Category Archives: Jessica

June 28, 2012   Jessica   Amazon, independent bookstores, international literature, Jessica, price wars  
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Not only do the French not get fat, understand the subtle arts of seduction, scarf-tying, gastronomy and most recently (per Bringing up Bebe) parenting,  it seems that even the Gallic booksellers are in a better spot than their American colleagues http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/books/french-bookstores-are-still-prospering.html?_r=1.  Although I am skeptical of the many hyperbolic  claims associated with French culture—Americans have a peculiar love hate relationship with the French (remember “freedom fries?”) that often renders the land of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité in a less than accurate light, it does seem that French booksellers, thanks to  legal price-fixing (no collusion charges here!)  and government subsidies, do enjoy a considerable advantage over our anemic and Amazon-eviscerated ecosystem. Depending on your politics, the French respect for/protection of booksellers epitomizes everything that’s right or wrong with government, but it does mean that the market for books has remained both stable and lively.  From my French clients—who send me photos of reading tours and well attended signings filled with well-dressed people— I get a glimpse of what seems a pre-lapsarian booksellers’ paradise.  Do I romanticize? Mais bien sur.

I’m not sure that given the present climate in the United States that there is really much likelihood that our model will borrow something from the French, but it is, however, interesting to look abroad at a very different literary landscape and indulge in some armchair travel.

May 03, 2012   Jessica   bestsellers, Jessica, marketing/publicity  
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Formula for Success

 

Because blockbuster bestsellers—the books that sell in the millions of copies—are rarely as well written as they are widely read, there is a popular notion among writers and non-writers (and occasionally, trained monkeys with typewriters) that “anyone could write one.”  I’m skeptical.

The mysterious X factor that causes a book to catch fire is neither easily predicted nor replicated, much as publishers try. Bestsellers cannot reliably be manufactured, not even (as many people suspect) by outsize marketing and promotion budgets.  I worked for the house that published scores of bestsellers, including The Bridges of Madison County and the Notebook, but that same house also rolled out the red carpet for seemingly commercial novels that vanished, taking their marketing dollars and NYT ads with them.

 

Laura Miller’s column in Salon http://www.salon.com/2012/05/01/recipe_for_a_bestselling_book/singleton/ looks at Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers. In it, novelist James Hall attempts to isolate the winning formulas of “twentieth century megasellers.” He considers a list of twelve: Gone With the Wind, Peyton Place, To Kill a Mockingbird, Valley of the Dolls, The Godfather, The Exorcist, Jaws, The Dead Zone, The Hunt for Red October, The Firm, The Bridges of Madison County and The Da Vinci Code.

I’m keen to read his analysis, but I just don’t believe that it can yield much insight into the black box of blockbuster bestseller-dom. What do you think? Can reading taste be quantified in any meaningful way?

 

 

March 22, 2012   Jessica   creativity, interview, Jessica, problem solving  
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Eureka!

This morning I caught a part of an interview with Jonah Lehrer, science writer and the author of the book Imagine: How Creativity Works. In addition to debunking the myth of brainstorming (turns out that the no-criticism, free-association, fill-the-whiteboard-approach to creative problem solving is not especially effective—a truth that I think many a solitary writer has always known) he talks about “the moment of insight.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQNoqrlWkrY&feature=youtu.be.  He says that studies reveal that a creative breakthrough is often achieved not by drinking a triple espresso, buckling down and focusing, but instead, by taking a hot shower, going for a walk, getting a good night’s sleep.  So I am curious, when you are stuck on a particularly thorny plot point or organizational dilemma, do you give it a rest or power through? How do you invite the moment of insight, and where and when have your eureka moments happened?

March 08, 2012   Jessica   characterization, characters, fiction, Jessica  
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Entirely Coincidental?

Not long ago, I was reading a novel when I encountered someone I knew. Not on the train, or at the next table, or passing by the park bench where I sometimes attempt to read while my children are playing.  In the novel.

