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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Category Archives: Publishing

Episode 406: Amy Watkins!

15 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, Publishing

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Episode 406 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, I talk to my friend and colleague Amy Watkins about becoming more systematic about submitting work, and about conceiving of book-length projects of poetry.

Amy Watkins

TEXTS DISCUSSED

wolfdaughterLucky

NOTES

  • This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

  • Check out Rollins College’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Setzuan.
Tree with Shen Te and Shui Ta

The Good Person of Setzuan.

  • If you are in Orlando on February 29, come to the Typewriters and Jazz Write-in from 1-3 PM being held at Jack Kerouac’s old residence (from when On the Road came out).

Episode 406 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

Announcement: World, Meet Guy Psycho

16 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Publishing

≈ 2 Comments

Announcement by John King

Dear readers and listeners,

Today is not only my birthday, but also that of my first novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame, out with Beating Windward Press. For those of you who have listened to my podcast awhile, this is the book I went to NYU to write.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame

This is an epic literary adventure in which an alcoholic lounge singer must re-enact the epic of Gilgamesh inside a mountain in Tennessee. Indiana Jones and Alan Quartermain, eat your hearts out.

I first met Guy back in the early oughts, in a story called, “Guy Psycho: Savior of Pop?”—and he keeps showing up for work in my brain.

His confessions have appeared in Bachelor Pad Magazine.

If this might be your jam, please consider supporting a poor writer.

With gratitude,

John

P. S. If you want to review this novel for a literary magazine or media entity you are affiliated with, please do let me know.

Episode 202: Publishers Speak!

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Publishing

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Episode 202 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I share Litlando 2016’s publishing panel, featuring Danita Berg, Lisa Roney, Raquel Henry, and Ryan Rivas.

Publishing Panelplus Chris Bedell writes about how Sara Shephard’s Pretty Little Liars: Toxic changed his life.

Chris Bedell

 

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Black Fox 13The Florida ReviewAnimal A Beast of a Literary MagazineForty Martyrs

Pretty Little Liars ToxicNOTES

Check out the music of The Tequila Worms.

The Tequila WormsTDO Ink Show poster

_______

Episode 202 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

 

On Top of It #13: Which Way?

18 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in On Top of It, Publishing

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On Top of It #13 by Lisa Martens

Which Way?

I now have a 60,000-word manuscript on my computer, and so I am faced with a problem I’ve had for years: Do I submit to a ton of agents and receive form letters from their interns while my writing sits on my hard drive, or do I try to indie publish and promote my writing myself through social media?

I go back and forth on this. I would definitely prefer to self-publish and get the majority of the royalties from anything I sell, and be beholden to no one–but then I have to develop some kind of marketing plan, and that feels fake. I prefer using social media for ridiculous memes and photos of my baby cousins doing the whip-nae-nae dance.

Back in 2005, I started a myspace for my writing. Yes, myspace. I had a spambot friending everyone I could find. I wish I had kept up with it, because then I would probably have a decent following now, but I’m not good at having a kind of marketing (shudder) agenda.

But apparently, neither are publishing houses. So if anyone is going to do a shitty job of marketing my book, it should be me. Right?

Unfortunately, there’s still a lack of credibility that comes with finding an amateur graphic artist on Fiverr, buying a $10 book cover, and sticking your manuscript on Amazon. You don’t get reviewed. Bookstores don’t receive any ARCs. And generally, people don’t take indie writers seriously and turn their noses up. Granted, those are probably people I wouldn’t like, but still, they have money and read.

Which brings me back to the traditional publishing process. Writing letters to agents feels like begging on a dating site. You can’t come off too strong or too desperate. You can’t make it seem like you think you have a bestseller. You can’t show any photos of your dick. There are so many guides on how to write a letter no one is going to read. Every time I write a query letter, I think about how the agent I’m writing to is probably finding their next client on Twitter.

That, and it feels so formal. I recently met a couple of agents in person, and the feeling was totally different. It was almost like I was talking to people.

So for any agents reading this, here is my query letter:

  • I’m pretty easy to deal with and can handle constructive criticism
  • My manuscript is 60,000 words right now and almost done
  • New adult
  • There’s gentrification
  • hallucinations
  • a haunted house
  • and sex with ghosts

So how many writers here have taken the indie route? And how many have published traditionally? I’m interested to learn about the experiences different people have had.

_______

Lisa Martens

Lisa Martens (Episode 22) currently lives in Harlem. In her past 10 years in New York, she has lived in a garage on Long Island, a living room in Hell’s Kitchen, the architecture building of CCNY, and on the couch of a startup. She grew up in New York, Costa Rica and Texas, and she’s still not sure which of these is home. She completed her MFA in Creative Writing from CCNY. Her thesis, What Grows in Heavy Rain, is available on Amazon. Check out her website here. Follow her on Instagram here.

Episode 146: A Roundtable Discussion of MFA vs. NYC

04 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, Publishing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A WIld Swing of the Knfie, Boris Fishman, Bury Me in My Jersey, David James Poissant, J. Bradley, Joanna Rakoff, MFA vs. NYC, My Salinger Year, Tom McAllister, Vanessa Blakeslee

Episode 146 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I host a roundtable discussion with Vanessa Blakeslee, David James Poissant, and Boris Fishman, in which we critique the essay collection, MFA vs. NYC,

EP 146 posterPlus J. Bradley reads a selection from his new prose poem book, A Wild Swing of the Knife.

Jesse BradleyTEXTS DISCUSSED

MFA vs NYC

BMIMJ frontMy Salinger YearIt is a Wild Swing of the KnifeNOTES

Buy It is a Wild Swing of the Knife here.

Patrick Hawkins (Episode 145) and his fellow Geeks of Comedy will be performing at Megacon on April 10th and 11th in Orlando. Check here for more info.

Geeks of ComedyCongrats to Bookmark It on its new digs on the first floor of the East End Market.

Bookmark It Ribbon cutting_______

Episode 146 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 108: Matt Peters!

13 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Publishing

≈ Leave a comment

Episode 108 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the publisher of Beating Windward Press, Matt Peters,

Matt Peters Plus Stephen Scully writes a memoir essay about meeting two baseball legends. Stephen Scully

TEXTS DISCUSSED

American Fraternity Man

boat girl

The Snuff SyndicateLeaving Little HavanaDoc Voodoo Aces and EightsDoc Voodoo Crossfire

NOTES

The deadline for Beating Windwards call for essays for its upcoming anthology, The Things They Did for Money, is July 31st.

The British children’s book author Allan Ahlberg refused a lifetime achievement award due to its being sponsored by Amazon, according to The Guardian.

George R. R. Martin tells some readers to fuck off, according to The Guardian.

An author claiming to be an expert at bull-running has been gored, also according to The Guardian.


Episode 108 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

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