Category Archives: fun

March 13, 2013   Miriam   agents, bestsellers, fun, future of publishing, Miriam, publishers, Publishing, writing  
3

Go with the flow

I’ve been mired in contracts lately which means countless iterations of the same conversation:

Me: “We want X, Y, Z.”

Contracts director: “No.  We can’t agree to that.”

Me: “If you don’t give it to us, we’ll walk.”

Contracts director: “Fine, we’ll give you X and Y, but you’ll have to pry Z out of our cold dead hands.”

Me: “What was Z again?”

Multiply this by three or four contracts a week, reams of e-mails, and some name calling, and you’ve got my life in a nutshell.  At this point, the process is so predictable, I could create a flowchart that pretty much tells you the probable outcome of any negotiation.  Which is what tickles me about this delightful infographic that Galleycat reposted yesterday.

As fast as the publishing industry is changing, some things remain wonderfully constant: Authors’ hopes and dreams either coming true or being crushed into oblivion; insiders trying to game the system; agents, editors and publishers working hard and failing roughly as much as professional baseball players; heavy drinking regardless.

You’d think we’d get bored.  But really, it’s such a thrill when all the stars align and the editorial and development work, the tedious nitpicking of contract terms, and the snarky, despairing, bombastic communications result in a book you’re proud of (and which is sometimes profitable), that you end up just feeling grateful to be part of the process.

What’s your favorite part of the flowchart?

 

 

 

March 13, 2013   Yassine   articles, fiction, fun, Yassine  
1

Book Therapy

Reading fiction is normally associated with pursuits of escapism, venturing off to far-off lands, dislocating your imagination from reality, taking a cerebral vacation, or as Marion Garretty puts it “A book is a chance to try on a different life for size”.  A book is the perfect portal to transport oneself to preferable climes, especially when it is snowing in March!

What if, though, fiction was used as the tonic rather than the escape route when we are all feeling a little troubled, blue or downcast? I came across this article in the New York Observer which speaks to this question. At the Centre of Fiction, they run a program called A Novel Approach that has a team of ‘bibliotherapists’ who will prescribe you with a year’s worth of reading after a 45-minute consultation. The dialogue between the patient and the bibliotherapist in the article goes from the comical, when they discuss the root of the patient’s unhappiness, to the surreal when the patient answers which literary figures he would have over for a dinner party.

After said consultation the patient receives a reading list as a prescription with instructions, “No more than one per month, client to be shaken and stirred.” Would you ever be tempted to see a bibliotherapist? Or do you prefer to self-medicate?

February 15, 2013   Rachel   contest, fiction, fun, prizes, Rachel S., short stories  
19

Love stories, in brief.

I’ve written before about my particular love for short, short, short fiction. Their poignancy is sometimes so great that a story half a paragraph long will stick with me all day or longer. I had an entirely different topic planned for today’s blog post, but just before I sat down to write, I took a minute to read some incredibly brief, yet strangely powerful love stories, perfectly appropriate for a post-Valentine’s entertainment. Especially since I just checked, and you guys it’s true, there’s no more chocolate left from the box in the kitchen and I’m feeling a little blue about it already.

Available for your reading pleasure here on the Hairpin, are just four very slight tales of love and romance, ultimately lost, rejected or simply faded away. The strength in these stories is that there is so much, so very much left out of them. There are no character names, sometimes the telling is a very straightforward “this happened and then this happened and then that happened and so there.” But somehow, as readers, we’re able to create an entire narrative arc. We can visualize the lovers, feel their hope, joy, pain, and ultimate loneliness.

It’s not just about writing a barebones plot and not saying much about anything, limiting yourself to a hundred and fifty words or so. Anyone can do that—I’ve tried. There’s a certain space that must be created. A vast emptiness between the lines where the real story lies. A good writer of short fiction can give just the right amount of information and the right type of information so that the story doesn’t feel cheap or lacking, but instead creates the feeling in the reader that they know exactly what the writer meant to be happening in the spaces left blank.

Love stories—particularly those about lost loves—are exponentially more effective when less is told. The emptiness and longing, nostalgia and regret are there simply because they are physically not there on the page. They become haunting instead of merely sad. Their brevity means they can be read over and over again, searching for any more hints of story, clues to what really happened.

I’d be interested in seeing any stories you can come up with in the comments—keeping it under 200 words.* It’s more difficult than you’d think! Otherwise, do you have a similar take on the style, or would you much prefer a long, fleshed out novel instead?

 

*The writer of my favorite story will be showered in cash and prizes! Minus the cash, but there is a DGLM mug in it for the winning, and you’re welcome to fill it wish cash of your own if you like.

 

 

***UPDATE***

This contest is now closed and I am pleased to announce the winner of a DGLM mug is Jan O’Hara! Jan, please email me with your information at rstout@dystel.com and I’ll be in touch!

