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I’ve been putting off posting this, because I figure everyone must be posting it, but it’s so dang cool, I just couldn’t resist any more.  This was captured on January 28, 2011, at Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock. I haven’t done too much in the way of searches to see if there’s much clamoring over claiming “Hoax!”, but I’m not seeing that. I did find this Fox article.

It would seem to me, hoaxes obviously notwithstanding, that who or whatever is responsible for this, “they” wouldn’t be in the habit of making “mistakes,” so one would have to assume there’s significance associated with the location of this incident. It’s fascinating and I’ve personally never seen anything like this before, though, apparently, several tourists in the area claim to have seen similar in Mississippi.

I would hope that this time something more of note will come from this, instead of things just getting lost in the white noise of more news and becoming quickly forgotten, like the buzz over the UFO that flew in the background of President Obama’s inauguration (curiously the YouTube video associated with this incident was “terminated.” Interesting…).

In any event, make up your own mind, but I don’t hear anyone loudly disputing it.

First video.

Fourth video.

From the Examiner.com.

Fascinating!

Nothing and no one is perfect, me included. We’re all just trying to do the best we can with who we are and what we do. Publishing is no different. It’s easy to armchair a few opinions and chuck em out there into the world, sure, but there are some other (more positive!) thoughts I’d also love to “armchair” out there.

What I love about the institution of publishing!

Granted, I’m not quite “in” it, yet, at least not in the traditional sense (I have one self-published effort), but my agent is breaking her back trying to rectify that! For all the grief it and anything else out there gets from the masses, there are also some things publishing gets right:

It publishes books.

And here I use “books” to denote any form of book, as counterintuitive that may initially sound.

I don’t care what other diversionary contraption you’re using, there’s simply nothing like the feel, the smell, the (yes!) ambiance, the wholly metaphysical sensation of a book. You can do all-kinds-of-damage to it, and still pick it up and read it. It is the perfect medium for its content.

And I love that there are all-kinds-of-smart people out there actively looking for people like me. Actively looking to polish stuff people like me create…and present it to others to read. I love that. That’s cool. These others love words, love ideas–love truth, the imagination, and stories. Love freedom of expression.

Now, this may be hard for some to fathom, and it might be downright erroneous for others, but for me and those like me, I don’t see this as an egotistical trot. To write is to read. It’s part of the process, and the process simply is not complete until a reader gets involved. It’s like hardwired, you know? Everyone has their own superpower, I like to say. Everyone. For some it’s to act on stage or screen, raise a family, perform in the culinary arts, and for still others…the written word. As I’ve stated before that doesn’t mean just because you’re born to do something means you’ll become a popular success…it’s just that it’s your superpower, and (like we all know) not all superpowers are meant to be broadcast widely….

So…publishing.

Here are people (all kinds of smart) who will eventually find one of my efforts and fall in love with it. Some other all-kinds-of-smart will read it and condense it into their interpretation of something I created (I love to see others’ interpretations of my work; can’t right explain it, but it’s neat to see how someone else sees what I’ve done). There will be other all-kinds-of-smart pushing my work…to others who are going to take it and put it on shelves. Try to get good people from around the world to actually pay money for stuff I wrote–worlds and ideas I imagined–and which others will find just as interesting as I did to cause me to spend a certain amount of my time on Earth to write about the idea in the first place. And there will those other all-kinds-of-smart who will read and internalize what I’ve had to say enough to write concise reviews of my work–for good or ill. They will have read every word I slaved over for years in order to try to understand what I’m about.

Find out my mystery.

And there will be still other all-kinds-of-smart who will come up to me and want to talk with me about how I created this-or-that, what were my thoughts on this-or-that (or “What were you thinkin…?!), or maybe even wanna buy me a drink at a conference (I don’t drink…wine… but I can fake it pretty good!). Some will probably just stop and stare at me, head cocked to one side and hands at their sides, as if to say…really? He did this? He’s human?!

Whether or not this actually happens to me is basically moot, cause it happens to so many others, and it is all made possible by a partnership with a corporation, a company, a publishing house–heck people, let’s not forget this…to bring works created by those like me to the public. That each individual in this entire ofttimes confounding process is doing their very damnedest to do the best they can each do to deliver a product of which not only a company can make some riches, but can be proud. Yes it can be brutal, yes exhausting, but the end result is that there are all-kinds-of-smart publishing professionals  out there ready willing and able to help those of us who are writing books.

And you know?

That is what I really, really love about publishing.

I was raised, and have chosen to continue to behave in a manner such that I don’t just complain about something without trying to offer a solution. In this light, I’ve continually skirted the “publishing’s ills” issue, largely because I don’t really know all the intricate, gory details of what’s at the troubled core of these issues. But I can surmise. I’m not an editor nor am I a publishing exec, but I know what I read and hear.

Distribution.

Royalties.

Digital-anything.

Antiquated business models.

