A Review of Ask The Dust by John Fante

One morning, a couple of weeks ago, a slim package from Amazon dropped through my door. I was just recovering from my knee operation and thus struggled to bend down to pick it up. Having done so I slid it onto the kitchen worktop assuming it was something else my wife had ordered. It was only when she came in from work that I was told it was actually for me. But I hadn't ordered anything. I opened it anyway and there was Ask The Dust by John Fante. I hadn't heard of either him or his book. Perplexed, I read the back of it and saw there was a Foreward by Charles Bukowski - one of my favourite authors. Curiouser and curiouser! The mystery was solved when I noticed a small typed note in amongst the packaging:

"Get well cards are for girls. Thought you might like this. I love it. Dave"

Now that's a great mate for you!

Ask The Dust was first published in 1939 when the author was thirty years old. It tells of struggling writer, Arturo Bandini (Fante's alter-ego much in the same way as Ray Smith is in The Dharma Bums for Jack Kerouac), who has moved to Los Angeles to make a go of his writing career. It is a first-person narrative story whose style is very similar to that of Bukowski who once declared: Fanti is my god! In fact Arturo Bandini and Henri Chinowski (Bukowski's alter ego) could be at the very least brothers, if not twins. It also stands comparison to Kerouac's Tristessa in terms of the main character's fascination with a woman with whom he believes he is in love; yet it is what she represents that truly holds the fascination.

Arturo Bandini is in his early twenties when the book begins and we are guided through various events, none of which are particularly dramatic, through his eyes. It is fair to say that at no time does he come off with any real credit. He is pompous, selfish, downright unpleasant at times, a bully and a liar. And the store that he holds in his (at the start of the novel) only published short story - The Little Dog Laughed - would make every fledgeling author squirm! I know I did! I believe that every independant author just trying to make their way, like me, would get a lot from Ask The Dust. Arturo has an unstinting belief in his talent and on one level you have to admire him for it. Times are very hard, living off free oranges and stolen milk and yet he still believes that one day he will make it as an author. He idolises his agent as being the one man who has spotted his genius and pours scorn on all those that don't recognise it. The only person ever to have told him they had read his short story is a fourteen year old girl whom he implores to read it aloud to him whilst he lays on his bed. He then claims to be closer to her age than he looks before she is whisked away by her mother.

So on one level this is the story of a struggling writer - his loves, ambition, confusion and daily worries. On another it is wonderful social commentary about how Los Angeles has sucked the life out of all those who live within its environs.

Ask The Dust is achingly funny at times but in a really poignant way. The final scene is wonderful and the whole book, from the manner in which it came into my hands, to the delightful prose, I found to be an absolute delight. As someone who recognises many of the traits inherent in Arturo Bandini I feel both sustained in my belief that I will one day make writing my full-time profession and relieved that were it not for people like my mate Dave the chances of  my appropriating the more unedifying elements of Bandini's character are thankfully remote though only ever just below the surface.

Tollesbury Time Forever Update - APRIL!

Well I hope everone is doing fine in their worlds!

In keeping with  the initial motivation for this blog - monitoring the journey of Tollesbury Time Forever from last Summer's frustrations onwards - here are the latest figures...

January 2012

US sales -      28
UK sales -     272
Other sales - 1

Total sales - 301

February 2012

US sales -    31
UK sales -   135

Total sales - 166

March 2012

US sales -      187
UK sales -     118
Other sales -  1

Total Sales -  306

Total Combined Sales

US sales -     246
UK sales -    525
Other sales - 2

Total - 773

Of obvious note is the huge increase in US sales in March. I have no idea how this came about but it is wonderfully welcome. The sales gave me the final push I needed to start the process of acquiring my US tax number which I hope to get through in the next few months! UK sales are gradually reducing and 'Other sales' are remaining steady at....well....1 every six weeks. But that 1 still means as much to me as any other. When I started out in January 2012 I hoped maybe to sell 100 overall - so I really am still getting my head around these figures.

Of note to those in a similar boat to myself - getting used to the old eBook KDP Select ocean - I have kept the price at £1.53 now for a good few weeks and intend to do so. Yes there has been a drop off of UK sales but I don't think this is price related. It's still very early days in the life of Tollesbury Time Forever so we shall see what we shall see. I also don't plan to offer the book free anymore using the KDP Select Free Promotion days. I've seen recently books that have been offered free and it seems to have had, as well as a welcome up turn in sales, the less than welcome spread of unpleasant reviews. I think I would rather keep things as they are. At least if I get a rubbish review I would have got a pound or a dollar out of it!