February 13, 2013   Miriam   fun, Miriam, music, our clients, reading  
74

Lyric Literature

My first exposure to the Avett Brothers was Colleen Hoover’s Slammed.  Over dinner a few months after she became a client, we talked about the band and she recommended one of their live albums.  Since I’m almost as crazy about music as I am about books, I went off and started listening…and promptly fell in love (“I and Love and You” is on constant rotation in my brain).

But, this isn’t the first time I’ve been led to an artist that I became infatuated with through a reference in a book.  The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love led me to explore the golden age of Cuban music (pre-Castro, pre-exodus), for instance.  And, novels like  A Visit from the Goon Squad  are veritable treasure troves of musical references while memoirs like Patti Smith’s, Keith Richards’ and Neil Young’s can keep you looking up song titles on iTunes for weeks.  Since I believe great songwriting is poetry and poetry is storytelling that rhymes (or doesn’t), I love the marriage of literature and music.

On this Valentine’s eve, what devastating, unforgettable songs have you come across in books?

February 13, 2013   John   fun, future of publishing, inspiration, John, opinion  
3

Taking her time

A little post on New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog caught my eye. It seems that after 11 years after The Little Friend, Donna Tartt is coming out with a new novel this fall—which is just about the same gap as between The Little Friend and her famous debut, The Secret History.

Doubtless the anticipation for the new book, entitled The Goldfinch, will heat up when it gets closer to its October publication date. But I was tickled that even the initial Amazon listing merited attention, because it highlights one of the things I love about the book biz—that readers are willing to wait, and in Tartt’s case, to wait a loooong time.

I mean, what other media or cultural event can sustain that kind of lag time anymore? I suppose there’s a lot of excitement out there for Star Wars VII right now, but there have been a ton of other Star Wars material to keep the franchise relevant since the last movie back in 2005. On the other hand, the band My Bloody Valentine just released their third album after a 22-year wait, and while the band’s fame and influence has exponentially increased over that time, from what I can tell the reaction has been muted, at best.

What’s especially heartening about the Tartt news is that with the rise of ebooks, we’re constantly told that content is king, and that you need to produce new work continuously or else the world will pass you by. And yet, an author like Tartt can wait over a decade to publish a new novel, and it still makes headlines—and better yet, gets readers excited.

Are YOU excited for The Goldfinch? What other authors have you been waiting on for a long time now?

February 06, 2013   Stacey   advice, bestsellers, fun, opinion, Stacey, writing  
6

Welcome to the writing club

We’ve talked a lot about the difficulties that come with a writing career. With the market changing as it has the last couple of years, rejection and disappointment has become an even bigger part of our reality. In some ways, all the rejection makes success feel that much better. In others, it feels like a punch in the gut after running a marathon. Why does it have to be so hard? Talented writers who are penning wonderful books with dedicated agents and supportive publishers still often face challenges making it all work.

So, let’s all just give up now, right? I mean, did you read the piece in The Paris Review about the writer who approached Philip Roth in a deli on the Upper West Side with his just-published novel, and was told he should quit while he was ahead? That’s not the most inspiring story to share with our blog readers.

But this one is. Perhaps you’ve heard of Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, one of the biggest books of, well, all time. She read the Paris Review piece and has something to say to Roth, and about being a writer. Let’s just say she puts a more positive spin on the subject than Roth did. It’s entertaining and hopeful, and pretty funny.

So while the gloom and doom scenarios about publishing abound, and all of us in the business will face inevitable rejection (repeatedly), writing and the business that surrounds it will always be a place we can go to find creative energy and inspiration in the art of creating something from nothing. And how many jobs can you say that about? Not many so chin up, keep writing, and welcome to the club!

February 01, 2013   Rachel   fun, Rachel S., reading  
3

Location, Location, Location

Books transport you to wondrous places! They take you on journeys to distant lands! Escape reality with a book!

These are, of course, true, if a little bit precious, completely clichéd, and totally overused statements. However, they are so because there is that grain of truth to them. Books really can make you forget your surroundings, drop all cares and make reality unimportant for a little while.

The problem is, however, getting there. Getting immersed in a book is heavily dependent on how much you can let yourself be taken in by it. I find, personally, that unless I’ve already gotten in deep with a book and it’s one of those that I’m thinking about even when I’m not reading, when I’m planning the next time I can really sit down and make another dent in the pages, that it takes some settling in to focus.

Oddly, I’ve found I concentrate best on a book when I’m not at home surrounded by all those cozy comforts. My favorite reading locales are bustling cafes, bars and coffee shops. Couldn’t tell you why, and I don’t know that it’s completely normal, but the complete familiarity of my apartment* and the quietness I find there is more of a distraction than continuous chatter, background music and movement.

