BETWEEN "A HISTORY OF PREMORSE" AND THE KELTNERIZATION OF THE ROCK HALL, THAT'S A TWO-BOOK DEAL: I want to highlight
today's NYT Styles "another thin concept that vaguely sounds like a trend so let's write about it" article for one reason:
This being the aughties, what started as a joke with a colleague at Self blossomed into a Web site, Formerlyhot.com, in 2008. Within two posts on her blog, which now attracts 30,000 visitors a month, Ms. Dolgoff said, five agents got in touch, and a book idea was born.
This blog, on the other hand, has published 11,719 posts (including this one) since 2002. We average
between 37,000-51,000 visitors per month. We have never been approached by a literary agent, and have no book deal. Not that anyone here is bitter about it.
Come on, it's OK to be just a touch bitter about it.
ReplyDeleteWhat would the book be?
The art of balancing a law career while simultaneously watching copious amounts of pop entertainment?
(seems likely too narrow of a field of interest to garner too high of a ranking on Amazon)
Too bad you don't know any literary agents.
ReplyDeleteHaven't there been enough books and movies about Philadelphia Lawyers?
ReplyDeleteOther than Philadelphia, In Her Shoes, Law Abiding Citizen, 1776 and whichever Rocky movie had the reinstatement hearing?
ReplyDeleteBook would not be about me personally (no other Phila lawyers write for it), anymore than this blog is about me personally. But surely we've said something here that can be expanded into book form -- The ALOTT5MA Fave List?
I see it as a book of essays--longer versions of the sort of stuff we write here--likely with short responses/comments from the rest of us. There'd be some sections of commmon structure (selected full Keltners could easily fill a 75-100 page section, I expect), but a hodgepodge would be the objective/hope.
ReplyDeleteI would buy the ALOTT5MA book and recommend it to my friends, but sadly, I am not Oprah, and I cannot make your literary career by the force of my will alone.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite confident that nobody has ever read a post of mine and said "I wish he had added more words to that."
ReplyDeleteisaac's Lost summaries should have been included in the DVD box set.
ReplyDeleteBoy, to call this concept "thin" is to be generous.
ReplyDeleteOr you could go all "A Rose For Emily" and write in the first person plural narrative- "we had just finished our virtual slumber party (in which we got our 'Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog' on) when we began to obsess over whether the Replacements belonged in the RRHOF..."
ReplyDeleteOr a book of lists. Whichever.
This blog is less of a book, more of a musical.
ReplyDeleteShhh! We're still trying to close that deal with Morris Day and the Time to write the score!
ReplyDeleteIf it doesn't prominently and repeatedly feature the phrase "oh-ee-oh-ee-oh," there had better be some liquidated damages in it for you.
ReplyDeleteI vote for something spelling bee related! You folks have such enthusiasm for the subject, it is infectious. I spell badly, am not fond of kids or competitions on television yet you folks made the whole thing fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAlmost every Time song you know was written, produced, arranged and largely performed by Prince.
ReplyDeleteTrue (well, Prince and Morris) but I believe only through Purple Rain.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm not the only person here who's a fan of Pandemonium?
ReplyDeleteYOUNT! I used to own the cd but it was lost in one move or another. I'll have to check iTunes....
ReplyDeleteIf there's any literary device we should use, it's Flowers for Algernon -- but only the part where he's really stupid.
ReplyDelete