Sunday, April 17, 2022

River of Blood 1978


It been sometime now I've been researching about Altab Ali and the history of the seventies. Labouring over these information and images moved and inspired me, and the creator in me gets infused with ideas and imagination. Here I have taken the images from the Bethnal Green & Stepney Trade Council 1978 by Dan Jones.  I have produced a series of computer aided designed visual arts. These images for me in a homage to Dan Jones for his part in helping my people, my elders, my family.

Cover artwork by Dan Jones


 As you can see, the images are influenced by my upbringing and my perceptions.

This one naturally fell in to this, resembling the Bangladesh flag. 


This design lead and formed itself into this image as I was playing with the blood spillage. This images is deep as far as one want to take it, very subjective.

 I have been experimenting with the image, repeating it in myriads of way. This images again is awesome, the depth in it, deep too.  This in my mind was a "floral," but so much comes with it, a "bloody poppy." When you let your eyes roam in this picture from inside out, each section as you move your eyes outwards gives you difference from the imagery, feet, to the chin, to the knees, to the body to the arms, to the blood.

I wanted to present what the original images did to be and my imagination. And as a Sylheti Bangladeshi, what this images invoked in me.

The original images will be forever etched in to my heard and mind and so to with the hundreds of survivors of the time and their legacies.

This images are part of the book I have been researching, compiling about Altab Ali, who was murdered in 1978. My aim was to add some substance to the old information that has been going around for over 40 years. To me I felt I was stuck, like broken record. I felt there was no real attempt to put quality information and facts about the incident and about the person, himself.

So in the process I have amassed so much information about him, his friends, family, his habits, his duties, his likes. I also wanted to know who did what after he got stabbed, where were his family during this period, who took responsibility in dealing with the event, any death is insanely painful and devastating; what did the police do, what did the press do, what did the community do and more.

I have spoken with Altab Ali's friends and family as well as his associates, it goes without saying that I have also spoken to the local historians and the community vanguards. So much so that I have been propelled to honour, value, appreciate, respect and ways disposable to me, such as a writer of proses and poetry, are an artist, freehand and as a C.A.D, visual arts.

To this end, I was looking at producing one book, but it has lead me to produce three books, one with the art and poetry from myself and others who have written in the past; 2nd book about Altab Ali, his life and family; and 3rd about the "Symbol," life after death.



  


















Publishing Poetry East EndBritishEducationalSylheti  ❖  Opportunity

Friday, January 14, 2022

The days of the traditional publishing world has altered!

 The days of the "Traditional Publishing" world has altered.

 You have the, Traditions, Self and Hybrid Publishing, these have made it more possible to have your work published without going to the BIG GUNS and through an agent.

·         “It is like millions of people want to get in through the traditional publishing pearly gate.”

·         “Publishing is very exclusive and discriminating process, ruthless”

·         “High class book pimps”

 

In the traditional sense, the publishers place your books in places where the public will have access to buy.

The traditional publishers and agents have suppressed and crushed so many aspiring writers by telling them their work is not saleable/publishable.

Following is an extract from the “Self Publishing School,” on-line, taking us through explaining the process with the traditional publishing.

 

What’s a publishing house?

A publishing house’s main purpose is to find authors and their manuscripts to produce and publish into books.

They can be responsible for several things:

1.   Selecting marketable manuscripts. Publishing houses need to know trends, statistics, and market climates to choose the right books and frame them in the best way to generate the most sales.

2.   Designing and editing the manuscripts. As I said, publishers are responsible for framing. This also requires a knowledge of trends and market climates to design a book that will grab readers’ interest.

3.   Selling and promoting. The publishing house makes deals with retailers and companies for when, where, and how to sell the book. They also plan and execute marketing and promotional plans, if any, for the book. This isn’t something they do for every author. Publishing houses benefit from pushing their high sales authors–very little marketing budget goes toward newbie and debut authors, so if you’re into the idea of traditional publishing because you think they’ll spend their marketing budget on you: reconsider.

What are the Big 5 publishing houses?

There are five publishers known as “The Big Five,” and being published with them is considered a mark of significant success in the publishing industry.

These are the Big 5 publishing houses:

1.   Penguin Random House – they’ve published authors including: Kay Hooper, John Green, E.L. James, Markus Zusak

2.   Hachette Book Group – they’ve published authors including: Min Jin Lee, Malala Yousafzai, Chris Colfer

3.   HarperCollins – they’ve published authors including: Mark Twain, Agatha Christie, George R.R. Martin

4.   Simon and Schuster – they’ve published authors including: Mary Higgins Clark, David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin

5.   Macmillan – they’ve published authors including: Janet Evanovich, Sara Douglass, Tatiana De Rosnay

Of course, there are hundreds of more options for publishing houses, but these are the five most recognizable and most elite.

