HOLY SHIT WE FUCKING EXIST
Love the way lamb tastes.
Not exactly sure what fucked our server, but it got fucked.
The site went down late last night/early this morning, and a couple of hours ago, after my wife threatened to stab me in my peepee if I didn’t get off of the computer (sorry honey, I love you!), things came back.
I don’t often freak out, but I did today.
I’d like to thank Server Jesus for restoring our lamb. It’s time to drink heavily.
A Few Thoughts on Promotion
A few weeks ago Justin Taylor’s book, Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever, was threatening the NY Times bestseller list. It was, like, #1000 in sales at Amazon. My first thought was, HYPE. I thought, “Nah, it can’t be all that good, it’s just a book, who cares, he’s not my friend, I’ll buy it but whatever, HYPE.” I’d seen an ad for it on the back of Book Forum. HYPE.
BUT DAMN. READ MORE >
Multicultural Spellcheck
Folks at Charlie Rose are calling Salman “Salmon”; looks like “Deepa Mehta” and “Ehud Barak” completely fried their spell-checker. Even this WordPress platform can’t handle this post; ha ha, WordPress thinks they are a misspelling. READ MORE >
I. Fontana on Publicity
[This is a comment–regarding some recent posts here–that I. Fontana posted and also sent out to me & Ken, and we thought it was worth presenting on the main page for those who missed it. I. Fontana knows whereof he speaks, and he’s one of my favorite “new” writers out there. Love his short stories, which I’ve linked on HTMLGIANT before, and I know he’s got some other stuff in the works that I’m very, very excited to see published. –N.A.
Nick says it: I. Fontana says it. Presented with no further ado: –K.B.]
Superagent Nat Sobel said in an interview last summer that he chooses at most one in 500 unsolicited manuscripts to represent in a given year. Grove/Atlantic, HarperCollins etcetera — all the major New York publishing houses, in other words — explicitly announce that they will not read any manuscript which does not come from an established agent.
In the early 19th century, literature (and in particular the novel) evolved into a popular art form generally serialized each week in newspapers, which meant that in order to keep the particular novel being read, there had to be narrative pull, even cliffhangers — in general, plot. But this meant that the socalled “unwashed masses” now were exposed to such writing, so that writers no longer had to hang around court or otherwise suck up to aristocrats, publishing their books by subscriptions to the wealthy (which constriction obviously required that the wealthy find such books pleasing). Democracy means including the lowest common denominator as well as the connoisseur.
Bookstore Interview: Normal’s Books & Records, Baltimore
Google “Baltimore used bookstore” and click “I’m feeling lucky.” You will be. The first hit is Normal’s Books & Records, one of the best used shops I’ve ever been to. It isn’t just the selection that makes it great, though it’s clear that Rupert Wondolowski, who runs the buying there, knows great literature beyond the classics. It isn’t just the personality of the store, even though there are plenty of funny signs and doodads around to keep your friends interested while you spend an hour searching for some lost dub record. What I like best about Normal’s is: dang, they are invested in the local arts scene. Aside from stocking all the amazing books, music, zines etc. that get put out around town, the collective hosts weekly shows at the Red Room, which is attached to the store, Rupert runs an always-interesting reading/performance series called “Shattered Wig Night” and he also puts out an old-school tape-up journal called The Shattered Wig Review. Oh yeah, and he wrote a pretty dynamite book called The Origin of Paranoia as a Heated Mole Suit (Publishing Genius 2008). Interview about bookselling after the break. READ MORE >
The One Where I Talk About AWP, Star Trek, Revolutionary Road, and Publishing
At Bark, I read a post about magazines who try new things and how most lit mags all say the same thing about their mission. At the AWP Bookfair last year, a woman came to our table and asked what we’re looking for. I said, quite perkily, “We’re looking for great writing,” which was, clearly, the wrong answer but I had already answered that question approx. 1,311 times and wanted to be polite but also had nothing left to say on the matter. She pursed her lips and dropped the issue of our magazine like it was tainted. She said, “That’s what everyone says,” and then she flounced away.
Frequent HTMLGIANT Anonymous Commenter Revealed, Brought On Board
Look for her new feature column coming soon.
Mailbag! – Feedback on the Feedback Edition
One of our regular commenters-in-good-standing, mimi, posed this question in a comment on this post of mine from a couple days ago.
>>I sometimes wonder how contributors feel about posts that don’t get any (or any serious) comments, because they _have_ gone to some effort. I for one am paying attention, even though most of my comments are kind of goofy.<<
I started to answer her in the thread, but then thought that maybe this was something more people would like to know about, so I’m posting it here. My longer-than-she-probably-wanted answer after the break.