Staying Afloat (Rarely Longer Than Six Inches), Elongated Body, Two Pairs of Legs of Roughly the Same Size, Four Fingers, Four Or Five Toes

Home , IUniverse, Ten Speed Press, Xlibris

The Redwood Coast

Volume 10, Number 1 Review Winter 2008 A Publication of Friends of Coast Community Library in Cooperation with the Independent Coast Observer on nature Eye of Newt

C. Kevin Smith

y sister saw a newt the first time she looked at her son. Shane Mwas not yet born, but the image produced by the sonogram in the doctor’s office offered Carole a glimpse of her fetal child in the form of a creature she has cherished since childhood: the slender form of a newt. A little squiggle of life, appearing on the sonogram screen as shadow against shadow, elemental and un- complicated and pulsing with possibility. There is something at once embryonic and ancestral about the newt, as if its form could suggest both the not yet born and the ancient. More than any other amphib- ian, today’s newts closely resemble the

earliest historic amphibians preserved in

utzle N e i Futz by 10 7, 2, 1, page ons i the fossil record. So even as a fossil, this Illustrat long-enduring shape—relatively un- changed for millions of years—seems, in its simplicity, like the shape of something young and fresh and new. Small size Staying Afloat (rarely longer than six inches), elongated body, two pairs of legs of roughly the same size, four fingers, four or five toes. The poor devil author in the 21st century What a wonder the human mind is! A single thought in a single moment can wrap itself around an image, a memory, Daniel Barth a feeling, a tiny newt-design, and in the private corners of the mind an individual story—the questions, dreams, fears and “I am thinking of that age when work will Undoubtedly there are still many good ruce Patterson’s book Walking Tractor and even excellent books that come out and Other Tales of Old Anderson Val- desires of a young woman about to be a be forgotten and books assume their true B of this hit-driven industry. But for the ley came out in January 2006, self-pub- mother—can silently echo across the span place in life.” young man or woman from the provinces, lished by his 4 Mules Productions. It’s an of time to the distant and still evolving —Henry Miller story of life on Earth. chances of success with one of the corpo- unusual-looking book, wire-bound, with And what about the newt mind? What rate publishers are slim. What, then, is a a soft cover that has a color photo inset. pictures of its life does it see? ere on the West Coast of poor devil author to do? I heard Bruce read at Mulligan Books in Before attempting to imagine the life the United States and all By now we’ve all heard of print on Ukiah and was interested by something of a newt from the inside out, so to speak, over the country, the planet demand. Companies like iUniverse, Blurb he said about self publishing because he let us first attend to its surface. For the and the World Wide Web, and Xlibris make it possible for anyone didn’t want to be “a literary sharecrop- skin of a newt is one of its most remark- many of us continue to with several hundred dollars to get a book per.” I asked him what he meant by that. able features, accounting for many of its Hpursue an old dream: artistic and financial into print. More and more writers are “That’s how I came out of the gate. behavioral aspects. success as a writer. In the 19th century, going this route. There are also of course After 32 years of taking my living straight Of course, this is true of any amphib- Washington Irving’s poor devil author, a the many excellent university presses and from the dirt of Anderson Valley, I’m out ian, a word derived from the Greek word young man from a rural English village, small publishers, the micro-breweries of a job. The entire valley has changed amphibios, meaning to live a double life made his way to London to seek publica- of the publishing world. And having an in that time. The homesteader economy or to live on two sides. Newts live on the tion of his epic poem, “The Pleasures of agented book proposal or manuscript ac- is basically gone. And then, I wanted to two sides of the Earth’s surface, water Melancholy.” In the 20th century, in this cepted by a mainstream publisher remains write, I wanted to try my hand at writing. and land. During their larval stage, they country, young writers from the provinces possible, if difficult to achieve. So rather than send out manuscripts as an breathe through gills they will shed upon most often made their way to New York, I decided to talk with a few writers unknown, I did it myself, to put my foot reaching maturity. Though adult newts or at least sent their manuscripts to one of here in Northern California and find out in the water