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“What nobody says about self-publishing — besides the fact that it’s a totally shameless and ego-driven process — is that it’s amazingly lonely. Because you’re doing 10 jobs at once…it sucks up all your time, so you can’t concentrate on anything else. Your life just stops being fun.”

— Marty Beckerman

“I’m sick of answering q’s about teen sex,” writes Marty Beckerman as he prepares to respond to my e-mailed interview questions, “so it’s nice to just write about the Anchorage days.” Such is Marty’s life these days as self-appointed “spokesman for a doomed generation,” whose accomplishments since leaving Alaska include picking up a book deal with MTV Books, and being called “morbid” by Hunter S. Thompson.

Marty describes his latest book, Generation S.L.U.T. (sexually liberated urban teens), as “the first exploration of modern teenagers’ sex lives written for young people themselves, as reported from the frontlines.”

Q. How/why did you become involved with Perfect World?
A. When I was a freshman at Steller Secondary School, my friend Bridget gave me rides home after class every day. And she got a job as the student editor of Perfect World the year before she graduated. I’d never written anything except little comic books I’d give to girls in hopes they’d go out with me, but she asked me if I wanted to try writing a humor column. And I was a huge Dave Barry fan, so this was my big chance to live out that fantasy. “The Young Dave Barry,” as I fancied myself. Anyway, I tried it, enjoyed it, and the column really took off — teachers all over the city required their students to read “Perfect World” every week, and so many kids told me that my column made it enjoyable instead of torturous. I’d go to parties and people would ask, in near-religious anticipation, “Are you... HIM?” Honestly, it went to my head for a while, but then I learned that egomania quickly leads to bad writing.

Q. Why did an “annoying little brat” (your words, not mine) decide to join w/a goodie-two-shoes endeavor like PW?
A. I haven’t kept up with PW in a couple years, but I think it took the goodie-two-shoes direction after I left. When it first started out, even before I joined the staff, it had this really cool energy. I’m not sure why the talent pool dried up, because the first couple years it actually mattered. Maybe there are only so many stories kids can write about other kids, I’m not sure. Either way, I got away with a whole lot more than any other writer the Anchorage Daily News has ever published, but ultimately I was going to get fired one way or another. Maybe that’s why “Perfect World” became so prudish and boring — the editors were too scared of creating another abomination like me.

Q. How did you view the experience then — and how do you view it in retrospect? What were the best lessons learned?
A. Well, I’m glad I wrote for PW, because despite my legendary attitude problems, that experience taught me that I wanted to be a writer. And I had a huge public forum at fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old — I’ve always written for an audience. I’ve never kept journals, and everything I write that doesn’t totally suck gets released in some form. So having an audience like that while I was still in high school gave me a great chance to learn and grow as a writer, because there was so much instant feedback. And I learned how to work with an editor (Daily news editor) Kathleen McCoy still edits the page, and even though she had to can my ass eventually, she was the first adult who ever gave me a chance. So I owe her a lot, even though we’ve totally lost touch.

Q. For which story, exactly, did they finally fire you?
A. Well, it never actually published, but I was writing “Death to All Cheerleaders” and stopped by a preteen cheerleader camp in Anchorage. And I asked one of the 13-year-old girls how it feels to be “a urine stain on the Toilet Seat of America.” Needless to say, that one didn’t go over well with the girl’s parents or my editors. And for good reason — I was ruining their community relations, and just being really mean to people for no reason. I was a really bitter, really lonely kid in high school, and I’ve grown out of that a lot, but I definitely took it out on every target possible back then.

Q. OK, so then you self-published a book. Tell a bit about that experience. What made you decide to self-publish — and what were the lessons from that venture?
A. Total nightmare, but it was probably the smartest career move I could’ve made. What nobody says about self-publishing — besides the fact that it’s a totally shameless and ego-driven process — is that it’s amazingly lonely. Because you’re doing 10 jobs at once: writer, editor, publisher, designer, publicist, accountant, etc. And it sucks up all your time, so you can’t concentrate on anything else. Your life just stops being fun. That said, self-publishing got me noticed in New York, which eventually led to a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster. So I guess I’d recommend it to people who really want to be writers, but it takes a lot of business acumen and media savvy, not just literary talent. You’re pumping at least $3,000 of your own cash into this project, and if it sinks, you’re broke — and if it doesn’t sink, don’t expect to get rich. Honestly, it took three years for me to break even on “Death to All Cheerleaders,” and to date maybe I’ve made $400 profit off the book, which has all been taxed away. But like I said, it helped me get a real book contract. And I just ran into this 17-year-old kid at a party in New York who said he found a copy of “Cheerleaders” when he was 14 and it made him want to be a writer, which is just about the most amazing compliment possible.