My days of checking every few minutes for sales are well over too, having received some fine advice which I will now share...

"Just because you press that F5 button all the time it won't make people any more likely to buy the book - all it does is stop you finishing the ceiling downstairs and stops me checking Ebay." -

Rebecca Ayris (wife) - March 2012.

Tollesbury Time Forever has been top of the Literary Fiction Average Review Rankings (UK) for the last seven weeks with a total of 59 reviews (5 five star) which is so pleasing. The actual sales rankings are up and down as you might expect but I guess that's the nature of the fluid model that Amazon employs.

So all this gives me great impetus to finish The Bird That Nobody Sees. I've written the first 45,000 words concentrating very much on the plot and dialogue. I'll add in descriptions, made-up words, ramblings and nonsense when I go back over it then hopefully I can release it by the end of August 2012 at the very latest.

Well take care good people. Please leave comments here if you like!

An Indie Author States His Case...

I first heard the term 'indie' associated with music - bands that couldn't, or didn't want to, get signed up to record labels and decided to go it their own way. And I admired them. I didn't particularly like the music too much but I admired them all the same. I used to play in a band in my late teens - Sparkling Rain we were called - Buddy Holly meets Bob Dylan meets The Housemartins - never quite worked out... Keyboard player was great, the drummer was fantastic and me, well, perhaps I just didn't have the belief I needed in myself to 'go indie'. That was a long time ago though. I'm now 42 - secret of life and all that.

I've always had a thing for the underdog and I've no idea where that came from. Perhaps being a Dagenham & Redbridge fan leaves me pre-disposed to such a trait. And I guess I've gravitated unknowingly (or perhaps sub-consciously) to books and films that re-assert that desire I have to see the small smite the mighty - or give it a good go anyway. Films like Harvey, novels like The Grapes of Wrath and the music of people like Jonathan Richman, Todd Snider, Billy Bragg and The Band have confirmed to me that I am not alone in believing that everybody deserves a chance to have their desires fulfilled. With another side of my persona being at times self-destructive it may be difficult for you to believe that I am actually an entirely peaceful lad! All these battles go in in my head you see. But over the last few years I've learned that writing helps me to make sense of all that goes on within and around me. Wonderful! Now where's that publisher? Where's that agent? Where's that adoring public???

I'll tell you where - at the end of a long line of hoops, commerce, heartbreak and wonder. Exactly the same line that my little band were faced with. We jacked it in (getting an electric shock off the mic stand and spending two days on an elderly ward when you're 20 can make you think twice about your choice of career - particularly when you should be down the pub watching World Cup '90)

But like I said earlier. I'm 42 now and I'm not giving up for anybody. So I published Tollesbury Time Forever on Kindle in January. It's received 58 five star reviews in the UK and has been wonderfully received in the US. I published the novel I wrote when I was 22, A Cleansing of Souls, in February and people have been saying some lovely things about that too. And I'm 67,000 words into my next novel, The Bird That Nobody Sees.

So to all the agents and publishers who have whizzed off a compliment slip to me saying thanks but no thanks or just were too busy to reply - I understand, I do. We're in a different business it seems. Yours is a financial enterprise. Mine well, it's about trying to make my dreams come true. But that's okay. Would I love a publishing contract? Bloody right I would! Would I like to have an agent represent me? Absolutely! Will I let the fact that I don't have either stop me? Nope. Not on your big fat nelly!

So, yeah, I'm what is termed an 'indie author'. I wonder when I check my sales reports every day (a billion times a day!) if that last sale is going to be the last sale. I check out the forums and the twitters and the Goodreads. I try not to get too high about the highs and too low about the lows (as the great John Still - Dagenham & Redbridge manager - advises) and I try to keep on writing.

Finally, if anyone ever asks you what an Indie Author is, give them this:

Definition - "somebody who loves to write and nevers give up."

An Indie Author, that's a fine thing to be...


