Article
August 30, 2023
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by Stephen

Book Indexing: Post-Publication Highs and Lows

My book for sale at the When Words Collide writing festival, Calgary.

It has been seven weeks since I launched Book Indexing: A Step-by-Step Guide. It feels like that time has flown by and it feels like that time has crawled by. A book doesn’t stop (while, it kind of feels like it stops but it doesn’t really) when it launches, and a lot has been happening behind the scenes. I want to share some of that with you. 

All the Feelings

The first couple of weeks after publication were a burst of excitement, with the temptation to check sales reports five times a day. More unexpectedly, I’ve also spent a few weeks feeling quite low, struggling with focus and motivation. I wasn’t sure why until a client mentioned their own experience trying to stave off the empty-nest syndrome of having a new book published. Which makes sense. I spent almost three years focused on writing and producing my book. Now that the book is launched, there is some ongoing marketing, distribution, and sales tracking, but the bulk of the work is done. There is this feeling that the work has ground to a halt and I haven’t figured out yet what to replace it with.

I do want to continue writing and to start a new project. It is also taking me time to transition. Which is okay. I am giving myself permission to take some time to figure out what comes next. 

(And I am feeling better now, thank you.)

Sales

So far Book Indexing has sold about 70 copies, somewhat more in paperback than ebooks, which I think is respectable for a self-published book and such a niche subject. There was an initial spike in sales at the launch, with numbers now much lower, though still selling. My hope is that the book will remain perennially relevant (the technology may change, but I believe the principles of indexing will stay the same), with a few copies selling each month. 

When Words Collide

I first encountered indie authors and realized that self-publishing can be a viable option at When Words Collide, a grassroots writing festival in Calgary that I’ve been attending since 2015 or 2016. I didn’t think I would sell a copy at the festival, since the focus is mostly on genre fiction, but I figured if nothing else, it would be a good learning experience to have a few copies for sale on the shared authors table. And, I actually sold a copy! It felt like my self-publishing adventure was coming full circle. 

Audreys Books

Book Indexing is also now on sale at Audreys, a local bookstore in downtown Edmonton. I dropped four copies off last week and had a lovely chat with their staff member who handles consignment. It feels like another milestone: my book is on the shelf in a physical bookstore!

Local Bookstores and Libraries

Speaking of bookstores, self-published authors typically lack the distribution reach to get onto the shelves of brick-and-mortar bookstores, unless you are able to hand deliver copies. That said, most bookstores should be able to order the book, if you request it. So if you would like a paperback copy of Book Indexing and want to also support your local bookstore, you can!

Book Indexing is also available to libraries through a number of platforms, such as Overdrive and BorrowBox. If you prefer to borrow the book, please feel free to ask your local library to buy a copy. You get to read, I still get paid, and the book is then available for others to discover, which is awesome. 

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If you haven’t yet picked up a copy, links to online retailers can be found here (I’ve added more retailers since the last time I shared this link) or please order through your local bookstore or library.

Thank you again to all of you who have bought a copy, written a review, or helped spread the word. Your support and interest means so much.

Article
July 12, 2023
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by Stephen

Publication Day! And Why I Wrote a Book About Indexing

My book is officially launched!

It is a surreal experience to put the book out into the world. Today, I am still sitting at home, writing an index for a client. Not much has changed in my day-to-day life. Most of the work of finalizing the book and uploading the files happened a couple of week or more ago. And yet anyone can now buy and receive this thing that I have created. 

I am nervous, wondering if the book is going to be a complete flop or if it has a fatal flaw that I missed. But mostly I’m excited. This feels like an end to all of the work of writing and publishing, and the beginning of both marketing and supporting the book, going forward, as well as an opportunity to start a new writing project. I am excited to see how this book is received and what comes next.

I’m not very good at celebrating, but I did want to mark the occasion. My caffeinated beverage of choose is loose leaf green or oolong tea, and I recently bought some Japanese sencha green tea from a local tea shop. I decided to save it until this morning, and I enjoyed a cup as I got the day rolling.

I have also been reflecting on why I have written this book.

The original impetus was noticing that I would occasionally receive queries from authors who ultimately decided to write the index themselves. I respect their decision. It can be difficult trusting someone else to do a good job, or the price may be higher than their budget, or indexing just seems like such an intriguing puzzle. But I did feel bad that there were not better resources to help authors tackle this task.

