However that was then and this is now.
The rise of eBooks and particularly the Kindle and Amazon's KDP program have made it cheaper and easier than ever for writers to take over publishing and get their work to an appreciative audience. At first self published eBooks were looked down upon, often still are, but there have been too many big successes coming from the self publishing field for traditional publishers to ignore self publishing. Titles like The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Grey and current sensation, Wool, came from the self publishing field. And it is to self publishing that the traditional publishers are now looking for the next bestseller.
All the elements are now in place - eBooks have gone mainstream, writers can easily publish using companies such as Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. In fact the conditions are now right for the emergence of new writers who with luck could soon become household names -and from this perfect storm - or rather a purrfect storm of creativity comes Kitty Glitter, a writer who is challenging the norm and building up a loyal and appreciative audience.
With titles like Michael Jackson: The Sequel, Wesley Crusher: Teenage Fuck Machine and Zombie 69, author Kitty Glitter's bizarre books are starting to get noticed. Often hitting the higher sections of the Amazon bestseller charts the books are zany, corny and often quite hilarious.
Kitty often uses elements of popular culture to fuel her plots, and I wondered if Kitty herself was a geek, a nerd?
"I follow pop culture to some degree. I definitely keep up on artists I love, like Katy Perry and Ke$ha. I am an active member of Ke$ha's fan club and hope to be able to follow her on tour someday if I ever have the financial means to do that. I guess I could be described as geeky, as I am fairly skinny and wear big glasses, I'd definitely come across as a geek on some purely superficial level. Like some character in "Revenge of the Nerds". I would refer to myself as a Katycat definitely as I am probably her biggest fan. I would probably kill myself if she died.
Besides that I am a huge fan of The Donnas and I actually have a
tattoo of their logo on my arm. I think they are really underrated,
probably the best girl rock band ever."
Given that Kitty is such a student of pop culture I wondered what TV shows, movies and books get Kitty purring.
"I
have several favorite books. My favorite author is Patricia Highsmith
and This Sweet Sickness is my favorite novel ever by far. I've read it
several times.
I also really love Flannery O'Connor.
I love Christa Faust and I am currently taking a class from her on
Litreactor and also reading her novel "Snakes On A Plane". If you want
to read a really good story you should definitely check out her book
"Butch Fatale".
My favorite recent movie is "Stoker", and besides that I would say
my favorite movie all time is "Mysterious Skin" or maybe "The Doom
Generation". "The Doom Generation" is a huge influence on everything I
have written so far.
My favorite TV shows are probably "Mama's Family" and "Smallville",
my son was actually named after the main character on Smallville. For
recent television I'd have to say "Breaking Bad", I think it's perfect
noir. I also really love "Eagleheart" with
Chris Elliot, I think that show is just brilliant. Chris Elliot is a
cool guy also. I worked at the Letterman show for a while and would
often see him in the elevator. He'd always make a point to say hi and
ask how I was doing."
Some of the events in Kitty's books can be unsettling - Is there any place the Kitty's pen fears to go?
"I
would never write anything that attacked the Catholic church or
presented them in a bad light. Not so much because it's offensive but
because it's such a cliche to have the pervy priest or corrupt Pope. I
would hope to avoid
easy targets in general. I would also not write anything
anti-American. I am pretty patriotic and find that sort of thing
annoying. I hate people like Lars Van Trier and all his films that are
pretentious critiques of American culture. But I would not
really avoid writing about anything if I felt it fit the story I had in
mind. I only ever want to write about emotionally disturbed people,
never about anyone normal or stable. My protagonists will always be
deranged !"
And the audience seems to enjoy Kitty's books. I wonder if the author sees an audience in mind before setting out to write her books.
"I
have no set audience in mind. I always liked writing fiction and
tended to use anthropomorphic animals. My favorite show growing up was
"Alvin & The Chipmunks" and I would tend to read a lot into the show
and project my own
adult themes on it. Like assuming that the Chipettes would have sex
with the Chipmunks offscreen. There was one episode where they adopt a
kitten and it ends up getting killed by a car. It was very tragic.
Almost like a roman noir, except they end up getting
a puppy to replace the kitten.
Later on when I was into Patricia Highsmith I was just trying to
write like her and I was used to writing about animals so my goal was to
do Patricia Highsmith stories with talking animals, which she actually
did herself in "The Animal Lover's Guide To
Beastly Murders". Although her animals didn't talk out loud, they
though like humans. One was about a snobby roach lamenting the decline
of the shabby hotel he lived in. Another was about a horse getting
revenge for the death of a kitten he loved. So the
only audience I ever wrote for was myself I guess.
The Wesley Crusher story was just written as a joke one time while
on break at work and my friends found it funny. Then when I found out
how easy it was to publish on Kindle I posted it up as a joke, I never
expected anyone to buy it. I assumed it would
be removed right away. I was never actually a fan of Star Trek: TNG and
only knew about the characters second-hand from being around nerds. I
was a fan of the original series though. Besides Wesley Crusher, the
majority of the characters in my story were
my own invention. Like Meow Solo, the feline space pilot."
Given the subjects of the books I wondered how heavily Kitty uses social media such as Facebook and Twitter to find readers.
"I
think social media is useless. I don't ever bother reading someone's
work based on a social media interaction. It's more based on the story
they are writing. I no longer keep a Facebook account, as that mainly
led to weird,
creepy guys hitting on me. I keep Twitter but it's useless as far as
promotion goes. I only use that to keep track of Katy Perry. Her
tweets are always so charming and they make me happy.
Writing interesting stuff is way more important than promotion or
social media in general. The more time you spend posting on Facebook
and Twitter, the less time you spend writing or coming up with ideas. I
find social media is the same as praying, you're
sending random words into outer space, hoping that some life form might
hear them. But for all you know, this life form does not exist. And
you are better off assuming they don't.
In the end, the writing itself should be the reward. You should
have your own standards, and satisfy them. That will bring you great
pleasure. I might write a scene about a fat kitty with chewed up
Twinkies running out his mouth, and it will make me
laugh or smile. That's all you can ask for in life. I don't care if
anybody else finds it funny or buys that book. I already reaped the
reward when I laughed. If only one other person laughs at that, it just
multiplies that reward."
And so to wrap up and ask Kitty what new readers can expect from one of her books?
"That they will read something really over the top and strange. Like in my
story "The Blob Unbound" it's about this blob monster who sacrifices
himself to stop a cat from molesting these children. Most of my
protagonists are mentally
ill to some degree. This psychiatrist who read my story "American
Psycho 3" said that I gave a perfect depiction of the thought processes
of a psychotic person. To expect easy reading for the most part, I try
to write in a simplistic way and not go overboard
on descriptions. I think that my work is better than a lot of people
give me credit for, and that it's definitely more entertaining and
original than most of the self-published stuff you'll find on Kindle. I
would not suggest reading my longest work, "The
Puerto Rican Chronicles of Narnia" as I wrote that for National Novel
Writing Month and it's fairly incoherent. But it does has some
interesting passages and references to Michael Landon and "Highway To
Heaven" and it's probably less boring to read than "Naked
Lunch".
Find Kitty's blog HERE
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