Tolllesbury Time Forever - Amazon UK
Tollesbury Time Forever - Amazon US

My KDP experience so far...Blog 2

Blog Post 2
The Sales Reports
The KDP Community Forum
KDP Customer Service
Summary

The Sales Reports
Ah! The blessing and the curse that is the sales report! Can you imagine? Every time someone downloads your book the numbers change in front of you! It might not seem much but it quickly becomes more addictive, frustrating, doom-laden and ecstacy inducing than most things this side of the law. But you have to press that F5 key to see any changes. Believe me, you are soon hanging on every hour without a sale thinking - "that's it - nobody else is going to buy my book" before BLAM another one is downloaded! And you can't help but hope it is the start of something big and magical. When you realise it's not it smacks you right the other way. Then you begin to suspect that there is a problem with the reporting mechanisms, urged on by others in the desperation forum threads. You email KDP (more of that later!) and before you know it another sale comes in. But did it come in because they fixed something or was there really just that massive gap between sales. It's an absolute mind-f**k my friends! But once you have access to these figures, imagine not having access?? Then you realise that actually, despite the frustration and the downtimes that thrill of watching those little numbers increase is worth all the standing on the bedroom window ledge...

Positives:

• you get exact sales figures daily and royalty figures weekly and monthly

• you can work out some form of correlation between promotion and sales

Negatives

• you get exact sales figures daily and royalty figures weekly and monthly
• you can lose sight of the fact that this is a long game, not a quick win game
• you will need a new F5 key at some stage

The KDP Community Forum
Being new to all this I naturally assumed that forums would be full of helpful, like-minded individuals all enamoured with this wonderful Indie Publishing revolution. The Amazon Forums (or the Zoo as many refer to them) soon made me realise differently. Within a few days of publication I happened to mention that I had got some nice reviews. I was instantly accused of paying for them, having members of my family write them who hadn't read the book and basically scamming the system. I responded in a sadly typical sarcastic fashion and had my post deleted by Amazon along with a warning. Wow, I thought. Nobody told me about this. And I haven't been back there since. So when I saw KDP had there own forum I was very pleased. Again, naively perhaps, I thought this would be new, excited authors all in this together, a new era, a bright new thing. Now generally the comments are not as nasty or as malicious as some of those at The Zoo but you still have to be careful. It's a bit like an old pub where you get your regulars, your crotchety old codgers in the corner, your groups of happy-go-lucky chaps and one or two people that shouldn't be allowed out of their own houses. But overall there is some very good advice given. So be polite, don't brag, don't promote and try and be as helpful to others as possible. Just make sure you wear a heavy coat and don't spill anybody's pint!

Positives:

• KDP Forum offers excellent advice for the beginner and the experienced
• you don't feel quite so alone when things aren't going too well
• more or less any query you have has already been answered on one of the threads
• far better than the Amazon forums 

Negatives:

• finding the helpful threads amongst the arguments can be a little difficult at first
• easy to isolate yourself if you're not careful

KDP Customer Service 
Let me start by saying I think Amazon completely underestimated the uptake for KDP. That may be one of the reasons why their customer service is so, well, varied in its response. I have used them maybe four times, the first three times I got a standard email of acknowledgement stating the problem would be resolved within two days. And it was. Excellent. At the beginning of March though I had an issue whereby 3 sales were placed in the Free Price Match column (indicating that my book was free on another site and Amazon had made my book free in response and 3 people had downloaded it.) This clearly was wrong as my book has never been available anywhere else. I queried this immediately and the matter is still to be resolved. I have had six emails stating they are working on it, two that it has been resolved and one stating it is being looked at right now. So, to be honest, the jury is still out. They have an incredibly complex job and 3 misplaced sales is perhaps not top of their agenda. Still, they offer a service and should therefore be able to provide it.

Positives:

• good initial response to queries
• seems to be manned by real people
• they have a vested interested in making the system work

Negatives:

• variable response times
• passed from one department to the other
• don't always get back to you within the time-frame they set

Summary
KDP is a wonderful invention which provides a fantastic opportunity to authors to get their work out to a paying audience. There are no quality controls to speak of and maybe that's for the best. To my mind to share your words with another is a basic human right that has been eroded over the years by agents and publishers who value money above all else. I'd be wrong therefore to claim foul when I see some of the things that are published via KDP.

I can see KDP changing over the next year or so, particularly in regard to the Free Promotions which so clearly propel some books into the charts which may not otherwise have been there - coupled with the indifferent financial figures released by Amazon recently. 

For me the positives outweigh the negatives in all areas.

Now where has that pesky F5 key run off to again...    


So thank you for reading my early experiences of KDP. And guess what? You now have the chance to have a direct impact on any future updates! Yes, just by clicking on the link below! (of course it's a link to my novel - you've got to try haven't you?!)

Tolllesbury Time Forever - Amazon UK
Tollesbury Time Forever - Amazon US

Cheers fine people!!