How do publishing houses work?

The first thing to understand about publishing houses is that they pay you for the rights of your book, ideas, and whatever else is in the contract. This means that the publishing house “owns” your book and you simply get a cut of the earnings (a small, 5%-10% cut).

The way this typically works is that you, the author, finds an agent. This agent then pitches your manuscript to publishing houses.

If the house likes the concept or even the full manuscript, they’ll purchase the rights to your book with a contract that typically includes an advance and royalty rate—occasionally with a multi-book deal if they see the potential.

From here, the publishing house pairs you with an editor, where you work to write the book, edit it, and get it publish-ready. Meanwhile, other individuals in the publishing house work on the book covertitle, and other tasks the writer doesn’t need to worry about when going through traditional publishing.

How to work with a publishing house

Traditional publishing used to be the only viable option for publishing a book. So what exactly is traditional publishing? Let’s break down the process step-by-step:

1.   Write your manuscript! If you’re a debut or unknown writer, you’ll almost always need a full manuscript before you begin the querying process. Once you have successful books and a readership, you can usually sell books with only a pitch and a first chapter.

2.   Determine your genre and category. Publishing is cyclical–genres, themes, and tropes drop in and out of popularity pretty regularly. Publishers strategically publish books based on what’s popular and what will sell. Some genres are just harder to sell to publishers–like extremely long books, memoirs, and short story collections–but most genres will eventually have their time in the sun if you wait out the market.

Within genres, there are specifications to follow that makes your book more “publishable.” For example, different genres have prescribed word counts–romance novels are typically between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Fantasy novels are typically a bit longer. Books get shorter the younger your target demographic. Word count is just one aspect of industry standard expected in traditional publishing.

3.   Prepare your submission materials.

o    Query letter – this is a one-page pitch letter of your project.

o    Synopsis – a summary of your book, beginning to end (one-to-two pages)

o    Samples – for fiction, this is typically the first chapter of your book. For nonfiction, it might be any chapter you feel is representative. There may also be specific requests from the agent or publisher, like a different number of chapters.

4.   Find publishers and agents. The majority of reputable publishers do not accept manuscripts without an agent, so you will likely have to find an agent first. To find an agent, you might try looking at published writers in your genre–are any of their agents open to queries? This is an especially good option if you have a connection with that writer, as it can give you more context and a personal twist to your query.

Outside of seeking agents individually, you might try one of these websites:

o    PublishersMarketplace.com

o    QueryTracker.net

o    WritersMarket.com

o    Duotrope.com

o    And my favourite recommendation for all things related to writer networking: Twitter.

5.   Wait for a thousand years to hear back. ðŸ™‚ Typical responses to agent queries are:

o    Nothing (rejection)

o    A rejection (rejection)

o    A partial or full manuscript request. This is the one you want, spoiler alert.

6.   Evaluate offers, if you receive any. If an agent likes you, make sure you like them! Of course, beggars can’t be choosers AND you hopefully filtered suitability before you applied, but do a little extra homework before you get into bed with a contract.

Sounds fun and easy, right? (heh) But don’t be lulled into a soft and warm cocoon of security yet! There are dangers in these waters…

Source: https://self-publishingschool.com/publishing-houses/#work


After reading the above, who wouldn’t want another way of getting your book published, it is clear now, traditional publishing is not “be all or end all.”

"The majority of reputable publishers do not accept manuscripts without an agent, so you will likely have to find an agent first."

To think, as a writer you spend hours, months, and years writing and developing your manuscript and then for you to wait for years to get yourself ready and then send the manuscript to agents, only to get rejected.

“Publishing houses benefit from pushing their high sales authors–very little marketing budget goes toward newbie and debut authors, so if you’re into the idea of traditional publishing because you think they’ll spend their marketing budget on you: reconsider.”

 

Now, here is the thing, it is understandable for those who have no money and want a publishing house to buy their work and pay them the money.

“If an agent likes you, make sure you like them! Of course, beggars can’t be choosers.”

 

Then there are those who have and can spend money to develop their work and get it self-published and there are those who have the money but no-time and can’t be bothered with the traditional publishing and use a press to print their books, the actions of individuals are subjective and pragmatism of some. Yet ultimately success of publishing can be achieved through different routes. Ultimately it depends on the writer’s circumstance and determination.

