Current mood: GOOD!!
Category: GOOD!! Writing and Poetry
On my peak written day, I consider myself to about the most interesting, spicey punch and vital writer working in the English language...
Of course many of you won't agree with this assertion, and it seems there's few within the publishing or magazine business that do either...
But I've never been one to let others opinions to interfere with my very high opinion of my own abilities...
I would also add, that my peak written day could well still be 15 or more years away....
Yes boss, what you read now on and around this blog, is only my warming up exercises.
I am currently completing light stretches and the odd 50 meter jog (in the tracksuit) ONLY!!!
I AM FOCUSING MY MIND AND BODY FOR WHAT IS TO COME!!!
AFTER A FALSE START OR TWO, I'M ORGANISING MY DIET AND WORKING MY CORNER!!!
Now...
That I'm still a good distance off this promised written peak, could be seen as being EXACTLY why the publishing business isn't sniffing around my every waking hour, offering up vast and unfeasible sums of cash to persuade me to run them a quick and full hundred meters or 2...
But frankly, I don't think that's an excuse....
No boss, the truth of the matter is that it's THEIR FUCKING JOB to find talent young.
The grim reality is however, that the pubs bizz's is about as effective in discovering the decent and long lasting written talent EARLY, as the queen is at living modestly...
Yes boss, the kind of folk who work in publishing, are generally the kind of people who think Martin Amis is important...
We're talking the same squared asses, that missed Charles Bukowski's ability to write essential fiction, essays and journalism until he was something in the region of 50 years old (and then it took a new publisher who set up his own operation and risked his house to prove the BLEEDING FUCKING OBVIOUS!!!)
The music bizz is much the same, and no aspect of this has changed in the days of the winternet and myspazz.
No boss, don't be fooled by all this musical democracy crap spouted by the likes of Che McGee.
McGee is a businessman who thinks he's in the trenches when he is in fact dining with the officers..
And rather than myspazz meaning FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, the reality is that rather than the door being opened to the talented, the room has simply been filled with a few million more of the untalented, and the never gonna's, making things all the harder for those who really do HAVE IT...
As a result of this 'democracy' there are no more 5 album deals off the cuff.
Now, truly talented musicians and pop visionaries have to starve the first 2 or 3 themselves, or with the help of smaller poorer labels, to a very high standard, until the majors deem them suitable for the masses...
Furthermore, this 'correction' has enabled the major labels to jettison all responsibilities to develop talent and has instead allowed them to concentrate on making money out of dead certs and back catalogs...
I mean, does anyone seriously believe the smart suits are loosing out???
Those fuckers are so resilient they last better than lead in a luke warm paper fire!!!
But back to the books...
If I do say so myself, a prime example of the publishing business's ineptitude was when they missed my nuclear book
That book was a true story that centered around me (an alleged Terrorist - The Evening Standard claimed that - it therefore must be true) working 12 hour days in a nuclear facility, 6 months after September 11th..
My aim was to find out secrets and expose the appalling security...
However, soon proving and then getting bored with this original investigation, the book went on to track my involvement with my co-workers, as a result of which I bought 100 ecstasy pills off a recovering junkie, got drunk every night, and become utterly infatuated with the Scaffolders Secretary...
All told, it was spank rock, investigative big balls and quasi-majorism POOPAH of the highest quality, and you'd think (as did I) that upon informing the publishing business of this stories VERY REAL existence, I'd have been knocked flat by the Tidal Wave of interest...
But, no...
Despite a major campaign of shoving my book in their faces, that didn't even nearly happen...
Well, if you read what's available of that book now, the flaws are obvious for all to see...
I do however still believe that, had some smart man or woman (I believe they call themselves 'agents') come in at the right time and developed the work, hooked me up with a good and super brave and tolerant editor, and provided the correct liquid encouragement, I'd have sitting in the comfy seats at the opera by now wondering what it's like to be poor...
But it was a no go...
So, having gone through all of that and lived to survive another day, here's what I reckon...
If you're working in the creative game and are feeling that your COLOSSAL FUCKING TALENT isn't being noticed and that you might as well quit and get a proper job - my advice is to forget the 'business' even exists, keep working hard, work out who you are and understand if you're fooling yourself or not...
If you're completely sure you're not a flossy jumper, keep working HARD, grab at luck, grease poles, ignore the fools who doubt you (use them as scientific research AND ENERGY!!!) and look forward to the day when you pick up a copy of The Bookseller Magazine that leads with your equivalent of:
FUTUREPROOF QUINTUPLE MILLION SELLING BOSS GIOVANNI $3RD$ CLAIMS PUBLISHING BUSINESS IS MORE LIKELY TO FIND OIL IN THE PAPER CLIP STASH THAN DISCOVER GENUINE LITERARY TALENT EARLY....
 | Currently listening : Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent d’Arby By Terence Trent d’Arby Release date: 1990-10-25  |
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