420. Staten Island

Surprise!  Surprise!  

An unannounced midweek post by a guest blogger, my friend Victoria Hallerman, a longtime resident of Staten Island who has been my guide there many a time, showing me the wonders of her island, undreamed of by most Manhattanites.  Victoria is a published author, and she maintains a blog about her and her husband's experience in 1976 running a movie palace, a story that is fascinating, sad, and hilarious.  I invited her to speak frankly on the subject of her beloved island, and that is what she has done.  Brace yourselves, Manhattanites, here she comes. 

Staten Island, the Edge of the Known World

         She says I should write about Staten Island: it’s out there somewhere...people, she says, are afraid of it, “or they think it’s the land of big hair and too much make-up.” Well it’s out there all right, but Upper West Siders afraid of Staten Island? I don’t think so.

         Twenty minutes later, I walk into Kirsh on the Upper West Side, my favorite cafe for writing. A man, strolling past, says to a woman, “Staten Island? (chuckling) –  doesn’t really exist.” He drools the words in a string of smugness, while they move on. Now that’s more like it, what I’m used to, what I’ve come to accept: people in Manhattan aren’t aware enough of the island that anchors the other side of the Verrazano Bridge to fear it.

         We (Staten Island) are the third-largest of New York City’s five boroughs, with the smallest population. We contain more parkland (9,300 acres) than any other borough, including better than 94.10 acres of forest in High Rock Park, part of the Greenbelt, where you can hike till your shoes are worn through. Staten Island exists all right.

         Yet, as if to ratify the views of the man on the street, when we islanders plan a trip to Manhattan, we persist in saying, “I’m going to the city.” We don’t just accept our outlier status, we claim it as the booby prize some other New Yorkers think we deserve. Ditching the hair and the outer borough accent, Melanie Griffith’s character in Working Girl got out; that was her victory. She “passed” for what was considered a real New Yorker.

         Somehow Staten Island often gets left behind. We were charming and rural in the nineteenth century, a place “city” people went to eat oysters and enjoy the harbor view. A short list of notable people who once lived in the forgotten borough is surprising: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the abolitionist Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, Herman Melville, Frederick Law Olmstead Sr., and  photographer Alice Austen – to name a few –  all lived on the island and/or were born there.

         But for lack of a subway connecting the island to Brooklyn that was almost built, Staten Island in the twentieth century became Pluto, ejected from the NYC solar system, or if you prefer to think of the city as a theater, we became its backstage. Here’s where the mounds and mounds of pre-2000 garbage from all five boroughs (1947 forward) and the tragic remains of the 9/11 attacks got buried. Fresh Kills Park is dealing with that very slowly, turning the garbage back to nature, if not without some rough botanical transformations.

         I’ve endured condescension from Manhattanites for fifty years, in conversation and in print, and I’m sick of it. A recent friend of the island, Ian Frazier of The New Yorker, seems to have friends here, and especially in his post-Hurricane Sandy piece of February 3, 2013, has written deeply, without hubris or insult, about the borough I’ve called home since 1969. In another article I’ve been unable to locate but remember reading, about the raising of the deck of the Bayonne Bridge, the writer (New York Times?) insisted it was okay to close the Bayonne for several years, insisting that nobody really uses that bridge anyhow. That’s right, nobody but Staten Islanders.

         Perhaps my friend, who started me off on this post, is right after all: people are often afraid of what they don’t know or understand, and Staten Island, a 23-minute ferry ride from the lower tip of Manhattan, is baffling in many ways. There are, for example, at least two Staten Islands, but almost nobody knows that. I’ll write about that next time I’m a guest blogger for Clifford, that fearless adventurer who journeys to the very edges of the known world, which would include Staten Island.

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Victoria Hallerman is a published poet and author whose upcoming memoir, Starts Wednesday: A Day in the Life of a Movie Palace, relates her experience as a movie palace manager of the St. George Theatre, Staten Island, in 1976.  Her blog, with a new post every Wednesday, is for anyone who enjoys old movie theaters, especially for those who love the palaces as they once were:
www.startswednesday.com/blog.  
I hope she will do more guest posts about Staten Island in the future.

        

Coming soon: Lady Gaga: She makes Madonna look tame.

©   2019   Clifford Browder

419. Indie Publishing: A Breakthrough or a Rip-off?

BROWDERBOOKS

My latest book, the fourth title in my Metropolis series of historical novels set in nineteenth-century New York.

 

A story of the strangest friendship that ever was: a dapper young bank thief and the detective hired by the banks to apprehend him. 

