성복동에서/ Hanok in Seoul

 

Yongin

 

Death Haiku #1

 

BridgeText

BRIDGETEXT 1

BridgeText is a publishing venture I started several years ago. The initial idea was to promote the concept of the screenplay-novel, a hybrid form that itself can take many forms.

In this video, I describe some of the ideas I originally had:

An intro to the screenplay module novel concept

youtu.be/zRIQqNSfMac

Unlike a few other writers who’d worked with similar concepts, the screenplay novel, as I envisaged it, had to work both as a conventional novel and as a graphic narrative.

The Han River Bike Trail

 Biking the Han

Ecosystems

 

On screenplay fiction 5

 

On screenplay fiction 4

 

On screenplay fiction 3

Screenplay novel artwork 

On screenplay fiction 2

 Canada publishes a reasonable number of books — though that number could be increased; its biggest challenge, however, is selling more books … that is, increasing its share of the Canadian book market from its current low point of 5 percent.

What kind of strategies could be used? The following are worth discussing:

1. Enhanced Marketing and Visibility

There needs to be a concerted effort to market Canadian books more aggressively, both domestically and internationally. This could involve campaigns that highlight the unique aspects of Canadian literature and its relevance to contemporary issues.

2. Support from Retailers (booksellers promoting Canadian literature by featuring it more prominently in stores and online platforms).

3. Cultural Initiatives. These exist already, but there are glaring absences, such as major book fairs. New media festivals for hybrid forms such as videopoems and authorial moviepoems and moviestories much needed.

4. Education and Outreach. Putting more Canadian literature into educational curricula and community reading programs.

5. Diversification of Publishing Models. Genuinely embracing alternative publishing models, such as independent and self-publishing (more about this later, as ingrained snobbery has created a self defeating and intellectually dishonest situation in this regard).

6. International Distribution. Strengthening international distribution channels could help Canadian novels gain acclaim and readership abroad, which in turn could boost their popularity at home.

7. Inventing new forms of fiction; that is, reinventing the novel itself so that publication of books reaches new audiences because the books themselves attract buyers. This already happening with graphic fiction. But these experimental forms could be taken farther — much farther.

Sur les romans de scénario illustré 1

 Récemment, le critique Steven Beattie a passé en revue un roman policier écrit sous la forme d'un scénario (un documentaire sur un meurtre) accompagné d'un e-mail/SMS. Il s’agit d’une sorte d’expérience stylistique qui pourrait être considérée comme une mise à jour du roman épistolaire ou quelque chose de nouveau et d’audacieusement moderne. Il reste à voir si ce débat aura lieu, mais je voudrais cadrer le débat en des termes rarement utilisés. Le premier est la spécificité de la production littéraire canadienne (Stephen et moi sommes tous deux canadiens), et le second est l'attitude généralisée à l'égard des œuvres littéraires. Produire un roman dans une édition internationale, c'est-à-dire un roman qui reçoit une renommée et une distribution internationales.

La production canadienne de fiction est considérée presque entièrement comme le produit de maisons d'édition de propriété canadienne et québécoise. En apparence, cette perception semble assez logique. Après tout, qui publie des livres autres que les éditeurs de livres ? Mais ce que les étrangers au domaine ont tendance à ne pas réaliser (et ce que les initiés ne veulent pas non plus admettre), c'est que les livres canadiens sont très impopulaires parmi les acheteurs de livres canadiens. L'industrie du livre et des magazines contrôlait autrefois 25 % du marché canadien, mais elle en représente aujourd'hui 5 %. Ce déclin a amené certains à prétendre que l’édition canadienne est « morte ». Une telle qualification est manifestement injuste. Les éditeurs canadiens produisent environ 20 000 nouveaux livres chaque année. Mais la part de marché reste extrêmement faible. Cela est particulièrement vrai par rapport à d’autres pays. Un initié de l’édition a décrit la performance de l’industrie canadienne comme « la pire en littérature ».

Alors, que devrions-nous faire? Comment les livres canadiens peuvent-ils conquérir une plus grande part du marché national du livre?

(À suivre)

On the highly illustrated screenplay narrative and the screenplay module novel

Recently, critic Steven Beattie reviewed a mystery novel that was written in the form of a screenplay (for a documentary being made about a murder) and accompanying emails / text messages. This is kind of stylistic experimentation that could be dismissed as nothing more than an updating of the epistolary novel, or as something new and daringly contemporary. Whether this debate happens remains to be seen, but I’d like to frame a discussion in terms that are rarely employed, the first being the specifics of literary production in Canada (Steven and I are both Canadian), and second a generalized attitude toward novel production in international publishing — that is, those novels which receive international acclaim and distribution.

Canadian novel production is considered almost exclusively the result of Canadian / québécois owned publishing houses. This perception seems logical enough on its surface, since, after all, who will publish books but book publishers? However, what outsiders to the scene tend not to recognize (and insiders are not eager to acknowledge) is Canadian books are remarkably unpopular among Canadian book buyers; the book and magazine industry used to have 25% of the Canadian market — it now has 5% … a decline that’s led some to claim Canadian publishing is « dead ». That characterization is clearly unfair ; Canadian publishing produces approximately 20,000 new titles a year. But its market share remains embarrassingly low, especially when compared to other countries. One publishing insider described the performance of the Canadian industry as being « the worst in the literate world ».

What, then, is to be done? How can Canadian books gain more of the share of the book market in their own territory?

(To be continued)

The carbon footprint of military exercises

 

벛꽃/ Cherry blossoms