Industry Interviews: Citizen Literature

Today I am here with Ed Wilson, Editor in Chief of Citizen Literature. Ed, tell us a little about yourself and Citizen Literature.

EW: How much time do we have here exactly?

No, I’m kidding. Citizen Literature was a longtime vision I’d toyed with for the last two years. In short, it’s a book review site solely for self-published or independently published books and novels. In the long-term, I’d like for it to be an open community devoted to the misfits of the publishing industry. As for me, I’m just a reader and writer like any other. I love to read, and I already owned a stack of offbeat books anyhow. The kind of novels you’d find at a used bookstore like A Serious Night of Drinking by Rene Daumal or the Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay. I’m nuts for Sci-fi and animation. Definitely would like more submissions of that sort. *hint* *hint*

JR: What is the purpose of your site and where did your inspiration to create the site come from?

EW: That’s an interesting question. Our ultimate purpose is to bring awareness of self-published writers to audiences looking for unconventional books. Sort of in tandem with that, I don’t see Citizen Literature as an “adversary”, per se, to the more traditional players of the publishing industry. It’s a big pool; we can both play nicely in it.

As far as inspiration on CitLit’s design, I have this shiny wooden floor in my apartment and it’s my dinner table, my desk, and on a good Friday night, it’s the bed I sleep on. I figured it might as well be the platform where we showcase the books. We’ve nick named our floor “Vanna White.” And before my sister kills me, it was her idea to use the floor as a background on our webpage.

What’s great about being Editor in Chief is I can pretty much do what I damn well please. Our site has book reviews of course, but there’s also showcases of  independent bookstores. On Slump Day (Saturday) I post anything I’ve found amusing.

JR: What exactly is your involvement in the industry?

EW: None. I’ve got  zero involvement. I’m just a girl who likes to play video games, watch cartoons, reads good books, and wants to shed some light on authors who work hard on all fronts of their novels.

JR: Why do you concentrate on mainly indie authors?

EW: All writers work hard—no question. The creative war is littered with landmines, and it’s easy to wonder “why the hell do we do this to ourselves?” I find it even more challenging for writers who decide to self-publish. There’s a lot of wrong assumptions about these authors that range from they’re just in it to get rich quickly to  they’re too lazy/afraid to query and deal with rejection. Alexander Merow, author of Prey World, translated his entire book from German to English, not exactly the easiest scheme to independent wealth. The truth of the matter is there are a lot of badly self-published books, and there’s an equal amount of pabulum to be found on these “best seller” lists.

JR: You wrote a column about book trailers recently and included one of our trailers in the article. How did you come across the trailer and what made you decide to write a column on book trailers?

EW: Well hell, I love movies. Any movie fan is a fan of trailers. Books have their limitations and trailers can bring colorless words to life. How did I discover the gem of a trailer for “The Hour of Time”? Honestly, I look everywhere and scrub the far nethers of the “internets” for content. It’s partly what I love about being an Editor and it’s partly what I hate.

JR: I love your site. You have a little of everything. From reviews, to rants, to general thoughts about the industry. Who comes up with these topics and do you have submissions from other sources?

EW: Thank you. We really do work hard to have authentic reviews and interesting content in general. There are just two of us right now. We receive submissions, but the bulk of the books represented on CitLit are books I’ve seen on my travels. We work like any magazine house does, we’ve got a publishing schedule and plan a week in advance.   I have a day job like everyone else, so this really is a passion project for me.

JR: What is your favorite genre and why?

EW: Easy. Sci-fi. There’s nothing like reading the classics like Huxley, Orwell, Bradbury, Asimov, Gibson, Serling, etc. I’ve also got a weird fascination with the history of animation and animation in general.

JR: What is your favorite book? What is your least favorite book?

EW: Favorite? I’m not sure, but a favorite for now are the Dr. Grordbort graphic novels by Greg Broadmore. My least favorite book is the Joy of Cooking, that book is literally collecting dust on every kitchen countertop; no one actually uses it.

JR: How many books would you guess you read a year?

EW: Okay. So there’s 52 weeks in a year, I review 5 books a week. So what’s that like 260 or something? C’mon Jay, I know you’re a math whiz. Check that for me. Honestly, I read more than I probably should.

JR: When you read a terrible book, do you review the book or not and why?

EW: As of now, no. Simply put, if the book is bad, I’m not going to finish it. I’ve got way too many other priorities. Once we have more reviewers, that may change.

JR: As a fan of indie authors, how do you feel about the emergence of self-published authors in the industry?

EW: Well, obviously I’m biased. I feel proud. It’s great to see writers taking risks, and the frontier will change with touch screen displays that play video and audio. Books may very well combine several mediums. I’m cautious too, I’m afraid there will be some impending plateau that for now remains obscure and unforeseen.

JR: What is your ultimate goal for Citizen Literature? How do you plan to get there?

EW: Ultimately, I just want to read books by people who like to write them. My plan? Do you got one you can spare?

JR: Plenty to spare.
Short Answer

If I could be a character in a book, I would be…Klaatu

Authors are…weird and they whine a lot.

Amanda Knox …would be an excellent name for a turkey club sandwich, an Italian turkey club sandwich.

If I could have dinner with three people in history, they would be…I’m not sure. Can’t say the idea of wining and dining zombies thrills me.

My last meal would consist of… 1 lb of Dairy Queen soft Serve Ice cream, a pitcher of Naughty Nurse ale, the chopped up film of Twilight Zone episode 36, and the entirety of the work of Ralph Bakshi blended up and poured in my warm coffee mug.

Definitely submit, and follow us on Twitter @CitLit or fan us on Facebook.

(click to visit website)

-

Watch the trailer for ‘The Hour of the Time‘