BRAND NAME DROPPING LEADS TO A GENERIC READING EXPERIENCE

Manolo Blahnik.
Jimmy Choo.
Prada
Gucci.
Bergdorf Goodman.

That’s the only time you’ll ever see those designer names featured as the subject in my writing.

A lot of writers think adding the names of designers in their stories will make their writing trendy and hip. However, smart readers see through this gimmick and know it’s just another example of really bad writing.

Using designer brand names to describe what a character is wearing isn’t creative writing, it’s what a lazy writer does to avoid writing details in a story. It’s easier for a bad writer to describe a character wearing an navy Armani suit and tan Manolo Blahnik sandals than to describe them wearing a tailored navy double-breasted Italian business suit, crisp ivory cotton blouse and Bone colored Italian leather strappy sandals.

What’s the difference between the two descriptions? It’s in the readers’ imagination. In one description the reader sees the labels the character is wearing but learns next to nothing about them as a person. The opportunity to develop the character is lost.

However, the more detailed description seems vague on paper, but readers have a clearer picture of who the character is as a person in their minds. The words tailored and crisp give the reader an image of the character being a well-dressed person. These adjectives tell the reader something about who the character is, what they are what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

Without the labels getting in the way readers can make their own story regarding the character. And in a novel, it’s the story the reader creates reading between the lines that makes what’s on the page important.

Personally I hate name-dropping and do my best to avoid it in my stories. I feel it cheats the reader out of an opportunity to use their imagination. I don’t want my readers to have their reading experience constantly interrupted by a commercial. Besides, these designers aren’t paying me royalties, so why should I give them a free endorsement?

The New Jack Bum

Ladies and Gentlemen: the face of poverty has changed.

The next individual to beg you for a dollar ore a quarter won’t be a disheveled person down on their luck the media portrays. They won’t be a poor mother looking for money to feed her kids. They’ll be young spoiled and Black.

I’ve had the misfortune of running into people wearing $1000 leather jackets, $200 sneakers $250 jeans, Bling, Bling, necklaces, watches, gold and all types of jewelry walking up to me to ask for a quarter or something to eat. Mostly they’re young Black or Latino Males, and the occasional female of color . Usually they start out with some sad story about coming out of jail, being put outdoors by their woman, coming out of the hospital before they ask for cash. Some of the more brazen ones just roll up on me and ask for cash. One brought his son with him to solicit in a supermarket. Who the hell is raising these people?

I don’t want to hear any explanations. Since when did it become okay to for an able bodied person who is dressed better than me and has no job to walk up to me and ask for money? What entitles them to my money? What happened to THEIR money? The cash they were supposed to pay for food, transportation, rent and light and gas? Oh wait, they spent it on those fly sneakers that Bling and the latest gear.

No, I don’t have it. Not for a bunch of spoiled little brats with an over exaggerated sense of entitlement. You want something to eat? Hock that gold around your neck or those diamonds on your wrist. You want a ride on the Bus? Sell that $1000 Pelle Pelle jacket or those $200 sneakers or use that cell phone you love to yak it up on to call a cab Don’t ask me for my money when yours is burning a hole through your pocket. You want money? GET A JOB.

Why do these new age bums offend me? Seven years ago I worked with the homeless population. I met people with nothing and less than nothing. I grew up poor on Section 8 and welfare. I struggled through seven years of unemployment. I’ve been poor and Black. I know what it is to do without; I haven’t bought a new anything since 2001. If it weren’t for Christmas and birthday gifts I wouldn’t have anything. It makes my blood boil to hear some spoiled brat in the latest panhandling when they have a home and enough money to buy designer clothes, sneakers and jewelry. I’m sure they have other words for people who sponge off people and make no efforts to work towards making their own living. Call them Hustlers, gangstas, pimps, ballers, thugs, rappers, Artists, poets, musicians writers: But in my book if they walk like a bum, talk like a bum then well, they’re a BUM.

Here’s my message to today’s new age bum: Life is a struggle. I’m not suffering and neither are you. Get up off your ass and do something.

Progress Report

Hi, just wanted everyone to know i was still alive and kicking. Since my laptop died I've had to log off the web, but I haven't stopped writing.

Over the past year i've been doing revisions the old fashioned way. I'm glad i did too. I caught a lot of typos and grammatical errors in the hard copy I would have missed on the computer. I'm hoping this makes my future self-published books of a higher quality.

I've got the covers designed for two books, and I want to release them within a couple of months of each other. Right now I'm playing with fonts and layouts on these and tring to make a visual that "grabs" the reader. I hope to get some Jpegs up here soon.

I'm working out budgeting, financing and an overall business and marketing plan. I hope to have something out in six months or so.

I'll be back here soon with more news soon.

Shawn

R.I.P Dell Inspiron 2500


A Posthumous Eulogy for my dearly departed laptop computer. I'm writing this from a library computer

Around Late June early July, My six year old Dell Inspiron Laptop bit the dust and went to the cyber graveyard. A fried motherboard was the cause of death.