Q. Though still often not suited for a family newspaper, your writing appears to have become more philosophical and very painfully self-aware. What happened to you and your writing since the ADN days? What keeps you writing?
A. Well, I’ve been growing up, and even though I still consider myself a humorist deep down, I’m going through some big changes, and those are showing up in my writing. Generation S.L.U.T. (Sexually Liberated Urban Teens) is really the big step forward, because it’s not a humor book like “Cheerleaders” — it’s a very dark story and aspires to be something way deeper than anything I’ve ever written before. And I’ve heard nothing but good things from the kids who’ve read it — I’ve gotten a lot of criticism from intellectuals and 30-somethings, but the feedback from actual 15- and 16-year-old kids is just amazing. And eventually they’ll be the literary professors and social critics of the world, and then I’ll have the last laugh!

Q. How did the MTV Books deal come about? (And was the dig at them in Generation S.L.U.T. already there before you signed with them, or added later?)
A. Oh, the dig was added after I signed, even though MTV Books is a very good house. I don’t defend MTV Networks in any way, but the editors at MTV Books are extremely qualified and publish quality material. Actually, they published my favorite novel, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” and that definitely helped me justify my decision. A few of the “Death to All Cheerleaders” fans called me a sellout, but I haven’t changed my message — and “S.L.U.T.” is better than anything I’ve ever written before. And honestly, I didn’t get paid nearly enough to be called a “sellout.” Anyway, the publishing deal happened summer 2002 when I was writing for the New York Press. My editor introduced me to an agent, who shopped it around Manhattan and found a few editors who liked it. We decided to go with MTV because they could get the book to teens better than any other publisher. And you know, I’ll say this much: people can trash my writing all they want, but you can’t deny I paid my dues. A lot of young authors get book deals because they’ve got family connections or have sex with editors at parties, but I worked my ass off for six years, self-published my own book, and worked on the “S.L.U.T.” manuscript for three years. Sure, I got lucky, but only because I put myself in the position to get lucky.

Q. Many writers hold back on intimate details about their lives. You go to the other extreme. What’s it like being you — and, for example, visiting your girlfriend’s family after publishing a story that explicitly describes a sex act you’ve engaged in?
A. Weird. It’s very weird, but my girlfriend’s parents understand that my writing has a message behind it. And my girlfriend totally gets my sense of humor, which is so awesome because other girls I’ve dated have wanted to change me. Like, they’re attracted to the fact I’ll say whatever’s on my mind, but then they feel like it’s their personal duty to reign me in and make me into a nice Jewish boy or something. And this girl I’m dating now totally gets that I’m a little jerkoff, and she loves me for it. Sometimes it pisses her off when I write about her, but she sees my annoying traits as part of the bigger picture. And she’s, like, pretty good at [gratuitous sexual reference deleted by uptight Webmaster].

Q. What’s been the worst fallout of one of your stories? Can you tell about a time you regretted being too explicit?
A. I’ve lost a couple friends from my writing. That might be the biggest regret of my life to be honest. That happened when I was 16, and I just ruined everything with them — which taught me an important lesson about depicting people very carefully, if it’s necessary at all. After that, I probably became more hesitant to write about my friends, because I crossed the line that once and it just wasn’t worth it. And that’s when I discovered that writing about my penis is pretty cool, because it never refuses to talk to me again.

Q. Some people say that profanity and explicit sexual descriptions in writing are a crutch used for shock value. But in Generation S.L.U.T., you also intersperse statistics and quotes from other young people — giving the rawness a documentary value. I’d like to hear it from you: What’s the value of the raw language and unvarnished descriptions? And what, if any, are the drawbacks (either for the storytelling itself or the marketing later)?
A. “S.L.U.T.” is a strange book because it’s a novel written by a journalist. I’ve never tried writing serious fiction before, I’ve got no aspirations to be a novelist, and my approach to the fictional segments was very journalistc. So that documentary aspect — I’m basically just taking things I’ve heard from people at parties, things I’ve seen people do to each other, things that happen all over the country — and then I’m attributing all that to a group of fictional characters. So I feel all the sex, all the adult language, all the violence — it’s not used for sensationalism or shock value, it’s just a reflection of Young America. And I’m criticizing the soullessness of that lifestyle — not sex itself, but the anonymity of it — so it’s not like I’m glorifying all this stuff for book sales. On the other hand, the drawback to using explicit sexuality to criticize sexual excess is that I’m trapped between the feminist “sexual liberation” types on the Left and the religious moralist types on the Right. It’s not like I can just send this book over to the 700 Club and expect it to be the next “Passion of the Christ,” because they’ll be offended by the sexual content and violence.