Reviews

"What a remarkable novel!  Clifford Browder's The Eye That Never Sleeps is an exciting cat and mouse game between a detective and a bank thief that is simultaneously so much more.  A lively, earthy stylist with a penchant for using just the right word, Browder captures a city pullulating with energy.  I loved this book right down to its satisfying, poignant ending." --  Five-star Amazon review by Michael P. Hartnett.

"New York City in the mid-nineteenth century is described in vivid detail. Both the decadent activities of the wealthy and the struggles of the common working class portray the life of the city."  --  Four-star NetGalley review by Nancy Long.  

"Fascinating!"  --  Five-star NetGalley review by Jan Tangen.

For the full reviews of the above three reviewers, go here and scroll down. 

"Well written, flowing with a feeling for the time and the characters."  --  Reader review by Bernt Nesje.  

The Eye That Never Sleeps is certain to amaze and engage not just historical mystery fans, but anyone seeking an exciting new read.  --  Five-star Readers' Favorite review by K.C. Finn.  

Available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Also ...

My nonfiction work Fascinating New Yorkers has been reviewed by The US Review of Books. Reviewer Gabriella Tutino says, "There's something for everyone here in this collection of profiles, and it serves as a source of inspiration for readers who love NYC." For the whole review, click on US Review.

For more about my other books, go here.

                                      INDIE  PUBLISHING: 
           A BREAKTHROUGH OR A RIP-OFF?

         Recently I paid $201 to Readers’ Favorite, an online book review and book contest site, for five express reviews for my new novel, The Eye That Never Sleeps.  I splurged, for this is their most expensive plan, bringing you 5 reviews in 2 to 3 weeks.  You can also get 1 or 3 reviews for less, especially if you are willing to wait longer.  I did this because my novel had received only 2 pre-publication reviews from NetGalley, even though many authors with my publisher have received 10.  The cost of NetGalley was shared with my publisher, my cost being $399.  Readers’ Favorite publishes only four- and five-star reviews, which reduces the risk of a bad result for authors.  I got 2 five-star and 3 four-star reviews.  But their offer of a gold seal to stick on my book, proclaiming it a 5-star winner, I rejected.  They wanted $50 for 250 1.5-inch seals, and I know a rip-off when I smell one.  But their online seal costs nothing, so I took it.

I then notified my publisher, Black Rose Writing, of the five reviews.

         The publisher’s reaction surprised me.  He urged me not to use Readers’ Favorite in the future, stating that my five reviews were worth less than one.  Readers’ Favorite reviews don’t carry a lot of weight, he explained, since they are almost always positive.  He recommended two other review sites instead.

         I thanked him for the alternative suggestions, but took exception to his view of Readers’ Favorite reviews.  Mine were not done slapdash.  They are substantial, intelligent, and sensitive, and have been especially good in appraising the historical setting, and not just the characters and plot.  (To see the reviews, go here.)  Five reviewers who had never heard of me or my books have now read and reacted to one of them in a positive way.  Their reviews grade the book's appearance, plot, development, formatting, and marketability separately, leading to the overall opinion that is the reviewer's final grade.  In addition to which, the author gets to grade the reviewer.  These are the most comprehensive reviews that I have ever received.  In short, I got my money's worth.

         Furthermore, as I have pointed out to my publisher, when people come to my stand at a book fair, they are impressed by good reviews, without knowing anything about the reviewers.  Just as, if they see a gold sticker on a book proclaiming it a WINNER of an award in some book contest, as is the case with another of my books, they are impressed, even though they’ve never heard of the contest.  Good reviews nudge them toward buying, and so does an award.  And let's face it, we authors are out to nudge folks into buying.

         This may sound like a cop-out, but I think that I and my publisher are both right.  He is right to disparage review outfits that take authors’ money and give suspiciously positive reviews to all comers, just as I am right in insisting that, at least in this case, I got something of value out of the reviews.  Since then I have consulted the Alliance of Independent Authors, a global nonprofit association of self-publishing authors founded in 2012.  Their award and contest ratings, designed to separate out the valid ones from the dubious ones, give Readers’ Favorite a caution rating, their lowest.  (Good guys get recommended, bad guys get caution.)  So score 1 for my publisher.  With further online research I found a discussion of Readers’ Favorite by a number of authors in 2016.  About half the authors were leery of the outfit, while the other half were satisfied with their reviews and voiced no complaint.  So opinion was, and still is, divided.

