The Sunday Times give us an interview with Top Ten ebook best-selling author, John Locke, who has sold a million ebooks and made himself almost a cool half-million US bucks in the process. Locke, no relation to any philosopher, claims to be working on this third fortune, to be married to a woman with great legs, and to write for bored businessmen and 75% women; his ultra-violent, sexually-prehistoric hitman character apparently appeals to all levels of nitwit slash reader. The key thing is, he has bypassed agents, publishers and all that nonsense from London, like the snobbery and wine in bookshops, to simply sell books he churns out like some people push toothpaste onto their bristles, for 62p a pop. This is the future of publishing. I teach creative writing and have seen many brilliant novels get rejected by the old p-system (publishing system). This is going to empower a lot of people. Sadly, as my Oxfam bookshop manager friend Martin Penny tells me, most people want to read crime novels - and never tire of sexual sadism and brutal killing. If writers want to offer poetry or something a little less red in tooth and claw, they might have to charge 32p.
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
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I have attempted to do the same thing. All my poetry is now available on Amazon Kindle for only £1.50 per volume. At long last the despotic old gatekeepers are slowly but surely being swept into the dustbin of history.
Best wishes from Simon