Thanks. I have edited a couple political books, one of which is coming out soon, and have written a novella with political / moral themes that may be out in a few months.
Someone did recently point out to me that I’m now writing a books worth of articles every 2-3 months. But the problem is that I’m writing lots of zine-sized series.
Thanks. I have edited a couple political books, one of which is coming out soon, and have written a novella with political / moral themes that may be out in a few months.
Someone did recently point out to me that I’m now writing a books worth of articles every 2-3 months. But the problem is that I’m writing lots of zine-sized series.
So - as you suggest - I would need to write twice as much on one subject to make it to something book length, or find someone else to write the other half - I’d love that idea. It would just be a question of finding the right theme or concept, and figuring out who would write what part.
I wonder? Might there be a way to assemble what you’ve already written as a collection of essays for a book, then get an advance 😊 for this idea?! I am a clueless person with no experience of the publishing world, but I and my husband and adult sons read a lot of quality political, cultural, historical and philosophical commentary between us and I think there’d be a place on bookshop shelf for your writing!
I really like your confidence in me. If only I could find a publisher who likes my work as much. I do have a good friend who is an editor at a scholarly publisher, but I think my articles (which I try to make accessible for everyone) aren’t scholarly enough for that. I’ll see what theme / concept ideas I can come up with, and make a goal to get something finished next year.
Marx, Kropotkin, and their political manifestos appear to be a series of articles rearranged and connected to each other in a straight line of thought.
If you are writing a zine-sized series, perhaps the best option to handle that is to line out those zines in an order that reflects the points you want to make and then turn that subject from a series of organized zines into a chapter on a single subject.
Throwing articles together into a book seems to be how some of the most influential books were made - even Dickens did it that way.
Funny you should suggest zines … I have not long been asked to produce a zine version of my ‘Who will do the dirty jobs after the revolution’ series in time for our local radical book faire, but wasn’t sure anyone would be interested in reading it.
I’ll have a think about what series might work together, or what else I could / should write to make any of these into a book. I had considered covering more politics in Sci Fi, so if I added some more shows / movies that could be a book. I’d love to do a book on internal Anarchism - the personal morality and ideals aspect of it, but would have a lot more to write on that.
I believe that if you deeply extensively cover governance, economics, and human nature you have a foundational setting for at least between 60-90 pages depending on how extensively you can discuss each subject. A standard intellectual chapter is 20 pages.
That would work - Your suggestion sounds like the book I wish someone else has written already, but until they do maybe I'll have to. I've been compiling notes and resources for a detailed Anarchist programme for a while now, covering all the practical organisational and distribution aspects, but should cover the philosophical too.
That has the potential to be one of the most comprehensive works released into the world of Anarchy. I've rarely seen more than zines these days, which hold little interest, I find myself disagreeing with more prominent contemporary figures such as Chomsky. Anarcho-Capitalism having it's time has been a blow for An-Com ideology and I think if a few An-Coms are willing to be courageous we could see a shift back towards a thinking revolution as was seen in the middle to late 1800's.
It’s an intimidating project - I have the lion’s share of the research done, but I have to turn it into something someone would want to read!
But it will get done because I need it - at the moment my plan is to have fictional in-between chapters so I can help people envisage it.
One of the biggest challenges Anarchists have had is that AnCaps and Marxists have been well funded - whole departments at universities, bigger publishers etc. But we’ve won when we’ve come to sci-fi - we have all the best fiction writers, and history, anthropology and science keeps vindicating us!
Thanks. I have edited a couple political books, one of which is coming out soon, and have written a novella with political / moral themes that may be out in a few months.
Someone did recently point out to me that I’m now writing a books worth of articles every 2-3 months. But the problem is that I’m writing lots of zine-sized series.
So - as you suggest - I would need to write twice as much on one subject to make it to something book length, or find someone else to write the other half - I’d love that idea. It would just be a question of finding the right theme or concept, and figuring out who would write what part.
I wonder? Might there be a way to assemble what you’ve already written as a collection of essays for a book, then get an advance 😊 for this idea?! I am a clueless person with no experience of the publishing world, but I and my husband and adult sons read a lot of quality political, cultural, historical and philosophical commentary between us and I think there’d be a place on bookshop shelf for your writing!
I really like your confidence in me. If only I could find a publisher who likes my work as much. I do have a good friend who is an editor at a scholarly publisher, but I think my articles (which I try to make accessible for everyone) aren’t scholarly enough for that. I’ll see what theme / concept ideas I can come up with, and make a goal to get something finished next year.
Marx, Kropotkin, and their political manifestos appear to be a series of articles rearranged and connected to each other in a straight line of thought.
If you are writing a zine-sized series, perhaps the best option to handle that is to line out those zines in an order that reflects the points you want to make and then turn that subject from a series of organized zines into a chapter on a single subject.
Throwing articles together into a book seems to be how some of the most influential books were made - even Dickens did it that way.
Funny you should suggest zines … I have not long been asked to produce a zine version of my ‘Who will do the dirty jobs after the revolution’ series in time for our local radical book faire, but wasn’t sure anyone would be interested in reading it.
I’ll have a think about what series might work together, or what else I could / should write to make any of these into a book. I had considered covering more politics in Sci Fi, so if I added some more shows / movies that could be a book. I’d love to do a book on internal Anarchism - the personal morality and ideals aspect of it, but would have a lot more to write on that.
I believe that if you deeply extensively cover governance, economics, and human nature you have a foundational setting for at least between 60-90 pages depending on how extensively you can discuss each subject. A standard intellectual chapter is 20 pages.
That would work - Your suggestion sounds like the book I wish someone else has written already, but until they do maybe I'll have to. I've been compiling notes and resources for a detailed Anarchist programme for a while now, covering all the practical organisational and distribution aspects, but should cover the philosophical too.
That has the potential to be one of the most comprehensive works released into the world of Anarchy. I've rarely seen more than zines these days, which hold little interest, I find myself disagreeing with more prominent contemporary figures such as Chomsky. Anarcho-Capitalism having it's time has been a blow for An-Com ideology and I think if a few An-Coms are willing to be courageous we could see a shift back towards a thinking revolution as was seen in the middle to late 1800's.
It’s an intimidating project - I have the lion’s share of the research done, but I have to turn it into something someone would want to read!
But it will get done because I need it - at the moment my plan is to have fictional in-between chapters so I can help people envisage it.
One of the biggest challenges Anarchists have had is that AnCaps and Marxists have been well funded - whole departments at universities, bigger publishers etc. But we’ve won when we’ve come to sci-fi - we have all the best fiction writers, and history, anthropology and science keeps vindicating us!