Start the Week #44

Greetings!

The other day I did a journey that usually takes me an hour and three quarters in four and a half hours. The first 75 miles took me 90 minutes. The remaining ten miles took three hours. That was all because of massive traffic jams due to blocked roads caused by flooding. As it was I had to drive through puddles so large I thought I’d been transported to the Great Lakes. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, except that I thought you might enjoy a brief glimpse into the life of Lord Terry.

But enough of this persiflage! On with the newsletter.

Typos

If there are errors of a typographical nature in this newsletter it is because of a mixture of griffonage (I’m using a handwriting device) and a profound paucity of proofreading. You have been warned.

Goodbye, Johnny Sax, and hello, Johnny Sax

🎷🎵🎵Long-term readers of this esteemed publication will recall that a few months ago I decided to try my hand at learning to play the saxophone. As a sign of my commitment I even adopted a musical equivalent of a non-de-plume. Farewell, Dr Tel, the famous blues harmonica player¹, and welcome Johnny Sax, the nascent jazz funk groover.

I rented an instrument from a shop. The scheme entailed paying for four months up front, after which a direct debit would kick in. Once a year or so has elapsed, the instrument is mine.

Well, I returned it last week. I'd managed to grit my teeth and bear with a tutor who made me play stuff like Jingle bells and Happy Birthday — though to his credit he did teach me how to play the G major scale once I'd told him that I'd taught myself to play the C major scale. But there was one note I just couldn't get. As is often the case when people are trying something new, I assumed the problem lay with me, and so, reluctantly, I came to the conclusion that I simply wasn’t cut out to play the sax.

However, I did notice that the neck moved around even when I did it up tightly. The shop offered to repair it, but why would I want to accept a repair to a new instrument? I also thought the sax itself was bent, and Elaine noticed that one of the keys didn't sit properly. Perhaps the fault wasn't mine after all.

After returning the instrument an unexpected thing happened: I missed it. I did have to reluctantly agree with both Elaine and my tutor that I had indeed made progress from those first cacophonous strainings. I spoke to my tutor about it and he said it was not uncommon for refurbished saxes to be bent. Fine — except that I'd been told it was new, not refurbished. Having realised that perhaps — perhaps — my declining self-confidence in relation to learning the sax was groundless, I've decided to try again, with a different saxophone from a different shop — one that offers a 30 day money-back return, which ought to give me enough time to discover whether or not I'm useless at it. And I'm sorry that the previous sentence was so long, but it seemed to warrant it somehow. And I'm sorry that I keep starting sentences with a conjunction. But I'm working on it. Anyway, all I can say is, watch this space.

Writing pre-and post-internet

A question arose in Substack’s Office Hours about whether writing was easier before the advent of the internet, or now. As I started to have articles and books published commercially in 1990, I feel qualified to offer an answer. It is, unsurprisingly, both.

Before the internet

• There was no worldwide web, so a writer couldn’t showcase their work in the way we can now.

• There was no social media, making it harder to get your name “out there” — at least in theory.

• There were gatekeepers, aka editors, you had to satisfy in order to get published.

• Communication was much slower. I had to send my copy and illustrations on a disk through the post.

• Self-publishing was possible, as it always has been, but you would have to have a printer do short print runs and then store the book in your garage or spare bedroom.

After the internet but before social media

I had a website quite early on, and I used this to write about education and sell my (mainstream-published) book. Later I started a newsletter that went out by email, and also sold self-published e-books from my website. MySpace came along but it seemed to be more geared towards music than very much else, so I didn’t use it for my writing.

Not having social media didn’t bother me because you can’t miss what you’ve never had. Or, to quote from that eminent social commentator Muddy Waters:

You can’t spend what what you ain’t got

And you can’t lose what you ain’t never had

Now

These days you don’t have to satisfy gatekeepers. You can self-publish books, write articles on Substack, and serialise books on Substack, to name just one possible outlet.

You can self-promote like crazy using X, Facebook and all the rest.

But…

With everyone and their dog publishing their own work and shouting to the heavens about it, cutting through all the noise has become a major problem.

Paradoxically, perhaps, the very best way of getting your name and work known is the same as it’s always been: word of mouth. Most people still believe that self-praise is no recommendation², so having others sing your praises carries much more weight.

I’m thinking that I might write an article for my paid subscribers on how I managed to get word of mouth recommendations in my work. What’s holding me back is that it’s not what I would call a quick win. For example, I haven’t yet reached 1,000 subscribers on Substack, and I haven’t yet come to the attention of the people behind Substack Reads, and I’ve been here for about 18 months. Therefore, I’m not sure I’m qualified to talk about word of mouth, at least in relation to this platform. On the other hand, I do get recommendations from other writers here, for which I am immensely grateful, so perhaps I am qualified. To be honest I don’t know, and I will have to think about that. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

Noteworthy articles

The past week has seen several fabulous articles published. But enough about me. (I’M JOKING!!)

Lyle McKeany

asks: If a newsletter fails and no one is around to read it, does anybody care? It’s an interesting article, with some interesting responses. For my part, I just love writing. I have scores of notebooks and digital files and box files with bits of writing that will almost certainly never see the light of day, at least in their present form. However, once I have published something I do become a little despondent if it attracts few likes and even fewer comments. With your indulgence I’d like to reproduce part of the comment I left on Lyle’s post:

Typical conversation in our house:

Me: I don't understand it. Nobody has liked or commented on my latest post, or emailed privately to say I'm the best writer they've ever come across.

Other half: Would that be the article you published two minutes ago?

On the subject of self-promotion,

Karen Cherry

has written a really useful article on using Notes to make connections on Substack. It’s not really about self-promo at all in the traditional social media sense. It’s well-worth reading, and there’s a more in-depth download there too — and it’s free! Yay! 👏

I’d never heard of the poet Marvin Bell before I read the article by

Aaron McNally

called City of Literature. It’s a really interesting article and includes a beautiful poem by Bell. Do check it out.

Meanwhile,

Rebecca Holden

still hasn’t learnt to make tea properly, despite my detailed instructions. Rebecca has also written about her meeting with me. It isn’t always the case that one gets to meet their heroes, so obviously Rebecca is very lucky. Mind you, come to think of it she didn’t ask for my autograph. A bit disappointing, but perhaps she was overwhelmed by the enormity of the occasion.

As for me, I published a soul song version of my very short story in my latest ‘experiment in styles’, while for my paid subscribers I wrote about how to write short. This was based on my experience over many years of having to write book reviews in no more than 150 words. That doesn’t give you much room for pontification and persiflage.

Well, I think that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and that you will check out the articles I’ve mentioned.

Have a good week!

Terry

1. Don’t believe me? Check this out, dude:

2. Although a casual perusal of Linkedin might disabuse you of that notion.