The Cruel Struggle of Producing Your Art in a Money First Society

When people talk about "art" most primarily think of music, dance,  painting, drawing, sculpturing, etc.  For some odd reason, writing fiction is often overlooked as art although it meets all the criteria of all the other art genres.  Its creative and it reflects the vision, ideas, statements, hopes, and aspirations of the persons producing it.  Or maybe, my impression of how people see written fiction is colored by the people I come in contact with who may just not reflect the literary fiction reading public.  I don't know about that, but I do know that these days are extremely stressful ones.

The days are stressful because I'm preparing to offer up my third literary fiction piece to be published into another full length book.  My first novel is 362 pages.  The second one is 542 pages.  This third one will end up somewhere in between.  

The stress exists because my first two publishing experiences were very painful.  The publishers didn't do what they committed by contract to do.  The second publisher literally stole royalties from me and by that I mean he stole every penny of royalties I earned, which wasn't insignificant.  And, he even shorted me out of books he owed me that I paid for.  In fact, I have absolutely no way to order either of my first two novels unless I order them online and pay retail for them just like anyone else.  

I'm stressed because I am determined to make sure this third time around goes differently.  I want things to go better.  I really want to realize the dreams I have for producing my work that were not only not realized through the first two experiences, but I was taken advantage of each time.  If you know anything about me, than you know I fought back, but after the publishers filed bankruptcy, there wasn't much else I could do besides beating them up.  To be honest, the thought crossed my mind several times, but I understand doing that would have only jeopardized my ability to make this third go around better.

So, I'm focused on using what I've learned the first two times to help me make this third experience a vast improvement.  I don't have any illusions.  The publishing industry, like every other industry in this capitalist society, is based 100% on profit.  This reality is that is the driving force behind the struggles I've had with the other books I've written.  In truth, this reality is the driving force behind pretty much every problem we experience in our lives, but that's another discussion.

For now, we are talking about me not having unrealistic expectations for publishing this third novel.  For example, I know you are not supposed to say this, but I don't really care about royalties e.g. how much money I make from this next book.  What excites me is having the opportunities to talk about the concepts taking place in the book.  The focus on the characters fighting for African liberation.  The fact that glorious struggle isn't about being anti-white, its about being pro-humanity.  And, the experiences the characters have in finding that out.  The method in which their ability to develop courage and commitment serves them as repression against them intensifies.  Their ability to close ranks and struggle together.  The ability of the masses of the people to use their experiences to motivate them to do the same.  The emphasis on respecting women and all people.  These are the things I dream about standing in front of large crowds to talk about. 

Now, I'm a revolutionary organizer.  A revolutionary Pan-Africanist organizer at that.  That means we work with slim to none in resources.  Everything we value and promote is messaged as insanity in this society, including all the concepts I've explained will be in this next book.  Therefore, our ability to get people to listen to us and come into our environments requires sweat, blood, and tears for every person we attract.  That was one of the most attractive features of turning to writing literary fiction for me.  It provided an opportunity for me to address the issues I want to address in a way that maybe isn't as intimidating to people as a standard presentation about revolutionary change.  We are working to change hearts and minds and whatever way that can happen, I'm willing to try it.  From the feedback I've gotten from countless people after the first two books, the material very effectively achieves that objective.  My challenge is getting the book(s) in front of people and that's why this publishing process is so extremely stressful.  I understand that if I can do this properly, and get a few breaks, I can achieve my objective of having opportunities to get this book out there.  To get people to discuss the concepts within it.  That's my dream.

Anyone who produces art understands what I mean when I say you are constantly disrespected during your quest to get your art out here.  Its a systemic disrespect meaning it happens consistently in every circumstance you face.  I'm focused on doing my best to mitigate that negativity this time around.

The other major factor I'm thinking about is the publishing industry is just like the other entertainment industries.  Its concerned about form, not essence.  I have absolutely no doubt that this book has both, but the challenge is getting someone who has the capacity to pay attention long enough to your product to believe in it.  This is the part I'm most unsure of.  Obviously, based on my previous experiences, I've never seen what I just described.  Consequently, I have no way of knowing what it looks like to have someone respect your work.  A big part of me doesn't expect that.  What I expect is I'm going to do whatever I need to in order to ensure my work is respected.  In other words, if that means self-publishing, although I wasn't prepared to do it that way before, I am now because I definitely don't want to have a repeat performance of the last two published books.

Finally, I think its important to say that I maintain full faith in my capabilities and the product I'm producing.  This book is somewhat different than the other two.  The first one, I started in 2009 and finished the next year.  The second one I started in 2010 and finished in 2014.  This pending one I started with the second one.  I would write in one on one day and the other on another day.  So, it has taken me nine years to finish this one.  The last four years and some I've been working exclusively on this one.  If I assess the quality of my books, I feel strongly that the first one was decent, but it was my first one.  I believe the second one ("The Courage Equation") was a quality book in all areas, but I think this one surpasses both of the previous ones by far.  I've used what I've learned with the first two and I think that shows with this current work.  What I'm saying is I've put even more into this this book and I want to see that bear fruit.  As a result, I'm going to do much more due diligence than I did with the previous two. I was honestly so happy to get publishing contracts that I didn't do all of the background work on the publishers that I should have.  That will not happen this time. 

Whatever art you produce, if you don't firmly believe in it, no one else will.  I think one way to meet the challenges of this money over people system when facilitating your art is to remember that if you are doing your art with your primary vision being making money, you will be consistently disappointed.  You always have to view your art as your voice.  And, it can't just be your personal voice.  Your art is culture and you didn't invent and/or control the culture that produced you.  That means you have the responsibility to always use your voice to challenge inequities in this world.  If you lose sight of that, your art loses its soul.  

These are my focuses as I embark on this third journey.  I've promised myself I would do something else I didn't do before.  I would have much more fun this time with the process.  No one contributed nine years of work on this book except me.  No one stayed up all those nights and spent all that time thinking it through except me.  The number of shear hours I've spent on this project are uncountable.  I have earned the right to celebrate this process and I'm going to do it.  Not only am I convinced that if I follow all of these new principles in this publishing process, I not only will be able to enjoy this part of the process (like I've enjoyed writing the book), but I believe I will also position myself to meet the core goals I have with this process.  So, pay attention because if everything goes the way I plan on ensuring it goes, you will be hearing about this book very soon.