Ad Sales Soar

A staunch core of booksellers, gallerists, publishers, restauranteurs, and writing program directors joins us with ads issue after issue. We are grateful for their support.

New accounts for Spring, which closes next week, include: Blum & Poe; Books, Inc.; Four Way Books; Hollyridge Press, Linc Art, Mrs. Dalloway's, Newmark Gallery, Ohio University Press, University of Minnesota Press.

Rejoining us after much absence: City Lights Books; Gallery 16; Squaw Valley Community of Writers; University of Texas Press.

Moving on: The stalwart Neil Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz has now retired, handing over the store to his daughter, who is understandably eager to spend her marketing dollars wisely. Linda Katona, of the Fine Arts Museums, with whom, in the great Madison Avenue tradition of schmoozing, I actually played golf...is moving to Utah; her successor is not yet on board.

Litmag Derailed

Editorial assistant Kristin Kearns was checking the links on our website, specifically those to Our Favorite Litmags, when she came upon the shocking fate of Calyx's 30th anniversary issue (just scroll down a little): http://www.proaxis.com/~calyx/

Under the Bam

For a vivid account of a trip from manuscript to finished book, follow Tom Christensen, once an editor at North Point Press, then, briefly, at ZYZZYVA, and then at Mercury House, as he walks the decision paths for his latest Asian Art Museum catalog:
http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/01/26/from-manuscript-to-finished-art-book-in-four-weeks/

Old Friends

In the current, so-called "all-sex" Winter issue (still being given away free, if you tell us where to send it), I've met only three of the eighteen writers.

(I'll meet several more of them when they read at the Book Bay in the Main Library on Feb. 21.)

This is in keeping with my policy of avoiding the Usual Suspects and giving new voices a chance, that is, of not soliciting manuscripts from writers I know, but depending on the slush pile of submissions by writers I don't know.

I have known one writer in the so-called "nondescript" Spring issue, which is almost wrapped up, since fifth grade. We re-met ten years ago at a writers' conference in L.A., and, since Bob Judd lives down the Penisula, we've seen a lot of each other since then.

Lately, we've been focused on the upcoming class reunion: http://www.hghs57.org/judd.htm.

Bob plans to go, but since I went away to school after eighth grade, I won't: I need to sustain my image of everybody just as they were at 14.

Top Five Likes

We like to be the dominant player in our industry (little magazines devoted to West Coast writers & artists), but sometimes we're content to be ranked number four: http://sharonfieldnotes.blogspot.com/2007/01/5-things-i-like.html

Btw, although subscribers who let themselves expire in order to subscribe to other worthy journals do not rank high among our favorites, our freebie policy still stands: for a free copy of the Winter issue, just tell us where to send it and we will. Offer good only in domestic U.S., while supplies last.

Clear the Decks

Yesterday we deaccessioned a basementful of soggy and loggy old ZYZZYVAs.

I thought we'd have to take them to the dump, but I'd hired the young artist/blacksmith David Duskin, http://www.davidduskin.com/, to help schlepp and he'd discovered a recycling center in Golden Gate Park, just behind Kezar. One of the workers there seemed delighted to see our heavy volumes....

It was sad to say goodbye to so much. (If only litmag publishers could live off their backlist.)

After a while, though, the euphoria of liberation set in. What a relief to be freed from the moldy issues of the past.

One oldie I glimpsed through still seemed pretty good, but I was getting tired by then, and maybe it was the respite itself that made that number so attractive.

I hope this pruning does not unleash speculative excess on eBay.

Why Pay More

On Amazon, as opposed to the independent bookstores we visited yesterday, used copies of ZYZZYVA anthologies are pretty cheap:

Roots and Branches $.01
Strange Attraction $1.99
The Writer's Notebook $.99
Lucky Break $.01
AutoBioDiversity $.68

Of course, if you go to our website, you can pick them up for free (and only pay $2 for shipping).

http://www.zyzzyva.org/freesamplelatest.htm

On the other hand, also on Amazon, for $141.95, you can buy a copy of "Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide Volume II," which (twice) cites an article I once wrote for Playboy.

