had a good conversation with my roommate

while eating dinner tonight, my roommate was telling me about how, since she self-published her comic book the other day, she has gained 11 "fans," which she defined as people who requested copies of her book.

this makes me think about doing a free chapbook thing to give away/sell for really cheap to people i meet at readings and what not, or who care enough to write me via this website. the main reason for this is, i've pretty much finished my book and yet, even in the most fantastical and supersonically expedient scenario, would be unable to have it published and in somebody else's hands for another two or so years. i will almost be thirty by that time and, i fear, vaguely to supremely embarrassed of my efforts. i spend a lot of time (more than it is deserving, i realize) thinking about this, and stuff like this. it seems like having something for people to hold and read and think about now would be a good thing, something that would give me positive feelings of communicating with others, while also "laying foundations" for some kind of longer-term, sustainable occupation of my time -- a career. which would be sweet, which is to say, what i spend pretty much all my time trying to do at this point in my life.

so i want to do this, maybe. obviously there are all those stigmas with DIY self-publishing that, while no longer really present in other fields (i.e. punk and indie rock, comics, etc) remain for so-called "literature," which is what i think i'd hope my writing to considered as.

so DIY literature, how to go about it?

one route i know some people have gone is e-books. while i have read some pretty cool things online, and am happy i discovered them (i'm remembering reading tao lin's e-book "today the sky is blue and white..." back in 2005, when i was wasting away at my parent's house in south carolina, fresh out of college, depressed and completely aimless), i don't really enjoy reading things online (i do this out of convenience and/or poverty) and would prefer, if possible, for my others to experience my stuff the same way i would most like to experience someone else's stuff.

it's not just e-books. e-books seem kind of like 2005-8. what i hear a lot of people talking about constantly around here, meaning new york, is twitter. twitter novels, novels twittered, etc. it's not just other writers or bloggers or publishers, but like old people, people out of the loop, people who don't read or write but watch the news, people who don't even watch the news. honestly, i'll play along, but the thing seems pretty fleeting. what will people be talking about 2010? in 2011? in 2020? not twitter.

is there something that can work on a more local, intimate level? there is something nice about reading books that were obtained through directly dealing with the author. there's something "real" in that, i think. i am reminded of this author who drove to this guy's house to deliver the single copy he had of this book he had written. i thought he was fucking insane. but the idea behind it was pretty cool and, i think, in a lot of ways, right the fuck on. i don't know. there seems to be a pretty weird gap between writer and reader in the publishing world that i don't really understand. maybe i'm just not reading the "right" writers. i don't know. i could use the "it's getting late" excuse.

i think i will.

at any rate, i've been pounding on the keyboard enough today so i'm going to take a break on this. i will probably delete this later on, but for now, this remains.