Community

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Building Communities Around Content #TOC

Today kicked off the Tools of Change for Publishing Conference here in NY, and while I wasn’t able to attend, I was following it throughout the day on Twitter (#TOC), particularly via the Tweets of @annmichael, @RonHogan and @thewritermama, the latter of whom practically transcribed what appeared to be the highlight of the day: Building Communities Around Content.

It’s a topic that’s become Priority #1 for many publishers, books and magazines alike, as well as more marketing-savvy writers, and it’s one I have both a personal and professional interest in, too.

Touching on everything from defining one’s community, to determining ROI, to leveraging the natural inclination to form tribes, this session alone was probably worth the cost of admission for most attendees, and it would have been a great opportunity for someone from Portfolio to be standing outside selling copies of Seth Godin’s Tribes!

There were two particularly interesting points raised that piqued my interest enough to retweet, the first of which was right out of Tribes:

@annmichael the social infrastructure of the community is much more important than the technology infrastructure #TOC

@RonHogan #toc what kind of Return On Attention are you offering readers?

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Party Like A Rock Star

Party Like A Rock Star He heard the music most of us tune out without realizing, marched to a beat mere mortals couldn’t comprehend. A rock star, literally, Peter of the Earth conducted life-giving electricity through those he loved and strangers alike, in random bars and nightclubs and open mics and windswept beaches in the dead of winter. To know him was to question your own commitments, to understand life was meant to be lived, treated like an empty dance floor with a DJ who takes requests. To be uninhibited unrestrained unleashed. Those who can, dance. Those who can’t, write…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

COMMENT: Buying Habits…and How to Change Them

First, read Ed Cunard’s post criticizing the Independents’ Day campaign (read the comments, too), then read my intro to yesterday’s On the Shelves. Both got me thinking about the comics I currently buy and enjoy, how they compare to what I was buying and enjoying this time last year, and offered a bit of insight into why my to-read pile is growing out of control.

In the comments to Cunard’s post, I mention a conversation I had the other night:

…about the cyclical nature of comics buying, how some of us move from nostalgia/habit to experimentation to comfort, while others get locked into a particular mode, by choice or lack of awareness. Where I think I’ve been shifting into comfort mode recently, only buying comics I enjoy regardless of what genre or publisher, this Independents’ Day is a great idea for those stuck in nostalgia/habit mode.

Ed and others have issues with the Independents’ Day idea, some valid, some overly nitpicky. In the end, though, I’m a believer in taking action, and if there’s a group of fan/creators who see the ID campaign as a rallying point that will inspire them to taking action, more power to them. IMO, it’s similar to The Hive, except the ID campaign focuses on the Direct Market while The Hive is attempting to look beyond it. Both are valid concepts with great intentions, and you could nitpick either of them to death if you have nothing better to do, but they can really only be judged by their end results.

Anyway, the buying habits thing jumped out at me in the midst of all of this as I’m on the verge of drastically overhauling my pull list. Again.

When I started this blog, I was on the fringes of “nostalgia” mode, enjoying some of the stuff I remembered from my youth, but starting to seek out new things to read. Overwhelmed by the variety of comics on the racks every Wednesday, I did what I do in mainstream bookstores when I’m looking for something new: I browse until I find something that strikes my fancy. Sometimes it’s the author; sometimes it’s the back cover copy or a blurb from a writer I like; sometimes it’s the cover image itself (though that’s more often a turnoff than an inspiration, especially with genre fiction). It’s certainly never the publisher. In fact, of my favorite writers — Larwence Block, Matt Ruff, Carl Hiaasen — I have no idea who publishes their work, nor do I care.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

COMMENT: Who Cares About Journalism?

The response to yesterday's article reminds me a bit of how minorities often tend to be more accepting of a lesser quality product made by one of their own, simply happy to have something they can relate to. (ie: UPN comedies, Wayans brothers' movies, Hudlin's Black Panther, etc.) Because there's such a lack of real journalism in the comics industry, anything resembling it becomes worthy of praise.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

The Mid-Range Gets the Short End of the Stick

"San Antonio makes sense for us, and has given us much that I'm grateful for ... but Austin still feels like home." Phil pretty much nails my feelings about life these days with that statement, and I don't particularly like it. The feeling, I mean. For me, where we are in the Bronx right now "makes sense for us." Financially, at least. In a really skewed sorta way. On a genetic level, being born and raised in NY spoils you for anywhere else. Makes you predisposed to accepting the ridiculously high cost-of-living; the hyper-competitive job market; the ever-increasing gap between…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Making Connections

You’re not a poet,
you just slam a lot.

I should note that I tend to define slam poets in a very general sense, beyond the specifics of the actual competition. IMO, non-competing poets that read frequently at slam-affiliated open mics are also slam poets, looking for and benefitting from the audience the competition attracts and the energy it generates. To pretend otherwise is hypocritical. Or self-delusional.

While the question of the level of importance of the competition in the early days of slam is the subject of some debate, few will argue that Marc Smith’s original intent was to reach a wider audience. The competition was simply a gimmick to draw that wider audience in.

As such, I’ve always valued, and found much more intertesting, the non-poets’ opinions on poetry, especially in regards to slam and its periphery. In theory, they are the audience most slam poets are trying to reach, and yet, I’ve found that the more accepted a poet is into the scene, the more dismissive they tend to become of the non-poets’ opinions.

NEWS FLASH: Other poets are not the audience one should be primarily interested in reaching. Or impressing.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

This is for Bassey

Dear you,

Since mid-1997, the New York City poetry slam scene has been more or less at the center of my life. Though more right-of-center these days, and considerably less significant in the bigger picture, there’s two things I will always cherish about the experience: founding a little bit louder, and the Friends I’ve made. While the reason for the former should be pretty obvious, I make a specific distinction in referring to Friends.

When I got married in 1998, there was a healthy contingent of poets at the wedding, including my best man. A year on the scene, I was still in the initial glow of finding a community of similar-minded people bound by poetry and, transient that I was, they became the majority of my friendships, practically like family. If I picture that day now, picture the table where they all sat together, the fact that I can’t quite remember who they all were suggests none of them remain friends, never mind Friends. [After checking with Salomé on who was there, I’d say I consider a couple of them acquaintances these days, as opposed to those I’ve simply cut off or lost contact with.]

I first heard of you in 1999 from Al Letson. He emailed me, saying you were cool people and were either visiting or had just moved to NYC. As I remember it, he’d told you about louder and encouraged you to come through. In my book, if someone I respect vouches for someone – personally and/or artistically – they’re good with me until they prove otherwise.

Al was right on both counts.

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