“Traditional publishing used to be the only viable option for publishing a book.”

Now, here is the change, the minds of the young people who are “internet age,” are tuned and accustom to the on-line services and facilities. There is no-longer a need for the traditional publishing house to get their books published and printed. There are millions of information and YouTube for all your, “How to videos” that explain and show you for free.

"There are five publishers known as “The Big Five,” and being published with them is
considered a mark of significant success in the publishing industry.

Now, the internet has changed the playing fields, where it has opened up opportunities to self publish; and to position their book in it. Once on-line it is exposed globally. This is why Amazon and the central book database distributors have subsidiary on-line bookshop sites where the book get placed for exposure.

So for example, what JML is for products, Print-on-demand is to writers and YouTube is for performers, they champion ordinary people to achieve the dreams and aspirations and attain success through qualities that include intelligence, disciplines, determination, resilience, hard/smartwork, flexibility, being adaptable, pragmatic and resourceful are just some of the personal tools required.

So “On-line” is an open playing field, you, as a self publisher (Self employed/Sole trader) has to do what the traditional publisher have departments to do, publicise and promote the book.

So, the traditional publishers are like, let’s just a say, “Harrods” or the “Ritz’s” or the “Savoy.” To get your products in to them is going to require you to qualifying so many different criterias at so many levels. Yet, we also have outlets on all levels.

“The way this typically works is that you, the author, finds an agent. This agent then pitches your manuscript to publishing houses.”

However, as the world and technology is today, you have an open platform and opportunity to build your brand, expose it to the world and have direct access to the public.

Now, you can do all that by yourself or get others to support you, whether paid or unpaid, to get your brand where it needs to get in order to get the attention it requires.

There are so many stigmas attached to not doing it through traditional publishing, it is simply a business as described about it terms of what they do and what happens to your work.

“The first thing to understand about publishing houses is that they pay you for the rights of your book, ideas, and whatever else is in the contract.”

 

Only if your work is saleable, then they will buy it from you and then they will polish it up and then sell it.

“This means that the publishing house “owns” your book and you simply get a cut of the earnings (a small, 5%-10% cut).”

So when a writer entrepreneur bypasses the “traditional publishing,” it becomes an ego issue and then that process got labelled, stigmatised as vain, vainness, the process become known as Vanity Press.  My guess is that the “The publishing status quo,” was bypassed, thus that industry derogatrised it to Vanity Press.

“A publishing house’s main purpose is to find authors and their manuscripts to produce and publish into books.”

Now, it is inherent in all walks of life that if you need a pair of shoes, there needs to be a shoe maker. So following example: Gold mining, there was always the supplies stores with all the tools and materials needed to gather it, the supplier made money before the gold prospectors did, whether the prospectors found any gold or not.

So, when the business minded writer decided to go it alone, they needed printers to print books, and this is were the printers set shops. When these vanity presses came about modern technology wasn’t as advanced as they are today, they did less automation of the process of print so in other word there were a lot more manual labour and more division of print process components Any how the technology has advanced so much now, everything is digitised and computer program handle much of the processes and done in less time.

The age of traditional publishing has altered and it is no longer exclusive, even thought it will remain where it is as it has the finance and the departments and its power to do contracts with the retail outlets.

We can also see in the trends how some yesteryears giants have disappeared and merged, simply because of the digitisation and everything moving towards becoming eBooks and Print on Demand (POD). This is an indication that the giants have to make way for the on-line Print on demand industry.

Also the print on demand process for many people has meant that this derogatrised term “Vanity Press” is also declining. However, the older generation from that era are still lock into the information of that time and are going for that service they are accustomed to.

So, the POD process has taken out the need for "traditional publishing" as the only option. It has made it easier for anyone wishing to publish their book or books. A writer who wants to become a publisher will educate themselves through all the means that are accessible now on-line. There are those who will seek support, guidance or mentoring for which a fee is payable. There is so much to learn and the article above gives insight to the level and the extent the Tradition Publishing house goes through

Publishing is not unreachable now, nor is it an exclusive club, a person which to publish now has various means to do so, “The romanticism of traditional publishing has now come of age, and now we have some romanticism from Print on Demand.” Print on demand and self publishing is the "Middle way/path/grounds to self generate income and turn it into a business, such as the giants, publishing houses.

The feeling of satisfaction one gets when holding a printed self publish book in ones hand that has been registered with an ISBN number and deposited the books in the Legal Deposit Libraries, “was like holding my child for the first time, in wonderment, what a sense of accomplishment, achievement and attainments of one’s aspirations.”


