Category: Books

Devil in the Details : Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood by Jennifer Traig
Jenny Traig lives here in San Francisco, is a tutor at 826 Valencia and is friends with my friend Maggie. Her memoir, of growing up with OCD and converting to Orthodox Judiasm (as the same time and to the hilarity of her parents) is loopy, wild, riotously funny and real. while much of her turnmoil is played for laughs, her tone overall is one of maturity, distance, and calm. A quick little read that I wanted to recommend to ya’ll right away.

Now this is a fine idea. Author MJ Rose has created a blog called Backstory with a simple mission: To give the story behind contemporary books. In other words, “Where did the idea for the book come from?” Simple, compelling useful, exactly what a blog should be.

Brilliant.

Terry Teachout gives an enormously valuable list of advice for authors about to embark on book tours where they will be reading in front of people. Some of these I tell my own clients. Some I hadn’t thought of. I’m now treating this document as sacred.

It never fails to baffle me that authors somehow think it’s either ok or even charming to be shlumpy and dull in front of an audience as if the literary brilliance of what they offer trumps boring everyone to death. The book speaks for itself, yes, which is why I read it. At home. If I come to hear you read it, it’s now a performance and should be treated as such (via Maud Newton).

Jason Kottke recently linked to a blog posting entitled “How to Read Difficult Books” which couldn’t have come at a better time for me. As part of my ongoing attempt to read classic works of literature (a project that has all the alacrity of a knock-eyed flamingo), I picked up Cry The Beloved Country (1946), Alan Paton’s classic work of early Apartheid South African literature, last mouth and dove in. Several weeks pass at a 5-10 page-a-day clip, slow going and and often difficult to engage. I considered junking it several times, as is usually my inclination when a book fails to grab me and there are 500 other worthy contenders on a shelf in the next room. But I pushed on and this afternoon, I finished. I’m enormously proud of myself.

Reading classics is no easy feat. They often remind us of the forced literary marches of junior high. Their language, settings, character and values can seen quaint, dated or even offensive. Hardest of all for me is shaking the gnawing take of reading broccoli, that is isn’t supposed to take good but instead be good for me.

I thought Cry the Beloved Country was beautiful, sad and completely worth it. But it was not easy to read. I could no more curl up with it at the beach than I could an anatomy chart. The follow tips give you the freedom to read a book like this and not feel like a bad person if you don’t read it perfectly.

1) Read passages outloud. The language is often easier to comprehend this way.

2) Read the last chapter first. I didn’t do this but it eleviates the guilt from not reading the middle close enoguh.

3) Read supplemental material. It doesn’t have to be CliffsNotes but there’s nothing wrong with getting the basic plot and characters down instead of diving in cold.

4) DO NOT be affraid to skip. Amen. Nobody’s afraid to skip when doing “fun reading.” Why should this be any different? Remember, the classics should be fun too.

Danyel Smith is fine. Her last days of her Virtual Book Tour continue with a simply awesome interview here.

I’m pleased to begin another round of the Virtual Book Tour, this time featuring More Like Wrestling, the stunning debut novel by Danyel Smith. Danyel is a former editor at Vibe and Time and has written for The New Times, Spin and Rolling Stone.

Danyel will be blogging and getting interviewed throughout the web this week. You can see a complete tour at the spanking new Virtual Book Tour site, designed by Dreamsbay.

Discussion of the Virtual Book Tour, online book publicity, writing, journalism and music criticism will happen at a special discussion thread set up just for the tour by our friends at Readerville. Danyel has been in music and entertainment journalism for nearly 15 years so any aspiring writers should definitely stop by.

I’m working on an article about S.E. Hinton for The Believer. If you have any Hinton, Outsiders, Tex, or Rumble Fish related memories, I’d love to hear them.

Conversations on the Jane Austen Doe fracas:

• Readerville (requires login)
• Reader Response at Salon
• Metafilter

So I only got one post in about SXSW. I’ll be laying down a complete wrap up in the next day or so. In the meantime, this crap really pisses me off.

I’m a year away from publishing my first book and I’ve already heard enough complaining from writers that No One Pays Attention to Their Books (Boo) and No One Reads Anymore (Fuckin’) And that Publishing is A Business That Only Spends Promotion Money on Sure Things and Why Can’t I Get a 20 City Tour By Bitching and Moaning and Acting Like It’s My Birthright as One of 4000 Published Novelists This Year (Hoo) to make me want to cut off my ears and feed them to a hyena. These crybabies should petition Alcoholics Anonymous to start their own “A” because they are addicts. They can’t live without feeling underappreciated, victimized and helpless. That it cycles through their souls every 2 to 3 years instead of constantly doesn’t make it any less of a pathology.