On the Rack

Editorial assistant Mattie Bamman, a blogger in his own right, http://truckermythology.blogspot.com/, cruised some local bookstores recently, checking out our product placement:

The Book Bay, Main Library

The Booksmith

Modern Times Books

Hip Hop

Yesterday afternoon, as I do every month, I did a hop around the downtown galleries to see the new exhibitions. And to find images to reproduce. And to say hello to my advertisers. Wednesday, I'd driven around to hit the outliers.

All the hip galleries, by definition, advertise in our pages. A few of the big-time ones can't be bothered, but a lot of the others help us in our struggle.

Same with the bookstores. The big independents, Cody's and Kepler's and A Clean Well-Lighted, used to buy ads, but then decided they couldn't afford to. Cody's flagship closed last year; A Clean Well-Lighted also closed; Kepler's almost did.

The smaller independents, however, have managed to survive, probably not because they advertise, but, I think, because they maintain solidarity with the community of which we are a part.

And because they believe our rates are really quite affordable and our cause is noble: http://www.zyzzyva.org/advert.htm

Poets & Writers

How depressing is the just-arrived 20th anniversary issue of Poets & Writers magazine?

So thick. So glossy. So full of sensibility.

Edifying profiles and interviews. Ads for programs and conferences. Lists of grants & awards. And prizes (some given in contests you pay to enter).

Color ad on the inside front cover for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Gossip column devoted to litmags! Photos of real writers. More ads for programs and conferences. More ads for programs and conferences.

      OH! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
      For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
      Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
      Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
      But to be a wannabee was very heaven!

History of Blogging, Part One

The new medium, said Marshall McLuhan forty years ago, uses the old medium as content. Thus, early movies used the theater (including vaudeville and the Wild West show), and early TV used radio as content.

And the web used print.

Here's how January, an online "magazine," is celebrating its tenth anniversary: http://januarymagazine.com/2006/12/and-so-it-begins-again.html

Ma Donna

In the course of producing every issue, there's a moment in which "it" happens: something comes in over the transom that makes the issue the best ever.

The keystone comes in over the transom.

Yesterday, Paul Madonna sent in a ten-page piece, a text-and-image not unlike his weekly strip in the San Francisco Chronicle, except that it has a narrative flow.

http://www.paulmadonna.com/index.htm

And except that it's ten pages. Just what we needed.

Thank you, Paul.

If the title of this post, the Italian phrase meaning "my lady," as in the Blessed Virgin, in other words, meaning astonishment and prayerful gratitude and who know's what else, draws many hits from those still interested in a certain singer/icon....

Gather, Ye Lit Lovers

The first two pages of "featured groups" on Gather.com has, by my count, seven groups for lit lovers (need I say more?):

Poet's Passion has 449 members

poetryforms has 12

First Write It, Then Post It, 111

Book Lovers Club, 30

Literature Lovers, 2

The Book Review, 1378

Non-Fiction Book of the Month, 13

The Big Z

You might think this town's not big enough for two litmags whose names begin with Z, but it is.

Our crosstown colleague is said to get 25,000 submissions a year; we get 2,500.

They have 25 "readers." We have just me.

They publish virtually nothing from the slush pile, which is where we get almost everything.

They can take a year to respond, while our rejection note is prompt (and nice), as John Fox recently acknowledged:
http://bookfox.blogspot.com/2007/01/literary-journals.html

Deep Pocket Books

The whole idea of Pocket Books, introduced in this country in 1939,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket Books

was to fit in your pocket, a convenience that was later renounced by the "quality paperback" revolution, which led to the development of larger (and thicker) formats. (ZYZZYVA is 6x9.)

I've been carrying around a 5 1/16 x 7 3/4-inch, 224-page, 1971 Penguin, Eric Newby's "Love and War in the Apennines," one of the great "travel" books of all time. (Actually, it's a WWII caper.)

It fits in the right hip pocket of my chinos, although, because it's been so cold lately, I've been stashing it in my jeans jacket.

