I just made a page on FaceBook’s iLike section (http://www.ilike.com/artist/Wicasta). I think it’s pretty damned cool. One of the few things that they’re still doing better than MySpace. I don’t know how useful this page will be, but I figure you can never have too much networking. Right? And since I’m about to start recording boatloads of new songs, it wouldn’t hurt to have as many outlets as possible. That’s not to say I won’t be using the hell out of CD Baby and getting my stuff on iTunes. It just seems to me that people tend to crawl into whatever networking site they like (MySpace, FaceBook, etc) and close the door behind them. Not many folks cross over. So if they’re not going to come to you, you go to them, right?
I’m also looking over a company called WordClay. They make it possible for determinedly independent writers such as myself to do our own publishing. They’re a print-on-demand company; which means that if I put together a book which I sold through them, when someone ordered the book it would be printed after it’s ordered, on a per-order basis. They’re probably not leather-bound hardcovers, needless to say. But it’s a way for someone such as myself to get his work out there. I’m kicking around the idea of finishing up M.E. Caldwell, and publishing it myself through these folks.
I may be wrong, but I think technology has finally reached a point where someone like me can do their own thing without prostrating themselves before the various corporate entities. I’m determined to explore every possibility. Whatever I can do to keep from selling my soul to some corporation. That’s always been a big deterrent to me, that I hate the games and the compromises that you have to make to be successful within the recording and publishing industries. I’m too stubborn to have some guy in a suit tell me that my novel is 20 pages too long, or argue with me that my title isn’t catchy enough, or have some pimple-faced record label exec tell me that my new CD doesn’t have a single on it.
We’ll see. I could be a damned fool. But I’m a stubborn fool.
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Hey, just thought you might be interested to know that Wordclay just added a new option for authors to actually publish under their own name (or whatever name they want). Basically, you can now buy an ISBN for your book that officially reflects that you are the publisher your book, not Wordclay. Just one more way to publish on your own terms without surrendering your work to a publishing company.