues 1-12 (including issue 9.5) are available via my Davey G Catalog. All prices have the postage included.
I’ll be adding CD’s to the catalog soon, updating when I can. If you have any suggestions or there are any bugs, let me know--my web skills are what they are, so…I appreciate any feedback.

*I have restarted work on Low Level Bureaucrats 3, which will eventually come out in Davezine 13. It will be the end the Beatown trilogy, a plot line that has carried through since 2005 in Davezine 11.

*Davey G and the Office Supply E.P is still available (as are all my CDs) on the website. Keep an eye out for news of the Davey G CD Release Party (this November!) for my upcoming “Chairman of the Keyboard” CD. Initial response to the new songs gives me reason to believe this fourth CD will exceed all expectations. I think by the fourth time around, I probably am starting to get some idea of what it is I’m doing.

Thanks for reading! I will have a new show announcement coming soon!

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

The Davey G Archive!

Dear Readers,
Coming soon--the Davezine/Davey G and the Keyboard Archive!
That’s right: every Davezine ever made will be available on-line. I am working on the catalog, which will contain Davezine issues 1-12 (including the rare issue 9.5) as well as all of my CD’s as Davey G and the Keyboard.
You can finally complete your collection of “Davey G and the …” products!

Please check back--this will launch very soon!

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

A special announcement for readers of the blog!

Ever been screwed over by a bad roommate? Do you have an awful story about someone you lived with that you just have to share? Can you write it yourself so I don’t have to? Then submit it to my new project!

Hello, I’m here to destroy your Life: A zine about Bad Roommates

In modern society, it is often practical and expedient to find a like-minded individual with whom to share a living space and expenses. This ‘zine is about when that arrangement goes bad. I’m talking about that person you live with whose very soul is pure evil. Whose very presence sucks the life out of an otherwise good house, or good apartment. The person who does such harm to you, intentional or unintentional that it scars you and makes you unwilling to ever trust another human being again.

Do you have such a story?

I am looking for your best story about your worst roommate; you write it however you want, and send it to me--preferably in an e-mail and I will get it printed and send it around to the local stores in Baltimore that sell ‘zines, as well as put it up on my site, and myspace, and all that, and see where it goes. I am not talking huge exposure: just a small run ‘zine that hopefully people will read and love. It may look alarmingly like my Davezine.
If that is okay with you, then we are in business.
This is an idea that I have had for years as roommate after roommate has screwed me over either financially or emotionally. Here’s hoping that sharing our collected pain will help the healing process.
Go to www.daveygandthekeyboard.com and go to the “Contact Me” link. Don’t get mad if I don’t use your story, or if it takes me a while to get this done. I am just a lowly ‘zine editor who isn’t used to collaborating--your submission will help me to push through and get this idea out of my system for good. If you have any questions, comment or contact me via my site or myspace.

Thanks!

Davey G Writing thoughts...

I’ve come to realize that the way I write has changed over the years. Whereas I used to write the way that I spoke, now I seem to write more the way that I think, with all the messiness of human thought, non-sequiturs, random references, etc.
I’m pretty much writing every day now, and it is easy to get into patterns that only make sense to me. Though I primarily write for myself, it is still nice when other people can get the jokes. Or maybe keeping with my sort of cult status, I need to store those random little gems in my stories or songs that maybe only a handful will understand, a la Matt Groening. It’s tough. In this, I see yet another reason why it is so hard to achieve financial success in any creative field: you drive yourself crazy thinking about what people will like, as opposed to what you want to do.
I realize relatiblity is something I need to keep in mind when I write. I have never wanted to be one of those “look how clever I am” writers, incomprehensible or boring. I would like to write clear, plot-driven stories that are funny with funny characters but that make sense. After all, what good is writing shit that nobody gets? Unless of course it amuses me. (You see the problem.)


Eat the Corn Flakes, Karl.

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

LLB Part 3!

I have resumed work on Low Level bureaucrats 3: the End of the Trilogy (working title). It may take a little while--so far I’m just trying to work out the basics of the plot--but I’ve brought back Loretta the meter maid and Karl Love and have about 6 pages of words and notes. It had been a busy week (didn’t even do a blog post on Thursday) and while the busy-ness hasn’t completely dissipated, I think I am free enough to get back to Davey G and Davezine business. And…I may be having a show in December, so keep an eye on this space for details.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

October for all of us...

October tends to be a month that I become really, really, uselessly absorbed by the baseball playoffs, despite the fact that my team has once again fared poorly and is not involved in the post-season. I am at least a little upset that some of my favorite Orioles have been accused of taking performance enhancing drugs. If it turns out to be true, I am lopping the head off my Brian Roberts bobblehead and mailing it to him, care of the Orioles, because he is my favorite player and that news would almost absolutely destroy my interest in this crap ass team.
Other things…
*If you are eating at the Golden West Café (1105 W. 36th St., Baltimore, 21211-2507)
anytime soon, check out the little waiting area for the new Davezine, which I left there this morning. They are good people there who serve a mean weekend brunch.
*I just got a 5-inch screen TV from the thrift store that works off of the cigarette lighter in my car. It makes me stupidly happy.
*The City Paper is having their annual short story contest. It is really hard for me to do anything under 2500 words these days, but I am going to try anyway.

raising the profile of Davezine?