 There, despite a change of name and a few identifying features, was a person I knew quite well, rendered in mostly accurate but less than flattering detail. I had been tipped off by a mutual friend that this was the case, but it was eerie—and faintly thrilling—to find so familiar a figure pinned (if not unforgivingly than at least uncomfortably) to the page.   Here, the standard fiction disclaimer that “any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental” was patently untrue, and I expect that the book’s guest star was none too pleased with his portrayal. Since I don’t know the author well enough to ask her, I thought I’d pose the question here: To what degree do you incorporate recognizable versions of real people in your own fiction, and have you run into some difficult situations as a result? Where and how do you draw the lines between fair game and off-limits?

February 23, 2012   Jessica   culture, fiction, genre, Jessica  
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Genre Trends

Interesting piece in Salon about the (arguable) demise of chick lit that includes a broader survey of genre trends that have come and gone.

Laura Miller writes “What kills a genre isn’t always clear. Supposedly, the readership for the western turned to urban crime fiction sometime in the 1970s. Why? Were they simply tired of cowboys and gunslingers, or had the myth of the Old West been too thoroughly undermined by counterculture critics and Native American activists?” You can still find battered old gothics in junk shops and used bookstores, but as an instantly identifiable genre they’re no longer being published.

Other “expired genres” she cites include gothic novels, adventure novels a la H. Rider Haggard’s SHE and Horatio Alger rags-to-riches stories. Can you think of others? Or have you watched the fortunes of a favorite genre decline and fall? If so, do you care to speculate on the cause of death?

Here is one micro trend that I’m rather enjoying: namely, the other-cultures-create-better-parents polemic (see Amy Chua’s ubiquitous Tiger Mom and the present coverage of Bringing Up Bebe.) Perhaps my own wide-eyed expat experience in Cairo colors my reaction, but I’m sympathetic to the feelings of amazement/niggling inadequacy that author Pamela Druckerman channels.  The whole time I lived in Egypt, I felt faintly astonished by the comportment of Egyptian children, who accompanied their parents everywhere as a matter of course and seemed as indulged and adored as American youngsters, but infinitely more patient.  I’m not quite ready to write a book on my own unscientific musings, but I’m looking forward to other cultures weighing in, surely China and France cannot dominate the conversation!

February 09, 2012   Jessica   covers, international literature, Jessica  
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Cover Design

One of the pleasures of working with books is the opportunity to see how different publishing houses and language markets package the same project. Last week, I was admiring the German cover design of a young adult novel that Stacey represents. The US and UK covers were attractive and effective, but the fairytale/art nouveau/Aubrey Beardsley influenced jacket that the German publisher put together was exquisite. Wunderbar. I was ready to learn German just to dig in.

Further to this, the online journal the Millions again features a handy (albeit too brief) side-by-side comparison of US and UK covers for finalists in this year’s Tournament of Books.   Predictably, I find myself gravitating to the American aesthetic. Call me parochial, but cover designs can be more culturally specific than their contents. When I was an editor, the awfulness of UK covers was something of a running joke.   But perhaps that schadenfreude was misplaced. Here, the British designs for The Cat’s Table and the 1Q84 are (I think) far stronger than their American counterparts.

What say you? For those inclined to see even more examples of cross-cultural cover design on display, have a look at:

http://redroom.com/member/dale-estey/blog/different-book-covers-for-us-and-uk-markets

December 22, 2011   Jessica   holidays, Jessica, lists  
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Farewell 2011

As the annual proliferation of best-of  lists and year-in-review stories would indicate, it’s impossible to resist the desire to cast back over the past year. And by any reckoning, 2011 has been a momentous one. From the revolutions in the Arab world in January to the withdrawal of the final American troops from Iraq just weeks ago, from the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to the near collapse of the Euro, the world stage has been crowded with dramatic events, both awe-inspiring and harrowing.  Perhaps 2012 will bring the books that can help sort them out, provide us with the stories both real and imagined that transform distant and massive happenings into material more immediate and emotionally comprehensible. Indeed, one very selfish wish for the new year is that a few such projects will land in my inbox. So keep the submissions coming. I’m actively looking for both novels and nonfiction, books that explain and interpret the business of being human. Many thanks to all of you who query me and share your materials.  I know yours is a tough path, and I–and all my colleagues here at DGLM–respect the often superhuman degree of effort, persistence, and emotional investment inherent in writing.   May 2012 bring joy, peace and inspiration.

