Bloggasm

The Emerging Writers Network is run by Dan Wickett, a 40 year old with a B.S. in Statistics and a healthy appetite for contemporary literary fiction. Dan has been reviewing books for the EWN and its members since 2000 and has been conducting author interviews, and e-panels, since 2002. He happily accepted an invitation to the Litblog Co-op in the past year. Dan has three children, all of whom, perhaps not so surprisingly, all like to read!

Simon Owens: Since your blog focuses a lot on new writers, do you get many emails from writers who self-publish their work through vanity presses? What are your views on self-published books?

Dan Wickett: I do, and I must admit to a bias against them. I believe that while the publishing system certainly has flaws, that the route of manuscripts being submitted, read, read again, negotiated over, edited, revised, copy edited, proof read, etc. leads to a better product than most self-published books.

That said, I have peeked at a few self-published books - the best chance of my doing so to date has been somebody self-publishing a story collection where I can see that four or five of the pieces were previously published in literary journals that I enjoy and admire.

Simon Owens: With author interviews you conduct, which do you find more interesting: Questions about the writer’s life, or his/her body of work?

Dan Wickett: I certainly enjoy both types of questions, but I do enjoy finding something specific about an author’s life that I can question them on that might surprise them a bit - be it a question about somewhere they’ve lived, or about a past professor, or classmate, etc.

Also, many authors don’t seem to want to discuss their own writing in great detail. Those that are interesting in discussing the craft of writing, and their own work in particular though? Those authors are great to ask questions about their work to.

Simon Owens: What are some of the promotional methods that you use to promote new writers?

Dan Wickett: I have a growing email list of EWN members (just under 1300) that I send out reviews and interviews to. These also get posted to both the Emerging Writers Network site and the EWN Blog The emails also occasionally have notes and plugs about recent successes some authors have had.

Every so often, I also do some individual story or poem, work of the day, posts at the blog. When I do, these are typically of newer writers, or from literary journals.

And during the time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, the EWN has two promotional ‘gifts’ for members: A) A Holiday Book Offer - in which a signed copy of a book is made available to all members for less than cover cost of the book itself. These have typically been debut books by the author over the years and have always been from small presses; and B) A Holiday Gift Email, in which I solicit stories, poems and novel excerpts from 4-15 authors in the network and send it out in an email the first week or so of December. Again, many of the authors selected are still early in their career.

Simon Owens: How has your experience been with the Lit-Blog Co-op? Is the group essentially an extension of your own goal to promote unknown works?

Dan Wickett: My first post once I became a member of the LBC says it all - it took me about 4 whole seconds to respond yes when asked to join. I think that all of the members involved bring something special and different to the nominating process, and the discussion process, and I was a little more than thrilled when asked to join.

And, yes, I really like the fact that the group is trying to promote “authors and presses that are struggling in a crowded marketplace.”

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Dan Wickett: It’s not due out for another week or so, but I can’t wait for the publication of Daniel Woodrell’s new one, Winter’s Bone, so I can officially review it and not just froth at the mouth about it in general terms. Another due out this month is Liesel Litzenburger’s The Widower.

September brings Tom Franklin’s Smonk, and October brings Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, and William Gay’s Twilight!

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Dan Wickett: Great timing as I just did a post on my ten favorite litblogs. I would wholeheartedly endorse daily visits to Ed Champion’s Return of the Reluctant, Jeff Bryant’s Syntax of Things, Michael Orthofer’s The Literary Saloon, Laila Lalami’s Moorishgirl and Carolyn Kellogg’s Pinky’s Paperhaus.