to see if I had anything there. do possess lungs, they also breathe by the reputable New York publishers, where what strategies they have employed to And what I wrote about was a picture of means of cutaneous respiration, a process competent editors worked conscientiously publish and promote their most recent time, 1975 call it, circa 1975, of Anderson involving specialized glands that produce to get the best books into print and distrib- books. Valley, the homesteader economy, the a shiny mucus underneath the outermost uted widely. That’s the model of literary loggers, my jobs, the stuff I did. What skin layer, keeping the newt’s body in a success most of us grew up with. I wanted to do was create something state of constant and protective moisture. According to Jason Epstein, whose 60- “Hit-driven econom- unique, a memoir as short story, giving This slipperiness also allows newts to plus years of experience in publishing are ics is a creation of an different views of what it’s like to be a escape from predators. skillfully distilled in The Book Business, woodcutter, a sub-choker setter, a timber Newts also repel predators with the that model held up pretty well until the age without enough faller, a sheep skinner, whatever.” amazingly potent toxic secretions present late 1960s, when chain stores in suburban Patterson’s promotion strategy had this in their skin. The Rough-skinned newt malls began to take over the market once room to carry every- same local flavor. He printed 900 copies, (Taricha granulosa), California’s most dominated by independent urban book- thing for everybody. priced at $19.95 each, and began by offer- aquatic newt, possesses in its skin a neu- sellers. Those chains—Waldenbooks and ing a deal to local stores. rotoxin (tetrodotoxin) that is among the B. Dalton—eventually gave way to the This is the world of “I just started with consignments in most toxic substances known to science. superstores, Borders and Barnes & Noble. local markets, all the local video stores, One Rough-skinned newt can carry suffi- In response to this “demographic scarcity. Now, with a couple of the tasting rooms where I had cient tetrodotoxin to kill 25,000 mice. Yet earthquake” publishers began to change online distribution friends. And my pitch to them was: I don’t this same newt can be eaten by a garter their way of doing business. Where a solid want any money. Here’s six copies. Keep snake. Indeed, some of the newt’s preda- backlist had once been the mainstay of and retail, we are two copies free. I’d like you to read them, tors—and there are many—have evolved any good publisher, the market began to or give them away, or sell them. And once resistance to the toxins in newt skin. demand bestsellers. The old writer-friend- entering a world of you sell out the other four you can pay me (Speaking of snakes, it is an artifact of ly New York publishing houses, where abundance. There for them and I’ll return with more books. the history of science that newt research Thomas Wolfe could rhapsodize till dawn I didn’t even pitch a bookstore for three should fall under the category of her- or Faulkner nurse a hangover, were by are niches by the months.” petology, a field of inquiry comprising 1980 almost all owned by large US corpo- With his book specifically for and amphibians and reptiles. Herpetology rations. Those corporations in turn began thousands, genre about the local community, this strategy derives from the Greek word herpo, mean- to sell off these not-profitable-enough within genre within proved successful. Patterson did eventu- ing to creep or to crawl. That creatures publishing enterprises, to the point where ally place the book in Northern California as widely different as snakes and frogs all the once renowned houses—Knopf, genre.” bookstores, and promoted it via radio should find themselves lumped together Random House, Viking, et al.—are now interviews, readings, writers conferences fully owned subsidiaries of five foreign- based conglomerates. See newt page 4 See Author page 9 Winter 2008 The Redwood Coast Review Page 9 lessing from page 3 Author from page 1 and a Web page (www.4mules.com). But the Anderson Valley stores were his mainstay. The book sold very well and attracted the attention of Berkeley publisher Heyday Books. In December 2006 Patterson signed a contract with Heyday. They will publish a new edition of Walking Tractor in June 2008. “The reason why I signed with Heyday,” Patterson explains, “the reason why I sold out, so to speak, was that it gives me time to write. As far as promotion and keeping the ball rolling, word of mouth will carry you only so far, so I had to follow those ripples out. Now they take care of that. So I can just focus on writing. What I’m doing now is writing a second book.”

