Latest Huffington Post Column: The Big Ole' SXSW Mess.

So I'd hardly say I'm someone who draws controversy (I normally hide from it beneath the couch, armed with a jar of peanut butter) but apparently at an off-the-main drag session on the future of book publishing at SXSW, I did just that.

Keep scrolling. Two weeks in and the discussion's still tearing up the digital airwaves.

The "calmer, reasoned perspective" my very nice friend Kassia speaks of  is contained within this week's Huffington Post column.

Your thoughts welcome. I've been saying for years now we need to do something about this creaky, self-destructive attitude we have towards the book business and its dim future. Fair warning then. I'm planning on keeping this discussion alive as long as it takes to get the 21st century publishing industry we deserve.

New Column at Huffington Post: Mine

I've started writing a new column for the Huffington Post called "The Shelf Talker," a weekly look at news and gossip about authors on tour.

Thought on first effort welcome. Also send your favorite juicy author and book tidbits to tst@booktour.com.

Lookin forward to flinging mischief witcha'.

In and out the door again...

Been back about 3 days and still have a mountain of catching up to do. In the meantime, I'll be moderating a celebratory panel discussion on the life and work of Wallace Stegner, who would have turned 100 on Wednesday.

Event takes place Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 6 PM at  the Commonwealth Club of California, 595 Market St. at 2nd in San Francisco. Tickets are $12 members, $18 non-members, $7 students.

Panelists include...

Philip Fradkin, Author, Wallace Stegner and the American West.
Page Stegner, Author; Professor Emeritus of Literature, UC Santa Cruz.
Nancy Packer, Writer; Professor Emerita of Creative Writing, Stanford University.

Hope to see you there.

• Listing on BookTour.com

Blushing....

Oh my. Publishing blog Editor Unleashed called me a "good Twitter follow," in a list of much smarter people like Ron Hogan, MJ Rose and Sarah Weinman. Which is very flattering, like a digital pat on the head or "way-to-go!" punch in the shoulder.

Editor Unleashed now RSSd. If you want in on all this good will microblogging, follow everyone I've just mentioned thusly...

• Editor Unleased

• Ron Hogan

• MJ Rose

• Sarah Weinman

Yes that was me. On KQED...

My commentary on the publishing industry's addiction to blockbusters appeared this morning on KQED public radio here in San Francisco.

I think I sound a little scoldy.

Welcome Boston Herald Readers!

If you're visiting this here site via this posting at Boston Herald Blogs, welcome. The essay referred to "Another Day at the Video Store," is in the anthology The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles which I contributed to and is now available at a fine bookstore near you.

This site's been online, in several forms, since 2001 and can followed the old fashioned way, via RSS or Twitter. I write her mostly in my spare time when I'm not writing books and articles and running Booktour.com, my day job.

Nice to have you come by.

Gone and now back very loudly.

Sheesh, you vanish for a few days and suddenly traces of you are popping up everywhere. Luckily, no milk carton pictures just yet but instead a few writings and speakings.

Writings:

• An essay I did on the Brill Building and music scene there in the early days of rock 'n roll has appeared in Nextbook.

• My review of Jennifer Traig's Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of my Hypochondria for the San Francisco Chronicle. I found it hilarious and fun. Her first book Devil in the Details: Scenes from a Obsessive Girlhood was equally so.

Speakings:

• The nasal carnival barking you hear at the opening of this panel from SXSW 2008 is your humble host.

• Oh and I got the first and last word on this discussion from Book Expo America 2008 called, dully, "The Author-preneur: Balancing Authorship and the New Business of Brand-building."

Back into hiding now, Terrick Malick-style?

Nah.....

Me, Me, Me, Eugene:

A few notes of self-centeredness:

• I was a guest on the fabulous Marketplace of Ideas radio program recently, in an episode on The Future of the Book along. The podcast is now available for download. If you're into books, culture, ideas and the future of both, Marketplace of Ideas is the show for you.

• My good friend and colleague Kassia Krozser over at Booksquare has made two of my babblings the centerpiece of a post called "The Reading Problem." It's subject: How we refuse to talk about how reading is an activity for enjoyment and not just personal betterment. My thoughts:

           "Reading is an act of hedonistic joy."

            and

           "It's time we make books seem like chocolate instead of broccoli."

            Sometime I am quotable and sometimes I ain't. I rarely think about what I'm going to say before I say it. So it's awful nice when I hear it has make an impact on someone like Kassia and her readers.

• I've also got a review of The Virginia Quarterly Review up at The Magazineer. VQR is incredible. Highly recommended.

 

And with that, my girl and I are off to Eugene, Oregon for the weekend. I've never been. Her best friend lives there and, from everything I've heard it's the Ann Arbor of the Pacific Northwest. So I'm quite excited for this journey.

Back on Tuesday. See you then.

Back Now, Off Again:

Hey, I'm all back from BEA, tired but fulfilled. We worked our asses off, but differently than last year. Last year, Booktour was just born and we had to introduce the whole dagbone publishing industry to our new baby. This year, they all know about us. So our time in Los Angeles, at this Mardi Gras for books, was more about reminders. Hey, we're still here. Hey, we provide a valuable service. Hey, remember us, cuz you don't at your peril, son.

Second agenda: I wanted to meet up with some editors (magazine and book) and assure myself that I'm still a writer even if my last two book proposals didn't sell. Because, dangit, I haven't felt like much of one lately.

Who knows when I'll have another idea that will morph into a book? Till then, I gotta up the magazine work, see if the half dozen minnow-sized story ideas can swim. All an effort to place writing back at the center of my professional existence where it belongs.

It's the first salvo in a larger career reassessment I'm doing right now. I'm not fully ready to talk about yet so let's just say that the focus of my professional life up until now is no longer satisfying. I'm going to be thinking, over the next few months, about what I'd like my work to be and where I see it taking me. I'll be seeing a counselor, doing research on my own wants and desires and interviews those who have careers I admire. And although I feel scared to wade in, I also feel that this wading is long overdue.

If you're reading this (or are connected with me via Linkedin or Facebook), it means I know and trust you. Also means I may be calling on you for wisdom/encouragement/ledes/cheap drugs/shoulders to cry on. I hope this is ok as I'd do the same for you.

Reinterpreting Rich:

Like Senor Anderson, I too would love this set up if I were stinking rich. But only if it came with a highspeed bullet train to the arcade.