Today I will discuss my addiction (and yes, it’s totally true!): industry blogs. Oh, lordie, do I read ‘em. Making Light, POD-y Mouth, Bookseller Chick, Writer Beware, Booksquare, Miss Snark, Buzz, Balls, & Hype, Jennifer Jackson, Nephele Tempest, Agent Obscura, my own, dear Knight Agency Blog… the list goes on and on. (And if I didn’t mention it here, it’s in the interest of space, not because I don’t slavishly follow it anyway) I miss the old dead ones as well. R.I.P. Mad Max (who is now unmasked… who knew?), and whatever happened to Agent 007? I even read Book Covers from The New York Times Book Review, which is a really brilliant blog if you’re as art-deficient as me. I learn so much (even if I think the rather eccentric taste of the guy who runs it is particularly transparent). I’d love to get his take on my cover — then again, he has nothing but hatred for symmetry, and I’ve always rather like it.
Sailor Boy wants to know why, since I already have an agent and a publisher, I read all this stuff from other agents, editors, publicity people, book designers, etc. Well, it’s not because I’m more interested in Miss Snark’s opinion than my own agent’s opinion on some industry point, as I’m afraid some readers of her blog are — they ask Miss Snark before they ask their own agent, who is the one who knows all the details of the issue and is paid to answer the question besides. Idiots. However, thus it always is with anonymous advice columnists. People will ask all manner of things to Dear Abby that they’d never tell a trusted friend. Still, that’s usually personal advice, rather than business advice, and since you are basically paying an agent to be your business consultant, it’s rather odd that you are running things past some anonymous individual that you know nothing about. Me? I think she’s an agent, and I think she’s mostly right. But I don’t ask her about my career. That kind of stuff I save for Agent Negotiateur and Sailor Boy. But I digress.
Anyway, the reason I still read these things is because there’s always something new to learn. For instance, on Miss Snark’s blog today, there was a fabulous lesson on the difference between correlation and causation. It was one of the old “You say to follow the rules when you query, but I broke all the rules and I got an agent anyway, so nyah!” conversations that become so tiresome. A brilliant commentator named jarsto followed up with:
I once got a good grade on a paper I wrote mainly in the night before it was due. This doesn’t mean that waiting until the night before something is due and skipping sleep to write the paper is a strategy for getting good grades.
All the arguments I’ve seen against breaking the rules just because it worked for someone else, perfectly encapsulated in that simple analogy. (I don’t think J.A. Konrath sold his book *because* he didn’t give them the SASE with which to reject it. I think he sold it because it was good. The real reason John Grisham (or whatever example he used) doesn’t include SASEs with his submissions is because they are already under contract. He’s already been paid for them, and if they need to be sent back for revisions or whatever, well, that’s what we call OVERHEAD. I never include an SASE with the contracted and paid for manuscripts I send to my editor either. Sheesh! That guy, who can often be so intelligent about this business ( seriously, check out his “why PODs are a bad idea” post, which is brilliant!) can also sometimes have his head in the sand.)
The phrase you are looking for is “Correlation, not causation.”
January 26th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
I love reading them, but not on my writing days–thinking about the industry kills my creative brain, because I become so engaged in (desperate) analysis and learning. Kind of like OMG there is this important place full of important people, and so many rules, and unless you know it all and prove to be the smartest one, they won’t let you play with them, and if it happens, you are doomed. As though, you know, you are someone who wants to be a student of a great university, and you have no money to pay your way in, so the only way to get there is to prove you deserve it, as a scholar, only you are so nervous, you forget even what you know well, because you can’t think about the formulas, ratios, or arts — but the grades, quotas, and grants
I think, one glorious day, I’ll be able to gain the true scientific nonchalance 
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January 26th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
I guess my brain is mush from this deadline, but I thought you DIDN’T like the POD post, which I thought was brilliant. Clearly, I misread. It’s the other post that you don’t get. Got it.
Keep up your obsession. It is through you that I find all sorts of interesting industry blogs!
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January 26th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
No, I loved the POD post. It’s so nice when someone actually CRUNCHES those numbers for you and shows you what’s going on.
The self pub mantra is all about “Well, if you do it yourself, you keep 100% of the profits.” But 100% of nothing is still nothing. And you also take on 100% of the cost and responsibilities, as well. (The woman who designed my cover? Not cheap.) And while that’s fine if you’re trying to get out a little pamphlet on good fishing spots near the marina to sell at your bait and boat-rental shop, or put together a family history for you reunion (read: publications that do not need or rely on widespread distribution), it doesn’t work so well with novels.
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January 26th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Hi, Diana. Great post! I’m addicted too, it’s what I do in the morning with my coffee, and I gotta be so careful not to let the hours slip away while I follow the nuances of an argument in Miss Snark’s or Joe’s comments trail (fer instance).
I don’t believe everything I read, but I do learn a lot about what’s going on, what people think, etc.
My RWA chapter thinks I’m the most informed person they know. LOL! I think they just don’t read blogs though. We’re a pretty small chapter and most of us aren’t internet junkies like me.
Congrats on getting your ARCs. What a gorgeous cover!
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January 26th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
My name is Justine Larbalestier and I, too, am a publishing industry blog addict. What you said.
I’m a little puzzled that anyone would be puzzled about us reading these blogs. Everyone I know who loves their job is fascinated by all the nitty gritty details of that job and industry and trying to find out more about it. Only makes sense!
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January 27th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Because my 156 link bloglines feed didn’t have enough to read on it already… thanks!
And – you’ve been tagged, to commit a Random Act of Kindness. Pass it on!
http://ksteele2.blogspot.com/2006/01/random-acts-of-kindness.html
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January 27th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
156 blog links? Yikes, and there I was worried about my 75 (plus some LifeJournal friends).
Some of the blogs Diana lists are my daily read, too. Especially Miss Snark. And I agree about the SASE, though I must admit writing grade essays the last night before having to turn them in always worked for me.
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February 16th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
Hatred for symmetry? Nah…I like the cover of *your* book! Good luck with it. July must seem like it will never come. Joe (NY Times Book Cover guy)
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