I don’t have a business degree, and frankly, ain’t really interested in one, but I do have a science degree and a lifetime of hands-on experience analyzing problems and developing solutions. Maybe some of what I present below may appear simpleminded and naïve…but maybe things need to be simplified. Boiled down to their lowest common denominator. Maybe we all–not just publishing–need to get back to our roots. What it is to be human. To work with each other. Make life better. Enjoyable.

So, here is what I offer as my take and possible solutions, and I’ll try to modify them as necessary, and will be happy to consider others’ ideas. I’m just a guy, looking from the outside in, trying to make life a better place for having taken up so much of its time….

Codicils for Publishing:

1) Do the best at what it is you do–the money will come.

We hear this uttered time and again, but who really takes it to heart? Business schools beat into students that the sole object of any business is to make money. Really? So the sole act of any human being is to breathe? Is that really what the soul of any business should be about? Pure, unadulterated accumulation of riches? Does that make the world a better place? Does it positively develop an individual? I thought businesses came into existence because they offered something of value, otherwise they would fail. Of course people want to make money, it’s what we use to keep ourselves alive and with which we manipulate into other items of interest. Don’t let it rule your life–or mission.

2) There are no modifiers to the term “ethics.”

This, above all, surprises the hell out of me. As soon as you start applying adverbs and adjectives to this word, you kill the very integrity of the term. Regain that integrity.

3) Take responsibility for your actions.

Publishers take on works and make them available to the world. That’s what they do. But without an author’s work…none of you would exist. When taking on manuscripts and creating them into books…it seems (from my little vantage point and what I hear) that many houses then wash their hands of the promotional aspects to their responsibility. If an author could do it all, they wouldn’t need you. That’s why we all come running to you! We admit it! But then, you suddenly turn on us and blame us for all promotion. Really? Publishing, at least between the author and the House, is a two-way street. Sure, Publishers have the resources to get things out there, but it’s the author who created those words. Those ideas. One is not more important than the other. They’re different. Complimentary. Most authors are not publishers (or editors or salespeople, etc)…if we were, then we’d be them. Get it? Where’s the harm? It’s a mutually beneficial relationship–make it that way. Keep it that way. We want to work with you–okay, maybe some do not, but should that really be a problem? Throw more resources at that person, since you acquired their work, which implies you like their work. Don’t you want us to succeed? Shouldn’t you? That’s what you’re there for, isn’t it? This is a relationship. And a benefit to both. Don’t dump it all on the author and blame them. Authors come to publishing houses because of your name, influence, and resources. Help them. Give the resources to the books that need the resources, not to the readymade sales–these books don’t need the money–you’ve already spent it on them to make them the successes they are. Afford that same courtesy and respect to new blood. After all, if you’re not going to put resources toward something you’ve acquired–why the hell’d you take it on in the first place?

4) There are no cure alls.

Digital this, e-book that, [Internet-based] social networking for everything else. If publishing practices were as robust as they needed to be, none of this would be an issue, right? Quit looking at the symptoms and look at what we, in my line of work, call root cause analysis. You’ll find your answers there–whether or not you act on them is a whole nother story. But, hey, crying “The sky is falling” sells great copy and gives people something to point fingers at at workshops, conferences, and book fairs. To be honest (and I could very well be off the mark), and to proffer my humble opinion, I feel it’s about power (which directly involves money). Make publishing about the book. It’d be interesting to see what might happen….

5) Put out good vibes.

Intent. You get what you put out there, and what you put out there should make life better. Don’t make it all about the money or numbers, make it about the written word–in whatever form. Make it about making life better. Make it about the fun and joy of writing, the excitement of publishing. Yes, there are bad and terrible things and people out there, but if you focus on the bad what happens to the good? It’s not a case of sticking heads in sand. It’s about putting good out into the world. I study the books that are published and reviewed in Publishers Weekly, and among other things, what absolutely startled me one day was when it dawned on me how many enormously violent story lines were out there. The depressing and the negative. Good Lord, and we wonder where our sense of wonder, amazement, and joy goes?! Like the old noir movies, I don’t believe we have to be explicit about it. In today’s world we’re supersizing the hell out of violence at a time when we especially need to down play it, don’t you think?

6) Develop authors, create relationships.

This should be stating the obvious, but it seems that what “relationship” means today is not what it meant 20 or more years ago. If we all shoot for the “sure thing” (and what is that in publishing, anyway?), it’s like a shallow root system. One good, strong storm, and over topples the mighty empire. I think this is exactly what we’re seeing with all this talk about digital this-and-that. The shallow root system has borne out its logical conclusion. Create those authorial relationships, but also with the readerships. Have that internalized from the top down, not just down in the trenches.

7) No, it’s not really all about the numbers.

See above.

I read this week’s (Jan 31, 2011 issue) Publishers Weekly Soapbox article on the back page, by Andrei Codrescu, and I had to admit–I loved it!

I know people love all kinds of diversions, all kinds of toys, and I’ve even got a Facebook and Twitter account–but I never use them. I tried to use em as they were designed, but they just never interested me. I personally find it a huge “time suck,” and I just don’t have that kind of time to get sucked up (hell, I gave up my fiction writing morning just to post this). I don’t have a smartphone, and I don’t walk around wanting to be that connected:

On toilet now, reading latest NatGeo.

