Lots and lots of links this week, so let’s get this started, shall we?
First off, I’m as surprised as you are that my bracket wasn’t completely busted by 3 PM yesterday, which probably means that I’ll be dead in the water by the end of the day. There’s currently a nine-way tie atop the Blog Challenge — we’ll see how things shake out by Sunday!
In other literary sports news, ESPN columnist JA Adande wrote a terrific article about the relevancy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book OUTLIERS to sports, and in particular he talked to the extremely intelligent Celtic star Ray Allen about his thoughts on the book. Allen reflected on the unique advantages that put him on his path to NBA stardom.
Given how many dreams we have to dash in a given day, and, yes, how many bad literary agent apples there are in the publishing orchard, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that literary agents have aroused so much antipathy out there on the Internet lately and lots of finger-crossing about our supposed impending demise. The Self Publishing Review took issue with my statement in my interview with Alan Rinzler that we’re always on the side of authors because Henry feels that we first have our eye on the market.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin is Maya Reynolds, who went on a rant of her own about against anti-agent rants.
Victoria Strauss also pushed back against some of the agent-related Internet negativity and checked in with the ultimate, hilarious queryfail: querying someone who isn’t even an agent.
Also, I love Seth Godin, who has an article about how important it is for literary agents to specialize and stand for something in order to add value (and I agree), but he begins with a foreboding comparison to how travel agents have disappeared, which only made me think of the rejection letters: “I’m really sorry, but Hawaii said they won’t let you in. Sigh. It’s just such a tough travel market and they say they can’t take on yet another person from Indiana. I’ll try Fiji next.”
Lastly in agent news, Curtis Brown client Gretchen McNeil recently posted an awesome interview with ICM children’s book agent Tina Wexler, a fellow faculty alum of the Atlanta Writers Conference and an excellent agent.
At SXSW this week, Penguin UK won awards for Best in Show and an experimental prize for their website We Tell Stories, devoted to experimental stories told through web tools, including a story told through Google Maps. Very cool.
Also on the web, reader Teresa Miller pointed me to WriteTV, which is a web compilation of interviews with authors such as Sue Monk Kidd, Amy Tan, and more.
Reader Mary Ulrich pointed me to a seriously terrific article by Kevin Kelly about the uneven adoption of new technology, and how different groups sometimes have irrational reasons for refusing to adopt superior technology even when it would be to their direct benefit. Hmmm…. A group with an illogical attachment to outdated technology….. grasping for a book-related example….
Speaking of new technology, Sony and Google got their deal on and you will soon be able to read 500,000 public domain books on the Sony Reader. For free. Wow. Your move, Kindle. (And yes, publishers weep for their backlists).
The David Foster Wallace tributes are making their way through the magazineosphere, and you probably can’t do better than D.T. Max’s profile in the New Yorker. And in the chiding-but-we-still-love-ya category is James Tanner’s diagram of how to create a Foster Wallaceian sentence.
Still with me? Lots more to go.
Also in New Yorker profile news is blog favorite Ian McEwan. Daniel Zalewski’s profile of McEwan is, shall we say, comprehensive. In fact I’m pretty sure it’s longer than ON CHESIL BEACH. And ATONEMENT. Combined.
In presidential book news, via Publishers Lunch (subscription) comes word that former President Bush got himself a book deal, to be published by Crown, about making decisions. Commence sniggering or reverential expectation depending on one’s political persuasion.
And also via Pub Lunch (subscription) comes word that current President Obama has contracted with Random House for more books post-presidency, and his book earnings now total…… close to $9 million. Commence “Holy crap that’s a lot of dough” no matter one’s political persuasion.
Amid a really big year for Hachette, one bookseller is none too pleased that they have cut back on the co-op programs, including their Emerging Voices program. Check out the post in case you’re curious about what those co-op programs constitute, and yes, another example of publishers coalescing around established authors at the expense (potentially) of new voices.
Almost finally, Happy 40th Birthday to THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR, which Google is honoring today with a cool homage with a caterpillar logo.