Writing Book Indexing: A Step-by-Step Guide, I have tried to balance being thorough with also being practical and accessible. By the time you finish this book, you should understand the fundamentals of indexing, and—if you’ve been doing the exercises—you should have a solid head-start and plan for writing your own index. I have written the book so that each chapter builds on itself, so that there is a step-by-step progression. I have also tried to keep the language and descriptions simple, so that the concepts are not too difficult to understand, and so that the book can be read fairly quickly, if the reader is in a hurry. I believe that indexing is a skill that can be taught and learned. 

If you read the book, you can let me know how I’ve done!

Accessibility has also informed my publishing strategy. I’ve decided to publish wide, which among indie authors means that I am not exclusive to Amazon. Instead, the book is mostly being distributed through Draft2Digital, and for the ebook, direct with a few retailers, such as Amazon, Google Play, and Kobo. Through Draft2Digital, the book is available from retailers around the world, including ones that I had never heard of before. For example, with Vivlio, a major book retailer in France, and with Librerías Gandhi, one of the largest bookstore chains in Mexico.

This is in contrast to most books on indexing, which I’ve noticed can be both very expensive and can be difficult to find. They are not always even available on Amazon.

Do I expect to sell a lot of copies in France or Mexico? No, not really. But that is not the point. The point is that the book is available. The point is to make it easier for people to learn about indexing, regardless of where they live. The point is to help improve the quality of indexes, whether by authors, newer indexers, or people exploring indexing as a career. The point is to help editors and others within the publishing industry better understand what is required for an excellent index, and how to work with indexers. Maybe even readers who appreciate a quality index can grow in their appreciation and understanding.

Indexing is poorly understood, even within publishing. And lack of knowledge tends to lead to poor indexes. I want to make indexing more accessible and more easily understood. I believe that the more authors, editors, readers, and even indexers understand the mechanics of indexing and the qualities of an excellent index, the better books will be, and the better it will be for all of us. 

So, big dreams for indexing and indexes. Maybe more than this book can shoulder. But this book is a step, at least, towards making indexing accessible and making indexing known. 

PS. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can find your preferred retailer here. If you’d like to learn more about what is in the book, please click here.

Article
June 25, 2019
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by Stephen

AFCon 2019 Debrief

It has been almost two weeks since I attended AFCon, the Ancient Faith Writing and Podcasting Conference, which took place in a little under 48 hours on June 13-15. It is a conference put on by Ancient Faith Ministries, an Orthodox Christian organization in the US which has substantial publishing and podcasting/online radio arms. I am an Orthodox Christian myself, and while I was not sure how much my writing interests would overlap with Ancient Faith’s, there were a few people I wanted to meet.

Overall, I am glad I went, though June has also been an incredibly busy month for indexing. I was quite stressed going into the conference, and now that the conference is over I still haven’t had time to think through how I want to proceed. Still, here are a few thoughts and impressions so far.

  • The venue, Antiochian Village, in rural western Pennsylvania, really is like an Orthodox hotel. I’ve never been anywhere quite like it.
  • I am really glad I made the effort to attend the daily services, including the early morning ones. I think the services helped to ground and settle me, as I was off-kilter from stress and being around so many strangers and in an unfamiliar place. I have also never heard anyone sing the gospel readings quite like Father Andrew Damick. Beautiful. 
  • I need to sing the hymn “Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded” more often.
  • Speaking about singing, the small music session that Benedict and Talia Maria Sheehan led was perhaps the highlight of the conference for me. It was so relaxing to casually sing folk songs and spirituals with a large group of people. You can read more about small music here.
  • I did talk to the editors at Ancient Faith Publishing. No solid plans yet, but it was helpful to get a better sense of what they are looking for, and to receive their encouragement to write. 
  • I really appreciate Fr. Stephen Freeman’s talk on shame, particularly his distinction between shame as how you feel about who you are and guilt as how you feel about what you have done.
  • I am still thinking through Deacon Nicholas Kotar’s talk on culture creation, which also ties into the Sheehan’s small music. Dn. Nicholas’s talk was excellent, and avoided the pitfalls of romanticization of the past, eurocentrism, and setting up an us/them dichotomy. Where I stumble is the question, which culture do I create in, or, which culture do I belong in? Put another way, which cultures am I allowed to create in? I often feel like my identity is fragmented between my various experiences and contexts. For example, my childhood in Taiwan versus my current adulthood in Canada. Or, growing up Evangelical and now being Orthodox. Or even British Columbia versus Alberta. I usually feel like I exist on the margins of whatever community I find myself in. That said, culture, in this context, was defined as what people do when they are together, which seems a pretty accessible definition and one I can get behind. 
  • I scribbled down a couple new ideas for stories. Maybe my next writing projects?
  • I appreciated Angela Doll Carlson’s weekly practice with her Sunday School class of identifying one thing that is beautiful and one thing that is true. 
  • I did not realize that copyright would be so interest. Many thanks to Eric Jansson for his talk. 
  • Thank God for priests who are nerds. The Tolkien panel, moderated by Fr. Andrew Damick, was a fun way to end the conference. Lots of moments for laughter. Though as wonderful as the Lord of the Rings is, I would like to see more attention given to newer works, to see if we can find and nurture contemporary equivalents. 