Voilà! A publishing success story to

ess r P ed t make us all envious. I asked Patterson how

he had come out financially. Bruce Patterson

a oci ss A “I would have made a lot more money this state of affairs, Zaid suggests that we cutting firewood. But I gave away a lot of embrace it: “What is desirable is not that only a heartfelt comment. “Vonnegut was a ence. “I talked about The Golden Notebook copies to the old timers I wrote about. Or all books should have a million readers, but wonderful writer, and with his death I feel recently and I had to explain everything,” old friends, if I ran into them I would give that they should attain their natural reader- that I have lost a dear brother,” she says. she says. “I had to give a history lesson.” them copies. When an old barrel-chested ship.” His model for literary culture is an Why she agreed to attend the Doris Less- She can, of course, be whimsical and rodeo cowboy came up to me about three unlimited number of diverse and ongoing ing conference, and then changed her mind, just plain funny. She’s never met Rupert months ago and shook my hand and asked conversations. He sees it as the proper goal isn’t clear, though I received an unambigu- Murdoch, who owns HarperCollins, her me if I’d sign his book, right there I knew of publishers, booksellers and librarians to ous postcard that made me smile. “I won’t longtime publisher, but she calls him, wryly, I was an artistic success. Commercial suc- help facilitate these conversations by help- be attending the DL conference after all,” “my boss,” and toward her beloved cats cess is something else. They may not be ing a book find its readers. she wrote. Now, at her flat, she explains, she’s always affectionate. Before we leave everybody’s cup of tea, but my books will This seems an appropriate goal for the “I’m not going because they’ll be talking for the bookshop to publicize Kavan’s work, sell in this part of Mendocino County for a writer as well, especially in the case of self- rubbish about the Sufis. You know, to be a Doris opens a can of cat food and serves long time.” publishing or print on demand, in which the Sufi all you have to do is say, ‘I’m a Sufi’ them dinner to let them know she hasn’t writer decides to forego these intermediaries and ‘I’m enlightened,’ but they make a big forgotten them. In the cab, she engages in he lesson from Patterson’s success and appeal directly to readers. Both Epstein mystery out of it.” Moreover, on the whole, conversation with the Somali-born driver on Tseems pretty clear. It is important for and Zaid see this as an increasingly viable Lessing is not a polished performer in pub- the subject of terrorism, and, when he asks writers and books to find their appropriate strategy, harking back to the subscription lic, and, as she explains to me, “I can’t take why nations still make war, she says, “Be- niches. In So Many Books: Reading and sales of Dickens and looking forward to on a persona when I am out in the world.” cause it’s profitable.” She can’t quite shed Publishing in an Age of Abundance, Gabriel what Epstein calls “the technological future Indeed, for the most part, she can’t and the radical political perspective that once Zaid makes this point repeatedly: “With . . . the electronic literary marketplace just hasn’t. The Lessing one sees in public isn’t motivated her and her work. During the few exceptions, the world of the book has over today’s horizon.” He believes that “the an actor putting on a show; she’s the real week that I visited Doris, car bombs failed no connection to massive and undifferenti- Internet, by connecting readers and writers thing: herself. She can be feisty on stage, to explode in London, but Doris wasn’t on ated markets; it relies instead on segmented one on one, offers the possibility of almost and in front of an audience, and sometimes edge about terrorism or terrorists. Like most clienteles, specialized niches, and members limitless choice and foreshadows a literary she’s on a short fuse if she thinks a question Londoners, she lived through the Irish Re- of different clubs of enthusiasts.” Even culture thrilling in its potential diversity.” is idiotic. Recently, a young woman asked publican Army (IRA) bombings for decades, though more and more books continue to One wonders if this limitless choice, her to explain the meaning of life, and when and like most Londoners she adopts a stiff be published each year, most sell only a without competent editorial and critical she declined, the young woman turned bel- upper lip, and a “we carry on” attitude. The few thousand copies. Rather than bewail intervention, will lead to chaos instead of ligerent. weather is another story. It has rained for healthy diversity. Epstein dismisses that For the most part, the daughters of my weeks and weeks and that depresses her. So possibility rather convincingly: “The critical sixties friends have not heard of Lessing, does the mass media’s stereotyping of Arabs faculty that selects meaning from chaos is or read The Golden Notebook, which once and Muslims, and she complains that most part of our instinctual equipment, and so is stirred their mothers to join conscious- Americans have negative images of Islam, the gift for creating and recreating civi- ness-raising groups, and become liberated and the Islamic world. lizations and their rules without external women. Such are the vagaries of fame guidance. Human beings have a genius for and influence. It seems certain, especially oris says that she has found it difficult finding their way, for making orderly mar- now that she has won the Nobel Prize, that Dto promote The Cleft, her most recent kets, distinguishing quality, and assigning her work will not fade away. Moreover, novel, published in England in the winter of value. This faculty can be taken for granted. college teachers, like the academics who 2007, and in the States in the summer. It’s There is no reason to fear that the awe- attended this year’s Doris Lessing confer- on sale at the London Review Bookshop, some diversity of the World Wide Web will ence, assign it to undergraduates, not only along with Kavan’s work, and she’s only overwhelm it.” too happy to autograph it for fans. Told by in England and in the United States, but in a crusty Roman senator who has lost two China, Tunisia, India, Australia, Canada, sons in the wars with the barbarians, The South Africa, Spain—and wherever English See author page 10 Cleft offers Lessing’s version of Genesis, is read and spoken, which is everywhere in Janet Grace Riehl Exodus, and the origins of the inexorable the world today. The Nobel Prize will surely war between the sexes, a theme she has encourage a new generation of readers to explored as profoundly and as originally as discover her work. Moreover, one hopes any writer of our time, especially in master- that readers the world over will discover her ful short stories. Ursula Le Guin missed work outside the confines of the classroom S U B S C R I B E the point of The Cleft in The New States- and the canon, which can make the act of man—the British weekly that once heralded reading into a passionless exercise in which each new Lessing novel—as an anti-female, the student is urged to ferret out subtexts. If you live beyond the Redwood Coast and don’t get the Independent Coast anti-feminist tract. In fact, Lessing is far Perhaps in the future—perhaps even in an- Observer, now you can subscribe to The Redwood Coast Review and not miss more scathing about men than women. The other galaxy, I’d like to think—students will an issue of our award-winning mix of essays, reviews, poetry, fiction and grunting, groping cavemen in the novel care read Lessing’s work in the ways that she has largely for adventure and games and not for urged them to read all literature. graphic art. For $24 a year you will be guaranteed quarterly first-class de- the survival and wellbeing of the human “There is only one way to read, which livery of the RCR and at the same time support Coast Community Library species. is to browse in libraries and bookstores, in its ongoing operating expenses. Please use this coupon to subscribe Doris has been stung by the negative picking up books that attract you, reading reviews in England. Still, she hasn’t taken only those, dropping them when they bore or renew now. You won’t be disappointed. them to heart. “I have moved on,” she says. you, skipping the parts that drag,” she wrote “I have started to write a new novel about in the 1971 introduction to a reprint of The my parents, and who they might have been Golden Notebook. And, as though think- Yes, I want to subscribe to The Redwood Coast Review. I am if World War I had not taken place. I have ing perhaps of Anna Kavan, and perhaps of enclosing a check for $24 to Coast Community Library. made my father into an English farmer, the ideas she has entertained and that have which is what he always wanted to be.” never found tangible expression in plot and Writing happy endings has usually eluded character, she adds, “Remember that for I am making an additional donation to the library in the Lessing, and whether she can write one this all the books we have in print [there] are amount of $______. time remains to be seen. I have my doubts. as many that that never reached print, have “This book is going to be my last,” Doris never been written down.” says. “I just don’t have the energy anymore, Total enclosed $______and certainly not the kind of energy that en- abled me to write The Golden Notebook in Name ______just a year. I snatch moments here and there, but no extended periods of time.” Of all her Jonah Raskin teaches at Sonoma State novels, The Golden Notebook is clearly the University. His anthology The