Sometimes I prefer going out alone solely so I can sit by myself and read—it makes me happy and I focus on a book all the better for it. Just last night, I was reading alone at my favorite watering hole and it was there that I was finally able to get to the point of “okay, I’ve got the measure of this book now” where I couldn’t when I had started it at home mere minutes earlier. The lights went down, but one of the bartenders came over and made me a makeshift candle tower (not as precarious as it sounds, I promise) and so read on I did.

Where do you read best? Is it home with something nice to drink or munch on, in the park, library, café, bar or anywhere else? Am I less of an oddball than I imagined? Whenever I’m out at a coffee shop I see more people on laptops than anything else, so I suppose the home-away-from-home aspect transcends all media, but then again, computers come with headphones, and I’m no good at reading with headphones in, so there’s that. Rambling over, and awaiting your replies!

*Oddly, the same is not true of my childhood home, where I can read on the living room couch ‘til the cows come home, but I’d say that’s more a matter of habit than any kind of conscious preference.

January 29, 2013   Yassine   book ideas, fun, inspiration, journal, Yassine  
10

Where do you keep your ideas?

This past weekend, I came across the only journal I have ever possessed. I penned the first entry at the tail end of the summer of 2009, when this journal was freshly purchased on a Glasgow high street. Now it had resurfaced all dog-eared and dusty in a Brooklyn apartment. Having mostly lived in boxes during apartment moves in New York, I had not written anything down for quite a while, nor leafed through past entries. So I delved in, to be reacquainted with my past self.

A thoroughly underwhelming experience. From what I could make out from the barely legible passages, I had not done much but make endless grocery lists and write down school timetables. Coincidentally, I came across this piece on Flavorwire on authors who kept journals and used them as a reservoir of observations that they felt might inspire them in the future.

It got me thinking about where author’s ideas come from. Is it necessary to record these things in the moment? Or leave them to your memory to recall them at the time of writing? Some of the authors in the article contend that they use a diary or journal as a means of having a second life or opening up.

Do you, as writers, have a similar vehicle to expend your creative energies? Or do you have highly tailored or ingenious ways of coming up with great new ideas for your writing?

 

January 23, 2013   Stacey   advice, awards, children's books, fiction, fun, mentors, middle grade, Stacey, writing, YA  
0

What happens after you win a Newbery or Caldecott?

The Newbery and Caldecott award nominees are being announced on Monday, January 28th. Each year I look forward to seeing who is chosen for these prestigious awards. Children’s literature has exploded over the last decade and the quality of material being published in this category is outstanding. When I create my reading lists for pleasure, there are always at least a few middle grade or young adult novels on there. Recent additions include  the much-hyped bestselling FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green and CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth E. Wein, which I recall receiving starred reviews when it was released from all of the major trade publications.

So I loved coming across this piece in Publisher’s Weekly recently which interviews previous recipients of this award to ask about how winning has impacted their lives and careers. The answers vary considerably, but it’s always interesting and can be insightful to learn about how writers respond to this type of rare positive attention to their work. Most seem to agree the media outreach and public speaking present a new and unexpected challenge. It’s like becoming a literary celebrity overnight!

I’d love to know if you find any helpful advice for your own work in these interviews, and also if there are books you think or hope will be nominated next week. Please let us know.

January 04, 2013   Rachel   fun, inspiration, optimism, Rachel S.  
5

All the resolve in the world.

You know, I never think about making New Year’s resolutions until a few days into the new year. And then, when everyone else is talking about all the positive and life-affirming things they are going to start doing (or all the horrible, bad for you things they are going to stop doing), it clicks in my head that this is a new year and there’s a reason that people get so excited about changing things up. The whole blank calendar in front of you, just waiting for you to fill it up with triumphs and screw-ups (more of the former, hopefully, but if it was the latter last year, then you can totally erase all of that now, too!).

In any case, I’ve decided that my biggest goal for this new year is organization. You know, I’m not too bad at it. I’m timely, I know where things that I need are and I know when I’m going to need them. I love alphabetization and sorting things by color or size. However, there’s got to be room for improvement. There’s got to be a reason that sometimes it’s midnight and oh my goodness where did the time go and I’ve still got all of these pages I want to read before tomorrow!

Luckily, not only is the low number on the calendar page a good impetus, but have you seen the weather out there? It is cold. Who wants to go outside gallivanting, throwing organization out the window when all we really should be doing is keeping that darn window closed, it’s windy, I’m cold, my papers are blowing everywhere.

So, what I want to know is hardly original, nor am I probably the only one asking, but it’s certainly interesting nonetheless (why would everyone ask the question otherwise?): What are your New Year’s resolutions? Whether they relate to writing, reading, or other literary ventures or not, it does not matter. Any sort of determination and willingness to sit down and really think about what you want and what you don’t need is an exercise that can be applied to all aspects, creative or otherwise. Go ahead, I want to know!

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