The next AFCon will be in two years. Hopefully I will be able to attend again. In the meantime, back to writing (and not just indexes, though back to indexing too).

Article
June 3, 2019
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by Stephen

Business Changes Ahead

Last week in my recap of the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d’indexation conference I alluded to business change, which is a difficult subject to write about. Change is inherently disruptive, as it usually involves some kind of ending as well as a new beginning. Change also affects the web of relationships with colleagues and clients that I exist in. It is also often personal, especially in a single-person freelancing business, as I am the one making the change.

At the same time, I think that change is natural and even necessary in a business. I change as a person, in my interests, goals, experience, and circumstances. The publishing industry around me is also always changing. I believe that a successful business requires a certain amount of mindfulness and self-reflection in order to know when to change and when to hold the course. It may be that not changing is the right decision—I certainly do not believe in change for the sake of change—but that decision to not change should still be a conscious choice. 

I mention all this because I am feeling myself to be at a point of change. Really, to be honest, I feel like this whole year so far, and part of last year, has been a gradual reorientation in what I want to do for work.

 Being a freelance indexer, for me, has never really been about indexing. The original purpose was to create a more flexible schedule and an income to support my writing. Ironically, in doing the hard work to establish a freelance business, and then keeping up with the increasing requests for my services, I really have not done much writing. I have not put the time into writing, like I have for indexing, to become a published author, which is still a goal of mine. I have been feeling this discrepancy more acutely in the last couple of years, which is leading me to wonder: Can I change my business to incorporate more writing? Should I change and trade (some) steady income for a risky venture? What if I completely fail at being an author?

These are not easy questions to answer. The ideal scenario, at least as I envision it now, is to write part-time and index part-time. But cutting my indexing work in half overnight is not practical or sustainable. 

This year I have made a renewed effort to blog every week, and have also started to write a weekly reflection on indexing. Even committing to this has felt at times like a struggle, in relation to my indexing work, but I think it is also proving helpful for establishing a regular writing habit, and to orienting my focus more towards writing.

For fiction, I am trying to commit to one half-day a week, which is really a struggle, akin to drawing my own blood sometimes, in the face of looming indexing deadlines. But I do enjoy those mornings when I show up to write, and I feel like progress is being made, even if just in very small increments. My goal is to eventually work on fiction two mornings a week, and perhaps work up from there. 

I am writing this because I want to let you know of this change that I am trying to make. You will probably see more posts about writing, mixed in with the posts about indexing and freelancing. Eventually–hopefully–even some stories and news about publications.

I will still index, of course, though instead of using the lessons learned at the ISC/SCI conference to expand my indexing business as far as it can go, I am hoping to create more time to write—to index the same amount, or maybe a little less, in less time, essentially. I am excited to see what results from these changes, and I am also a bit scared. It will also mean a lot of work, starting with trusting myself that this is the right decision to make at this time. Thank you for following along. I do appreciate it.

Article
April 14, 2019
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by Stephen

Mastery Before Speed

Photo by CHU TAI on Unsplash

I have been reminding myself recently to not get frustrated over my slow progress writing fiction. 

It has been a dream of mine since I was a kid to be a writer. In grade four I managed to turn a two-page story assignment into an epic that was at least ten pages long. I am not sure now if it was ever finished, as I remember hiding on the top floor of our house the morning it was due in a frantic last-minute attempt to finish.

