jennIRL

• Amazon is a jerkface, no one is surprised, but people are angry, including
• Richard Russo, in a NY Times Op Ed. favorite bit: “As I see it, the problem with Amazon stems from the fact that though it started out as a bookseller, it isn’t anymore, not really. It sells everything now, and it sells it all aggressively. Maybe Amazon doesn’t care about the larger bookselling universe because it’s simply too big to care.” BONUS: Lacy and hello hello books get name-dropped by RICHARD FREAKING RUSSO!
•  and then some possibly even bigger jerkface asserts that indies are possibly killing literary culture (no i will not link, just read Dustin’s piece below, he notates it to great effect); many people are irate (and also smart), including
• Dustin, who always and forever wins at angry-funny. favorite bit: “IS THAT THE STANDARD BY WHICH YOU WISH TO JUDGE A SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION SIR? Because do I have a chamber pot to sell you.” seriously you guys, i laughed many times. also, “The whole idea of a culture is that it be shared, if not communal, and the act of bringing people together in ways that make the books, and a shared enjoyment of the books, available, even if it doesn’t necessitate buying the books, could only be mocked by someone with a very sad and tenuous point to make.”
• Stephanie, whose opinion i ask for on a regular basis so i can know what i think about things. favorite bit: “I really want to fix [Amazon], even though this is a company which is so actively trying to put me out of work that I would not be surprised if its next move was to issue bounties for the still-functioning brains of actual human booksellers.” also, “There are so many good books coming out right now we could each double our reading time and still not find room for all of them, and that’s not even taking into consideration the wealth of classics on which we are perched. And instead of talking about them, we are talking about Amazon and whether they are nice. Again.”

my latest column on e-reading, with the results from the surveys that i ran in January and April of this year, in today’s Shelf Awareness!

please note: i have never seen an episode of JERSEY SHORE, mostly because i don’t have a TV that does anything other than play DVDs.

so Snooki got a book deal. and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth. OH WOE IS PUBLISHING! ANOTHER “CELEBRITY” THROWAWAY INSULT TO THE READING PUBLIC! WHYYYYYYYYYYY …. etc etc etc.

except that: i am totally on board with this.

the fact that someone like Snooki, who is famous for being on a reality show (one that, as far as i understand, is not exactly sparkling with literary wit), wants/can have a book deal means that publishing is far from dead.

seriously — let’s break it down. either A) Snooki went out looking for a book deal; or B) someone approached Snooki about a book deal and she said yes.

if we go with scenario A, then this means that someone who is not a literary type believes they have things to say that are best said in the medium of a book. someone who already has a platform, a following, and many options as to ways to increase her presence has decided that a book is the next piece of the puzzle for her, when her options as far as promotion are almost endless in terms of media and technology. (i’m not saying that everyone wants to have Snooki on their show, or that she can get whatever publicity she wants — just pointing out that she has a lot of options as far as publicity goes, and a book is not exactly one of the most obvious choices). if you take it a step further, which i think is reasonable, this says to me that Snooki believes that a book will be good for her image. that it will increase her public presence, that she has a story to tell (ZOMG IT’S A NOVEL. mind: blown). the fact that someone FAR outside the literary pale believes this is music to my ears, because it means that i am not crazy to be trying to build a career in books — it means that books are so embedded in our culture that, even as entertainment and technology collide, people in the limelight still think of them as important and worthy of pursuing.

but maybe this wasn’t her idea. maybe some executive at a board meeting thought: “I know what will save publishing: a Snooki book!” fine and dandy! because that in turn means that people who are also outside the literary pale are buying and reading books. are they reading the new Franzen? or Bolaño? nope, probably not (although maybe the Franzen, thanks to Oprah). but if a publisher believes that the advance and the marketing and publishing will be worth the payout (and is probably counting on a big return) then that means that books are not an elitist endeavor, that not only those attached to the industry, or snobby people, or students who are assigned books, or [insert NO ONE READS ANYMORE tripe here] are reading. all those surveys can take a running jump — if a Snooki book is worth it to a publisher (which, by the way, i will bet good money that it earns out and then some), then people — the men/women on the street — are reading.

now, obviously there are doubts as to the QUALITY of such a book. but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.

and i suppose at this point someone will pull the “well maybe people are reading, but WHAT they are reading is more important” card, to which i say, FOR SHAME. judge not, lest ye be judged. our tastes are our own, and no one should be belittled for what they enjoy. it’s easy to take potshots at popular books, and i have increasingly less respect for people who do it regularly.