Radical Jack Address ______one she likes the best and she doesn’t mind London: Writings on War and Revolution saying, vigorously, “It’s extraordinary isn’t will be published in May 2008. Many books it!” Indeed, it is, and I don’t mind telling by Doris Lessing can be found through City, State, ZiP ______her so. Coast Community Library. I remind Doris that Kurt Vonnegut insist- ed repeatedly in the 1980s and 1990s that Copy or clip this coupon and send, with check or money order, to Coast each book he wrote would be his last book, only to go on writing another book, and then Community Library, PO Box 808, Point Arena, CA 95468. Thank You! another after that. She has no direct retort, Page 10 The Redwood Coast Review Winter 2008 author from page 9

ake County writer Janet Grace Riehl decided to publish When asked if he is encouraged or discouraged by Lher book, Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary, through print-on- what he sees happening now, Bennett responded: “I’m demand publisher iUniverse. discouraged by what’s happening to independent book- “One reason I went with iUniverse,” she says, “was be- stores and smaller publishers, and discouraged by the cause of the timing. Perhaps if I had sat with the book longer increasingly conservative trends of East Coast publishing. and shopped the book I could have found another publisher, But I’m encouraged in a way by new printing technolo- but this way I had creative control and I could get it out very gies that make it possible to produce a high-quality book quickly. The timing of it was very important to me.” for a small investment. This is inspiring more and more This timing had to do with the nature of the book. As she writers to publish their own books. It’s a trend that’s explains in the Preface, Riehl wrote the book after the death happening in publishing, in music, and in independent of her sister in a car crash. After returning to Southern Il- filmmaking. We’re barely seeing the beginning of this linois to be with her family, she began writing the poems and movement, with more and more people learning how to short pieces that comprise the book. Once it was completed, use the Internet for marketing their wares—music, film, it was important to her to get it into the hands of friends and and publishing. Over the next decade we’re going to see family members. She started work on the book in January a whole new paradigm in the publishing world—and then 2005 and it was in print by February 2006, at a cost of just we’ll all find out what’s really bubbling away below the under $1000. surface and behind the scenes.” Feedback was encouraging and Riehl began to promote In relation to this new paradigm, Bennett pointed me the book on a Web site and at readings. Not content to sim- to “The Long Tail,” an article by Wired magazine editor ply read from the book, she wrote connecting material and Chris Anderson, which has since been expanded into turned each reading into a special event, often playing fiddle a book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is and singing as part of her presentation. I heard her in Ukiah Selling Less of More. That subtitle basically explains the at a Writers Read event at Colored Horse Studio. Her talk concept. “Most of us want more than just hits,” writes that night was titled “Story Poems for the Families of the Anderson. “Everyone’s taste departs from the mainstream World.” I asked her about her approach. somewhere, and the more we explore alternatives the “Well, I wanted to do talks as opposed to readings more we are drawn to them.” because I wanted to set a context for the work. And I really He credits online retailers like Amazon.com and love doing it that way. Usually in my talks there is a musical Netflix with accelerating this phenomenon through their element. I did a service for the Unitarian Universalists in combination of unlimited shelf space, customer reviews, Lake County. For that one I designed the entire service. I se- and “customers who bought X also bought Y” marketing. lected the music. That talk was called “Memento Mori: Life “Hit-driven economics is a creation of an age without and Death Moment by Moment.” Music was interspersed enough room to carry everything for everybody. This with my poems. And I really liked that, because especially is the world of scarcity. Now, with online distribution that talk, and some of the others, the subject matter was very and retail, we are entering a world of abundance. There demanding. And then I’m inviting people to consider the are niches by the thousands, genre within genre within topic in a more general sense, to really consider death as a genre.” Anderson believes that the potential book market topic. I didn’t want it to just be a dead sister book. I’m a stu- may be at least twice as big as it currently appears to be, dent of Tibetan Buddhism, and a core