Yet I have to remind myself that I still have a lot to learn about how to tell a good story, and that I do have a day job, after all. I am not going to publish a book overnight. 

And yet, I get frustrated.

If I can lean into the frustration, though, it is a good opportunity to focus on mastery. 

The need for mastery was first drilled into me my first summer tree planting. Tree planters are paid by the tree, and since prices averaged ten or eleven cents, it was in our best interest to plant fast. Yet speed without proper technique (by which my foreman meant planting a tree in a single fluid motion before striding three steps to plant the next tree) and the ability to read the ground (to find the best spot to plant the tree in) isn’t really speed. Sure, you’d be faster than someone who was slow and had poor technique, but the best combination was technique first and then speed. 

I see this too with indexing, both in my own career and in some of the new indexers I talk to. Since freelancing is (usually) for employment and income—and for some people, they do not have a backup source of income—speed is often seen as key to success. But attempting to go fast without mastering the basics is usually going to lead to greater stress and more time wasted trying to fix errors made in haste. I do believe that newer indexers are capable to writing great indexes—it is just going to take a little longer, most likely, and that is okay. Taking the time is part of making a new skill second nature. 

Bringing this back to writing, part of my frustration is that I can see that I have a much higher mastery of indexing relative to writing fiction. This makes sense, because I have spent most of the last nine years focused on indexing. I realize that I need to put the same time and focus into writing as well. And yet I wish I could just transfer mastery from one domain to another and bypass the work. Especially as making time for writing is, well, another issue. 

Still, mastery before speed.

I have to keep reminding myself of this order. I can see how it got me through tree planting and then indexing. Now, I need to put in my time with writing, to accept this time of learning the craft and becoming grounded in the basics. Speed will come soon enough. 

Article
March 4, 2019
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by Stephen

What I Accomplished During My Sabbatical

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Taking a sabbatical has been one of the best decisions I have made for my business. I am already thinking about doing it again next year.

For those of you who don’t know, I recently took nearly six weeks off work, from mid-January to the end of February. I did this for two main reasons: I was feeling overwhelmed and a bit burned out from a very busy year in 2018. I also realized that I no longer had a clear vision for what I wanted to accomplish through my work. When I first started freelancing, my goal was to earn enough money to support myself, and for a few years that was enough to keep work challenging. Now that I have moved beyond the start-up phase, I found that simply being busy was not enough. I needed a new challenge to focus on.

So my goal during this sabbatical was to figure out what that new thing should be. 

I thought the answer was going to be writing, because I do enjoy writing and as my wife can probably attest, it is something I frequently talk about. It is really because of writing that I sought to work in publishing in the first place. 

But looking deeper, the reason I enjoy writing—and why I enjoy indexing and blogging and introducing people to each other—is because I enjoy connecting people to new ideas and information. I enjoy being the facilitator who enables other people to accomplish what they need. 

Part of this shift, for me, came from listening to the audiobook version of Authority, by Nathan Barry. The book is about making the mindset shift from being highly proficient in your particular skill to becoming a teacher of that skill. Part of me quails at the thought of calling myself an indexing expert, especially knowing indexers who have ten, twenty, or even thirty years of experience over me. Yet I also have to acknowledge that I am no longer a novice and that I do have experience and knowledge that I can share. 

So this is my first pivot. I will continue to index, and I also want to find opportunities to share the indexing knowledge that I have.

I actually did just that during my sabbatical, by writing an email course on indexing. The course provides an overview of the components of an index and the indexing process, from the initial pre-planning to the final edit, in seven lessons delivered over seven days. It took me five and a half days to write and publish the course, and I have to admit I had a blast doing so. If you are interested, you can check it out here.

Writing is still important, though. The shift for me was to realize that while I still want to publish fiction, I am also just as happy writing nonfiction. Writing is one of the ways that I can teach and facilitate, in a more direct way than indexing (though indexing is also in service to the reader, making the text accessible). This is my second pivot, to be intentional this year about making writing part of my business. The finer details of how this will happen still need to be worked out, but I have a few ideas for writing projects and have dedicated 9-10 every morning to writing, to make sure that words are produced. 

