Forum / Red Lemonade

Marcus Speh
Sep 12, 11:37am

Those of you who don't know Red Lemonade yet, you should check it out. RL stands for a new, DRM-free, ePub & print publishing model cum with writing and editing community attached. They've just opened their bookshop.

Since I'm now preparing my <a href="http://redlemona.de/marcus-speh/collected-flash-fiction">"Collected Serious Flash Fiction (2009-2011)"</a> for publication — containing revelatory Fictionaut classics such as "The Serious Writer And His Penis" & "In The Nude"— I decided to showcase a few <a href="http://redlemona.de/marcus-speh/collected-flash-fiction">excerpts from the book</a> at Red Lemonade, just to try it, and I found it quite simple.

[Of course I don't have a publisher yet, but that'll happen sooner or later, I'm sure, fingers crossed & toes curled. If you'd like to publish this, don't by shy & contact me.]

Susan Gibb
Sep 13, 10:21am

Thanks for the heads-up, Marcus. And I know you'll get a publisher for your collection!

Marcus Speh
Sep 13, 04:29pm

thank you, susan, for noticing & for the encouragement...in my corner of the world, the sky's still empty, no publishers humming about my house. must be the time of the year. the decade? in the meantime, i'm <a href="http://blog.marcusspeh.com/?p=5255">keeping busy falling in love</a> (yes, how wondrous).

and what do you think of red lemonade?

Susan Tepper
Sep 13, 09:48pm

Marcus le Speh, the sky is empty around these parts, too, for most of us. Do not despair, luck can change in an instant (and does)..

James Lloyd Davis
Sep 14, 02:12pm

I've noticed Red Lemonade in the context of researching modes and methods for publishing, though still personally biased against 'self-publishing' because of the stigma associated with it in the past. The reason for my research was not so much to find a vehicle for my own work, but in the general sense ... with the tentative possibility of developing a commercial venture. As if in doing so, I could find a vehicle for my own writing. Fat chance.

It's all a bit confusing, the methods, the technology, and thoroughly, consistently in flux ... to be honest, I believe there is a vacuum in the presentation of various platforms for publishing because the people who develop them tend to speak in the language of the technology involved, which flies right over the heads of those who are familiar with 'traditional' or print publishing.

-Here's a note to those who write that kind of book, a comprehensive (accent on the all-inclusive) "Electronic publishing for the uninitiated (Dummies)" would probably be a big seller, considering the vast collective of writers sans publishers in the world today ...

Marcus, I'll be interested to see how your eclectic collection is received in RL. Maybe you can keep us updated here 'as time goes by' all Bogart-like and in simpler terms.

It's exciting, really. If younger, if I had the money, I'd buy into publishing now. I know that sounds like a stupid move, but that's how big things begin. One could buy up failing venues and conglamorate the mix into a multi-faceted approach to the market. God knows, the competition is so confused right now that a fast and loose commercial publisher could probably become the Bill Gates of literature overnight. Mixed media being the key, a new language for literature, so to speak. The more exciting and commercially viable media could carry the cost of developing more traditional literature ... as it should ... as it always has before the publishing industry developed its current timorous attitude. The possibilities are endless and have yet to even approach the technology, much less embrace it.

Writers, though, tend to be static and academically pre-disposed to rigid structures, so the idea that trends in publishing will be driven by the production side of literature is unlikely. Nice to imagine, though, that a collective of writers could be a force for the needed attention, the injection of creative energy that's lacking in publishing today.

I hope I'm making sense.

Keep it up, Marcus!

Marcus Speh
Sep 15, 08:41am

Susan, James, thank you as always for encouragement. Can never have enough of that.

@Susan, I am considering to change my name to "Le Speh" if only to alter my persona in the direction of Ursula Le Guin.

@James I do not consider Red Lemonade for publication of this collection (yet). I have stopped writing short fiction altogether (that feels strange but good: I can see how I needed flash to find my voice, but now I've had enough ... for a while) & this is all I shall have to say on the topic of "flash fiction".

But I'm still rooting for a traditional publisher—if only because I don't wish to spend the time self-publishing is going to take. Every day I get closer to my grave (which, in the words of Johnny Cash, is not going to hold my body down...), I'm more conscious of time ticking away...

Instead Red Lemonade for me at present is two things:

(1) a show case to attract more viewers outside of the community of 200 writers or so that already know me; agents, publishers, editors...useful for when this collection is actually ready for publication (which will be soon).

(2) a space for annotation and editing of stories that I had considered "finished" but that I know can be improved here and there (but I've gone over them too many times to do that on my own): Red Lemonade's annotation and workshopping facilities are vastly superior to Fictionaut—though as a community & story show space, it is inferior (two sides of one social media writing coin, really).