You want more readers, fans, admirers? Quit complaining and GO FIND THEM. It’s not impossible. It just takes work. And god forbid you work at something related to your career as a professional writer other than your precious time logged at the laptop.

Let’s start with the blantantly obvious (and bravo to Jessa Crispin for pointing this out first)…Your readers– past, present and future–are busy people with families, careers and lives. They have a zillion forms of entertainment to choose from other than your book. You wanna get to the top of their reading pile? Why not put a little godamn effort into getting out there and promoting yourself? Musicians go on tour. Actors do junkets for their shows, artists drink crappy wine and make small talk at galleries. It is the height of arrogance that writers think they somehow get a bye from all of this because it either makes them uncomfortable or because their art is practiced in solitude.

You don’t. Get over it.

How to develop a following:

1) The Internet. Get a website, professionally designed and update it regularly. Your readings from last May are not only useless information but insulting to readers who want to know what you are doing now. Create a signup box for an email mailing list. Let me as a fan get on it and send me an email once a month letting me know what’s going on. Doesn’t have to be literature or privacy violating, just friendly. Don’t know how to make social chit cat in an email? Too bad. Learn. Wait two years until your next book comes out and I’ve not only forgotten your first effort. I’ve probably forgotten your name.

2) Find friendly rooms and speak in front of them. Do not wait for your publicist to create a royal procession of a tour for you where you can simply stroll, crown on head, from one admiring crowd to another. It doesn’t happen that way. You belong to a ski club? Ask that they throw you a book party. Same with your church/synagogue/mosque/temple, your college alumni association, your hometown boosters. Be generous and forthcoming with your time. Offer to write a little article for their newsletter. Remember you’re trying to get a book noticed and you’re not Mitch Albom. It takes work.

3) Channel your inner creativity. Why do writers, the most creative of people, suddenly get struck dumb when it comes to promotion? A blanket mailing of your book to reviewers is not only uncreative but largely a waste of time. It’s the equivalent of a cold sales call. And we know how often those work. Plus, there’s no guarentee you’re going to get a good review. Is “do not read this book” in a major daily newspaper better than speaking in front of several small groups who want to hear you anyway?

4) Don’t berate naysayers. As a book critic, I still get angry email from writers whose books I didn’t like. This is both unprofessional and childish. People will not like your book, no matter how much you do. That’s life. Move on.

5) Please don’t complain that you really want to stop promoting and get back to writing. The tourtured artist thing is not cute. It never was. Your audiences are not your therapists. Your job, for a minimum of three months after your pub. date is promotion. Tell your friends and family. They’ll understand. Do not tell me as a reader that it’s a big pain in the rump. It makes me want to slap the ungratefulness right out of you.

6) Recognize that your book is not for everyone and accept who it is for. Your WW II memoir is not for teenagers. Your mothers and daughters novel is probably not for middle-aged men. Sorry. Pick the low hanging fruit and stop thinking you deserve nationwide acclaim from the right out of the chute. It will come later if you build up your base first. Or it might not. That’s ok too. Remember YOU GET TO LIVE OUT A DREAM. How many people can say that?

7) Publishing has always been a business, even when everyone wore tweed jackets and got drunk together. Quit living in the past. You weren’t around for any of it and neither were your readers.

8) Work. Writing a book is only the first part. Now you’re on the sales staff. It’s a hard lesson to learn, agreed. Now stop complaining and get on with it. No one is going to make you a successful writer but you. It teaches us humility, something the author of this article desperately needs. If our expectations for our profession are this rediculously inflated, perhaps we all need it too.

According to Quirkyalone.net, I am 95% or VERY Quirkyalone (or in my case, Quirkytogether since I cohabitate with another Quirkyalone) which means this…

Relatives may give you quizzical looks, and so may friends, but you know in your heart of hearts that you are following your inner voice. Though you may not be romancing a single person, you are romancing the world. Celebrate your freedom on International Quirkyalone Day, February 14th!.

I wish I was going to be in town for it. I won’t. But if you are located near one of the 40 cities having IDQ’s this year, check it out. Or if you’re a more of a private QAer, just get the book that explains it all. It’s lots of fun.