I did some other things during my sabbatical too. Besides a week away visiting friends, I still showed up at my office almost every day. In addition to what I have already mentioned, I spent time brainstorming and writing a two page vision document; read several books to help me reflect on my work; worked my way through the exercises in the writing book Story Genius, by Lisa Cron, to improve my fiction; established a new daily and weekly schedule; and I finally finished setting up investments for retirement, which is something I started a year ago and then let fall to the wayside. In a way, I used this time to try out and practice new habits and new forms of work, such as writing the email course. Without this time, I would have felt too stressed and squeezed to invest the time and effort. I also made sure that I spent evenings and weekends resting, which was sorely lacking before. 

Returning to this theme of vision and purpose, I think the biggest benefit from this sabbatical is that I do feel energized again about my work. If I had done nothing else, the sabbatical would have been worth it to have accomplished only this. I have a much clearer sense for what I want to accomplish in the remaining ten months of 2019, and most importantly, I am excited to get going.

Article
October 3, 2016
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by Stephen

Decolonizing the Index: Indexing in Indigenous Studies

REDERMORRAJULY16colonial-problemIf you have indexed for long, you have probably been asked what areas you index in. You have probably also asked yourself this question when trying to market yourself more effectively. Is there a niche topic in which you can stand out?

Personally, I’ve had mixed results trying to market myself with specific subjects. It might be a foot in the door, but once I’m in I can end up being asked to index anything and everything. For example, an academic publisher who publishers in Asian studies and religious studies, two areas I am interested in, is also likely to publish in sociology and African studies, for example, and if they like me as an indexer I am just as likely to get any of the above or something else entirely. It really depends on what their next book is. So while there are particular areas in which I feel uniquely qualified or have a special interest in, I’m open to indexing almost anything within the social sciences and humanities. That seems to be as narrow as most of my clients are willing to pigeon-hole me. It might be different, though, for subjects such as law or medicine, which have their own dedicated publishers and conventions.

All that said, in this post I am going to briefly discuss a niche that I inadvertently discovered and have had opportunity to reflect on, most recently in The Indexer, the international journal of indexing, which is a wonderful publication and a must read if you are an indexer.

Indigenous studies is an area I first grappled with as an indexer when writing my award-winning index for the book Strange Visitors. I go into more detail about that book and winning the Purple Pen Award here. For now, as a recap, it was my first introduction to the contested language that so often surrounds Indigenous issues in North America, as well as the emotionally charged tensions that surrounds colonialism and the ways in which we tell these stories. I also found this topic difficult because I am myself a white settler. In the story of colonialism, I am the bad guy, to put it simply. How do I deal with that when indexing a book that is angry at people like me?

In other ways, however, is Indigenous studies really all that different from other disciplines? If Indigenous history, how is that different from other types of history? If Indigenous literature, how is that different from, say, Chinese literature? I think this is a good point to make: the type of content and how it is indexed may not be so different from other disciplines. What is different is how contested and emotionally charged the material can be, which includes my own personal involvement in the issues by virtue of living in a country in which colonialism and reconciliation are contemporary realities.

I was able to first explore these issues in a short article I wrote last year for Geez (Fall 2015, issue 39), a Canadian magazine which bills itself as “contemplative cultural resistance.” Then, earlier this year, Maureen MacGlashan asked me about writing something for The Indexer. Bouncing ideas back and forth, I mentioned the Geez article. Maureen liked it, asked to reprint it, and asked if I could expand my reflections, so The Indexer version (just published in vol. 34, no. 3, Sept. 2016, and also available online here) contains a postscript which is longer than the original article.

Now, I don’t want to claim that I am an expert just because I have some published thoughts on indexing in Indigenous studies. At the same time, I’m no longer a complete novice in the subject either. I think I can claim an edge when it comes to indexing Indigenous studies. Let’s call it, then, an edge in process. I hope to continue indexing in Indigenous studies and increasing my knowledge and effectiveness. I hope you have a chance to read my thoughts, in either Geez or The Indexer. If you do, perhaps send me a note or leave a comment below. I’d be glad to hear your thoughts on this subject as well.

And, for those of you curious, below is a list of Indigenous studies books I’ve indexed so far.