belief there is that if but that most of this market lies outside the scope of the we look firmly on death our life takes on renewed meaning. on this book—$3500 as I recall. The book is distributed traditional bookseller, or “physical retailer.” That was a message that I wanted to bring to people, without throughout the US and has been published in three languag- being churchy about it. So the new writing kept it fresh for es. It has been through three editions, that is, rewrites with “First you have to write the me and for my audiences as well. And so it became exciting additional material each time, plus new cover design, etc. because what I was in fact doing was—okay, first you have There are probably something like 20,000 copies in print. book, then you have to pro- to prime yourself to write the book, then you have to prime I’m not positive on the numbers. It has received excellent mote the book, but there’s yourself to promote the book, but there’s another piece that reviews from some of the top reviewers at Publishers Weekly really isn’t spoken about, and that is, after you write the and School Library Journal, with endorsements from at least another piece that really isn’t book you have to understand what the devil you wrote. And a dozen other authors, including three bestselling authors. that’s what these talks allowed me to do.” I’ve done readings in probably 20 or 30 bookstores in three spoken about, and that is, When asked how she has come out financially, Riehl states, radio interviews, and some workshops. I also sell the after you write the book you says, “I think I’ve broken even. Really, my family training, book through my Web site [www.halzinabennett.com]. It’s from my father, is just offer it, as a sort of gift. This particu- considered a very successful book in terms of the number have to understand what the lar book was for that. It was for myself, for the family, and sold. The average book published in the US sells fewer than certainly for others in that type of situation.” 5000 copies.” devil you wrote.” Riehl has recently moved to St. Louis to be closer to I asked Bennett about the changes he has experienced her 92-year-old father. She is at work on a new book about during his 40 years in the publishing business. As Bennett and Anderson suggest, the future looks quite a her experiences living in Africa for five years in the 1970s. “The sixties was an exciting time, with the West Coast bit rosier for writers than it does for our friends and allies at The Web site she created to promote Sightlines has since developing a publishing industry separate from East Coast small presses and independent bookstores. The trend seems morphed into a blog called Riehlife: Village Wisdom for the publishing. Small publishers were sprouting up everywhere. to be toward eliminating middlemen. Like writers, these 21st Century (www.riehlife.com). She posts something new A few, like New World Library, Ten Speed Press, Celestial businesses are employing diverse strategies to adapt and on the blog almost every day. Arts, and J. P. Tarcher, are quite large and quite successful survive—getting smaller or larger, diversifying, specializ- publishers today. The West Coast also developed indepen- ing, providing writers and readers the personal attention and al Zina Bennett also lives and writes in Lake County. dent book distribution, with companies like Bookpeople conviviality the Internet lacks. At this point most bookstores HHe is one of the few people I know who actually makes becoming incredibly successful, handling mostly authors still reflect the dominance of the corporate publishers, but his living through his literary endeavors: writing, conduct- from California and Nevada. It was a creatively fertile time that may change, it may have to change, if they wish to stay ing seminars and workshops, consulting with publishers for radical politics, radical poetry, radical theater, and radical viable in the changing marketplace. Though e-book readers and agents, and coaching writers. His most recent books are living. Today, publishing is once again settled into the East and text downloads exist, the predicted end of the book is The Lens of Perception (Celestial Arts, 2007) and Reads: Coast, though all the big publishers back there are the prop- not on the horizon. Says Zaid: “The content may be identi- An Anthology of Writings by The Lakeside Writers Guild erty of huge corporations—all owned by companies from cal, but the visual, tactile, and even olfactory experience can (iUniverse, 2006), which he contributed to and edited. He is other countries, by the way. It’s pretty conservative, with make a lot of difference to the reader.” By taking advantage also the author of Write from the Heart (New World Library, most editorial departments highly influenced by what will of this difference, independent publishers and