         This brings up a gutsy fundamental question: Should authors have to pay for reviews?  This practice, so reviled in politics, now dominates the “indie” (i.e., independent) publishing world, made up of small presses and self-publishing services.  Which is my world as an author.  Thanks to POD (print on demand), there is no need for publishers’ warehouses, or for nooks and crannies of an author’s tiny big-city apartment, to be crammed with unsold books.  No book is printed, until an order for it is received.  This has revolutionized publishing, as a host of small presses and self-publishing services have sprung up to fill the gap left by the bottom-line-obsessed big publishers, who for most writers are inaccessible.  Today, it has never been easier to get a book published.  If small presses reject an author’s work, the author can self-publish through a service designed to do exactly that.  So the market is flooded with small-press and self-published books, some of  them excellent, and some of them just plain junk.  A lifelong fan of sci fi, for instance, having always dreamed of doing a sci-fi novel of his own, can – at a cost – do it, even though it will differ in no way from a thousand other sci-fi novels on the market.  Mediocrity triumphs.

         So the whole indie publishing world has bypassed the gatekeepers.  And who are, or were, the gatekeepers?  First, the five big presses, all based in New York, that read only agented submissions: HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette.  (Hachette -- isn't that a French publisher?  Yes, and a big one, but with a division based in New York.)  Obsessively concerned with sales and little else, up till now the Big Five have dominated the market.  Also keeping the gate, and mostly keeping it shut, are the agents, who for new authors without contacts are almost inaccessible.  In another post (#407, “Damn the Gatekeepers, or Why I Go with Small Presses or Self-Publish”), I have related my misadventures with agents, and explained why I prefer small presses or self-publishing, a decision that I still endorse today.  Indie authors know that their chances of making the New York Times bestseller list, or even getting a review in the Times or some other big-name publication, are just about nil.  This means that a vast segment of the reading public will never hear of us, and we accept that.  But as the indie publishing world has surged, available reviewers are flooded with books to review.  And so, this being a capitalist society where everything has its price, reviewers charge money.

         The indie publishing world has now become a huge machine for getting authors to part with their cash.  Everybody wants our money.  We have to decide which deals are worth the cost, and which not.  Yes, we can get some of our friends to do reviews of our books at no cost, and some readers will do the same unbidden by the author.  But as everyone in this business – publishers, editors, fellow authors, readers, and reviewers – keep proclaiming in a resonant chorus, the more reviews, the better.  So authors are wooed by reviewer outfits citing the impact of their reviews, as attested in glowing terms by outrageously successful authors.  How can authors not be tempted by these offers promising “honest” reviews, meaning that favorable results are not guaranteed?  Here are the reviews we need … for a price.

         I mentioned earlier that the Alliance for Independent Authors rates book awards and contests.  According to them, Readers’ Favorite reviews merit their lowest rating, caution, a finding that I, at least in part, disagree with.  I have now read through their ratings of some 118 book awards and contests, and find that only a measly few survive their scrutiny and earn their top rating, recommended.  Such ratings risk being too exclusive, too pure, for the grimy world we live in.

         Among book contests with the rating of caution are two that gave a WINNER status to my nonfiction title No Place for Normal: New York / Stories from the Most Exciting City in the World (Mill City Press, 2015).  My book won the Tenth Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Regional Non-Fiction, and first place in the Travel category of the 2015-2016 Reader Views Literary Awards. 

These and similar contests have been criticized for offering a large number of awards for books in various categories, instead of just one, two, or three prizes in all.  Yet it’s precisely because of those categories that I entered these contests, anticipating less competition, for instance, in a nonfiction category Travel / Regional / Northeast.  And it paid off twice, plus “honorable mention” in a third contest.  “Honorable mention" is a nice way of saying "semifinalist," which isn’t worth much in itself, since it is shared with a host of other authors.  But it acquires a degree of significance if linked to the two first-place awards.  And since the “honorable mention” was in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards contest, which enjoys the coveted recommended rating from the Alliance, so much the better.

          So now that I know how my two first-place contests are rated by the Alliance, do I reject them?  No way!  Regardless of that rating, they help me sell books.  The Indie Excellence Awards gave me – for a price (everybody wants my money) – gold stickers proclaiming the book a WINNER.  Those stickers now adorn every copy of the book in my possession.  I only regret that the Reader Views contest did not, for a reasonable price, offer stickers as well.  (It didn’t offer stickers at all, thus forgoing a juicy bit of additional revenue, which is hardly the American way.)   At book fairs, people who see that book with its sticker couldn’t care less what contest it won, as long as it was a WINNER.  What sells, sells.

