Dan Fante (2 Viewers)

Reading Chump Change was almost like finding a Buk surrogate for me--certainly the style and material is much closer to Buk than most of Buk's influences.

Funny that Fante says that his hero as a novelist is Hubert Selby, particular Selby as the author of Last Exit to Brooklyn. LEB certainly focuses on the downbeat aspects of life, but it is nearly the opposite of Fante's and Buk's minimalism.

Fante also says that he is not impressed with Buk as a novelist. I find that incredibly surprising. They are so similar that it almost seems like an attempt to distance himself.

By the way, I am referring to comments in this interview.
 
"...people confuse stylistic element with content. Bukowski wrote the way he did because he had to -- but his content, that's the important part. People don't understand his subtlety and they just think if you write about people puking in their beds and having sex with hookers and vomiting that you've made it -- and there's so much more to it."

Selah!

"...though Hank was a decent novelist, he basically emulated my father and he couldn't come close. He couldn't come close to depicting those emotions that my father depicted in Ask the Dust."

Can't argue with that.
 
I forgot to mention that his story collection Short Dog is also excellent. Not to the exclusion of other his works, of course; it's just the only other thing I've picked up so far.
 
I like this interview, have read a lot of Dan Fante, and just don't think he comes close to Buk. But then I don't like his dad that much.

I agree Buk's poems are much better than his novels but I think his short stories were supreme. I do wish Buk had produced more short stories and novels.
 
Fante Senior wails and cries a lot. Bukowski was NEVER sentimental. He asked for no quarter. Fante Junior - don't know.
 
I've read all Dan Fante's stuff and whilst I enjoyed Chump Change, Mooch and the others, the best for me is Short Dog (or, to give it it's UK - and better - title Corksucker. Whilst more obviously fiction it somehow seemed more natural. And the passage about fat people was hilarious.
 
Does anybody know what he's up to at this moment in time? Has he got any new material coming out soon. He's a mighty good writer. Ive read all his stuff and just wonder what he's planning next.
 
Dan's New Stuff

Does anybody know what he's up to at this moment in time? Has he got any new material coming out soon. He's a mighty good writer. Ive read all his stuff and just wonder what he's planning next.

Just thought you all might want to know that Dan's got two new books coming out. Burning Shore Press will be releasing his play The Boiler Room probably in the late summer/early fall. Also, Kissed By a Fat Waitress, a book of poems, will be out on Sun Dog. I'm not sure of the exact release date on that one, but it shouldn't be too long now.

By the way, I'm the guy who conducted the BSP interview with Dan that some of you have been mentioned. I'm glad you like it.
 
wayrob,
Please let us know when the Boiler Room is out. I can imagine that many of us will buy a copy. Dan is a great writer and a great guy.

Bill
 
I'd rather order from Al directly. Amazon fucks the publishers. If I remember correctly, they take 55% of the sale price. This can be after they run a promo and drop the price 30% without your permission. Add to that the publisher having to pay for the postage to get it to them (they do not pay for postage) and that when you want a check (which you have to ask for), they charge you a fee to cut a check.

They could have changed, but when I set up the account years ago, I quickly realized that I would never see more than 10% of the value, if everything sold. IF I had to ask them to send the remaing books back, that would have been worst as, you guessed it, they charge you to send your books back too.

As far as I'm concerned, the BoSP books that they have there can be thrown out if not sold, it cost me too much to get my own books back.

They make auction houses look like charities.

Bill
 
You didn't mention Amazon's twisting of the knife: even if someone does find your book there in a search, Amazon lists the link to the used sellers along with the link to the new product.

Hollywood by Charles Bukowski
Buy new: $16.00 - 58 Used & new from $4.55

If I was a publisher, no way I'd go for that shit.

Of course, as a buyer, I use Amazon all the time...
 
Yeah, Amazon is by far the worst out there. I suppose that the large publishers make big money off of them (and I'd love to know the deal that they get), but they really seem to go out of their way to fuck the little guy. I guess that at some point they figured out that small press publishers would literally give them their books in hopes of selling a few and that is what you do; You give them away to a multi-billion dollar corporation so that they can sell them and make money while you will never see a dime.

I guess that this is no different than many companies. Banks charge you and me for many, many fees that they would NEVER charge a big customer. Hell, I used to work at a Golf resort and we had famous, rich people that came and and flat out refused to pay to play. It was always "Don't you know who I am? I don't pay to play golf.**" You gotta love capitalism (or else they'll come and get you.)

Best,
Bill

** The above was a paraphrase from The Washington Redskins former quarterback Joe Theisman, although he was really bold, most people showed a little more tact, although the results were the same; The little guy paid $115 a round, while the guy who was worth millions and could afford it easily paid nothing... Just like Amazon.com!
 
Major publishers sell Amazon.com at a 50% wholesalers discount (sometimes 50%, plus 10% [which equals roughly a 55% discount], if they are not major enough publishers) off retail price, minimum order 100 copies per title or case quantities, freight on board, books are eligible for returnable within six months of invoice date with publishers permission and copies of invoices must be supplied with the wholesalers permission request, and all returns must be in resalable condition to receive credit. Return freight is to be prepaid or the return will be refused.

