The Caribbean Press appears to have a dilemma when addressing contemporary writing

Jun 03, 2013 Letters

D ear Editor,
I wish to add my two cents to the Caribbean Press discussion. What qualifies me to comment on this matter?
Writing and publishing are forever present in my thoughts, however hard I try to rid the urges. For the past 30 years I made a living primarily as a Technical Writer/Systems Analyst in corporate America, holding positions of head of internal publications at times. Creative writing was what interested me but switched to technical writing to avoid starvation.
In 1980 I set up Carib House as a publishing outlet for Caribbean writers, and I successfully self-published my own book of poems, “The New Caribbean Man.” End of introduction.
$100,000 U.S. a year is a nice round figure: easy to remember, easy to repeat, sweet sounding, and it rolls off the tongue with a smooth finesse. $104, 524.89 would have had more credibility with me.
Maybe it is because I have written fraud manuals for credit card companies, and a $100,000 charge would trigger an immediate stop.
Whereas, the latter figure, though randomly and facetiously quoted, would have indicated to me that someone sat and gave the matter long and hard thought, speculated on what will be produced and in what quantity, and estimated the cost involved.
Evidently, no such pre-planning was done for the Caribbean Press. As someone who served as project manager and saw products and services originated from wishful thinking through fruition, I find this hard to believe. Is it that there is money to burn in Guyana?
After taking care of the safe products – publishing the non-controversial classics — the Caribbean Press appears to have a dilemma when addressing contemporary writing. It seems that all the contemporary writing in Guyana does not add up to $100,000.
What is worse, this kind of disequilibrium can only increase with each passing year. The worse thing the Caribbean Press could do is publish junk just to use up the money.
And since the paper, colour, printing, binding, and layout is of such a high standard – so high that it has to be done not only outside of Guyana but outside of the Caribbean – then the substance has to match this form.
The Press is doing the right thing by moving cautiously on selecting contemporary matter, as finally its worth and how it is perceived will rest on what it puts into print.
The evident helmsman for the Caribbean Press is an accomplished academic and a celebrated artist in his own right. The qualities associated with those accomplishments run counter to those that are required to run the Caribbean Press. What we need is someone with business acumen and entrepreneurial savvy. I refer to people like the late Peter D’aguiar, Chris Ram, Yesu Persaud.
They do not have to know anything about publishing. Were people of that ilk at the helm, we would have had a Business Plan, Policy Statement, Feasibility Study, Projected Expenses and Income, Goals and Objectives, Marketing Strategy, etc., to say nothing of such mundane taken-for-granted stuff like a phone number, address, and contact information.
There would still be an editorial board for expertise in who and what to publish. The business head would take care of the day-to-day management and operations. And mind you, the helmsman would still have an indispensable role in the nature of a Technical Advisor, Aesthetic Consultant, Overall Visionary, and Board Chairman.
The final thing I want to say is not to solicit and rely on voluntary service. This is yet another way to make beggars out of artists who are already starving. If the printers can be paid handsomely, why not the other artisans, who help move the product along to that final round? For professionalism, you have to pay. It is the only way to get things done correctly and properly. Come to think of it, a $100,000 is not a bad number.
By the way, in the discussion on this matter, I believe needless aspersions have been cast on the writings of Ruel Johnson. I do not know and have never met the guy, but the letters he has written are, in my opinion, gems of erudition at its finest.
P. D. Sharma
Los Angeles, CA

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The Caribbean Press appears to have a dilemma when addressing contemporary writing

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