Miles to go before I sleep

To our dismay, the artist and author Marjane Satrapi has passed away.

As she wrote, ordinary Americans and Iranians have more in common with each other than we do with either of our governments, which have far too much in common with each other.

You mean like how people read books at libraries, and end up buying them if they like them?

“That’s not the same 😡”

Just saw this in my notes and thought I'd reply. You can't get into libraries if you only use Amazon, but platforms like Draft2Digital, Ingram and Kobo Writing Life make it possible for self-pub authors to have their work made available to libraries across the global network.

You're sometimes more likely to get picked up by libraries if you list yourself as having a publisher, but as a self-pub author you can do that by registering as an LLC (which for me was $250 back in 2020, I don't know what it is now) and then listing the name you used as the publisher. But even that's becoming an unnecessary step with how prominent self-pub has become.

However, from writing the training, I do know that UK libraries choose between having a set number of borrows per license, or a set time limit on the license for eBooks. My old library authority preferred issues for a variety of reasons (including managing waitlists). When an eBook was popular enough (many copies, all on loan) we'd go and buy another license.

Everyone in the UK public libraries sector was moving towards using BorrowBox circa 2023. Not sure what the market is looking like now in terms of contracts and tenders for eBook supply to public libraries.

Current Librarians, please add and/or correct me if you see this.

Sometimes when an author sees that the fic has activity, it encourages them to continue it.

That's not why I reblog but sometimes it does happen.

There's been lots of talk on here about how there's so little interaction that it's demotivating to authors. Maybe if you read that fic and commented or reached out to the author in a pleasant way, they might come back to it. A little kindness goes a long way.

The reason I’ve done this is that I get comments still from people reading, re-reading, and discovering what’s already there - it’s a real boost to your own interest and confidence in returning to a story.

The idea that fic writers exist in some kind of vacuum and that they ought to be writing “just for themselves” is utter nonsense - if that were the case, these stories wouldn’t be posted at all. They’re up there because people are invested in the characters and are keen to engage with other people who feel the same - but life gets in the way, and enthusiasm and creativity can wane.

Coffee shop AUs are, like... fine. They're not my thing, but they're hardly going to end the world. We don't need to have a moral panic about people enjoying coffee shop AUs. I'm also not about to come for anyone seeking escapism in the current hellscape.

However, I do think it's interesting to examine the tendency within these AUs to project a sort of idyll onto the coffee shop: here is a whimsical place where you can spend time with your friends and potentially meet your true love; here is a world where the greatest dilemma you may face is choosing the right coffee syrup for a new beverage or sneaking your number onto that to-go cup without being obvious.

The fantasy of the coffee shop AU is divorced almost entirely from the reality of an actual coffee shop. There are no abusive, creepy customers or bosses; there is no mention of the barista's wages; we don't see the dishwasher sweating at their station, the cashiers' aching feet; the person whose job it is to clean the (customer-only?) toilets. These topics are Political and Depressing and Must Be Avoided, because Political and Depressing things are antithetical to this kind of escapism.

The coffee shop AU exists, not in a world without capitalism (because this is a setting where commerce is actively happening) but in a world where capitalism has no teeth: a world where capitalism somehow works. In order to be convinced and soothed by this fantasy, you must suspend your disbelief and avert your eyes. You must filter the coffee shop through a neopastoralist lens.

People write coffee shop AUs because they are vaguely aware of how coffee shops work. They might not have worked in one themselves (which is why they glorify them and don't include all the achy feet and gross cleaning and boring stuff) but they have likely visited them enough to know the shape and process of operation. So it makes an easy and familiar backdrop to plonk a fic in. This goes for a lot of other 'workplace AUs'.

Of course, with a bit of research someone COULD write a great fic about, say, a lab if they don't spend time in a lab. But if people just want to tell a story and have limited time then they are going to reach for something a little more familiar.

I've read a lot of fic over the years, and whilst I vastly prefer canon based stuff I have read some workplace AUs. And it is very easy to tell which ones come from personal experience, which ones don't but have tried hard to replicate it (these ones tend to be writers with real care for the craft who are trying to do the trope but also do it well) and which ones have gone for 'vague workplace shaped because who really cares we all just want these two people to bone'.

The idea of fascism being intertwined with comfort is actually something to be aware of, and I worry the point may be lost in the focus on coffee shop au. You don’t necessarily have to change your reading habits because of it. We should all have comfort and beauty in our lives (bread and roses etc), BUT But but: putting the uncomfortable out of sight and mind is a sign of a fascist society - the definition of what is "uncomfortable" can include workers rights, different religions, different races, different cultural practices, disabilities, protests etc. How far you go to put them out of sight and out of mind is historically dangerous. The arguments and doctrine of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei began with stories in the media and culture, for example the film "Ich Klage an!".

House of Leaves // The Navidson Record

“Come play with me Daddy.”

“Okay, what do you want to play?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “Always.”

Despite the tremendous amount of material generated by exploration A, no one has ever commented on the game Daisy wants to play with her father, perhaps because everyone assumes it is a request to “play always." 

Then again, "always” slightly mispronounces “hallways.”