booksellers 2001), which explores the writing process from the creative sell in the chain stores. A sad and dangerous state of affairs, should be able continue find ways to survive and thrive. spark through publication and promotion. really, what I call censorship at the cash register. And the The Reads anthology was a collaboration of the eight- corporate policy of the big chains—Borders and Barnes & n the world of the long tail, of increasingly diverse and member Lakeside Writers Guild, which Bennett mentors. Noble, predominately—is to run off the independent book- Icomplex (read “healthy”) literary culture, artistic suc- “The goal,” he says, “was to give people the experience of sellers. Very few publishers are taking risks anymore. And cess and personal fulfillment for writers is more than ever publishing, taking them through the whole process to an that’s even true for the larger independent publishers who’re possible. Financial success remains a tougher nut to crack. actual book, to have authors who’ve never published before still doing business out here.” “Literature, like all religions,” writes Epstein, “is also a experience what it is like to get into print and have their business, though not a very good business.” Many writ- work read by hundreds of people, and to share some excel- ers support their habit by teaching. (The trick is not to let lent writing with the community. Really, it was a commu- academic duties become so onerous and time consuming that nity-oriented project.” they leave too little time and energy for writing.) Bruce Pat- They published with iUniverse at a cost of around $100 Books cited in this article terson says he will probably have to make some money cut- each, and promoted the book at readings in Lake, Mendoci- ting firewood this winter. Janet Grace Riehl has been living no and Marin counties. “We did about eight readings,” says Book Business: Publishing, Past, Present, and Future on savings and the kindness of friends and family. Hal Zina Bennett, “and also made the book available at local book- by Jason Epstein. W. W. Norton, 2002. Bennett is a financially successful writer, but he does not put stores and online. We calculated that each author only had Walking Tractor and Other Tales of Old Anderson Valley all his eggs in one basket, and he works long hours: writing, to sell about 12 copies retail to get his or her money back. by Bruce Patterson. 4Mules Productions, 2006. consulting, ghosting, coaching and mentoring. Other money from sales went into a pool we share.” Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary Irving’s poor devil author never did find a publisher for Bennett’s work is a good example of how a writer can by Janet Grace Riehl. iUniverse, 2006. his epic poem. He stayed in London, though, and made a succeed by working within mainstream publishing while not So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of career writing articles, reviews and travel sketches, mostly forsaking small presses, self-publishing and local involve- Abundance by Gabriel Zaid. Paul Dry Books, 2003. anonymously. It was not the lofty height to which he had ment. His career was kick-started in 1970, when a book he aspired, but he found his niche. “Take my word for it,” he The Lens of Perception: A User’s Guide to Higher co-authored, The Well Body Book, became a bestseller. On concluded, “the only happy author in this world is he who is the strength of that he made contacts and received offers Consciousness by Hal Zina Bennett. Celestial Arts, below the care of reputation.” to write more. The Lens of Perception, a memoir about 2007. I’ve been thinking about Andy Warhol’s predicted future. personal growth and discovery, was first published 20 years Reads: An Anthology of Writings by The Lakeside Maybe what he really meant was that no one will be famous ago. Based on interest created by the 2004 movie What the Writers Guild, edited by Hal Zina Bennett. for more than 15 minutes. In the 21st century, the literary Bleep Do We Know?, Celestial Arts contacted Bennett about iUniverse, 2006. lion may be a vanishing species, but the ongoing buzz from creating a new edition. He agreed and did a good deal of Write from the Heart: Unleashing the Power of Your a multitude of diverse and fascinating conversations is likely rewriting. The book was released in August 2007 and has Creativity by Hal Zina Bennett. to drown out his dying roar. been selling well. New World Library, 2001. “This book has always been with Celestial Arts/Ten The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Speed Press,” says Bennett. “They are the largest indepen- Less of More by Chris Anderson. Hyperion, 2006. dent book publisher on the West Coast, with about 5000 Daniel Barth, an RCR contributing editor, lives in Ukiah and titles. I originally received a small advance against royalties publishes variously.