Good times I had with that computer. Lots of Good times Writing novels, screenplays, short stories, movie reviews and blog posts, DVDs on Saturday night and Mp3s.

Due to the loss of my computer I’m out of the writing game for a while. Cooling my heels until I can save up money for a replacement unit. How Long? Not Long. I hope to be back soon ,making posts and promoting POD books.

R.I.P Dell Inspiron 2500 You will be missed.

Now if someone would give me some info on how to get the information off the hard drive it would be greatly appreciated....

Isis going out of print on July 1, 2007

I have recieved word from my publisher that on July 1, 2007 my book Isis will be going out of print after a five-year run. Anyone who wishes to pick up a copy before it's pulled from the Ingram distribution system can purchase one at the following websites:

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble.com
Or directly from the publisher at virtualbookworm.com:


Synopsis (From the back cover:

A lost goddess.

A heritage found.

A greater destiny to be achieved.

In the aftermath of a horrible tragedy, Isis the long-lost daughter of Osiris, has committed a heinous crime. Because she didn't receive guidance from her father, the elder gods show mercy on the young goddess by stripping her of her powers and imprisoning her on an uncharted island in the South Pacific.
Osiris and Isis reunite with his long-lost child to begin the difficult process of establishing a familial relationship. Hoping to guide Isis towards the greater destiny she's supposed to fulfill, her parents begin teaching her the ways of the gods. However, Seth's herald E'steem lurks in the shadows offering the young goddess freedom for a price. Caught in the middle of a never-ending war between the gods, Isis must choose to either return to the troubled world she knows all too well, or take a journey down an unknown path where faith is her only guide.






Biography (as of 2007):

Shawn James is a graduate of Monroe College with an AOS in Business Administration and over twelve years of writing experience. He has written articles for The Visionary: News of Morrisania, and the STRIVE Network News newsletter in addition to two community resource directories for the national nonprft employment service. Motivated by his strong interest in Egyptian Mythology and improving his community, he decided to write a novel where the legendary gods explored many of the issues African-American families faced in modern times.

I'd like to thank everyone who bought the book for their support over these past five years. I've learned a lot about the publishing business since then and I'm working hard towards getting a new title out there as soon as possible.

Has Russell Simmons Lost his mind?

I just was watching the Oprah Winfrey Show where Black leadership discussed the whole Imus controversy. In defending the misogyny and sexism in modern day Hip-Hop, Rap mogul Russell Simmons made the following statement: “Rappers did more for race relations than the current Black Leadership has done in years.” This statement to me was more offensive than Imus calling The Rutgers team “nappy headed hos.” It shows how much Mr. Simmons and his hip-hop associates are out of touch with the Black community.

Granted I have my issues with Black political activists and pundits, but Simmons’ statement about Rappers and race relations is pure hubris. If it weren’t for Black leadership working on race relations over the past forty years there wouldn’t be a Rap industry these past twenty-five years. In the context of things, if it weren’t for all the protesting by Black leaders like Jesse Jackson and the late Shirley Chisholm for affirmative action programs, there wouldn’t be any Black employees in TV, radio, movies or the recording industry. Without those Black executives, managers, writers, directors, and producers working behind the scenes over the years Rappers wouldn’t have access to the worldwide audiences they exploit today.

What Mr. Simmons has forgotten is Black leadership isn’t just the NAACP or Al Sharpton. Black leadership is the network of Brothers and Sisters who helped him establish the forum for Rap music twenty-five years ago. His ungrateful statement was a slap in the face to everyone who worked hard over two decades to turn rap music from a local “thang” into a multibillion-dollar international industry.

Black leaders are reporters for Black-owned newspapers like the Amsterdam News who covered the early days of hip-hop when papers like the Times and the New York Daily News didn’t have time. They were people like Gil Noble and Bill McCreary who granted interviews on their local TV shows when most mainstream talk shows blew them off.

Black leaders are the publishers of magazines like Right on!, Word Up! and Black Beat that offered ad space for Rap albums and granted promotional interviews and reviews when mainstream magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin tossed tapes from rap record labels in the trash. Before the Source, these magazines were the Source for information on Rap and Hip-Hop.

Black leaders are businesspeople like Shikulu Shange who own small independent record stores like the Record Shack and the owners of the now defunct Rainbow Records in Harlem that distributed and sold Rap albums when the big chains like Tower and Sam Goody at the time wouldn’t think of stocking Rap records on their shelves.

Black leaders are the Program Directors small independent Black owned radio stations like WBLS and WRKS back in the day that gave Rap albums airplay when top rated mainstream stations like Z100 and WPLJ were playing top 40 exclusively.
Black leaders are people like VJ Ralph McDaniels who created and produced Video Music Box for PBS here in New York. Without his show, Rap videos wouldn’t have had any exposure in a major media market during the 80’s. Outside of Manhattan there was no MTV or BET; the outer boroughs weren’t even wired for cable.

