Oh where does the time go? Is it Thursday already?
This has been quite a busy week in my pay-the-rent job, which goes a long way toward explaining why the blog is a little slim this week — and shifted one day to the right, as they say in business speak. (At least in English, they say this. I wonder if Arab businessmen postpone events ilá yasár or “to the left” …)
Enough chitterchat. On to the publishing links!
There’s a whole lotta “self” going on in publishing, from the web-driven growth of self-publishing to the expectation of author self-promotion in traditional publishing.
Many publishing professionals — writers, agents, editors, critics, etc. — are trying to ride this wave with a sewn-on happy face, afraid that expressing skepticism equates to missing the boat or swimming against the tide.
Take a lesson from the real-world referents of these watery metaphors: some waves you ride, but some waves you build walls against. Author self-publishing and self-promotion together constitute a destructive wave that merits a levee, not a longboard.
Do you think the Norse god Odin, who takes advice from a severed head, rides an eight-legged horse, talks to ravens, sacrificed an eye and hanged himself in the pursuit of wisdom, would appreciate us referring to his day as “Hump Day”?!
Well, okay… the “Hump” refers to finally suffering through the worst trials of the workweek, and looking forward to the pleasures of the Day of Frigg (his wife), so maybe he would appreciate the symbolism. *shrug*
As Odin was the literary agent of Norse myth, let us away to this week’s literary agent links!
I am revamping my j.nelsonleith.com website — where I used to host a political blog — as the official home of Leith Literary. I will, of course, transfer all the content from here, and leave a sticky note. Updates to come!
And now, on to the writer links!
Happy Friday, loyal readers and visitors future loyal readers!
It has been a crazy week, from figuring out that Dan Brown is lately more popular than the Bible to learning that the Hulk is now a literary critic. My favorite Lit Crit Hulk observation: “HULK KNOW IT PASSE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT TWILIGHT FRANCHISE, BUT HULK STILL WANT TO SMASH EVERY GROWNUP HULK SEE ON TRAIN READING THAT CRAP.”
(Hello, Xbox? Wii? Marvel Superheroes vs. Twilight characters, please.)
So, a crazy week, but you know what’s not crazy? Checking out this week’s links from publishing industry pros:
I have to confess a particularly deep connection to the events of 9/11. Not only was I scheduled to fly back to the mainland from visiting family in Hawai’i on that day, but I was working in counter-terrorism as an Arabic linguist at the time, I had studied Islam at university, and had foreseen this innovation in tactics years before while studying the origins of Wahhabi militancy.*
Recent developments have caught my attention again, as a writer: workers digging at Ground Zero have uncovered a ship dating to the 1700s in the muck under where the World Trade Center once stood. (See the Christian Science Monitor or Associated Press for the full story.)
The story of this ship is intriguing for many reasons. It reveals how pollution has actually made the world a better place for wooden ships, how New Yorkers used to be able to purchase land that didn’t exist, and how much an iron anchor from the period weighed, all excellent background material for historical fiction writers.
Follow one of the links above to read more.
Edward Moran, who painted many maritime scenes, including of New York Harbor. By the time this photograph was taken around 1870, the WTC ship had already been abandoned to the muck for over half a century.
* For the full deets on the prescient notebook doodle I’m referencing here, ask nicely and I might blog about it.
Mel Gibson’s latest screenplay is an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mega-bestselling murder mystery, And Then There Were None … but using the original title.
yess n also iss English Dialect Dictionary easse : yes(se) ‘large earthworm’ …
Webster’s Third New Internationl Dictionary eaceworm. Earthworm.
1895 Journal of American Folklore viii, 34 Earthworms are termed yesses.
– Dictionary of Newfoundland English edited by G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson.
PJ at 19whiskeys has posted a great little piece on the two types of writers. I won’t tell you what the two types are, because I want you to be overcome with curiosity and click that link.
However, let’s just say that type B is where everyone is going to want to believe they are. So, considering cognitive biases, if anyone is unsure whether they fall into A or B, I’m thinking they’re likely just A.
The other day, having read one book described as “one of the best-selling books of the 20th Century” and another as “one of the best-selling books of all time,” my brain starting spinning in amateur research mode.
My first question was: what does “one of” mean? Does it mean the 3rd best-selling book of all time? The 22nd? Among the top 1000?
As one might expect, Wikipedia has a list of the best-selling books of all time, with various estimates of total sales. But, with books from the 19th and 20th Centuries on the list alongside ancient works, Analytic Me started to wonder about rates of sale.
After all a train that travels 100 miles in 10 hours is nowhere near as fast as a train that travels only 1 mile in 1 minute. Likewise a book that sells a million copies over a thousand years is not being chosen at the same rate as a book that sells two thousand copies in a single year.
And, to answer the objection that a book like the Bible wasn’t selling at a steady ready over time (particularly before the invention of moveable type), I would point out that it still had centuries during which to drum up support and publicity.
So let’s take a look at how the numbers crunch.
