The Big Book Ask

by Ruth Barker, 2 Feb 2011

Hello,

So, here it is: Hints and Tips

Check it out, have a think, and send us your thoughts. I think this could be something really significant that we’re putting together. I hope so, anyway. It seems a very democratic way of making our voices heard, so I hope as many people as possible share their advice.

Please send the link around to your own networks and contacts, and encourage those you know to send us their Tips. This is only going to work if we all chip in.

I’ll be interested to see if there’s consensus in what makes for a good working environment, or whether the Comments start to contradict each other. For instance, this morning I thought I’d put my head above the parapet, and I submitted a Tip that artists should always try to sign a contract if there’s money involved. Now to me (having had a couple of sticky situations in the past, which were made stickier because there was no contract) that seems like common sense. But perhaps tomorrow we’ll get someone else saying that artists should never sign a contract because it puts a limit on what they can do and how the work can evolve… I think it would be great if we did start to have those kind of disagreements, because they’d show just how varied the field is, and just how nuanced our experiences are.

I have high hopes for the finished books as well. In a way (following on from what I was writing yesterday) I’m hoping that this model may play to the strengths of both online and print media. The PAR+RS site is hopefully open and flexible enough that any readers who wish to can submit their thoughts. But then those thoughts will be made more permanent when they are translated into print on a page. There is something about a physical book which is still, to me, intensely valuable. A web page can change very easily (and this dynamism is often a great thing); it can also disappear with a single click. But a book is a different thing. It is durable and solid – once it’s printed, the words on that page are indelible. And even if we change our minds later about what it is we write today, it will still be good to be able to hold those words in our hands and remember that we used to see the world like that.

So come on, be generous. Share your experiences, and let’s try to shape the way that practice happens.

Utopian I know, but where would we be without at least the possibility of utopia?

More later,

R