“Its a big book, kind of dry. Why don't you write to sell?”
-Frank, January 13, 2021
…
This kindly man, who invited me to his table for Christmas was commenting on Cracker-boy. Well, history is perhaps the worst selling category of writing and takes the most work by far. That is why I never wanted to write history, but historical fiction. Then I discovered that my historical science-fiction was going to be regarded as fantasy, as the supposed history of America is a many-faceted lie.
Their are only three ways to sell history, and by sell I mean getting on a best-seller list and being able to live off the royalties:
-1. Novelist Crossover
Shelby Foote, a respected novelist, was asked to write what has turned out to be the best-selling book on The Civil War.
-2. Journalist-Media Personality Cross Over
The best example of this might be Mister O'Reilly, the Fox news conservative didact, who has placed his name on the work of relatively unknown history writers laboring under his editorship.
-3. Academic who Can Somehow Write
Such rare characters as Eric Cline, who wrote 1177, a book on the Bronze Age Collapse are quite rare. Such a character has to write a book for his university, and if it is actually readable it might get picked up by a publishing house for general sale.
I have no hope of ever writing a history that sells, as I have no credentials, no media following, no institutional backing from news organizations or a university press.
However, had I had one of these qualifications, I would not be able to get published through any of these channels unless I lied, obscured and misrepresented the plight of the hundreds of thousands of European American slaves. I have actually declined three offers by book agents to shop Stillbirth of a Nation to standard publishing houses. I know ahead of time that I will not knuckle under to editorial demands that I use anachronistic terms like “indentured servant” to promote the weird white picket fence fantasy of Colonial America.
I might be able to get a lot more sales writing a half-truth book that will appeal to conservative race fetishists, by claiming that white slaves had it worse then black slaves, for which I have found no evidence.
I might be able to write a book about how much worse African American slavery conditions sometimes where than what liberal Americans believe, for they were even more bestial than commonly envisioned. But in order to sell this book to people interested in the history of slavery, I would have to obscure much of the reality I have discovered, and I will not do that.
Without a popular fan base, there is no way to write honest history that will be tolerated by the literary establishment. American history is an ongoing deception in which I will not engage. As for ancient history, I expect the Sons of Arуas and Beasts of Arуas books to remain beyond the pale for conservative and liberal history readers as I do not concern myself with the ideological costume drama of the 1930s and 1940s as a critic. Neither will I satisfy the fringe white race fetish reading market that I have access too, due to a lack of certain ideological and racial opinions in these texts.
I was blessed to even learn to read, at the late age of ten. I then toiled for 20 more years to learn how to structure a sentence and then a book, having no idea how to use the English language and having never passed an English test. Somehow, through reading osmosis I imagine, I was further blessed with a gift to write in an informative and entertaining fashion. Unfortunately, my search for the truth and inability to adopt an ideology, has cursed me to unsalable status. I will not squander my blessing on trying to make money writing and thereby selling out, when I could simply manage inventory for a food retailer if making money was my concern.
The only reason I ever consented to chase the dollar—and it was a disultory chase engaged in with but half a heart—was to support a wife and children. I no longer have a woman, and my sons are better at making money than I ever could have hoped to be. There is no longer a reason for me to make money in excess of what I need to survive.
So I write as a parting shot at the rancid heart of that evil world that has hated, tormented, negated and lied to me at nearly every turn upon its twisted axis.
I researched the blues a lot when I was a wee lad and the conditions of African American slaves were such that plantation houses had their own orchestras where the musicians thereof were lavishly clad in the best clothes money could buy. All they had to do was do their individual practice, their ensemble practice and tour in the summer. All the plantation houses sent their orchestras on tour throughout the south to other plantations. They travelled first class, were treated first class at each gig, the best clothes, food and accommodations.
Even manservants in New Orleans were clad better than most whites with the latest fabrics and fashions. They were wearing the most recent fashions from Paris and other notable fashionista countries. And white trash were envious.