Richard Kriheli

Being sworn onto the witness stand, the publishing industry lumbers aboard and plops down. Outside the court, cries were heard, the loudest of which sounded something like “publishing is dead!” The trial has been raging on for the past few years now, but little has been reconciled since. The popular sentiment remains : the end is nigh. Sentences are about to be sentenced.

As we await for the proverbial gavel to strike, let us muse on the cause of this ruckus. Allow me to adjourn the sentencing proceedings, if you will. See, I think this is all bogus and preventable. A whole lot of fingers are pointing at Amazon, digital media and the internet for hurting the industry. Excuse my naivety, but isn’t having another place and means to sell and promote your books a good thing? Perhaps if you are doing it wisely. Am I foolish to believe that technology could be an aid rather than a scourge to the process. Granted, there are other factors at hand, but nothing seems to outweigh the obvious suspects.

Blaming the internet is for the meek. The problem, I believe, is that the publishing folks haven’t thought things through with sincere insight and scrutiny. Lets face it, the old-school folks running the publishing conglomerates are stunted in their evolution. The ancient business model no longer applies to current times, and waving a white flag now is just pathetic. Resistance to change is going to get you slaughtered in the field. Here’s the deal in three sentences (digest at will): You guys are trapped in a very flat, linear narrative – the bound book. However, this same stack of pages is no longer the optimal way of disseminating content. So what you’ve become is a group of grumpy, whiny nostalgics bound to print.

I’m not suggesting the book is over. Nor do I want to sound like I am taunting sans rejoinder. I actually have gobs of ideas on how to work towards solutions. Things that may work, things that may not. But the bottom line is, I’ve got potential propositions that may save you from the chair. But no freebies here for vultures. If anyone wants to talk shop, look me up and I’d be happy to get some discussion rolling. I’m looking your way, Random, Harper, S&S, Penguin & Hatchette. This trial will come out of recess quicker than you can spell recession (pun intended).

Book it.

Who is this Kriheli guy?  How can we sell him?  

Nope, no running tricks here. These questions will undoubtedly arise if an interested party reviews my work. Aside from all this pointless blogging and my day career as an Internet Maharishi, I write fiction. I am approaching the stage where I will need to find a home for my work as I prep for my submission run in the coming months. But I am plagued with a small dilemma.  Where I have near full confidence in my prose, I am cracking at the bits when it comes to my name.

Name? Why is this important? Well, for one – a snappy nom de plume makes someone easily recognizable and memorable (of course, when paired with solid work.) From a marketing standpoint, I’m no fool – this could be a critical piece of the plan. While I do realize that I carry a unique last name, it is still difficult for your average dimwit to pronounce.  KREE-HELL-EE is the way I pitch it.  Instead, I am met with gems like CRY-HELL-EYE, KRILLI, KREELI and I have even been graced with CRYLLIC believe it or not. Actually, it is easy for me to believe because I have come to the conclusion that people are plain lazy. I am not about to hop into “John Smith” territory or anything but given my penchant for the written word, I feel I can come up with something interesting. After all, I did author an anonymous blog under a pseudonym in the past that seemed to work. So, this dilemma needs to be resolved for me to go forward. I will attempt to reconcile this shortly and be done with it. So I really have two choices here:

1) Keep the name.
Kriheli is my birthname. People already know me and I have already pimped myself enough on the internet to feel like a dirty trollop (they don’t call me Filthy Rich for nothin’). Pros: Not everyone knows my background so there is an air of mystery around it – I often field questions about it. Cons: Not catchy, and pronunciation could be awfully butchered.

- OR -

2) Go with a Pseudonym.
In college, I was asked to use a pen-name on two occasions. One time, I used Papermate (har har), and the other time Sam Clemens (Mark Twain’s real name). I think I have since shed my arrogance and corn, and will try to be less of a dick. Pros: A good pseudonym is memorable and can define a career. Cons: Birthname gets lost – Richard Kriheli who? Also, I’d have to get a new domain/website rolling to not confuse anyone. Also, choosing an alias is the lyrical equivalent of a tattoo for a career – changing it down the line is tricky.

That said, I turn to you. My audience of word lovers and fellow writers. Those who love and appreciate language and the beauty of the written word alongside yours truly. I need some opinions and a nice, healthy debate on the merits and pitfalls of both options. In the end, I make the final call on this. When a writer approaches agents for representation and publishers for the proverbial go/no-go decision – they are often asked whether they know their audience. Consider this post just my attempt at getting to know what you guys want.

And yes, you are now my pimps.

So once again, Filthy Rich kicks off an inaugural blog post (otherwise known as “Hello World: Version Deux”). Only this time, it is with fervency, and with potentially no audience. Well, no audience – yet.

Kriheli.com was around for a while, long before everyone and their mothers had blogs. Long before social networking, and web 2.0. I blogged often, and was somewhat consistent about it. ‘Somewhat’ never really cut it – especially if one claimed to be a scribe. But there were still readers, once upon a time. And there were comments and all kinds of positive feedback. There was a time back in the day, where I actually tried to woo Ananda Lewis through this very blog (circa 1998). I even remember blogging the night before 9/11 – packing my bags on en route to London for a friend’s graduation. The words I posted the following morning still haunt me to this day:

“Tuesday September, 11, 2001. 9:31am – Um, scratch the London trip. War is imminent.”

Gone are those days. As the posts got more and more infrequent, inconsistent and scattered, so did my writing. I’m not sure what exactly happened – or if there exists a root cause for becoming unproductive. Judging by the slew of -ly adverbs in this post, I can already see I have a lot of work to do. Nonetheless, I am here blogging again. And doing it to prove to myself that I still have it in me. Actually, I kinda know I still have something because I ran an anonymous blog last year on a very personal subject matter and was blown away with the response to it. The proverbial fire was reignited, so-to-speak.

That said, here I am with my blog version of a “do-over.” Though, because of past inconsistencies, I will not boast about being a capable, seasoned veteran in this game. I will not assume my readers will be back. But what I will do is honor the written word, this time ’round – and win you guys back.