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     |  I suppose it’s a fair question to ask why anyone would get an MFA in writing, and spend any time aligning themselves, and their writing to a list of books that are subscribed by a teacher? Will reading these books make them a better writer, I doubt it, but if they live their lives, that might do something, and yes, if they write every day too. Continue reading Is Cliché the new black?  Exhibit B: Maria Semple’s dark, hilarious, acerbic debut, This One is Mine. Is that a pink bon-bon on the cover? Really? Is that a fucking joke? I read that book twice–where did they get a pink bon-bon? Seriously, marketing people, what’s with the double standard? Continue reading Someday I’m Gonna Be A Dead White Guy Does the reading public really need a million titles per year? Wouldn’t it be a little easier to sort out the growing demand for a hundred thousand? Don’t get me wrong, I like eclectic, I like many voices, but it seems to me a hundred thousand is a lot of voices. You only published fifty thousand in 1990, and as I recall, the industry was in better shape. Continue reading Dear Publisher  A lot of people will point to the Hitchcock moments, which Ross doesn’t hide behind, he’s actually really up front about it, and it works for the story. If you set aside the detective aspect of this book (which would be a huge mistake, because it soars, and I’m not a fan of procedurals), you’re likely to find Mr. David Pepin, a normal and well adjusted hater of his own wife. You see…he wants her dead, and it takes the entire novel for you to want her dead too Continue reading Preview of Mr. Peanut  Speaking as a bookseller, I don’t think most Southern fiction sells well outside of the South. A novel taking place in the Midwest is going to sell best in that part of the country. The prominent exceptions to this rule are just that…exceptions. But my guess is that novels taking place in London or NY sell everywhere and the Londoners and New Yorkers are reading each other…hell, the two cities might as well be joined together at the hip…New London York City. Continue reading On Regional Literature  I guess this is kind of like that, but somewhat more amorphous. I don’t know if these are the best, and I’m not asking the guys for a specific number (hell, they don’t even have to be from 2009 – we’re rule-breakers here), but here are a few of the books I’m particularly glad to have read this year, that may or may not have been mentioned here on the blog. Continue reading A Few Belated Thoughts on 2009  Don’t try to capture lightening in a bottle—just promote your authors instead. Don’t publish “the next” anything. Don’t look for “the sure thing.” Don’t overpay debut authors—nine times out of ten, you’re ruining at least one career. Don’t publish debuts in HC—TPO is the way to go! Don’t pretend that Bookscan is in any way prescriptive in negotiating author advances. Don’t send royalty statements six weeks late. Continue reading 50 Things Publishers Shouldn’t Do We deal mostly in the currency of literary fiction, which is a market overwhelmingly dominated by middle-aged, college educated women. Why is this? Why is it most of my dude friends stopped reading fiction in college? In the past year-and-a-half, I’ve made over thirty (you count ‘em, thirty!) personal appearances at book groups for “All About Lulu.” On average these groups are attended by anywhere from eight to twenty-five women, and they’re almost invariably gracious. But I’ve yet to see a single guy–once or twice, a nervous husband in the foyer with two leashed dogs, trying effect his escape before the wine and cheese hits the table, but other than that zilch. Continue reading Where Have All The Guys Gone?  During one of our recent conversations, I made the audacious generalization that: “good storytelling is more about the distribution of pertinent information, rather than the manufacture of said information–how and when and in what manner the writer distributes it.” “Await Your Reply” is a perfect example of this. Chaon exhibits astonishing finesse in distributing the necessary information within this puzzle of a novel. Continue reading Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon DH: A list recently published in The New York Times by a noted restaurateur gave 100 rules for what service staff should not do. I thought a list of 50 things that writers shouldn’t do would give us all a chance to vent. I’m contributing 10 items. Some of these pet peeves have pissed me off for years:
3G1B has an ongoing conversation, the subject of which: “what the hell is going to happen to publishing in the future?” disturbs us all. This week we have invited Craig Nova to tell us what he thinks. Craig is the award winning author of 12 novels. His new novel, The Informer, will be released in January 2010. CN: the first thing that comes to mind when I consider writers and the state of publishing is one of those science fiction movies from the fifties, you know, where some light is seen in the sky and then something like a smoking bowling ball lands someplace and then a couple of geeks get out of a pickup truck. They find a stick and poke the Continue reading The Smoking Cannonball DH: The literate media has recently brought the criticism of Richard Poirier to my attention. I picked up a copy of his The Renewal of Literature on Amazon. I had to settle for a used copy. The book is not currently in print. I just started it but I didn’t want to wait to discuss this issue. What’s a novel for? Why would you want to read or write one? It boils down to this. When one of us wrote All About Lulu did he do it because he wanted to becomea better person or help others to improve themselves? Like: “Thank goodness I read Lulu, it really helped me ace that job interview! Or: “I used to be a Continue reading What's a Novel For? 
DH: Reading is a solitary activity but I wouldn’t call it lonely. You do need to isolate yourself…keep family and friends, co-workers or surrounding strangers at bay. I’d say for at least 45 minutes. But you do have the company of the author. The loneliest activity is writing. If reading is wading, then writing is jumping into the deep end of the pool head first. Since The Guys have had this blog, I’ve learned that contact is possible between writers and readers. But sometimes it’s like trying to Iphone someone in a distant galaxy. I once asked a writer on Facebook if I could interview him and he Continue reading A Conversation on Interviews and Networking 
Continue reading Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? 
Continue reading On Toiling In Obscurity | |||
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JE: In recent months, we 3 Guys have discussed a myriad of reasons for the flagging fiction market, from antiquated business models, to unimaginative marketing approaches, to the ever-stiffening competition for the shrinking entertainment dollar, to the work itself-from the cult of the sentence to the glut of self-conscious slacker narratives. But one contributing factor we haven’t addressed, is the practitioners themselves, who, but for a few rare exceptions (Dave Eggers, anyone?) fail to capture the public imagination by virtue of a bigger-than-life persona. Literary purists will insist that this doesn’t matter, that the artist is irrelevant, and ultimately, they’ll
JR: I think most literary websites today are created out of frustration, by people who have been rejected by the establishment, and felt the need to set up their own shop where they could at least express themselves, but then they turn around an exclude a good percentage of the people who approach them as a creative outlet, thus they turn into what they were running from (Rumpus, Second Pass, The Millions–great new design by the way). They’ve got published authors, and most importantly aspiring writers, to provide content for their sites, as there are millions of writers out there with something
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