tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30074355.post2273986477368883282..comments2019-07-28T06:24:05.700-07:00Comments on let's talk about writing: do Web sites sell books?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30074355.post-64456665523513526422009-01-29T17:58:00.000-08:002009-01-29T17:58:00.000-08:00Whores, David? How provocative! This idea of the c...Whores, David? How provocative! <BR/><BR/>This idea of the cream rising to the top is always bandied about, and I'd like to agree with it--UNLESS the critical mass of Internet drivel redefines (read: lowers), even more, the base level of quality writing, and what readers accept as quality writing.<BR/><BR/>Immediacy doesn't have to equate with sloppy, but often it does.<BR/><BR/>Yesterday my good friend and colleague, Cheryl Strayed, wrote a "stunning" version of that awful thing that gets slapped around on the Facebook: 25 things about me, or some such. Often, my enthusiasm for navigating the results of that exercise when it hits my inbox is about the same as it is for chain emails involving charming pictures of anthropomorphized animals, but Cheryl shaped such a lovely, lyric piece with the prompt--it literally took my breath away.<BR/><BR/>Our collective Facebook response to that piece was: this should be in an anthology. Meaning: Wouldn't it be great to read a collection of musings as poetic as this? <BR/><BR/>Alas, it probably won't happen, because people are too busy reading unpoetic, flat and narcissistic accounts of their pseudo-friends lives for FREE. <BR/><BR/>Look, when one's livelihood is dependent on people buying books--when a person has invested an entire LIFE in writing, and that writing is stunning, it's disconcerting, to say the least, that likely there will be no, or very limited, financial compensation.suzy vitello souléhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12836144962952322322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30074355.post-28327954157274293152009-01-29T05:57:00.000-08:002009-01-29T05:57:00.000-08:00All that the separation of writing from the dollar...All that the separation of writing from the dollar means is that writers have to write better to catch their audiences' attention. Right now, a lot of crap gets sold between fancy 'Vintage' Penguin covers, just as frequently as is downloaded free from the Internet. Really. Most fiction between covers is unreadable. Half the fiction in the New Yorker is unreadable. I feel no pity. <BR/><BR/>The situation for writing is analogous to the situation for music.<BR/><BR/>Writers are spoiled and expect financial reward for loving to write, which also makes them whores. Perhaps separating dollars from writing will test their artistry in the right way.David Millstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03572137506121239769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30074355.post-58775233261231077172009-01-26T20:38:00.000-08:002009-01-26T20:38:00.000-08:00For me "the digital age impact on books" is not ba...For me "the digital age impact on books" is not bad but it's not well organized. The junk data is too much that we sank in it.tommyhttp://www.buybookshop.comnoreply@blogger.com