Lots of links this week, and they don’t all fit neatly into the theme of Negativity Week, so in lieu of an actual theme to the news I will instead be saying “Bah!” at the end of every paragraph regardless of my feeling about the news I’ve just relayed. Consider it negativity, old man style. (Or sheep-style, I suppose, but that would be baaa. It’s all in the inflection.)
Reader/commenter Rick Daley has started a blog devoted to critiques of queries submitted by participants. It’s also a good time to remind everyone about agent Janet Reid’s indispensable/awesome/generous ongoing resource Query Shark. Bah!
Attention suspense fans, Barry Eisler, author of the very awesome and popular John Rain series, has a new standalone thriller just out this week called FAULT LINE. Barry also has a very interesting blog, and this week he reprinted a fascinating interview about his work. Bah!
And in case you needed proof that books or still selling…. well, just ask Pilot Sully, he of the artfully downed plane in the Hudson, who scored a reported $3.2 million two book deal, one for a memoir and the other rumored to be a collection of inspirational poetry. Bah!
Also scoring a big book deal this week was Audrey Niffenegger for her completely written follow up to THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE. After agent Kristin Nelson blogged about it and speculated on who triggered the leak. Niffenegger’s agent, Joe Regal, later chimed in and insisted they didn’t want the amount to leak, but also used the opportunity to say how much he admires that Ms. Niffenegger took her time to completely write a brilliant follow-up. Which, I agree, is admirable. Bah!
Among the great BookEnds LLC blog posts this week was one on a successful nonfiction query sample. Poor neglected nonfiction queries, they are so rarely used as examples! Jessica Faust also posted a list of query don’ts — you wouldn’t want your agent doing them, so don’t do them yourself. Bah!
Also in the hizzy is my colleague Tracy Marchini, who I reckon be droppin’ a hella wicked post on some fings to consider when writing slang (and yes, I tried to incorporate as many disparate dialects as possible in that sentence). Bah!
Lastly but not leastly in agent news is blogging agent extraordinaire Jennifer Jackson, who posted some of the wonderful things about being an agent. Bah!
Experimentation is definitely in the air, and from always-indispensable GalleyCat came word that Lexycle and Macmillan are teaming up to produce a book in standalone iPhone App form. Could this be a harbinger for more self-contained reading apps? Bah!
Also in that vein, reader Margaret Welman Paez was kind enough to direct me to an post in the Paper Cuts blog of the New York Times about a book by Clay Shirky called HERE COMES EVERBODY. Within the post there is a tremendous quote that I think sums up the coming deluge of content in the e-book era that I’ve blogged about before: “It’s going from a world of ‘filter, then publish’ … to ‘publish, then filter.” Well said. Bah!
And finally, Andrew Sullivan linked to this amazing short film by Bruce Branit, which I think captures what it’s like to be a writer:
World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.
Have a great weekend! Bah!
shabang says
Wow, Nathan!
That film was amazing.
And the caliber of this blog keeps surpassing itself.
Thank you.
To Anon above:
I also know of several ripped off plots, however, I know of more writers who keep their material so close for fear of it being ripped off that it never even gets a chance to go ANYwhere.
Annie Dillard said something like: Just keep writing your very best. Don’t hoard your words. And more will come. I kind of agree.
For putting it out there though, for me, some things are better kept between me and my one-day agent (or doled out in tastes, rather than the whole shabang) and others are fine for sharing more completely or publicly.
laughingwolf says
bah! 😉 lol
great stuff, as always….
pjd says
I am not a big fan of the self-contained iBook or ebook or whatever app. Why? Because they’ve been trying to do it since a 40 megabyte hard drive was for the rich and powerful. Portability of course changes things a bit, but not enough. There were a few mildly successful titles in the early 90s, but mostly it’s been a bust.
Negativity week… how bourgeois.
Joy says
Read your interview on Alan Rinzer’s blog. Great job!
Scott says
Watched the video first and all I can say is “wow”. Thanks, Nathan.
On book theft, if you have a tasty high concept, it can definitely be stolen. However, high concepts are rarely original, therefore I would think the odds of having your idea land in capable hands first are probably very small, so get writing. Still, I keep them to myself until the book is written and, for what its worth, registered with WGE.
And nice idea for a blog, Rick. See you there.
Nona says
For me, it’s going to be the Writer’s Guild of America, West. And don’t forget the Library of Congress. I’ve had concepts stolen, not in literary circles, but in advertising. It does happen. I know of a screenwriting group that does critiques online but it’s a small group and they keep things private.
Sooki Scott says
Nathan, thanks for the laugh—must be a riot to work with you. Bah!
Confucius say; man who sneezes without tissue takes matters in his own hands.
Ray Rhamey says
Loved the video. Many thanks for that.