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i'm preparing to interview tao lin for someplace cool hopefully. if you have any questions you would like me to ask him, fwd them to me and i will ask
says tao: "i am down for any questions"
Sunday, September 6
i would like your help and assistance
if you or anyone you know live in buffalo and would be willing to house me for approximately three nights in october (14-16), please let me know. i will be there doing a reading at this
i'm preparing to interview tao lin for someplace cool hopefully. if you have any questions you would like me to ask him, fwd them to me and i will ask
says tao: "i am down for any questions"
i'm preparing to interview tao lin for someplace cool hopefully. if you have any questions you would like me to ask him, fwd them to me and i will ask
says tao: "i am down for any questions"
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14 comments:
&now! &now! I think EVERYONE'S going to be there . . . *sigh*
i sure hope so. are you going, molly?
You invited me to come to your own site and hate you? (I'm the Starbucks barista.) This is disappointing. I thought you were giving me a suggestion for someone other than yourself.
I haven't read anything by you or heard of you before, so it's hard for me to work up any enthusiasm for hating you.
Can you help me out here? What don't people like about you or your writing?
I am trying to wean myself off Tao Lin hatred, but I would really like to see someone ask him about the details of his parents' legal problems, why they had to leave the US for Taiwan (or maybe it had nothing to do with the lawsuit by the people they cheated out of $1.7 million dollars), if Tao grew up rich, does it bother him that his father went to prison, etc., that if he sees a connection between that and his thinking there's nothing wrong with shoplifting (I work at Starbucks and while it's pretty hard to shoplift drinks, people do shoplift the products and it causes problems for everyone, including customers - I used to work in a clothing store and it really is not good to shoplift because the company has to raise money to make up for the losses so the customers get hit by higher prices by the ones who are trying to get something for nothing), etc. I know you won't do this, because you will think it is 'impolite' and of course you want to ingratiate yourself with Tao since he is a celebrity and you probably want a blurb for him and you just don't want to make him annoyed or whatever.
But if you do want to research his parents' background, there's plenty of stuff online from the SEC and other places. I think this has more to do with the person Tao has become than a lot of people do. Maybe in the ghetto, it is not that odd for kids' parents to be in prison, but how many of Tao's classmates at NYU had their fathers in prison while they were attending? Maybe if you are never going to show any emotions other than boredom or depression, it won't, but maybe not.
As for you, James Yeh: I don't really think your worthy of any clever or witty hate. Do you? Give me something to work with.
OK, I haven't read anything yet and I have to get offline now, but I watched a video interview of you, and other than the fact that you did it, there is absolutely nothing to hate about you. You seem boringly (in a nice way) normal and unaffected. Even if your writing is terrible, I could never work up the slightest hatred for you. You would have to become a different person. Sorry, you're unhateable. Bye. I won't be back.
i want to know what kind of footwear tao lin wears
wow, kind of don't know what to say to anonymous
"unhateable," "boringly normal (in a nice way) and unaffected"
hi ryan, i'll just look under the table at some point during interview and make a mental note of what he is wearing
ask tao about the math of selling shares in his novel
at this blog http://americanfiction.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/screwing-the-system-with-tao-lin-and-binky-urban/#comments someone with a knowledge of eighth grade arithmetic explains why his selling 60% of the novel Richard Yates doesnt make sense
first what tao did or said he did:
In an interview with the Urban Elitist, Tao Lin discusses how he’s successfully financed his forthcoming novel by selling six $2,000 shares in it. Lin is somewhat infamous for his hustling for attention; I haven’t read a word of his fiction, so I have no clue if it’s worth that kind of investment. But going the Tao Lin route, however attention grabbing, still means lots of mac and cheese, at least for a while:
I have had part-time jobs almost continuously since college (I am 25), I think, except for maybe one year when I shoplifted batteries and Moleskine journals to sell on eBay. I stopped working at my last part-time job last August when I sold 60% of the royalties to my next novel, RICHARD YATES (Melville House, 2010), for $12,000. Since then my money (other than the $12,000) has come from selling pre-orders and lifetime subscriptions to books that a press I started called Muumuu House is publishing; Christmas and Chinese New Year’s money from my parents and brother; and selling drawings, drafts of things, and various “piles of shit” from my room on eBay.
then the expalantion of why it doesnt make sense:
Tao projects sales of the book at 13,000 at the Publishers Weekly website.
For argument’s sake, say the book is priced at $20 and Tao is getting a royalty of 20%.
That would mean he’d get $4 in royalties for every book sold.
Four dollars times 13,000 copies is $52,000.
If 60% is 3/5 and Tao’s royalties are roughly $52,000, then he’s sold $31,200 of his future earnings for $12,000. He loses almost $20,000 in income, a big gain for the shareholders.
Let’s say the book is priced at $15 and his royalties are 15%. In that case, he’d be getting $2.25 in royalties for each copy sold. That would mean that assuming Tao would sell 13,000 copies, his total royalties would be $29,250.
His shareholders would have 3/5 of that, or $17,550. He would lose $5550 in income.
But if the book sells only 10,000 copies, Tao would do better.
He’s given himself a financial incentive to sell fewer books, based on whatever break-even point the book price and his royalty rate are.
Of course, he may be in dire need of the cash now, but it seems like the more successful the book is, the worse Tao will end up financially
tao replies:
your logic seems weird
but its completely logical math!!!
the lady tries to explain:
Obviously you will lose money if your shareholders make money.
They paid $12,000 for 60% of something, right?
That would mean that the whole is $20,000.
If you make more than $20,000 in royalties from you’re book, your shareholders will gain and you lose money you otherwise would have had as income.
As I said, the immediate need for cash, plus the possibility of inflation, and the publicity value, might help you out.
Cash-wise, though, it’s a bad deal for you the better your book does.
Maybe you priced the shares too low?
most ppl ridicule the lady but shes just making obv math sense
her math is fine, but her conclusion is whack. the thing is, in every case she mentions, tao would still be making money. just not as much as he would have had he not sold his shares. but he would still be making money. so it's not exactly a "bad deal," since the trade-off of future royalty percentages for a cash advance is apparently worth it to tao
tao still owns 40% of his novel
'boxers or briefs?'
and before i continue i must write
* spoiler alert *
because i'm hoping for the answer 'none'
and i'd like to know what kind of shoes ryan manning is wearing
and in case anyone wants to know what kind of shoes i am wearing, right now it would be 'none' but often it would be 'ugg flip flops, dark brown, with dark brown shearling insole'
i hate wearing socks and i do not like having my heels covered either, not even in 'winter', although i can tolerate a heel strap on occasion
that's funny redpencil, i will ask him tomorrow
i like how, so far, the questions i've gotten from people are either intensely whimsical or intensely vitriolic
hi james, we met at tao and zachary and jamie's thing last night
ask him why he tells some people he's carles but other people that he's not carles
thx bro
hi david,
nice to meet you last night
the interview's over, but i will ask him anyway, since it's a question i wonder myself sometimes
thanks for writing
damn, email me the answer (dfishkind@gmail.com)
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