And finally finally, you know how I like to end with puppies, and this week I get to end with a bestselling author’s puppy. I give you… Jeff Abbott’s insanely cute corgi. (UPDATE: oops, it’s a cardigan. Not just a sweater anymore.)
Have a great weekend!
Julie and Marilyn,
I hope you’re right. I’d like to recreate the experience that I had on that other forum for other writers (and myself.)
I’m open to any suggestions, by the way. I was thinking of posting questions, but also challenges. (Example challenge: post anti-character. What would your character never say?) Things like that.
I don’t want to take up too much space on Nathan’s blog, but I do want to thank Nathan. I’d never have gotten even one participant without being able to post it here.
I’m all excited. Can you tell?
🙂
Marjorie –
I must echo what Nathan said re the CD. Sending a manuscript and query on CD is a singular mark of someone who doesn’t take his or her writing career very seriously.
‘Nuff said.
Colleen (who deleted her previous comment because she is apparently unable to cut and paste like a normal human being…)
Re: Janet Reid’s blog entry (which is taking up a whole lot of comment space–this one included–for a topic that wasn’t even part of Nathan’s post).
Some writers may read agents’ blogs religiously because they find agents dreamy (Each and every one of them! Oh, squeal!). Or perhaps it’s because agents are, as a rule, erudite to the point of titillation. Agent porn. Awesome.
I’d wager, however, that the bulk of agent-blog readers (a good 53.5% or more, by my calculations) are looking for info on how to join the ranks of the forever-not-unpublished. So learn or don’t learn, but WTF?
If an agent says “don’t send me a CD, which goes against my clearly posted submission guidelines, as it will be tossed out,” then save yourself the price of the disc and added postage and just send it off to Al’s House O’ Agents. Janet Reid doesn’t want it, and she’s taken the time to spare you that foible.
And the old “a Pulitzer winner could be languishing in the hoards of inappropriate submissions” chestnut is old and tired. Future Puliter winners are either 1) intelligent enough to learn the process, or 2) already (or soon to be) identified, and will find themselves on the radars of professors, journalists, other writers, etc. The genius in mother’s attic may exist and may be overlooked, but they existed and were overlooked before Janet posted her “CDs will be thrown out” edict.
Yeah, and when all the bantering bs is set aside and the guidelines are strictly followed by the querying masses… you still have agents who are transparently high on their own sense of power and prove it in the style of their entries at their own personal blogs.
‘Nuff said. At least for now.
I’m sorry, but I’m sensitive to the whole, “the Government MADE those banks issue bad loans to irresponsible poor people!” argument. I’ll agree bad loans were a major factor, but it had a lot more to do with banks that went way beyond any government mandates and issued loans that were out-and-out-fraudulent (and at times usurious) than it did with trying to extend credit to working and middle class people.
I could go on (and on) but I’ve already taken this way off-topic, so I’ll shut up now.
Back on topic, I don’t know if sending a query/MS on CD is an example of someone who does not take his/her career seriously, but it certainly is an example of someone who is seriously deluded about the business he/she is trying to enter.
Good luck to you, Marjorie!
The govt didn’t make them, but it encouraged them. And the banks were greedy, too, and irresponsible… The blame can readily be shared across the spectrum, but the govt’s got the fastest and biggest horse in the race.
Freakin’ brackets – should have gone w/ the s.q. 1,2,3,4 (except for AZ and Purdue it would have been nearly prfct)… Darn you Marquette and USC for your big feet.
Julie, I wouldn’t try to find opposing predictions because it goes against the whole point of why I’m trying to find or make the prediction in the first place. I’m trying to be accurate (and thus figure out what I believe), not save that prediction for the future use to say “I told you so.”
The importance of accuracy is so that we prevent repeating the same mistakes we made in the past. Yes, yes, I know. History repeats itself. But that’s no reason to throw up our hands and claim predictions are useless. I think we still have to try to predict, even if those guesses turn out to be off-base. The trick is to not make the same mistake again and again and again, or worse – never admit you made a mistake in the first place. You can say it’s easy now for people to point that out as it pertains to Bush (or any other past president, for that matter), but there were plenty of people who pointed out his mistakes “in the midst of the battle,” as you put it. No one listened because they had no political clout, but it turns out they really did know what they were talking about.
