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1.
THE STUDENT (Reissue)
Most people probably don’t realise this, but books generally sell a few copies and then totally disappear from view. Sure, they live on via digital retailers like Amazon, and they’re still in the library and Goodreads and everywhere else — maybe someone posts about an old title online — but short of runaway bestsellerdom, most novels decline in sales within a year or two. It’s a steep decline too.
I’m talking low double-digits.
This is why the only thing I really know about book contracts is that you should have a minimum sales clause in there. If you sell under a 100 copies in two successive years, you can get the rights back. And guess what, short of a miracle, you will be selling under that.
I take it that most authors don’t recover their rights because they do not know what to do with them. This is where a stint in the trenches of self-publishing is helpful. If my book is only going to live on via digital retailers, I want the (substantially) higher royalties and control that come with self-publishing.
Which is the long way of saying, The Student is now back ‘in print’ and it’s available for the first time via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program:
2.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING (Movies)
We are absolutely in a vibe-shift at the moment. Three years ago, Love Lies Bleeding would have been a film about empowerment and marginality. Today, it’s a neo-noir about a couple of dirtbags doing shady stuff in the desert. Recommended, always.
3.
ABEL FERRARA ON THE KING OF NEW YORK (YouTube)
In the 90s, wild man director Abel Ferrara was popular enough — and the moment was delirious enough — that my small town university screened Bad Lieutenant (1992) as their weekly free movie for students. This was an agricultural college and people were freaked the fuck out. Many walked.
For my friends and I, though, this was something worth investigating further. Over the course of a few months, we found Ferrara’s stuff on VHS and subsequently saw Dangerous Game (1993, starring Madonna) at The Classic cinema in Brisbane. What did we learn about the man from watching these films?
A: Don’t smoke crack.
[Shout out to John Frankensteiner who cut this together.]
4.
ROBERT POLLARD AT 41 (Making Stuff)
Bob Pollard really did a thing in his early 40s.
I’m officially in my late-40s at the moment, but if you’re in 30s and you’re thinking, I hope there’s still time to make my statement, just remember that Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices absolutely knocked it out of the park in 1999:
5.
CURRENTLY READING (Books)
I recently finished Stephen J Golds’ Say Goodbye When I’m Gone and I enjoyed it — it’s beautifully written — but it’s also hard to recommend without the following caveat: the book is insanely brutal, especially on the female characters, and in ways that don’t always pay off.
This isn’t as much of a dig as it sounds. Some of my early stuff got away from me, too. And warnings aside, I’m going to read the other two books in the series. Golds is definitely one to watch and I’m really impressed with the way he’s recently reissued his novels. They look great:
6.
CURRENTLY LISTENING (Music)
It’s the school holidays at the moment, so I’m keeping it very relaxed with a lot of Hiroshi Yoshimura, who I’m ashamed to say is a recent discovery.
7.
BRISBANE IN 1981 (Photograph)
In The Strip, Henry Loch visits Brisbane briefly, and this is what it would have looked like:
8.
IN HELL (Short Story)
There’s not much to say about this one, except to point out that these stories are all part of a larger work, and the essence of that bigger story is starting to announce itself.
I really like this one, btw.
That’s all.
— IAIN
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