Comments on: indie lit peeps: something to be learned from nine inch nails and radiohead?

By: bill knott

bill knott — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:46:52 +0000

p.s.
call me crazy but I would rather post my poetry on my blog for open access and free download,

I would rather do that than have a Selected Poems published by Farrar Straus & Giroux (often called the “most prestigious poetry publisher in America”),

and that is indeed the choice I made, I rejected FSG’s offer to do my Selected Poems

and chose instead to do the blog pub pdfs——

and I haven’t regretted it for a second!

By: bill knott

bill knott — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:37:24 +0000

“control” is why I moved from print to blog publishing . . . after my last supposedly real book (“The Unsubscriber” was put out in 2004 by Farrar Straus & Giroux, the editor there (Jonathan Galassi) asked me for a followup book, in fact a 240-page (his number) SELECTED POEMS . . . my first dead-tree book was published in 1968, since when about ten or twelve others have been done by various publishers (Pitt, Random House, U. of Iowa, BOA, et al). . . but none of those dozen books satisfied me because they, them, the editors/publishers controlled every aspect of the book and I the ostensible author had no input or say . . . But on my blog, I can vanity-publish the books I want in the way I want, in editions that reflect my goals, and indeed by now I have posted all my poetry, every poem I’ve written since 1960, for open access and free download . . . The pdfbooks I post there are not going to be reviewed or eligible for recognition or sold in stores or placed on library shelves, but they are the books I wish to do, and they are free for the taking to anyone who wants them. Here at the twilight end of my poetic career I am receiving more satisfaction from this setup than I ever got from any past publishing endeavor, any of my past so-called real books put out by so-called real publishers.

By: Barbara Jane Reyes

Barbara Jane Reyes — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:57:06 +0000

it does seem inexpensive, but what I am thinking about is this: I’ve been told that artists on major record labels don’t make money off their records/CD’s. the record label does. the artist makes money off touring. so in this way, all the money from downloads from NIN’s and radiohead’s sites go directly to them. and in this way, what seems inexpensive is actually just reallocated more fairly in the artists’ favor.

also bear in mind that there are other options available for NIN downloads, more expensive packages with more stuff, however many drops in the bucket that may seem like.

it seems the only time the free download option did not work in reznor’s favor is with the saul williams album.

as to how this pertains to poets given that neither poets nor publishers typically make any money from producing and selling poetry books: something to do with the artist’s control over his/her own material, what i was saying about that integrity versus flattening it in favor of mass (albeit still not lucrative) acceptance.

By: nathanael matthias weiss

nathanael matthias weiss — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:19:32 +0000

it seems so inexpensive to pay $5 for basically two albums worth of music. do you think this devalues the idea of a digital album? or is this all people are willing to pay? im considering releasing my album like radiohead did.. your choice.
ps. i accidentally bought from amazon as well.

By: Barbara Jane Reyes

Barbara Jane Reyes — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:16:32 +0000

hi nathanael, thanks for your comment. i actually haven’t gotten to listen to the whole thing yet, but for $5 it’s a lot for your $$. also i realize only now i ought to have bought directly from the NIN website, since we can assume that NIN would get the entire $5 (as opposed to Amazon getting a cut), the way all of the $ paid for radiohead’s downloads went straight to them and only them.

By: nathanael matthias weiss

nathanael matthias weiss — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:05:29 +0000

As a poet, I am intensely interested in these subjects.
What do you think of trent reznor’s $5 price for ghosts (about 2 hours of music)?