Certainly there are times when we gotta just throw the spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks. But that’s not a method I’d want to rely on all the time.
That’s all I’m sayin’.
You mean someone sends a CD to all the agents? hell why when spamming 100 with a bcc is much simpler.
I’m sorry I mean no rudeness but Colleen is a man? Lindsay is a woman’s name too right?
I’m sorry I mean no rudeness but Colleen is a man? Lindsay is a woman’s name too right?
Colleen is a woman. Where did you get she’s a man? I know for a fact she’s a woman. She cleaned her bathroom today.
Here’s a link to a phenomenal article by Matt Taibbi about the Wall Street meltdown:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/
story/26793903/the_big_takeover
Re: Military hindsight being 20/20, and so on – Donald Rumsfeld himself believed he had 20/20 military vision (like night vision goggles I wonder? Special military issue hindsight goggles?). Rumsfeld believed the mistake of Viet Nam, why we didn’t “win,” was that there were too many casualties, which caused too much protest at home, etc. So his idea was, to cut down on casualty rate (and therefore have a “successful” invasion) by only having what he called a “light footprint” in Iraq – really ramp up the use of high tech, keep down the number of “boots on the ground” (I HATE that phrase – also “embedded with the troops,” “light footprint,” militaryspeak, I hate it, hate it) – less boots, less casualties, voila! we can stay there forever! Also reason for policy of no photos of soldiers returning in caskets.
The point being, generals (Secretary of Defenses, etc) are constantly making judgments about past wars and drawing conclusions, which they then apply to future wars. Do they always agree? No. Were there military people who BEFORE the troops even invaded, saying the “light footprint” theory (and it is a theory) wouldn’t work? Yes. Were they listened to? No.
So it’s not as simple a division as the military on one side and “newspapers” on the other. As well, the US mass media was busy banging out what they called (another bit of ugly militaryspeak) the “drumbeat of war” for Iraq – all a matter of public record, not opinion.
I look forward to a number of books dissecting what went wrong in Iraq – and also books that link “philosophically” the Iraq and Wall Street disasters. Here’s a link to an interview with Naomi Klein, author of “The Shock Doctrine”:
https://www.naomiklein.org/
meet-naomi/interviews/
monday-magazine
Finally, here’s how I understand the “great mistake” Robert E. Lee ought to have been referencing –
[W]e made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We thought it was okay to own other human beings. –Robert E. Lee
Just sign me –
Not a fan of Gone With the Wind
I don’t believe I’ve ever been rendered by a blog comment before.
I’m feeling kerflummoxed and may need to go lie down for a spell…
Hello Nathan. Soo off the post topic, but I thought you may be interested in this weekend’s Authonomy happenings, as I am sure we are all interested to see where the brave new world of internet slush piles is heading.
A group of gamers following a guy who calls himself Klazart, flashmobbed the site. He is backed by 880 people, and on 233 watchlists. He is now ranked nineth. Not bad considering he only posted his ms on the 19th. Of course the flood managed to jam the site and create an enormous uproar.
I have heard of flash mobs being used as cheap promotion for books, but this is the first time I have heard of it being used for an ms. I’ve been oblivious to this whole gaming thing. I can’t help but wonder if bloggers with large fan bases won’t follow suit and swarm other sites. Just pondering what kind of worms are in that can that has now been opened.
I sort of hate to give this more attention taht it has already received over at Autho, but I think essentially the meat of the issue is: Will a large fan base and potential sales triumph over quality writing. You can’t have more than 900 fans willing to take the time to sign up to a site in support of you and not garner some attention, while brilliant works float in the oblivion of higher numbers. Thank goodness there is still the traditional route, which looks a lot prettier over at Autho this weekend.
Enough rambling. Just thought there were some implications here you may be interested in.
[W]e made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We thought it was okay to own other human beings. –Robert E. Lee
Ah, I love it.