And of course I'll keep you posted!

Cheers from Berlin
Marcus Speh

James Lloyd Davis
Sep 15, 06:16pm

Time, yes, the fellow with the hoodie and the grin and scythe lurking 'round, takin' names. I hear you, Marcus.

Even now, writing full time, I can feel that same pressure.

I did notice yesterday, a new book in the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio library ... Zazen, by Vanessa Veselka and was surprised to see it there, thought I'd recognized it, went back to Red Lemonade's web site and it's one of theirs ... available online for free and in paperback, Kindle, etc. for cash, simultaneously. Interesting concept.

I mean, jeez, if it's in the public library in Cuyahoga Falls, it's got to be big time.

I may look deeper into RL, along with other sites for feedback, but I don't really want it when I'm actually writing the novel. I've found that when you're writing something long, it can actually murder the impulse to get even one negative reaction until it's fully written. There are critics enough after the fact. You don't need anyone looking over your shoulder while you work.

Cheers back at you, eh?

Mark Reep
Sep 15, 06:56pm

Hi guys, RL is interesting, and very promising. Check out Kio Stark's 'Follow Me Down'. Great read.

Christian Bell
Sep 16, 02:14pm

Red Lemonade looks so interesting that I joined. And I'm usually reluctant to join anything.

James Lloyd Davis
Sep 16, 04:04pm

Me too. There's something happening there worth investigation. Technically clunky, it nonetheless seems to be 'doing' something.

Sam Rasnake
Sep 17, 02:30pm

"Collected Serious Flash Fiction (2009-2011)" is/will be a marvelous read, Marcus.

Thanks for RL link.

Susan Gibb
Sep 17, 02:53pm

I too hold James' reticence to self-publish, even in these changing times. I may sign up at RL though, and will research it a bit more over the weekend. Right now, I'm so committed and taken up by the daily stories this year (only 105 left to go!) that I can see next year is going to be full of editing, submitting, and maybe looking further into publishing an anthology of some sort. Then onto a novel either traditional or hypertext or new media (with music and dancing girls).

James Lloyd Davis
Sep 17, 03:19pm

Holograms of dancing girls tripping lightly 'cross the pages ... mixed media, yes. Today, the Kindle. Tomorrow? Implanted chips in the frontal lobe. Close your eyes and read a book ...

Hypertextually enhanced bionic literature is coming soon to Amazon!

But, hopefully we'll still be using words for a little while longer. I've enjoyed quite enough obsolescence in my lifetime already. Damned if I want to see creative writing evolve into creative code crunching. It could happen ...

James Lloyd Davis
Sep 17, 03:32pm

... Or, given the present downturn in economic development and such, a slow regression back to opium dens and hash pipes. MFA degrees in horticulture.

Marcus Speh
Sep 18, 05:53am

pure slush will publish a new story, one of my last four flash fictions, called "the serious writer buys an ipad", and it deals with many of the repercussions of this little debate & offers an unexpected, perhaps even unlikely ending. but that is a risk of serious writing that tries to be true to itself and to humanity: it may wander off into its own wonderworld.

Susan Tepper
Sep 18, 07:09am

Marcus looking forward to your forthcoming story at Pure Slush, I'm certain it will be intriguing...

Joani Reese
Sep 19, 02:50am

Just signed up. Thanks Marcus.

Joe Sullivan
Sep 21, 05:18pm

I went to the Red Lemonade launch a few weeks ago. I still didn't quite get it, though I'd signed up. Basically what I gather is, it's like Fictionaut for larger works. Richard Nash, though, still decides if he likes you enough to publish the book, so in that way, it's like a traditional publisher.

Susan Tepper
Sep 21, 05:35pm

Red Lemonade will be reading in my FIZZ series at KGB Bar in NYC on Monday, Dec. 19~
Readers names will be posted to KGB calendar soon (sorry I have nothing to do with that, so don't write me and ask to read). Richard Nash will be choosing the readers.

Marcus Speh
Sep 22, 11:26am

@joe i think you're right though i've just written to nash asking him to clarify his policy on the print publication. otherwise, the works on the site are usually long. fictionaut is very much (by choice of its members & technology) wed to the short form...

Marcus Speh
Sep 22, 11:26am

@susan that is great news....once again i wish i could come and be there...good luck with that!

Susan Tepper
Sep 22, 01:00pm

Marcus Le Speh, I wish you could be there too!

J. Mykell Collinz
Sep 22, 03:43pm

Marcus, you blaze the trail very admirably, giving feedback which others may follow. Good luck with your publishing. Your work certainly deserves to be read and recognized. Thanks for the RL info, your links, and the reference to Ursula Le Guin's Steering The Craft.
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