"What you, Amazon.com, don't like our terms of sale? Well, learn to live without our best sellers and national bestsellers as well as all of our wonderful backlist titles. See ya!"

Amazon.com sees to it that all small/independent presses help to pay for those terms of sale too.

Big fish eats little fish!
 
Hell, I used to work at a Golf resort and we had famous, rich people that came and and flat out refused to pay to play. It was always "Don't you know who I am? I don't pay to play golf.
As someone who has spent way too much time around famous, wealthy people, I can tell you that's how they all are. I don't know what fame does to your soul, but I know - for the most part - it ain't good.

NBA finals time always reminds me of sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas and watching a famous actors bet on the games. He sent his assistant to actually place the bets - "Put 60 on the Bulls, 40 on Boston and Phoenix, and 25 on Utah..." Those are thousands, by the way.

I never got over how casually they would burn through huge sums of money (25 grand to fly the kids in from New York for the weekend on the other famous actor couple's private jet), then expect some restaurant owner, clothes shop - whatever - to give them whatever they wanted for free.

Crazy, man.
 
You didn't mention Amazon's twisting of the knife: even if someone does find your book there in a search, Amazon lists the link to the used sellers along with the link to the new product.

Hollywood by Charles Bukowski
Buy new: $16.00 - 58 Used & new from $4.55

If I was a publisher, no way I'd go for that shit.

Of course, as a buyer, I use Amazon all the time...

Amazon is a good way to generate revenue and get an author better known--that's about it. I hope you don't use Amazon to buy used small-press books. If you do, then you're helping to kill the type of literature you claim to care about.
 
That is true. If you buy the book directly from Sun Dog, he makes 100% of the money. The book is $14.95. If you buy it from Amazon, Al makes $6.73 less whatever postage it cost him to mail it. Amazon makes $8.23, plus they charge you $3.99 for shipping (media) and they probably pay $2 to get it to you, so they make another $2 on the overcharge in shipping fees. At the end of the day, the publisher would make $6.73 (less the fee for him to get a check from Amazon), while Amazon gets about $10.23.

Yes, whenever possible, buy from the publisher or a reputable smaller bookseller. We need them to stay in business.

Bill
 
I don't usually buy books from Amazon. Probably because I work in a bookstore. And I would like my store to still be here in a few years.

DVDs, music... I'm more likely to buy from Amazon, but books? It just seems silly. Plus... shipping fees suck.
 
Uh, okay? Thanks so much for the presumptive scolding.

Didn't mean to scold. We in the publishing business who takes chances and publish less "commercial" authors need some backup from readers or we don't survive--it's as simple as that.

If Amazon would have been around in the 60s and 70s and people bought their Black Sparrow Bukowski books from them used Black Sparrow would probably have never had the impact it did; they wouldn't have had the money to keep putting out books. This blog also probably wouldn't exist--for who would have made the commitment to a writer like Bukowski then except John Martin? Large presses like Ecco just come in and reap the rewards after the truly daring little publishers put their asses (and savings) on the line as a labor of love.

Sorry to be such a nag, but this subject hits very close to home with me.
 
We in the publishing business who takes chances and publish less "commercial" authors need some backup from readers or we don't survive--it's as simple as that.

...the truly daring little publishers put their asses (and savings) on the line as a labor of love.
Ayyyeeee, brother! Stop! I surrender!

Your posts are really rubbing me the wrong way, so I will just assume that you're addressing everyone reading this, and not me in particular.

I'm sure you're a swell guy. Good luck!
 
An interesting poetry reading happens about as often as a Clippers winning season...

Ha!

I was never interested in reading Tony O'Neill because that I-was-a-teenage-junkie shtick is tired, and it was never that interesting to begin with. But reading that interview gives me a different take on the guy. I'll definitely pick up some of his work and give it a spin.
 
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I was never interested in reading Tony O'Neill because that I-was-a-teenage-junkie shtick is tired, and it was never that interesting to begin with. But reading that interview gives me a different take on the guy. I'll definitely pick up some of his work and give it a spin.

I agree...I've read only a few things thus far (I just bought his latest novel + a book of poems), but what I've read has something very different than what I'd consider the more typical addiction-schtick. There's seems a real authentic & redemptive undertone to what I've read thus far--& a razor-sharp eye for powerful details...so I'm looking forward to reading the new purchases.

His new broadside from 10pt Press is a really nice piece too...
 
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Hi everyone. We had a really cool Dan Fante-Tony O'Neill reading here in So Cal a while back. I hope some of you were able to attend. For those who weren't there here's a link to a nice review of proceedings.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/general/last-night-underground-literat/

Sorry about taking so long to get this up, but insane busyness and then illness has hit the house of Burning Shore.

Thanks for the info. Shame to see that Fante's signed on to Harper...
 

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