Perhaps you would like to know the truth?
The last civil war generals to own slaves were…union generals. William T. Sherman for one who didn’t free his until late in 1865, months after the end of the war.
Of course, the emancipation proclamation only freed slaves in the south not the north so they didn’t need to.
There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. –Robert E. Lee
And in the same letter he wrote in 1856.
Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom have always proved the most intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?–Robert E. Lee
Lee advocated not only freeing slaves, but also that the slave owners should educate them so they could properly support themselves once freed. Lee wrote more than one editorial before the war about slavery and how he felt it should be abolished. He freed his wife’s slaves, which had been inherited with her plantation, in 1862.
‘The taking of Pelham 123’ sounds like a v powerful title. Intriguing. Best wishes!
I read your comments on the link you provided on self publishing review and your honesty and dedication to books and authors is touching. I was really moved by some of your statements there. I wish you so so sooooo very well!
But then why did Robert E. Lee head the Confederate Army? That’s kind of a sticking point for me, regardless of his personal views and behavior. I mean there are tons of examples throughout history of military people aiding and abetting injustice…for all the militarily “right” reasons…
Don’t know if such a book has been written yet, but I’d love to see an alternative history novel about Robert E. Lee changing his mind and heading on up North to help the Union Army defeat the Confederate Army. You could call it, “The Liberation of Robert E. Lee.” It could start out he’s looking in some mirror in some hideout in New York City (he hasn’t made his presence known to the authorities yet), and he says: “Haven’t felt so good in years.”
Robert E. Lee stayed with his home state of Virginia, Arlington National Cemetary was once his home…
Morgan
But then why did Robert E. Lee head the Confederate Army?–
He was asked to command the union armies and considered it. However, he loved Virginia and could not turn against his family, home and friends. He did not accept the position in the Confederate army to maintain slavery. The states seceded over states rights, slavery was a secondary issue.
The point remains, your amended quote was completely against what and who he was.
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.–Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greely
Lee was not the only one who loved his home and country.
This was a very complex issue.
I’d love to see an alternative history novel about Robert E. Lee changing his mind and heading on up North to help the Union Army defeat the Confederate Army.–
As I said in the other post. Lee was offered command of the Union army and declined. He was an officer in Texas when the war broke out. All but one well-known Civil War general served in Texas, so they were friends and fellow soldiers who mostly chose to defend their homes and families.
Nathan-
I’m with the majority here…your blog is a terrific source of news, and positive to boot. Now, is that enough flattery so that when I sent my submission, it’ll get right to the top of the pile? 🙂
Seriously, no flattery needed here. Great stuff. I read this blog at work, too…(!) Only in free moments. Honest.
Janny
P.S. Verification word: “urdst.” Love it. Sounds like a description of Monday. “It’s an udrst day here on the job…”
Re: “The point remains, your amended quote was completely against what and who he was.”
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on “what and who” Robert E. Lee was, even given the further information you provided.
Also as a writer, I kind of cringe at phrases like “love of home and country” and “defend their homes and families.” Too much like boiler plate to me.
I also read a review yesterday about a new biography of Ida B. Wells – I wonder what her take on Robert E. Lee was.
https://www.freep.com/article
/20090322/FEATURES05
/903220309/1025/rss05
W]e made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We thought it was okay to own other human beings. –Robert E. Lee
Wanda, that was your original quote. Now if you want to automatically assume anyone from the south supported slavery and everyone from the north opposed it, that’s a pretty erroneous assumption.
Lincoln said he would do whatever it took to preserve the union, including not freeing one slave and Lee said he could not bear to rise up against Virginia. Perhaps there was a bit more love for their homes and country then, I don’t know. However, inserting your comments about him supporting slavery was wrong.
Regardless, even those Lee’s views are well documented, I doubt you will change your mind so I am not going to waste my breath. I would just suggest in the future not putting words in a person’s mouth that are completely contrary to character.
Yanno, it would help if, even on a Monday, I could have typed well enough to not make one, but two, errors in one post….
I promise I type better in “real life.” Honest.
(sigh)
Janny