L&W is so great I've decided to read it only while "waiting around," an occasion that occurs all too often. Newby's greatness allows you to read him in short spurts, you don't forget where you left off, and you hope you never get to the end.

And you don't need to plug anything into your ears.

Hey, Teach

I sent a letter yesterday to 46 directors of creative writing programs on the West Coast. I offered them and their students a deal on the Spring issue.

Of course, if they'd been paying attention to this blog, they might have figured I would give them a freebie, when the time came. In fact, I have sent them freebies for the last couple issues.

I've published a couple of these "writers," but I doubt that you've ever heard of any of them, with the possible exception of Tobias Wolff.

They operate in a world of their own.

Who knows what litmags they are actually willing to pay for.

The other question, also rhetorical, is how can there be (at least) 46 writing programs on the West Coast.

Local Litmag Makes Good

Of the first nine manuscripts logged in this year, six came from San Francisco.

I don't know how to account for this outburst of local creativity; the usual percentage is more like 15%; maybe a writers' group got their act together at New Year's.

In this Winter's so-called all-sex issue, which is free for the asking (domestic U.S. only, supplies limited), six of the eighteen writers are from San Francisco. (Six others are from the Bay Area.)

Editor at Work

The Paris Review has repackaged the nine volumes of its Writers at Work series of interviews in a new volume, reviewed in Saturday's Wall Street Journal. Understandably, my interview in the 50th anniversary issue (Fall 2003) was not included:

http://www.zyzzyva.org/parisreviewinterview.htm

Swimsuit Issues

Barak Obama emerges from the surf in ample black swim shorts in this week's People.

He has been visiting family in Hawaii.

I have already coined a slogan for him: go for barak

But I am worried about his upper-body strength. Can he do the heavy lifting?

I don't know about Hillary's abs, but his could use some work.

How generous the resort season is to editors of celebritymags.

Over here in literature, we aren't blessed with seasonality, but I do want to mention that the cover of the Spring issue, which we picked yesterday, will strike you, when it appears in late March, as pegged to a certain religious holiday.

Shrinkage

[For a free copy of the Winter issue, just tell us where to send it. Offer good only in domestic U.S., while supplies last.]

Meanwhile, there's the problem of "shrinkage."

Bookstores take magazines on consignment: they pay only after copies are sold. Since it doesn't cost the chains anything to fill their vast magazine racks, they don't mind alloting a few feet of shelf space to litmags. So our distribution, instead of being limited to a hundred "literary" bookstores, is now virtually infinite.

However, we try to maintain a 50% "sell-through," that is, we want to sell one copy for every two we put out. That's a high number in the industry , but we feel we can't afford to print a lot of copies that don't get sold. (We try to be in every bookstore in California, but choose not to be in the Borders in Biloxi and Bozeman, for example.)

At Barnes & Noble, publishers are charged for "shrinkage," that is, the copies that have not sold but have gone missing. Since inventory control (pilferage) is totally not in our control, this seems grossly unfair.

I asked Jeffrey Lependorf, executive director of the Council of Literary Magazines & Publishers, to intercede with B&N on this issue. He wrote a letter, but didn't follow up.

Earlier, I had asked him to set up an interactive rating system of printers, so CLMP members could share their latest experiences (and prices). He acknowledged that this was a good idea, but didn't follow up.

So we have dropped out of the CLMP. Why belong to an organization that doesn't care much about the expressed needs of its constituents?

High Def

Let's start the new year with the basics: What is a literary magazine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_magazines

I admit it was me who inserted ZYZZYVA into this entry.

And, yes, I was magnanimous enough to include my West Coast colleagues in my update, as well as Fence, whose editor I visited one time when I was in The Village, on my way to the peanut butter store.

And, yes, I further confess, I made sure there was a link to ZYZZYVA in that entry. However, someone came along after me, as Wikipedia encourages, and deleted that link or, rather, moved all the links to a footnote, except for Paris Review and Ploughshares. I suspect a certain member of the latter's staff of arranging this, but who knows?

And what is this "Canary" that (presumably) inserted itself?