Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I Zoomed today with an author whom I met at the San Francisco Writers Conference. At the conference I get to consult with first-time attendees who wonder if their writing projects will find an audience. Some of them ask for a follow-up visit, or even a chance to work with me after the conference. Today this particular author found an audience with me for an hour, and I shared with him my unique perspectives on his unusual four book projects.
If “The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time,” as the musician James Taylor says, then I got to enact that secret for an hour, talking about creativity, writing, publishing, and the discoverability of an aspiring creative professional. I eventually cut the conversation short not because I wasn’t enjoying our chat, but because I wanted this author to value my time. Also, I wanted to attend to Kate.
Today’s conversation partner lives in a small town in Iowa, and he revealed that locally he couldn’t find the perspectives that I could offer him on non-sequential, poetic, and experimental writing projects. We discussed how discoverability as an author matters, too, because of inadequate local interest in what he writes. The long tail of the internet, and the frictionless ways in which any digital document can be purchased, means that any productive author with what Kevin Kelly calls “1,000 True Fans” can likely make a living from sharing one’s latest publications.
My friend the Sacramento novelist M. Todd Gallowglas has an army of followers, locally and out there in the world, who attend his online classes and writers’ salons, buy his science fiction books and books in other genres, and attend his (Sacramento only) regular storytelling performances, such as the two he put on this past Saturday. He calls them “Bard for Life.” His income is made possible in part from the books that he sells to his 1,000 true fans. I suspect he has more than 1,000.
I’ve been collecting poems for a reading that I am giving in a Sacramento piano bar on March 14th, so I have been thinking about authorship as a producer as well as a consultant. Meanwhile, my French bulldog Margot sits in the family “comfy chair,” and my son Jukie was upstairs watching Encanto, though right now the house is eerily quiet. Both of these charges would like to go out for a walk, while I need to write up some notes for my new author contact in Iowa.
I also need to look over the script for today’s airing of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour, my radio show that airs live Wednesday afternoons at 5 and drops as a podcast Thursday mornings at 9. So many authors from the writers conference have their own projects to discuss, and poems they would like to share with KDVS listeners.
I, too, have 1,000 true fans out there in the world, though many of them have but fond and fading memories of their writing, journalism, or poetry professor. I’ve been fortunate to draw a salary from UC Davis for the last 34 years. If I wanted to commodify and monetize all my creative work, I would spend more time ensuring my own discoverability, but I also recognize the pleasures of a Zoom conversation with a new friend, time preparing a meal for my son, the rough draft of a poem, or a late afternoon walk with the dog.
As Robert Graves reminds us, “There’s no money in poetry, but there’s no poetry in money, either.”
If you are in Davis tonight, please join us for the Pub Quiz at Sudwerk. The weather is warming up, and we have no rain scheduled for tonight, so recruit a team and join us at the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for everyone. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with the bigger crowds and more voices. As Saint Augustine allegedly said, “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.”
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on fruits, questionable medical advice, prototype computers, warriors, neurons, childish games, gold, capital cities that you have never visited, reactions, all saints, posthumous heroes and their girlfriends, sports franchises, overdue retirements, Poles who move to Britain, final lines to films, named weapons, grasses, words translated into multiple languages, magic, record breakers, surroundings, Dilbert, girls’ adventures, candy, fake mountains, groups of girls, emotional goodbyes, orthodox countries, comical antagonists, donations, spurs, nails, trickery, pigs, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to the Brooke, Jeannie, Becky, Franklin, and More Cow Bell. Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
- Gold. More than half the U.S. gold reserve is found in what U.S. state?
- Forests. What country alone holds more than 20% of the world’s forests?
- Pop Culture – Music. The 2022 number one song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is sung by the cast of what film?
P.S. Did you know that I post free bonus quiz questions on Patreon? I should start sampling those in my Wednesday quizzes.