Art and Literature on the Web

by Keith Rowley
(South Africa)

Proud Independence!

I entrusted my masterpiece to iUniverse in 2006. Like others on this site, I felt a little orphaned once the process was complete. However, I was a touch more fortunate in that my wife is an artist, and we decided to build a combined Art and Literature career on the web.

Now although I used to be an engineer, (nouw eye cant eeven spel injunier!) it took me a good couple of years to summon the expertise and will to 'get it together' and produce a decent web site. And no wonder - building a pretty web site is easy, whereas building a successful one requires an awful lot of sweat and tears.

Initially, I looked for experience and recognition through writer's sites such as Authorsden. These are useful for obtaining opinions from fellow scribes, but objective viewpoints tend to be in the minority once one has become friends with other participants. Harsh criticism (which we all need and require) is almost non existent. Still, there are some great talents there. These sites also serve to direct some traffic to your own site.

Anyway, there is no doubt that our new site is building up a readership, book sales are picking up as are art sales. And just as well! Living in South Africa seems to make finding a US or European agent rather more difficult that it should.

The upshot of all this is that I'm having rather a good time. My next literary work will be published through our very own imprint - Thelema Trust Books. We are busy working on an illustrated set of discussions I enjoyed with the Archangel Lucifer some time ago, collectively titled 'The Other Side of Light'. We hope to publish and ship in 2009. I think this is a great way to build a brand.

Here's a closing thought with which I embellished another site a little while ago: If Oprah endorsed it, most publishers would mass produce a book containing nothing but repeated copies of the contents of a bottle of tomato sauce (ketchup to my American friends). That's what the pursuit of short term profit has done to the development and propagation of literature.

Long live the web!!!

Keith Rowley

Visit the Aquarius Key at the Thelema Trust.