Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
2/21/2013

Notes from 2/19/13 Meeting
On a cold, icey, winter’s night in February, 5 members of the 1st and 3rd group gathered at a toasty warm Barnes & Noble to discuss the literure of our fellow writers. With copies and laptops at the ready, we all sat down to discuss what appeared to be just 1 piece of work from the night. That work belonged to to Jerry Peterson who, for the time being, was up first and last for the evening.
Jerry: The Last Good Man, Pat thought Jerry should say if one character got pinched on the butt during a funny scene. Lisa agreed and Jerry thought it was a good idea. Andy thought the names were confusing. Pat wanted to know if the faternity’s were made up names (yes). Pat was unclear of what “a student with indifferent looks” meant. Lisa felt like the story was too safe at this point. Wants someone to get robbed or some kind of conflict. Pat suggests a dead soroity girl. Jerry assures us that some “hijacking” is coming.

Then we talked about Lord of the Rings and other stuff to fill the time.

At 7:30ish, Amber arrived in dramatic fashion, with husband and daughter in tow. She had gotten into a car accident, but forturnately, she’s fine. It was not her fault. Andy suggested she add more description about what Zephyr looks like now, such as color. Jerry wasn’t so convinced that that’s needed. He thinks the reader will form their own version of a tyrannosaurus Rex in their head. Lisa felt the fear in the chapter as she read it, though Jerry thought there needs to be a better description of what “predator” means. Pat wondered why the deer didn’t run and there was discussion about whether a deer would run if not being threaten. Andy thought the mom should have said something earlier about the drinking from a glass. Jerry disagreed, explaining that it depends on the relationship with the mother. Jerry also gave some input on writing style for the story. Lisa pointed out Amber’s use of a preposition. Andy felt it wasn’t a big deal since it’s in first person. Jerry suggested ways she can re-write the way she kept using one sentence to explain the actions. Amber explained she wrote it that way for affect, which Jerry accepted. Everyone agreed that this chapter was good and tight.

Other Odds and Ends

Great words . . .

Courtesy of Word Spy Paul McFedries:
sick-lit
n. A literary genre that features individuals dealing with fatal or devastating diseases. Also: sick lit.

Example Citations:
“Literary media have been abuzz about the ‘sick-lit’ controversy: novels written for teenagers with themes of death, fatal disease and psychological disease such as anorexia.”
– Russell Smith, Sick-lit: a symptom of publishing’s decline?, The Globe and Mail, February 13, 2013

“The blurbs for ‘teen sick-lit’ – as it’s become known – trip over themselves to promise their books will drive readers ‘to tears’ or leave them ‘devastated’.”
– Tanith Carey, The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children: It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…, The Daily Mail, January 3, 2013

Earliest Citation:
“If you want to read a good book by a famous person, check out Karen Duffy’s Model Patient, which takes the genre of Sick Lit – wherein mostly female memoirists explore their battles with cancer, depression, lupus, anorexia, et al. – and turns it on its head.
– Jennifer Weiner, Celebrity Biography Roundup: Jewel and Karen Duffy, The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2, 2000

Bookish, something new on the web . . .

Bookish, heard of it? It’s a new website . . . and YA author/blogger Nathan Bransford has taken it for a road test:

After many many delays and much speculation, a joint venture called Bookish was launched by Penguin, Hachette and Simon & Schuster.

(Disclosure time: I work at CNET, which is owned by CBS, which is the same parent company of Simon & Schuster. I’m also published by Penguin. All opinions expressed here are my own, and I don’t have any insight into Simon & Schuster operations.)

Bookish is a site where you can save books to shelves, rate them, get book recommendations, read some original content, and, very significantly for publishers, buy books directly from the site in various formats. This is a big step for the major publishers into a direct to consumer vertical.

Right now the site feels like it’s in beta. There seems to be social sharing built in, but I wasn’t able to get it to work yet, and even after adding books to my shelves I’m actually still not sure how to get recommendations except by just adding books to a very specific recommendation engine. There’s nothing along the lines of Netflix’s recommendations based on the things you’ve rated and told the site you want to read (at least, not that I’ve been able to find, and I suppose this could be coming).

I’ve been waiting for this site for quite a while, and had some conversations with people familiar with the direction of the site as it was being developed. Now that I’ve explored a bit and taken a look, I definitely think Bookish has promise. The design feels polished, the checkout path feels smooth, and I do think there’s some value in a good recommendation platform.

But the concern I had as Bookish was being developed remains. Basically: How often does someone need to visit Bookish?

Aside from the original content, unless you actually need a recommendation for a book or find the book buying process superior there doesn’t feel like a specific reason to visit the site. How often do you find yourself needing a recommendation for a book? Maybe a couple times a year? And even if you do want a recommendation, is this where you’ll seek it out? And if you want to buy a book, isn’t it already easy to buy it through existing channels?

Perhaps more importantly, in the social book recommendation sphere, sites like Goodreads had a major head start and is growing in popularity. And it’s done this by being a fun part of the entire reading experience. In addition to saving and rating books, which you can do on Bookish, on Goodreads you can track your progress, organize your books into shelves, and there’s a seamless experience for sharing to Facebook.

But the crucial part of Goodreads is that it’s social. I can see what my friends are reading and they can see what I’m reading, which is extremely fun. Shelves are conversation starters. It keeps me coming back to the site.

I don’t see a similar reason to return to Bookish. As a platform it has promise. But unless they can find a way to become indispensable to readers it’s hard to see it as a game changer. I’m not sure what will prompt me to return.

My feeling: Bookish could become the basis for a Hulu for books, a place where readers can gain access to exclusive e-book subscription plans or be a place for exclusive free content. They could really leverage the participation of the publishers. Right now it doesn’t feel geared toward that, but the platform is there.

Or perhaps Bookish could finally be the place for something readers have clamored for forever: Bundled print and e-book editions.

Whatever it is, it seems to me that while it’s a good first effort, the site needs another killer ingredient.

What do you think? Have you tried out Bookish and what do you think it should be?

Thanks to Jerry for that info.

Coming Soon…

February 26: Katelin Cummins (outline, Battle of Sista), Andy Pfeiffer (chapter, People), Rebecca Rettemund (chapter 21, The Cheese Logue), David Mayer (chapter, Time Traveler’s Definitive Guide, Vol 2), Bill Eisigner (short story), and Jen Wilcher (“Work Drama”).
March 5: Lisa McDougal (chapter 10&11, Follow the Yellow), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter, Lincoln’s Other War), Millie Mader (chapter 42, Life on Hold), Pat Edwards (???), Clayton Gill (chapter, Fishing Derby), and Aaron Boehm (film script/part 4, “Whole Again”).
March 12: Jack Freiburger (chapter, Jesus at the IHOP (postponed from Feb. 12) and Carol Hornung (scene, Ghost of Heffron College). If you’d like to be on the schedule, contact Carol at chornung88@aol.com

March 19: Amber Boudreau (chapter, Noble), Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter, The Cheese Logue), Michelle Nightoak (chapter, memoir), Andy Pfeiffer (???), Clayton Gill (chapter, Fishing Derby), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 4-5, The Last Good Man).

If you would like to be the editor for the March newsletter, please let me know so I can include it in the next mail.

Thanks, Lisa