Review of Jeff VanderMeer's Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer

So, I need to write my prospectus for my dissertation. And so, apologies in advance if my posts are a little lean for the next couple of weeks.

I need to work on brevity anyways!

Today I want to briefly review a very good book: Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer, by Jeff VanderMeer.

Generally put, this book is a must-read for anyone who aspires to be a writer in our current, “post-print” context.

Let me be clear: this book isn’t about e-publishing specifically. It is, however, about surviving in an environment where the traditional road to publication is being metaphorically ripped up and re-paved.

Booklife was published in 2009 and so, in this fast-paced and changing environment, some folks might think any advice it offers—considering its ostensible purpose (to help you survive now)--is outdated.

I don’t think so. Not at all.

Reading this book I was struck how much of the advice he offers three years ago seems to prempt developments in publishing today.

One thing is certain: this book has definitely changed the way I plan to proceed with developing my life as a writer. Thanks to Mr. VanderMeer I have eagerly discarded my preconceived notions about the road to becoming a professional writer of fiction.

Let me try to distill in a few sentences the key lesson I took away from this book.

VanderMeer compares developments in professional writing and publishing today to previous developments in the music industry (post-Napster, ITunes music store, Myspace, etc..). He compares the profusion of independent musicians and labels to the emergence of independent publishers and “dyi” writers. Thus, just as independent bands needed learn to market and, more importantly, create their own niche markets/consumers, so writers of this moment and the future will have to learn to do this as well.

Gulp. That’s a tall order.

He’s has all sorts of ideas about how to create those audiences, and I won’t give them away.

To wrap up: this book is a must read if you want to be a writer today.

Arbitrary rating: 5/5

The Fantasy-Horror Version of Blogging

I was always reluctant to blog. Why? Because I had a misconception of what it meant to blog. What did I mistakenly think blogging was?

I thought blogging was either "navel-gazing" or "incendiary amateur politics." The story of why people blogged went one of either two ways in my mind:

(1) People blogged in order to share what they had for dinner, or information about their bowel movements, or pictures of the cool new sweater they bought for their poodle "Snowball."

Or,

(2) People blogged in order to share their half-baked reflections on politics or to express their extremist opinions about political issues they probably knew nothing about.

Yes, I have an irritating cynical strain in me.

Let me be clear (and I think this is highly appropriate given the focus of my blog): this vision of blogging was a "fantasy-horror" I had concocted with no basis in the reality of what blogging actually is.

How was I able to weave such a repulsive illusion? Well, I never read blogs of course. I formed an opinion based on what I heard in snatches of conversation or what I gleaned from an occasional glance at a newspaper in an airport.

How did blogging transform from "navel-gazing" into a favorite pastime to engage in while drinking my morning coffee?

I started reading blogs.

I can't retrace the many aimless digital wanderings that landed me at the two blogs that I now identify as, say, my "gateway drugs," if you will, into the blogosphere. They do deserve mentioning.

The Blog of Black Gate Magazine: This is the blog associated with the heroic fantasy magazine Black Gate, and they are always posting on something I find extremely interesting regarding fantasy, fantasy art, sword and sorcery, contemporary writers, etc.. I started reading it, commenting, and reading some more. Against any plans, I became engaged in a brief dialog played out in the comments on a post that discussed what made a science-fiction/fantasy/horror classic, which was a lot of fun. I was hooked.

Grognardia: This is a blog that a lot of people involved in OSR (Old School Roleplaying) read. I find this blog so interesting because the writer knows so much about a hobby that has influenced my writing and my love of genre literature in unquantifiable ways. To a large extent I would say my writing has always been a struggle to recreate that feeling of wonder I had when I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons as a young child. I feel as though the folks who blog and read about OSR are kindred spirits to me.

What did these blogs teach me?

Blogging is less about sharing your personal feelings and more about building communities about some greater thing: a hobby, an issue, an art form, etc.. 

Sure, one shares their personal feelings, day to day encounters, opinion, hobbies, etc.. on a blog, but your personal contribution is not the main point. The point of blogging (this is my current impression of it) is to interface with communities, to build communities of like-minded people so that something like, say, fantasy-fiction or old school roleplaying, can be given fuller life. In a strange way the hobby (OSR) or the art (genre fiction) subordinates the individuals who write the blogs. In other words: you start out expressing a personal opinion on an issue… and you end up enhancing and growing something larger than yourself.

New Year's Resolution: to keep blogging.