Teach, Learn, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures, edited by Deanna Reder and Linda M. Morra (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2016)

The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, by Lisa Monchalin (University of Toronto Press, 2016)

From Treaty Peoples to Treaty Nation: A Road Map For All Canadians, by Greg Poelzer and Ken S. Coates (UBC Press, 2015)

We Are Coming Home: Repatriation and the Restoration of Blackfoot Cultural Confidence, ed. by Gerald T. Conaty (AU Press, 2015)

You Will Wear a White Shirt: From the Northern Bush to the Halls of Power, by Nick Sibbeston (Douglas & McIntyre, 2015)

Strange Visitors: Documents in the History of Indigenous and Settler Relations in Canada from 1876, ed. by Keith D. Smith (University of Toronto Press, 2014)

Conversations With a Dead Man: The Legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott, by Mark Abley (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013)

We Are Born with the Songs Inside Us: Lives and Stories of First Nations People in British Columbia, by Katherine Palmer Gordon (Harbour Publishing, 2013)

Article
August 31, 2016
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by Stephen

Plotter vs. Pantser? The Indexer Edition

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If you read my previous post on genre, I’d understand if you think that this is another post inspired by the When Words Collide writing festival that I attended mid-August. This post, however, was actually inspired by Larry Sweazy’s keynote address at the joint ASI/ISC indexing conference I attended in June. Summer is a great time for conferences.

You fiction writers may already be familiar with the terms plotter and pantser. They refer to how an author approaches the process of writing a story. Do you first plot out the story before writing, or do you start with a blank page and write by the seat of your pants? Larry Sweazy, who is both an established indexer and an award-winning fiction writer, adds a twist to this concept by applying it to indexing.

Pantsing an index is to read through the text and simultaneously create and input the terms into your indexing software, without prior reading or planning. To plot would be to read through the text, either the whole text or by chapter or section, mark it up so that you have an idea of what terms you want to use, and then create the terms in your indexing software based on your notes and rereading of the text.

There are excellent indexers who fall on both sides of this divide (just as there are excellent writers who swear by both). Pantsers say that they can always revise and finalize the index later, during the editing phase. Plotters take the view that they produce a better index, and have less editing to do, if they can first understand the text.

My take? I think a lot comes down to experience, though certainly work styles and how you process information are important too. When I first started to index, I would plot out the index, chapter by chapter. Eventually I started to pants. Part of my decision to change my indexing approach was from learning from other indexers that this was an actual, viable option. Time was also a factor. I was getting more work, feeling crunched, and wondered if pantsing would speed me up. The biggest factor for me, though, at least in terms of successfully transitioning to pantsing, was experience. I had indexed enough books to have a rough template in mind that I could use when indexing blind. I was confident that making a decision, and then revisiting that decision during the editing phase, was sufficient for creating an excellent index. Plotting added an extra step, in that I would make a decision while marking up the text, and then revisit that decision twice, while inputting the entry into the index, and again while editing. I decided that extra step wasn’t necessary.

Still, I sometimes do get a particularly difficult book to index, and for those books pantsing is not as effective. For those I may decide that I do need to do some plotting. Perhaps not pre-reading the entire book, but certain key sections that illuminate the whole.

I have also increased the number of notes I make for myself while I input the terms, which I skim when I am ready to begin editing. These are to remind me of potential trouble spots that I will want to revisit during the editing phase, or these notes serve as brainstorming of alternative terms, or of similar terms I am seeing in the index and want to mull over for which is best to use. I also sometimes use mind maps to help me organize and understand what I am reading. I find visualizing the relationships between terms to be a quick and effective way to understand the structure of the text and hence the index.

For the pantser, I think plotting can still play a role in certain circumstances. The trick is to recognize those circumstances, and adapt your indexing strategy accordingly.

Now as a writer, do I plot or pants? I have to admit that I usually plot. I can often get away with pantsing short works of nonfiction, but fiction is another story. Right now I am experimenting with different plotting techniques, seeing what works best for me. I wonder if this will change too as I gain experience.

And Larry Sweazy? A pantser all the way, in both writing and indexing. That man has it figured out, or, better said, doesn’t, but knows how to finish the project regardless.

 

Article
August 18, 2016
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by Stephen

The Uses of Genre

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I am currently recovering from a wonderfully exhausting four days at the When Words Collide writing festival in Calgary. If my notes are correct, I attended eighteen different panels and workshops, made new contacts and got to know previous acquaintances better, and had the world of genre publishing in Canada blown wide open for me. It was amazing. I am so thankful that members of my writing group in Edmonton mentioned that they were attending, so that I could learn about this festival and attend too.