I’ve been spending part of this day trying to raise the profile of the Davezine by getting a few leads on places out of town. This is the little descriptive blurb I’ve written about it for when I shop it out to new venues:

Davezine Number 12: (Karl) Love Story is a goofy political satire with National politics applied to a smaller scale. Karl Love is a political mastermind who has fallen on some bad luck: a year in a mental institution treating a crippling case of Freudian slip, followed by a gambling addiction which costs him the family fortune. When he teams with Jack Roulette, lobbyist for the casino industry in an effort to bring legalized gambling to the city of Beatown, all that stands in their way are an apathetic mayor and an assassin with OCD.

When I get picked up in a new place, I will list it here and on the web site.

Atomic Books
1100 W. 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
410.662.4444
Red Emma’s Bookstore/Coffeehouse
800 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
410-230-0450

Or
my site where you can read an excerpt.

Davezine availability

I have put this notice up on myspace and now it's on my blog. It's almost time to go to the track so this is it for the day. All I can say is that people should support these fine institutions in the Baltimore area who are so kind to give me a spot on their shelves.


The zine is now out and available to the public in the following locations:
Atomic Books
1100 W. 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
410.662.4444

And at
Red Emma’s Bookstore/Coffeehouse
800 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
410-230-0450

Or directly from
my site where you can read an excerpt.

That is all. Enjoy!

Davezine 12 Wrap-up

Davezine Number 12 Release
At the Talking Head, Saturday, September 16
With Scott Alexander, Paperback Tragedy, and Ra Ra Riot

(photo courtesy of Ben Stiefel--thanks!)
As some may remember, this show was pretty much on hold for months, as I had venue trouble and was unwilling to settle for a small show that didn’t meet expectations. So it was good to finally take the stage again, after another 4 month break.
It was a perfect storm; getting thrown with Ra Ra Riot, whom I’d never heard before (except a few songs on myspace) who have something of a following. Their presence accounted for a good portion of the crowd, and with Scott bringing his people and Paperback Tragedy bringing theirs and me bringing mine, this show had the best turnout of any of my previous Talking Head Club shows. I played 3 brand new songs, and now I know how to scream without blowing out my voice.

Scott Alexander’s style, spaztic and hard to categorize, kept a large group of people mesmerized, especially after handing out cookies after the second song. Paperback Tragedy moved me with a song about gentrification in South Baltimore “moving us dirtballs out.” I always bitch about the same thing, but I’m really just an outsider who moved in and called Baltimore home--to them this really is their home, making it all the more tragic and annoying that yuppie fucks are displacing them. Cool. Very loud.

I used my old keyboard, opting to save the one I bought on e-bay. I think I hit a level where my mistakes are not such a big deal; I can pretty much recover without too much difficulty. Suggestions I’ve been given have helped me to make the show so much better than it was 4 or 5 years ago. I’ve also borrowed one or two tricks from other performers--like when I’m only a few songs into the set and someone yells for “Man-Friend” or “Breaking the Law” (my closer) I borrow a line from Mojo Nixon, who greeted such requests with “Don’t worry, I’ll play all those super-hits later.”
I did 16 songs, including new ones “Handshake,” “Overdue” (about “relatable concerns” such as having overdue library materials) and “Be My Friend,” about myspace, where during the chorus I scream (in that aforementioned non-voice-losing way) “BE MY FRIEND! BE MY FRIEND! BE MY FUCKING FRIEND!!” and of course, I climaxed with my lotion bit.

Ra Ra Riot, a 7 piece out of Syracuse, really surprised me. As good as myspace is for some things, it is somewhat limited for experiencing music. The power and intensity of this band live was amazing--I’ve become a fan of “Dying is Fine.” They also covered Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”

I was very happy for the perfect storm that led Ra Ra Riot to me for this show. For many reasons I would rate this show a perfect 10 out of 10, for the turnout, the execution, and the audience response.

www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

Davezine 12 Flyer

All right! I’ve written more new songs since the last time I blogged, pretty much going back to the blank place in my head where silly thoughts reside. I almost don’t want to talk about the new songs, because I really want people to come hear them at my next show and be completely surprised. But music and tunes are starting to join up and as I sit here and count, I have about 7 new songs for a future album.
I have made a flyer for the show, it looks like this:

Only three weeks to go! Yay!
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com

Davezine 12

I have made progress on the zine, should be in good shape as long as I get busy this week.
If people go to my Davezine site there is info about the release show. Forgive me if it's incomplete, I'm just a tiny bit stressed about it. But show up anyway.

Davezine 12

My mind is racing to try to finalize things for this Davezine release party next month. I have bands, a story, and good intentions, and still need to work out some boring basics like, GETTING THE FUCKING ZINE DONE and GETTING THE VENUE. But things are looking good right now, so I'm not worried.
My story is Low Level Bureaucrats 2: (Karl) Love Story, and if I may say, is funny as shit. It's about a gambling lobbyist named Jack Roulette who tries to bring legalized gambling to Beatown, using Karl Love as his pawn. If this party is anything like last years, holy fuck.
I've written about 4 new songs, which I will play at this next show. But I can't give any more info until it's finalized. But if everyone can save the date--June 24--hopefully the rest will fall into place within the next few days.