Tony Horwitz disappears into thin air (to pinch a phrase from nonfiction narrative bound-paper-object publishing).
I'm reading that NYT op-ed right now because the link was sent to me by a fiction writer whom I'm trying to prod to take e-publishing seriously. Horwitz tells a horror story and ends by resituating himself in the (dying?) world of old-fashioned real-object book publishing.
But Horwitz is writing in the nonfiction narrative genre, which is what is getting taught to the privileged kids at Harvard, by Jill Abramson, who was ousted by the NYT, which is flailing in the digital age.
Horwitz notes that most of stuff on the e-book best-seller list is fiction, and I think the e-market for fiction, especially genre fiction, is much better. I'm thinking maybe there's more e-hope for the fiction writer than for the nonfiction narrator, especially if the fiction is in a genre like sci-fi or YA (Young Adult).
My correspondent used YA as a verb, as in: When my serious literary novel didn't sell, I YA'd it, but it still didn't sell.
I had an idea for an app: YA it 4 U. Put any e-text into it — "The Scarlet Letter," say, or whatever the authorities are inflicting on kids these days — and it rewrites it according to the conventions of Young Adult literature.
Most of what I know about YA comes from the cool New Yorker article: "The Teen Whisperer: How the author of 'The Fault in Our Stars' built an ardent army of fans." I take it that the conventions to be programmed into my app are: "narrated in a clever, confiding voice," with characters like "sweetly intellectual teen-age boys" and "complicated, charismatic girls," "funny," with "story lines propelled by spontaneous road trips and outrageous pranks," and feeding "a youthfully insatiable appetite for big questions" like "What is an honorable life? How do we wrest meaning from the unexpected death of someone close to us? What do we do when we realize that we’re not as special as we thought we were?"
Well, clearly you could YA "The Scarlet Letter." But can you program a robot to YA "The Scarlet Letter"? That's a question, but not, I suspect, the kind of "big question" for which these kids today have an "insatiable appetite." What counts as a cheeseburger of a question and what is an arugula question? Surely not that, right?
June 20, 2014
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12 comments:
I hate Tony Horowitz, his writing sucks and he writers every from a standard New York sensibility.
As for YA, I hate that too. I encourage my offspring to read adult books as soon as they could.
After reading this op-ed, I'm not interested in buying his e-book. He uses the phrase "in a world where," which is fingers on a chalkboard to me. It was a dull op-ed. As insightful as as a football interview.
We've had Crack-bait. Is there a such thing as "Betamax-bait?"
Ann,
I love YA. Its like literary popcorn. Hot, buttery, some salt or caramel and perfect with a 32 OZ Diet Coke fueled slurrpy.
So go ahead and create that app. I just wan tot follow in the steps of Rick Riordan.
But please excuse me I wont be able to work on my novella until I finish 'The Battle for Athens'. Sorry. I have to see if Anna-Beth and Percy survive the battle.
First step in YA-ing "The Scarlet Letter": Ditch entirely those first 50 pages or so that are titled "The Customs-House." Even for me that was a slog, and I'll read absolutely anything.
rcocean,
I hate Tony Horowitz, his writing sucks and he writers every from a standard New York sensibility.
OK, we know what you meant. Still, it was kinda cute.
That Times piece was really sad on so many levels. He obviously has not spent ten minutes of his writing career learning anything about the business he is in. Signing away rights to a startup without a clause that reverts those rights if they don't perform? That's nuts.
And, at the very end he notes that he actually did get his $15k which pretty much makes his entire premise false. Most writers would be quite happy to get that amount for 40,000 words and a book that barely sold. Being naive is always your own fault.
I can't believe the Times ran this. Though they have been trying to debunk digital publishing by authors for quite awhile. Why, I don't know.
"OK, we know what you meant. Still, it was kinda cute."
Unlike me, Tony H can write without making any grammatical mistakes. Its just his writing style that sucks.
His books read like a 300 page New Yorker article - Tina Brown version.
I'll give him this. He's batter than David Halberstam. A low bar, I know.
"The Scarlet Letter" would be too sexist for today's kids.
I thought the point of e-publishing was to do it yourself and cut out the middleman. Horowitz did everything the same as you would for traditional print- publisher, agent. His book wouldn't have disappeared if he had maintained total control. (Of course, he would have to work harder at publicizing it, but he's famous so that part should be comparatively easy for him.)
Terry Pratchett. Start the young ones with The Wee Free Men and go from there.
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