- Introduction to Fuze Blog
- Spotlight: Strand Bookstore in NYC and Bloomsbury in Ashland, OR
- The Muze strikes again

THE FIRST WORD

Why Fuze Publishing?

–Because there are too many dedicated writers generating strong new work that is not reaching an audience.

A recent The New Yorker cartoon eavesdrops on a cocktail party conversation in an urban living room, someone asking, “Is there anyone here who isn’t self-publishing a book?” We don’t think that question implies a rise in vanity nationwide so much as a drop in the number of worthy writers being admitted through the gate into mainstream publishing.

–Because after decades of merger mania, book publishing has become a manufacturing industry, strait-jacketed by business models and marketing platforms rather than nourished by cultural and literary values.

In an article entitled “The Long Good-bye,” Elizabeth Sifton, grande dame of literary editors, recalls the 1990s when “the money men” invaded publishing, determined to raise profit margins from the traditional five to 15 percent. Sifton argues that “they had no confidence in books per se and knew nothing about writers or readers.” Increasingly they opted for what Sifton calls “book-like objects,” team-written, celebrity-driven commodities that stole shelf-space, ad budgets, and public attention from actual literature. (The Nation, June 8, 2009.)

In his Clairvoyant Culture, Inc. (Oxford University Press, 1989), Herbert Schiller includes the symbiosis between big publishing houses and national book-selling chains as furthering the commercialization of the book, discouraging subject matter that might be unpopular, unfamiliar, socially critical, or depressing, and thus lowering sales.

–Because the major publishing companies are in the process of demonstrating that you can be too big not to fail.

Did you know Random House, Knopf, Doubleday, Bantam, Dell, and half a dozen other imprints are all owned by the German-based company Bertelsmann? That’s big.

Even before the financial crisis of 2008, which left several imprints suspending acquisitions, mainstream publishing was freezing up, locked into bricks and mortar distribution through nation-wide chains, cold to experimentation, competing to overpay the same safe, popularly-vetted writers.

Dennis Stovall is director of Oolagong Press, the student-run centerpiece of Portland State University’s unique M. A. in Publishing. He thinks this is the perfect time to start up a small press, because everything is changing, “where the book is sold, what it’s read on.” The complete commodification of the book is failing. “I think we’re getting the book back,” he concludes. (www.writersdojo.org/Wells+Stovall+Ooligan)

So that’s why Fuze Publishing. One volume at a time, we want to get the book back too.

The Strand, New York City
In 1927, Ben Bass opened Strand Book Store on Fourth Avenue, home of New York’s legendary Book Row. Named after the famous publishing street in London, the Strand was one of 48 bookstores on Book Row, which started in the 1890s and ran from Union Square to Astor Place. Today, the Strand is the sole survivor.

In the 1970s, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George F. Will wrote, “the eight miles worth saving in this city are at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street. They are the crammed shelves of the Strand Book Store.”

Strand Book Store remains a fiercely independent family business with Fred and his daughter, Nancy Bass Wyden, at the helm. With over 200 employees, more than 2.5 million used, new and rare books, a renovated main store and a growing author events program, the Strand looks forward to offering great books at great prices to book-lovers worldwide for another 80 years.

Visit http://www.strandbooks.com for photos and more information.

Bloomsbury Books, Ashland, Oregon
Located in downtown Ashland, Bloomsbury Books has become an Ashland tradition for purchasing books for both locals and tourists alike. Every summer, hundreds of visitors to Ashland find the literary resources they are searching for on the shelves of Bloomsbury Books. Regardless of what your subject of interest, Bloomsbury is sure to have something you will enjoy.

Literary genres at Bloomsbury include, but are not limited to: fiction, non-fiction, biographies, Shakespearean literature, local authors, poetry, children’s literature, spiritual and religious texts, and a large selection of books explaining the history of both Oregon and the Rogue Valley.

Located directly above Bloomsbury books is Josephine’s, one of Ashland’s most popular café’s and coffee shops. Bloomsbury Books encourages its patrons to pick up a book and sit back with a cup of coffee while they decide if the book is right for them or not.

Bloomsbury Books is located at 290 East Main, Ashland, OR 97520. Their phone number is 541-488-0029.

Creative writing begins with creative perception: an alertness to the world around. There is always something bizarre, funny, heartwarming, or infuriating going on.

Consider carrying a notebook in order to catch and save the things you notice—a bit of dialogue, the texture of a face or a landscape, the flash of a metaphor, a quirky story. This is not the same as a daily journal, but more like the sketchpad the visual artist keeps handy to capture the contours, gestures, and perspectives a moment might offer up. It’s like a safety deposit box for scavenged bits of treasure.

Sitting in an empty room with a blank screen before you, how often do your thoughts fly south? If you already have a reserve of words on paper, though, instead of swirling in the void, you can grab a concrete anchor to start.

Get material into that notebook as soon as possible after it occurs to you. Don’t rely on memory for very long. The strongest impression is weaker than the palest ink.

Molly co-authored The Creative Process (St. Martin’s Press) and has taught writing workshops for twenty years.