Readers of serious non-commercial fiction are hard to come by these days, as literary fiction is becoming a niche market, obscured by the ever-growing dominance of vampire tales, action/adventure sagas and untantelizing erotica.
However, in Eastern Europe, where I live and where I've had the privilege of publishing my first novel, the situation is still very different. Writers don't have agents (terms like solicited/unsolicited manuscripts don't exist), there are still traditional publishers that don't take the commercial factor into account, and I was lucky enough to get a great response from the public and to be shortlisted for an important national award. It may be that the Eastern European temperament is generally more attracted to the dark and kafkaesque (adjectives often associated with my novel), but I'm more inclined to believe that this type of audience is simply more visible in a contained literary market.
Having said this, while faced with the more challenging task of introducing my book to the English speaking audience, I have been forced to take on a very different, more personal approach, and in all sincerity I am thankful that I have because it seemed to have reinserted in me the values that got me writing in the first place, the knowledge that the wonder of storytelling lies not in numbers but in the subtle and unobtrusive power of its influence and that the art produced, much like a living entity, gains a new dimension with every new soul it comes across, rendering each new reader all the more special.
Anyhow, this belief in the power of less is how I serendipitously crossed paths with my publisher, Kuboa, a very neat art house press. And that's also how Cliff and I discovered each other's work, which led to him offering this guest post. So, to any surviving believers of serious fiction and in the spirit of less is more: if you would like to give philosophical literature from Eastern Europe a shot (I like to call my novel a sort of homage to free will in which philosophical discourse is spiced up with noir thriller elements to keep the reader on the edge of their seat), please visit Kuboa's website for the free ebook or the beautifully-designed paperback.
In hope that my book will speak to a new reader...
Dana Todorovic
goodreads.com/book/show/18694064-the-tragic-fate-of-moritz-tot