Joe Meno
Joe Meno
Joe Menois a novelist, writer of short fiction, playwright, and music journalist based in Chicago...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
author corporate promoting realistic terms whether work
Whether you work with a small or corporate press, the important thing is to have realistic expectations in terms of sales, promotion, and the work you have to do as an author promoting your novel.
author control corporate couple cover decide figure finished less looks spend
As an author on a corporate press, you have a lot less control over the finished product. I figure if I spend a couple years writing something, I want to be able to decide what the cover looks like and how it's going to be presented.
almost expectation shift slowly
There's slowly been a kind of shift in how we think about childhood. It's like childhood almost extends to 20 or 22 even after the end of college. When I was growing up, there was this expectation that you were on your own now.
contacts copies corporate novels plan press sell small thousand ways willing word work
Most novels put out by small or corporate presses don't really sell that well - usually a thousand copies or so. Working with a small press, you have to be willing to book reading tours, plan events, make contacts with other small press authors, and find new ways of getting word about your new work out there.
although final pages students took
I tell my students that with a 200-page novel, you are going to write 100 pages that don't make the final cut. See it as an opportunity, although it took me a while to enjoy that 'lost in the woods' feeling.
relationship religion
I would say I have a complicated relationship with institutionalized religion.
came comparable strange surreal trust writer wrote
My first book is really comparable to what I do now, where it's pretty surreal and strange at moments, but that being my first book - I wrote that when I was 22; it came out when I was 24 - and it was just really overwritten. I just didn't trust myself as a writer to say something once.
certain drawings hit number type unless
I have a number of friends that try to live off their writing, and there's way more pressure for a hit or to write a certain type of book. You can't do a limited-edition short-story book with drawings unless you don't want to eat anything but ramen.
certainly expected growing time
When I was growing up in the '70s and '80s, by the time you were 16, you were kind of expected to be an adult. By the time we were 16 and able to drive, certainly by 17 or 18 and into college, you just had very little interaction with your parents.
complex fiction opportunity point
When you're reading, like, a character's thoughts, or when it's in first person, you're reading kind of their own story, so you have the opportunity to see what makes that character complex or complicated. And to me, that's what the whole point of fiction is.
stories work
What makes my work my own is where I'm writing from. And I feel like I have a million stories to write about Chicago.
artists both boy detective favorite felt good lucky means money respond smaller willing
I felt really lucky that 'Hairstyles Of The Damned' and 'The Boy Detective Fails' were both bestsellers, and I thought that donating the money from 'Demons' was a good way to respond to that. My favorite artists are the ones that are willing to experiment, even if it means a smaller audience.
doe failing ive-learned
What I've learned is that there is nothing in this life that does not fail to disappoint us, even our own deaths.
reading ideas trying
I was getting close to thirty and was trying on the idea of becoming more mature. I was reading more. I had gone out and bought a lot of shirts.