I Want to Be John Green When I Grow Up

I'm pretty open about the fact that I love John Green and think he's a genius. I saw him at the National Book Festival back in September, and it was the highlight of the festival for me. He was very humble despite his extreme popularity. As soon as he realized that he had been announced a little prematurely and everyone was waiting for him, he jogged up onto the stage. My mother, who is a librarian, was not prepared for the amount of screaming that accompanied his arrival. It's very rare for authors - YA or otherwise - to get that kind of reception, and it's because John Green engages so intensely with his audience, cares so deeply about world issues, and treats his teenage readers as intellectual equals that he  is met by screaming fans everywhere he goes. It also doesn't hurt that he's not afraid to make a fool out of himself for our entertainment on occasion.

He is just as well spoken in person as he is in his videos. He spoke beautifully about his belief in the intelligence of teenagers and how thankful he is to have the opportunity to make communities and effect change through the platform he has as both a bestselling YA author and a Youtube sensation. When there was a question and answer section, a teenage girl asked him a question about whether he subscribes to the postmodernist belief that "the author is dead." As soon as she said "postmodernist," a lot of people in the crowd sort of snickered and I could tell they thought this girl was trying too hard to ask a question that was really pretentious. I knew exactly what she was talking about, but I guess a lot of people were confused by the question. John was a completely amazing human being, as per usual, and he showed his usual belief in the intelligence of teenagers and their questions and answered it as if it was the most important question he'd ever been asked. He clarified the question for the audience and launched into a thought-provoking answer about how his Internet presence has affected his books and career in ways he never could have predicted when he first started writing, before he was famous. I could go on and on about how much I love John Green, and how he's a beautiful human being, but maybe I'll save that for another post.

Anyway, that was all to preface this interview with John Green that I wanted to share. The whole interview is worth reading, but I think this bit underscores the point I made above, that John Green truly values the input of teenagers and is interested in making them feel like they can make a difference in the world:

SH: If you could handpick the ideal reader for your book, how would you describe that reader?
JG: Thoughtful, intellectually curious, self-conscious 17-year-old. (That is to say: all 17-year-olds.)

Now go forth and read something by John Green (if you haven't already. But really, what are you really waiting for?).

Oyster to Create the Spotify of Books? I'm Dubious.

I don't know how I feel about this news about Oyster deciding to try to make the Spotify or Netflix of books. I'm sure it works out well for publishers, but I'm not sure how agents and authors would feel about this model. I'm not sure how much money this would really give agents or authors (probably not a lot). I'm not sure how it would affect ebook sales (I'm sure it won't touch print sales, since not everyone is an avid ebook reader). I'm sure that's a question they'll have to worry about once they launch this to the general public.

It definitely sounds like it's targeted toward people who don't read a lot and want recommendations. I feel like people who read a lot and are active in their reading selections either have a Goodreads account or they have friends with whom they can exchange books and book recommendations. Since you're paying a monthly fee, I guess the extent to which people get their money's worth out of this depends on how fast they read. This is also targeted toward people who primarily read ebooks. I can't imagine paying a monthly fee to only read ebooks. I read books from a variety of sources and in a variety of forms. As a literary agency intern, I read a lot of unpublished manuscripts on my laptop. I also read books I get from the library. I read physical books I purchase. I also read ebooks I get from the library. I don't think I'm the target audience for this ebook library project, so maybe I'm not the best person to comment on this, but I just wanted to throw in my two cents before this actually hits widespread distribution. It's something I'll be keeping an eye on - we'll see how successful it becomes.

Choose Your Own Adventure Gets New Life

Seeing this news story on Galley Cat made me nostalgic for my childhood days spent reading Choose Your Own Adventure novels as well as the Give Yourself Goosebumps novels. If tablets had existed when I was a kid, reading these books would have been so much easier! I wouldn't have had to bookmark the pages to go back to and then get upset when I lost track and had to start all over. Look at that beautiful format! Ah, to be a child again.

HarperCollins Picks Up Webcomic (and Thoughts on Graphic Novels)

I was really excited to hear this news over on Comics Beat about HarperCollins picking up the webcomic Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. She blogs here and tumbles here and you can read Nimona starting here.

The webcomic is great, but I also just love her random comics, particularly the ones about the Hunger Games:

The rest are here.

Since she just writes great comics in general, I think her agent (and HarperCollins) made a great decision taking her on, as she clearly has plenty more great ideas and a promising career ahead of her.