         No reviewer is, or up till now has been, more esteemed than Kirkus.  Founded in 1933 and based in New York City, its magazine has acquired a reputation for providing unbiased professional reviews.  Now it publishes both in print and online.  For a new author, to be reviewed by Kirkus – favorably, one hopes – is a dream.  A Kirkus review can put you on the literary map and launch your career as a writer.  But what are the chances that an indie author, self-published or published by some small new press, will be reviewed?  Next to nothing, of course.  But all is not lost.  For a mere $425 and up, Kirkus, out of the goodness of its heart and the munificence of its greed, offers a “traditional” 250-word review in 7 to 8 weeks.  And for $575 in the same time frame, you can have an “expanded” review of about 500 words, with an expedited option for $725.  A positive review can even earn the coveted Kirkus Star.  And if the review is negative, you can choose not to publish it, thus making it disappear into the sinkhole of oblivion.

         Sound familiar?  Very much like the deal offered by Readers’ Favorite, as described at the start of this article.  If Readers’ Favorite, now exposed as an upstart copycat, is to be condemned, why not the illustrious Kirkus as well?  But those lucky authors who, having paid good cash, get positive reviews, will fight for Kirkus.  Who wouldn’t?  And if they get the Kirkus Star, they will defend Kirkus to the death.  But for me, Kirkus has tainted its once unblemished reputation.  Kirkus is a whore.

         But whores exist, because there’s a paying market.  The more reviews, the better.  All those awards and contests rated caution know this well, and thrive.  And I know it too, and in this grimy world will get reviews where I can.  Free, when possible; otherwise, for a price.  Free or paid for, the dear little things count, they sell.  And if even bestselling authors confess to having paid for Kirkus reviews -- and they do confess it --  maybe someday I will, too.  If you're going to patronize a whore, you might as well take, for a price, the best-looking one on the block.

    WINNER     WINNER     WINNER     WINNER     WINNER          

Coming soon:  Lady Gaga: She's crazy, but I dig her music.

©   2019   Clifford Browder

Readers' Favorite Reviews

       Readers’ Favorite reviews of The Eye That Never Sleeps

Here are the five paid-for reviews of my historical novel The Eye That Never Sleeps that I got from Readers' Favorite.  My publisher thinks them of little value; I disagree.

Review #1: Review by Kathryn Bennett

Review Rating: 5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review! 

The Eye That Never Sleeps by Clifford Browder takes the reader to New York City in the 1870s. A fantastic, fast-moving city of movers and shakers that had within its streets plenty of odd couple relationships. Once such relationship is a friendship between a young detective and a young bank robber. Detective Sheldon Minick and bank robber Nicholas Hale call a truce to their cat and mouse game of cops and robbers and show one another the New York City they know, from the fanciest places in town to the dirtiest in the poorest areas. Once this truce is over, what will happen? Can friendship survive when one man breaks the law and the other is charged to uphold it?

There is something that has always been fascinating about the 19th century, especially in a big city like New York. It is a place that is full of hustle and bustle today, but to imagine it during this golden age when all the big names from the Industrial Revolution were at their zenith is amazing. Bringing all that glitter and soot together into the story of just two men from the big city is a fantastic idea. You feel the personal connection of following these characters, but you also get the bigger backdrop of New York City during this age.

This book is a delight to all the senses, and I felt like I could have been at any of the places these men went to as their story unfurls. At times you can almost hear the sound of 1870s New York ringing in your ears, or smell the factories or, worse, the docksides. Whether you are someone who likes a good detective style novel or a historical tale, you will love this book because you solidly get both. I won’t tell you how the story ends or what happens when the truce is up, but I will say you don’t want to miss this book.

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Review #2: Review by K.C. Finn

Review Rating: 5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review! 

The Eye That Never Sleeps is a work of mysterious historical fiction penned by author Clifford Browder. In a detective novel set in the late nineteenth-century grime of New York City, we meet two central characters who live the polar opposite of one another’s lives. The glamorous and loose-living bank robber Nicholas Hale lives a life of excess and elegance amongst the glitz and glam, whilst the detective on his case, Sheldon Minick, combs the grimiest locales of the city to find his quarry. A quirky alliance allows them into one another’s worlds, changing them to the point where the detective becomes torn about turning the robber in, despite all his new ally has shown him of the world.