December 08, 2011   Jessica   genre, Jessica, YA  
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Fantasy as a Reading Rite of Passage

Adam Gopnik’s review of the newest addition to the Eragon series in last week’s New Yorker caught my eye (not because I’ve read these books, though as my sons gets older, I look forward to reading them together) but because Gopnik writes about the always-interesting relationship between kids and fantasy.  He writes “Of all the unexpected things in contemporary literature, this is among the oddest: that kids have an inordinate appetite for very long, very tricky, very strange books about places that don’t exist, fights that never happened, all set against a medieval background.” I’m not sure it’s so odd, and indeed, I remember a time in my own reading life when I had an insatiable taste for magical books, almost to the exclusion of all else. That I outgrew it, or that my tastes broadened, or that I found less fantastical settings equally appealing might argue for my emergent Muggledom. Or perhaps, like Susan in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series, I became interested in nothing “except nylons and lipstick and invitations” though as a girl, I hated this aspect of the final book, and could think of no worse fate.  In any case, Gopnik’s point is that it is not the otherworldliness that draws young readers. “Kids go to fantasy not for escape but for organization, and a little elevation, ” that it offers “familiar experience in intensified form.” He describes the Twilight books as representative “not so much the life that a teenage girl would wish to have, but the one she already has, rearranged with heightened symbols.”

What do you think? Did you go through a fantasy phase? What drew you to it then? Do you read it still?

November 17, 2011   Jessica   adaptation, book fairs, international literature, Jessica  
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Turkish Delight

I’m writing this post from Istanbul, where I was fortunate enough to participate, if only briefly and rather marginally, in the frenzy of bibliophilia that is the Istanbul Book Fair. Perhaps more a book bazaar than an international rights fair on the order of Frankfurt or London, it nevertheless provides an excellent immersion into this rich, energetic and fascinating language market. Indeed, I felt increasingly abashed that my knowledge of Turkish fiction begins and ends with Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk and Elif Sefak (whose books I have not even read, but plan to). Happily, at my request and over a dizzying array of mezze and kebab, a kindly Istanbul-based agent assembled a brief primer on contemporary Turkish fiction. She recommended that I check out the works of Mario Levi, İhsan Oktay Anar, Tezer Ozlu, and in particular the curiously titled The Garden of Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu. In addition to Turkish colleagues, I also met editors and agents from all over the world, and had an opportunity to compare notes on subjects familiar (the meteoric rise of the e-book, the role of Amazon.com) and less so (the fixed prices of books in many European countries). It’s always refreshing—and often reassuring—to see that despite the considerable challenges it faces, book culture is not only surviving, but adapting and thriving, throughout the world.

November 10, 2011   Jessica   Jessica, words, writing  
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Diagramming Sentences

John McPhee’s essay “Progression” in The New Yorker http://byliner.com/john-mcphee/stories/progression takes an interesting look at the process of writing.  At one point, McPhee expressed the structure of a piece he planned to write as an equation, ABC/D, in which A B and C are different people who share some common connection, D. As far as equations go, this is probably just my speed (there’s a reason I’m in publishing and not physics) though I also liked Alain de Botton’s quasi-scientific formulations in On Love and other books.

I know authors who create the writerly equivalents of flowcharts, who doodle “idea webs” on legal pads before they sit down to write. I know of a couple’s therapist whose methodology relies on simple line drawings. When planning your own projects, do you rely on some actual, visible process of diagramming?

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