One of the overarching themes of the festival, for me, is this question of genre. In the workshop on writing popular fiction I attended with Eve Silver, we were asked, what genre do you read in? The question stumped me. I have always read widely, across genres. Alright, so I rarely read romance or paranormal fiction, so I can broaden my horizons a bit more, but still, the thought of reading exclusively in one genre strikes me as boring.

What about literary fiction, which can be seen as a genre in its own right. If you are a Canadian writer, you want to win the Giller or Governor-General prizes, right? The Pulitzer, if American? Attending When Words Collide, which in some ways was a bit of a culture shock, I realized that my past exposures to literature have mostly been on the literary side of the publishing world. I have a BA in Creative Writing (and Political Science) from the University of British Columbia, which is definitely literary in its leanings. I also spent a year working for the academic journal Canadian Literature, which does review some genre fiction, from what I recall, but is far more in tune with “literature.” Professionally, working in publishing, I primarily work with nonfiction books, but the fiction and poetry presses within the same circles of the publishers that I am familiar with are also all literary. I was surprised that there were Canadian publishers at the conference, like Tyche Books, ChiZine Publications, Bundoran Press, and Five Rivers Publishing, that I had never heard of before. I guess in my arrogance I thought that I already knew who all of the Canadian publishers were.

I also wonder if my childhood in Taiwan had anything to do with my knowledge, or lack thereof, of genre fiction and its fans. I certainly read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and mysteries–whatever the school library had–but I did not have access to the fan bases that these works inspired. Living in Taiwan cut us off, in some ways, from North American culture, or at least made it much more difficult to access, and my parents did not have the inclination or time to pursue and introduce us kids to pop culture trends. Every so often I become aware of blind spots in my cultural vision which I attribute to this isolation. Case in point, beyond an Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon version of Batman, which we could borrow from the school library (the library had an eclectic collection), I did not grow up with the DC and Marvel universes, and so the hype over the superhero movies that have been coming out over the last few years mostly leaves me cold. I will watch the movie if it has a good story, but you are not going to sell me on the nostalgia. Japanese anime, on the other hand, usually makes sense to me in a way that Disney and Hollywood so often fails, because anime reflects a world far more similar to what I grew up with.

But back to genre. As I clarified for myself over the course of the conference, I view genres and their conventions as tools for telling stories. Some characters work better in a mystery setting. Or being on a different planet or a space station makes it easier to explore certain themes. But I am not interested in genre for the sake of genre. I know that some readers and writers love those plot lines, and a good writer seeking to speak to that audience would do well to adhere to the conventions, but that is not my only interest.

As Jane Ann McLachlan forcefully argued at the festival, and others as well, one definition of good writing, regardless of genre, is that it speaks to what it means to be human. Put another way, to quote the late Doris Betts, “Deny the metaphysical and the trivial will triumph.” These are the stories that resonate and make you question your beliefs about how the world works. These are the stories that I want to read and that I want to write.

So it sounds like all of my stories will be in the literary realm, eh? Character driven, idea driven, asking the big questions of life. Well, yes, I want all of that, but plot is important too. I just finished a mystery novel which sucked me in with its characterization and setting, but the plot reveals in the last chapter were a real letdown. I probably will not be reading that author again. As I wrote above, I see genre as a tool, and my favourite genre titles are the ones that marry the conventions with speaking to the human condition.

I also want my writing to be accessible to a wider group of people. This is not to say that literary fiction is never accessible–some of it is and some of it is not–but it does have a  reputation for being out of reach. Working at Canadian Literature I could see how some writers, who were also scholars, did seem to be primarily writing for other writer-scholars, and that created a rarified, closed world. That is not the world that I want to be part of. Even if it means foregoing a chance to win the Giller or a Governor-General award, I want to have a wider appeal, and genre fiction seems to be a way towards that. The attendees at When Words Collide were so much fun, out to enjoy themselves and enjoy good literature. I felt like I was finally starting to find my literary home.

Will jumping between or blending genres make it harder for me to sell my stories? Perhaps. Genre is primarily a marketing tool for agents and publishers to sell books, after all, and for readers to find more of what they want. But while it sounds like publishers do not always know what to do with mixed-genre works and authors, readers do not share that problem. I met many authors, traditionally published, hybrid, and indie, who share a similar vision with me and who are doing just fine.

First things first, though, is to hone my writing craft and get those stories written. I’ll keep you updated.