Stylish, compelling and filled with character, this was an excellent read from start to finish. Author Clifford Browder captures the highs and lows of historical New York City with a clear love for the place, repainting the grimy noir of slaughterhouses next to the glamour of the high life. The plot twists around the central friendship, slowly building and giving away its secrets as the relationship between Hale and Minick grows. Even as the conclusion looms, there’s a powerful sense of not wanting their time together to end: a rare quality in books these days. What results is a highly atmospheric and compelling narrative of lives lived and eyes opened. Overall, The Eye That Never Sleeps is certain to amaze and engage not just historical mystery fans, but anyone seeking an exciting new read.

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Review #3: Review by Samantha Coville

Review Rating: 4 Stars

New York in the 19th century is seen through the eyes of two vastly different men embroiled in the same case. One is the slick bank robber who not only steals money but steals hearts as well. He's the exciting life of the party, glitz and glamour type of guy. The other is the detective who has been tasked with solving the crime. He's the ordinary, unassuming, random guy next door type of man. But their unusual friendship together will take you through a tour of New York that covers everything from the upscale neighborhoods to grimy downtown. Clifford Browder's The Eye That Never Sleeps will have you entranced from page one.

Crime fiction is always a hit or a miss for me and The Eye That Never Sleeps was a big hit in my opinion. I believe it can be attributed to the fact that author Clifford Browder goes beyond the norms of crime fiction and not only gives us the excitement of a good crime, but also the endearing and slightly comical budding friendship between two polar opposites. Browder's writing style is fresh and full of good descriptive language that paints the backdrop of the story in fine detail. I picked up this book and then only put it down when I absolutely had to for a break, and even then it was begrudgingly. This is a unique read that draws you into a time, place, and people and doesn't let you go until the very end. A strong showing for Clifford Browder.

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Review #4: Review by Caitlin Lyle Farley

Review Rating: 4 Stars

A spate of robberies urges the president of the Bank of Trade to hire private investigator Sheldon Minick, ‘The Eye That Never Sleeps,’ to catch the safe-cracker responsible in Clifford Browder's The Eye That Never Sleeps. Minick finds his first clue while undercover at the annual ‘Thieves’ Ball’ in New York—a newcomer to New York’s criminal underworld called Slick Nick Prime, whose dapper airs, particular hobbies, and habits correlate to the profile of the safe-cracker. As Minick watches Nick through his web of informants, little does he realize that Nick is watching him too. An unlikely camaraderie forms between the two men, and when Nick offers a truce in exchange for the opportunity to introduce Minick to the glitz of the high life, Minick accepts. As these two men explore each other’s sides of the city, will Minick convince Nick to leave his life of crime behind, or will he be corrupted by Nick?

Browder draws an entertaining spectrum of opposite and complementary personality traits in Minick and Nick that makes their unusual and complex relationship entirely plausible. The sense of budding friendship intertwined with the tension of their necessary rivalry is absorbing as Minick and Nick venture into slums and fancy restaurants by turns. While historically accurate, the attitude of the day towards women and people of color on those occasions it enters the narrative might be jarring for today's reader. This includes Minick’s regard of his own wife. The Eye That Never Sleeps provides an intriguing character study as Nick and Minick play a cat and mouse game of unusual proportions, one in which the victor is impossible to guess until the end.

Review #5: Review by Tiffany Ferrell

Review Rating: 4 Stars

Mr. Sheldon Minick might not be the most interesting of men but he is one of the best detectives around in Clifford Browder’s The Eye That Never Sleeps. So when a series of serious bank robberies occur, he’s first on the case with theories of his own. Every moral fiber in his body tells him that the culprit is none other than his next-door neighbor Nick Hale. What if he isn’t though? As Minick starts taking an interest in Hale, the same goes the other way. The two begin a bond slash truce in which they show each other different sides of the city. A new lifestyle for each of them. When the bank is robbed for a third time though, something isn’t right. Maybe Hale isn’t the perpetrator of these notorious bank heists after all? From the depths of the poorest places in New York to the ritzy upper-class high life, the two form a friendship of sorts. Is Nick really the bank robber terrorizing the city, or has Sheldon Minick made a mistake? Surely not, but he’s playing a dangerous game all the same.

It’s been a really long time since I read a historical crime mystery that I liked! I’m a huge history lover and of course since the story is set in the Victorian era that only made it more appealing to me personally. Browder really created two characters that you could connect with and like. I actually loved Nick’s character even though most of the time you find yourself hating the obvious enemy or crook. Even in the end I still liked him. The chemistry created between the two main characters who were detective and thief was so well done that it kept me on my toes until the very last sentence. The Eye That Never Sleeps is a great midnight mystery to enjoy and I highly recommend it to all crime and mystery loving fans.


©   2019   Clifford Browder