OMG–time to wipe!

KMN– out of TP!

Whew–good thing for previous NatGeo lying around….

But I understand the allure to those who do. I understand the diversion. The fun of it. But for me, with no book tour, nothing new other than “still writing next work…” I’m just not one to post every stinking waking action of my day on the Internet for everyone to roll their eyes over.

And does using any of these forms of social media really sell books?

Does the huge expenditure of effort being levied upon authors really justify the end result?

Prove that it does, don’t just tell me you “Yeah–it does! It gives me another avenue to talk about my stuff, to forward my stuff, to post my stuff! I get new ideas on stuff I never would have had! My 10^th cousin in Alaska never would’ve known about my stuff if….”

And if you didn’t do that, would your work have sold any better?  For realsies?

Give me the numbers.  Facts and figures.  I’m all ears.

As Mr. Andrei Codrescu says himself, I don’t think this has been proven, or more to the point, I don’t think it will be proven. I don’t think that the warranting of forcing authors to spend huge amounts of time behind FB or Twitter, or even having to have them, is really justified, but I’m sure critics out there will prove me wrong (and I know the “same set of numbers” can be used for or against any argument, so I have been a bit facetious, here, in my call for numbers…). I think that the  only real thing that will ever sell books…are great books.  Period. Yeah, the argument can be made that books don’t sell unless someone knows about them, but come on, everyone talks about something they’ve come into contact with that they feel is good…or bad, and this has been going around since way before computers. There’s absolutely no new mechanic, here. Just a medium. And to that end, everything sells books. I think at least one of the things that has become the issue in today’s publishing, from my limited vantage point, is that there are so many freaking more books out there, so the Suits need to push them more than ever before–and I’m not even going to get into whether or not all these books are even better than before, because, like with everything else in the world, of course there are the good and the bad…it’s just that with more of anything you naturally get the increased statistics of more good and more bad. It’s a numbers game and, to my little mind, that’s exactly what the Suits are playing. I don’t know enough about that part of the business to say whether or not that’s good or bad, but I have heard and tend to believe that it’s a bad thing that publishers no longer seem to take an interest in cultivating authors like “the old days.” That’s what I hear from published authors, editors, and agents….

But, back to our story.

Perhaps my stance says something about my life, I don’t know (okay, I do know, but screw it!), but I love my life and I really don’t want everyone to know every second of my day. It’s my day–go get your own day, goddamit. Live your own life.

But I loved the statement in the Soap Box Mr. Codrescu made, in that authors need to be somewhat mysterious. I liked that a lot. It’s like with movie stars, I really don’t care to know their political views, but I love their acting ability. I like the mysteriousness of what I may think is their life… that they might agree or don’t agree with me… or that we might get into spirited discourse over the nature of metaphysics…or that we might share the same love of iced tea….

But I don’t want to read such blather about them waking up, making coffee, or taking a shit.

But…I understand the allure.

Do you really get that?

Life is lonely by yourself. It’s fun to reach out and touch somebody. To feel a part of something bigger, even if that’s just called LIFE. I think that has a lot to do with all this massive infusion of technology into our lives. The everyday grind ain’t so much fun [to most] and sharing the pain with others helps make things a little more….bearable.

Fun.

Just flat-out fun.

Share the pain. The joy.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  Nothing.

Just don’t make that a requirement to living.

Okay, just saw these and love em!  Check out the “UFO Series” art work by Close Encounters Studios.  I just found them from reading the Examiner.com’s article about the newest addition to the sculpture series, the Moon Landing Conspiracy. I checked out their website a little, and it looks pretty neat.  Even has links about UFO News  and their blog.

Who says there’s no interest in Things-UFO?

Cool!

A friend sent this information my way, and it’s most thought provoking! Apparently the UN has already had a UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, since 1958. The current director of said UNOOSA is a Malaysian astrophysicist by the name of Mazian Othman, and it is this gentleman people are saying could be our new UFO Ambassador.

Gee, what kinda training would he receive? What kindaf resources be at his (or her, if another) disposal?

I think this is great.

Others, however, notably Professor Stephen W. Hawking, are of a different mindset. He fears things might not be as rosy as others might consider. Kinda like when Columbus landed in America. Or when aliens attacked the Whitehouse….

But the thing is, however whatever pans out, perhaps it is a good idea to create such an office? Personally I don’t believe in all the negativity associated with UFOs, nor do I believe in their traditional explanations (and I’d love to go into it, but I’m trying to publish a novel that describes my thoughts on the matter; yes, it’s fiction, but my views are heavily embedded in there and I don’t want take any possible wind out of my sails…), but I don’t have a problem with planning ahead, either. Even using my point of view, this could be a very good thing. And if they are so nasty as Hawking and others think, then wouldn’t this be a doubly good way to go?

So, take a look at these links (UFO Ambassador and UNOOSA), give it some thought…

…and watch the skies, my friends, watch the skies….