I also think it's great that so many people these days are able to launch their careers via their personal web presence, build up a fan base, and then gain official representation and publication by a traditional publishing house. The Coquette did it as well, and I think the way is being paved for many other creative types to launch their careers this way. It's also cool to have followed these people when they were just getting started on the web and finally see them get published. 

From a publishing perspective, graphic novels (or any other book with a nontraditional format) are harder to sell, and so most agents are reluctant to acquire them. But I think graphic novels are rising in popularity, and the general public is becoming aware of them as not existing solely for the "geek" community or hardcore comic fan (not that there's anything wrong with the geek community; I myself am a card-carrying member). The visual element adds a rich layer to the storytelling that just can't be achieved in a standard novel. Look at the success of the Scott Pilgrim series. The creators of Avatar: the Last Airbender series had great success continuing their stories in the graphic novel format as well. I hope graphic novels continue to get the exposure they deserve, and with the changing nature of the publishing industry, I think graphic novels are only going to do better from here on out.

Holden Caulfield is Here to Stay (Whether You Like it or Not)

I finally got around to reading this article about Mary O'Connell's plan to feature Holden Caulfield in her book, and I just wanted to say I totally understand Salinger's desire to control his intellectual property. He's far from the only author to control his work so tightly. I don't agree with O'Connell's decision to feature Holden Caulfield in a novel. Why not write Catcher in the Rye fanfiction? We quickly forget that it's only recently when it became desirable to write "original" stories (but let's be real, there are no new stories). For a long time, people just wanted to read more stories about the same characters (see the popularity of the Greek myths with their recurring characters). Every time a popular, influential work was published, authors tried to write something similar. She doesn't need to call him Holden Caulfield, just write a similar character. John Green's Looking for Alaska owes a huge debt to Holden, but he doesn't actually drop Holden in his story as a character, because he doesn't need to nor should he. If you need to drop in famous characters to make your story interesting, perhaps you should go work on your skills as a writer before you try to publish something.

I agree with John Green when he said: "I don’t know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make your brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr." If characters are likeable, that's great, but ultimately, I want to read about interesting characters, and the fact that this article has been written and people are still talking about this character and this novel mean that they're interesting. There are plenty of stories right now that people are obsessed with (*cough* 50 Shades of Grey) but time will tell which ones we still read in school and write essays about and discuss with our friends.

I think the students who comment, "I can’t really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City" miss the point of the story. Holden is dealing with the grief of his brother's death, and the fact that his family has money doesn't solve his problems. Money doesn't keep the people you love from dying. Money doesn't provide you with support when you are grieving. Money can buy you companionship but it can't buy you true friendship or love. I could go on about Catcher in the Rye, but I'll stop here by saying that I like the novel, I think it's great, and I can guarantee we'll still be talking about it after another 60 years.

Outlawed by Amazon DRM « Martin Bekkelund

"Did she violate any terms? Amazon will not tell. Perhaps by accident? Amazon does not care. The conclusion so far is clear: Amazon closed her account, wiped her Kindle and refuses to tell her why. End of discussion. As a long-term writer about technology, DRM, privacy and user rights, this Amazon example shows the very worst of DRM. If the retailer, in this case Amazon, thinks you’re a crook, they will throw you out and take away everything that you bought. And if you disagree, you’re totally outlawed. Not only is your account closed, all your books that you paid for are gone. With DRM, you don’t buy and own books, you merely rent them for as long as the retailer finds it convenient."

via Outlawed by Amazon DRM « Martin Bekkelund.

This is just going to be my answer when people ask me what I have against Amazon and the Kindle. I want to actually own my books and e-reader. Not to mention all the ways they make it impossible for smaller e-book retailers to compete, etc. Oh, Amazon.

Dear Tara: You’re my worst nightmare. How does it feel to fail? | The Tara Tracks

"Writing a good book, even an incredible book, will not automatically score you a successful career in traditional publishing. Anyone who tells you differently is either misinformed or sugar-coating it."

via Dear Tara: You’re my worst nightmare. How does it feel to fail? | The Tara Tracks.

I can't stress how true this is. J. K. Rowling got lucky. So did Stephenie Meyer. They started trends rather than riding on the coattails, and in both cases, it just happened to be the right manuscript for the right agent to sell to the right publishing house, and the reading public was ready.