While out browsing in a bookstore recently (local! independent!), I came across this one in the New Non-Fiction pile. I’ve been working on a novel myself lately (partly hence the temporary Boyfriend hiatus, I’m afraid, but I’m hoping to get a new write-up posted next week), and while I don’t fully believe I even want to try to get it published, just tinkering with it has gotten me intrigued about that entire process. How does that work, exactly? I mean, I sort of have a publisher interested, kind of maybe, but I assume if I ever do decide to go that route, I’m going to have to know a few things about the next steps.
And so, that’s why I picked this book up. Oh, for kicks, mostly. I ended up BUYING it, though, because, as it turns out, while this is, in fact, a book about how to publish a book, it’s not at all what I just made it sound like it is.
Stephen Markley, before writing Publish This Book, was a struggling writer working mostly in content (writing for web sites like Cars.com, for example). He’d written a couple of books (a novel, a travel memoir) but never had any luck getting them published. That’s when he came up with this idea — why not write a book that is ABOUT publishing a book? Why not write a book about publishing the very book you are writing? And while you’re at it, while it’s already that weird, why not also make it absolutely hilarious?
I knew I was going to like this one when I read the back and found it riddled with goofy footnotes. Sure, that’s a gimmick, and I can see at least three of you rolling your eyes from here — but it’s the sort of gimmick I would employ, to be honest, so I was already feeling a connection. A lot of his humor was right up my alley, in fact, and I started reading it the moment I made it mine, then spent the afternoon sitting across from my spouse cackling with glee every 2-3 pages (the spouse is currently reading and loving Joe Hill’s book of scary stories, 20th Century Ghosts, by the way — that’ll be next up for me as soon as he’s done). This is a really funny book. It’s funny and weird and clever and very entertaining.
Or, at least, it WAS.
Here’s the problem with a book like this. After a little while — I’d say roughly the half-way point — the gimmick starts to get a bit tired, and the book about publishing the book starts to feel more like the writer, who now has a contract and hasn’t finished the book yet, trying to figure out what to say to get a book about publishing a book all filled up. It got repetitive. It got boring. The style got old. The stories got kind of tedious. I stopped laughing. Eventually, I started to get sort of impatient and annoyed.
This book is on the long side — 469 pages — and it could’ve benefited a great deal from the heavy axe of a sharp editor. Maybe that’s the book Markley can write next? EDIT This Book? That said, if he does, I’ll tell you this much: I’ll be first in line for a copy. Because as sloggy as this book ended up being, there’s no doubt in my mind that Markley is smart, funny, and full of a lot of truly unique ideas. I look forward to seeing what, if anything, he manages to publish yet.
Recommended, at least for the first 200 pages. See what you think.
Genre: NON-FICTION
[Buy it from an indie bookseller | Buy it from Amazon
Tags: Non-Fiction
April 2, 2010 at 10:18 am |
I sometimes help to organise science fiction conventions, and have therefore dealt professionally with publishers.
The more I do this, and the more I witness their organisational skills, the more amazed I become that any book ever makes it as far as the printer, let alone to actual bookshops.
April 2, 2010 at 3:35 pm |
I’ve only worked directly with journal publishers myself, and I can tell you, they aren’t any better!! Except they also happen to be in enormous positions of power, which only makes matters that much worse!