On-line Book Shop

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Mayar's Book 2020.11.4

 Here is a list of the books I have published and with link to view or purchase.  While the books are listed on Amazon and other on-line stores, please use the links.  These books are vailable in Brick lane Book shop and Newham Bookshop.


Imprint:- Bangladeshi East End (BEE) Books:

BEE books cover all things that takes and has taken place in Tower Hamlets

Bangladeshi East End Brick & Mortar    

 Click book image to View/Purchase

Vigil Subotaged 

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 Tides of Change - Snapshots of 1993-94

 Click book image to View/Purchase

Re-Awakening

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

Tower Hamlets Bangladeshi Politicians' Reference Book 1982-2018

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

Young Voice

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

 Coming Soon! 2020/21 Release! 

 

Bangladeshi East End: Altab Ali Murder

Murder of Altab Ali  In this book we bring you the name of the 3rd person, his death cetificate and other information that have been displaced.

 

Bangladeshi East End: Political Pathfinders

The Pathfinders In this book, it is about just about chronicling the events and people who championed the community and the people.

 

Bangladeshi East End: Altab Ali, Life & Family

Altab Ali Life & FamilyIn this book we get you the family's view which includes his wife and the life he lived in United Kingdon.


 

Following books have been released and are available, click the book images to get more infromation about each book.

 

 

 


Chronicle of Sylhetis of United Kingdom 

  Click book image to View/Purchase

 

Bangladeshi Fishes Basic Guide 

  Click book image to View/Purchase

 

East End Photos: These are a collection of books that feature various photos that Mayar Akash took as growing and all other times. These books will prove to be archival asset as well as tool for promoting the Borough.

 

This one has photos of Youth and Community work 1992-1993

 East End Photos - Voluntary Sector 1992-1993

  Click book image to View/Purchase

 


 East End Photos Through Mayar's Eyes Tower Hamlets Random Two

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

 East End Photos - Power Houses: Clove crescent & Canary wharf

Click book image to View/Purchase

 

 East End Photos Through Mayar's Eyes - Brick Lane, Spitalfields

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

 East End Photos Through Mayar's Eyes

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

This one  is my personal collection of photos taken after the Grenfell Fire.  I pay my respect and homage to the people who lost their lives in that neglected building, which was avoidable in a wealthy part of London.

 Grenfell Tower Through Mayar's Eyes

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

Following books are my personal story in conveyed through biographies and memoires.

W.G & ME, Surviving Wegener's Granulomatosis

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

 My Life Book 1

  Click book image to View/Purchase

 

My Life Book 2

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

Eyewithin

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

River of Life 

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

 

This was my first book I published, a book of poems marking a full circle, from being a child to then becoming a father with children.

Father to Child

 Click book image to View/Purchase

 

             

There are more books that I have published covering cultural and religious take as well as Learning Bengali books for English speakers.  The learning books are for the generations of Bangladeshi children growing up with English being their first language.



 


 

Friday, October 30, 2020

Grenfell Tragedy - May They Never Be Forgotten

 "A horrific event that is etched on my mind 

and the heroism and heros that the departed souls have been is burned in to my heart; and my souls said, may they never be forgotten."

#mayar akash

I went to the tower few days after the fire and met the eerie silence, calmness in the air. I was there to pay my homage and to see for myself the aftermath.  The news of it was overwhelming hearing from afar but when I got there, I got overwhelmed visually from what I saw; this I captured with my camera.

Grenfel Tower

 Since then I have been hoarding the photos as I do, while I have had a re-occuring thread in my head especially as a chronicler and a historian who's specialism is in Bangladeshi/Sylheti history because that family was of my own community and region and we share the same community values.  Their actions and decision made me ask myself the question. 

What will I do if I was in that situation, will I leave my parents?!

Now, while that is personal to me, as an empath I couldn't leave anyone else out as they all were brave in taking their last breath when they dipped into the water of the flames. All 72 person's name and photos are in the book, that I could find.

I wanted to do something for all of them and pay my respect and present them and their loss to the world, as a prayer; each time the image is seen/eye balled, each time the book article is read, liked, commented, shared, and purchased will be a acknowledgemnt/ a prayer for the dead. For me having this in the book form and registering it with the ISBN is leaving it in the human sphere forever.

Grenfell Tower

May They Never Be Forgotten.

 

For more information of the book

 

It is sad to learn that the whole things has not been resolved after many years, however, if you look at the terrorist events, they are concluded very efficiently, something inherently requires questioning. The victims of Grenfell Tower need closure and justice.

 

To get a copy


More about the book publisher.