Q. If the point of Generation S.L.U.T. was to document the real lifestyles of real teens, why the novella format and not pure journalism?
A. A lot of fictional books purport to speak for an entire generation, and I’m not sure that really works. Maybe Salinger or Fitzgerald or Bret Ellis can get away with that because they’re using composite characters and making an emotional case for a generation’s personality traits, but it’s not like they can use hard numbers. So in “S.L.U.T.” I combine the fictional, emotional plea with statistics, quotes from teens all over the country, and articles from the New York Times and Associated Press. Honestly, I think that’s what makes this book worth reading — because you can read the fiction and say, “Oh, he’s totally making this up,” or “Kids aren’t actually like this.” And then you read the statistics and quotes, and you have to face the fact that I’m documenting something undeniable. You can disagree with my style or even my conclusions, but you can’t disagree with my evidence — and I’ve got a few dozen e-mails from 15-year-old kids that say, “This is the first book I’ve ever read that describes my world.”

Q. How’s the book selling?
A. I’m not totally sure, because Bookscan only reports like 50 percent of bookstores. But I’ve heard from kids all over the country, so I think it’s doing okay. It’s going to be a word-of-mouth book, and that’ll take time to kick in — but the other day I was waiting for the subway in D.C., and a few random girls walked by carrying a copy. God, was that an ego trip.

Q. OK, you have this fun little Web site to promote your book —complete with personal touches like a column and nearly naked photo of yourself. Tell me about your experiences using the Web to promote your writing. What’s worked well; what hasn’t? Does your site sell books?
A. You know, I think I was one of the first bloggers. I mean, I don’t keep a blog and personally I find those things endlessly annoying and self-indulgent, but I’ve had my site for five years now and have posted nearly all my writings up there. It definitely helped sell “Cheerleaders,” even though I’m concentrating more on interviews to sell “S.L.U.T.” But it’s good for keeping my fan-base aware of new developments, and getting readers from all over the world. Just today I got a fan letter from some 18-year-old girl in Argentina, who said — I swear I’m not making this quote up — “I’ve always felt alone in the world, but your writing says everything I believe.” Jesus Christ, I need to get my head deflated sometimes.

Q. And let’s not forget stopmartybeckerman.com... Was this inspired by any real religious right fallout/e-mails, etc? What was your publicist’s reaction? Are your readers sophisticated enough to know it’s a joke?
A. MTV didn't really like the Christian site, but that's because they’re paranoid about controversy in the post-Janet’s boob era. Some of my readers freaked out and sent hate-filled e-mails to the “Webmaster,” but I think most people understood that no organization exists called “The Christian Jihad for the Elimination of Marty Beckerman.”

• Expat Alaskan Marty Beckerman, whose career began as a rabble-rousing teen writer with the ADN’s Perfect World section, sounded like a statesman as he weighed in on his Web site after gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s death: “He was one of the American greats,” wrote Beckerman, “…an inspiration to millions, and a true friend of freedom. The world is poorer today.” In February 2003, Marty interviewed the gonzo journalist. Beckerman’s own gonzo star appears to be on the rise, with a book and movie in progress.

About Marty Beckerman
Raised in Anchorage, this “21-year-old spokesman for his doomed generation” is the author of Generation S.L.U.T. (sexually liberated urban teens): A Brutal Feel-Up Session with Today’s Sex-Crazed Adolescent Populace, published February 2004 by MTV/Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster). Beckerman self-published his first book, Death to All Cheerleaders : One Adolescent Journalist’s Cheerful Diatribe Against Teenage Plasticity (Infected Press). His writing has also appeared in New York Press, Disinformation, The Anchorage Daily News, Get Underground, Ain’t It Cool News and Penthouse Online. Marty, now a student at American University, in Washington, D.C., may be contacted at marty@martybeckerman.com. Photos courtesy Marty Beckerman.