Black leaders are producers like Don Cornelius whose Soul Train gave Rap stars a place to perform in front of a national TV audience back in the 80’s when they couldn’t get their videos played on broadcast shows like Friday Night Videos and New York Tracks.

Black leaders are struggling directors Spike Lee, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Robert Townsend who put Rap songs on their low-budget movie soundtracks and gave regional artists national exposure.

Seems like Black leadership has done a lot for race relations that Mr. Simmons takes for granted. The hard work of all the faceless Black employees working together towards expanding media markets for Black audiences over the years took a lot of planning, organization, courage, tenacity and risk. Each of these individuals understood they were links in a greater chain that protected and supported the whole Black community. Each knew their work was important towards maintaining the network that provides Blacks with a forum Mr. Simmons and his hip-hop associates currently exploit. Without the network of black leaders working hard in the background to keep the dialogue open about race relations in the business world, he wouldn’t be in the foreground to manage a multi-million dollar empire like Phat Farm.

Mr. Simmons needs to take a look back and do some self-reflection. He needs to take a look at Krush Groove, the low-budget feature that detailed his struggle to the top. The movie details how the mainstream producers and big-shot executives that he defends today so vigorously wouldn’t give him a break twenty-five years ago. In the film and in real life those same executives said this “Rap” thing wouldn’t sell back then. They told America it was just a passing “fad”. I remember reading stories of how most hip-hop producers back then had to beg, borrow, and steal to afford the studio time. When aspiring rap stars performed in hot sweaty clubs, house parties, and auditoriums. When producers promoted their rap stars by distributing flyers in Black-owned barbershops and hair salons. When they promoted new album releases by sticking flyers to lampposts and mailboxes in Black neighborhoods.

I don’t know whom Russell Simmons and his hip-hop associates define as Black leadership, but all those people meet the definition of a Black leader to me.

Separate is equal in the African-American section of the Bookstore.

Separate is equal in the African-American section of the Bookstore.

Recently I heard some Black leaders complaining about the African-American section of the bookstore. They stated having a separate shelf space for African-American titles is a form of discrimination. Some called for an integration of the African-American section titles with all the other mainstream titles. In this case, I have to disagree with Black leadership. When it comes to the sales of Black books, separate and equal are good business practices for all.

Last year publishers produced over 172,500 new titles. This is down from 185,000 new titles published the previous year. From a customer’s perspective, searching for a single title in a bookstore during a lunch break can be frustrating. Even with the help of an experienced sales clerk, it can be difficult for a customer to find that one title in some of the smaller bookstores let alone the multileveled superstores. Bookstore managers know time is money, and each second a customer can’t find a product on a shelf the clock is ticking on a sale.

So managers of small bookstores and large chains like Barnes and Noble and Borders separated the African-American section from the mainstream literature. This was to help customers find titles faster and get their purchases processed. Managers understood that most customers didn’t have the time to search the shelves. Customers wanted to make their purchases quickly.

So is it racist for retailers to separate books by African-American authors from the rest of the mainstream titles? No. The African-American section is extremely profitable for publishers and bookstores. It moves titles off the shelves and into reader’s hands. Finding a title in the African-American section is a lot easier for a first time customer than searching the entire store by the author’s last name first.

Those who call for the integration of the African-American section of the bookstore don’t understand the retail side of the publishing business. Most bookstores, even the big chains like Barnes and Noble and Borders operate on a razor thin profit margin. Ninety percent of all new titles published in the calendar year will not sell enough copies to make a profit for the publisher or the bookstore. Retailers welcome any change in the sales floor that allows them to target niche audiences of customers. For them, separate sections for Black literature equals more profits overall.

I’ll give you two examples of the why a separate African-American book section is equal: Here in New York there were two Barnes and Noble stores. One was in the Manhattan Mall. Another was on 34th and Seventh. When both stores had their African-American Fiction and non-fiction titles separated from the “mainstream” titles they had lots of foot traffic and lots of sales. I’d watch as Black women frequently made their purchases from the African-American section. However when management of both stores integrated the African American authors in each store with the other mainstream titles last name first, I noticed foot traffic at the store dropped off dramatically and sales plummeted. Why? It just took too much time for customers to find a title.
In each case of title integration I saw, it was a disaster. First the Barnes and Nobles on 34th and Seventh closed. Then the store in the Manhattan Mall closed. A few years later A Barnes and Noble opened on 38th and Fifth. This store also integrated its African-American titles with the mainstream ones. It closed within two years.

While these bookstores were closing, street vendors all over the city were selling African-American titles exclusively. To the chagrin of brick-and mortar retailers, they had titles by African-American authors on their tables ready for purchase. On top of it they offered discounts in some cases the equal of retailers. Because customers could quickly make their purchases, many readers of African-American literature now do business exclusively with book vendors and not bookstores.

So while integrating Black authors with mainstream titles might be politically correct, it’s just not profitable. Separate shelf space equals access to mainstream bookstores for African American authors and equals more sales of books to readers.