The Elegant Variation: WE'RE SO PROUD

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January 10, 2005

WE'RE SO PROUD

If you haven't already visited Moorishgirl this morning and read her announcement of the sale of her short story collection, please stop everything and go check it out. Once you've done that, then come on back here and read on. Really. We meant it. Go.

I could not be more deeply and genuinely pleased for Laila. She's a deeply serious reader and writer, someone who has worked long and hard thinking about what does and doesn't work in fiction (as evinced by her frequent, thoughtful reviews at Moorishgirl) and worked equally hard honing her own fiction, applying these lessons learned along the way. For as long as I have known her, she has retained a serious focus on her writing, and clearly that effort has paid off for her. Forgetting the fact that she's also a lovely and generous human being, she clearly deserves this reward on myriad levels.

I also think It also presents all of us – readers, writers, journalists, editors alike – an opportunity to think about the evolving ecology of the blogosphere as more of us take to print, and to reassess some of the unimaginative narratives that are cropping up around all this, most notably the "bloggers with book deals" school of thought.

I think Laila's book deal occupies a notably different place than a number of the other high-profile book deals that have obsessed the media of late and must be considered in that light. I believe it's a worthy and important distinction to make that she's the first literary blogger to sell a book, and that sets a decidedly different bar. This is not to denigrate all of the early recipients of publishing industry largesse. But I feel entirely comfortable suggesting that Laila's book will be of a markedly higher level of quality, and with a commensurately longer staying power, than the salacious cash-in of Jessica Cutler. It's the difference between The Serious Book and The Disposable Read.

But to go even more to the point, Laila was a writer before she was a blogger. As was Maud. As was Lizzie. As was I. It's an important distinction to cling to, to understand that many literary blogs are an outgrowth of people who think seriously about fiction - they're almost an adjunct in some ways to our core pursuit of writing, a way of deepening and amplifying our ideas about fiction, and sharing them with an interested audience (who, with their thoughtful feedback, further influences our thinking).

Laila's book would have found a publisher even if she'd never launched a copy of Movable Type in her life. And I think it's just the beginning - other litbloggers will follow. Maud's recently mentioned our tag-team plan to complete our respective manuscripts (though she neglected to mention that we plan to exchange finished drafts at BEA in June – there's a handshake on that one), and I have similarly high hopes for our own efforts, not because we're bloggers, but because first and foremost we're writers. The fact is that the irritating hype of "bloggers cashing in" – the clichéd and un-nuanced narrative of unimaginative journalists – will eventually run its course as the inevitable disappointments hit the book stores. Then it will be up to a book's own merit to snag a deal. And that's when litbloggers will be in the pole position.

Until that day, I have trust in smart readers to draw their own conclusions. I hope you'll all join me in congratulating Laila on this fantastic and exciting development.

Posted at 12:03 AM | Permalink

Comments

I was thinking along similar lines this morning. It also may be worth noting that unlike other novels by bloggers, this book hasn't emerged from repackaging the specific content of the blog (a la Wonkette and others). That's a corollary to your comment about being a writer before becoming a blogger, but perhaps a significant one because of the way it establishes the blog in it's own particular position in relation to other work.

Posted by: steve | January 10, 2005 at 05:44 AM

Wait, I didn't mean Wonkette; I meant the other one, didn't I?

Posted by: steve | January 10, 2005 at 05:45 AM

The Washingtonienne (Jessica Cutler) and Belle de Jour, too. Ana Marie Cox was a writer and editor long before she ever became Wonkette, and I expect she'll be the former two things if and when she decides to jump ship from Planet Denton.

What blogs can do for those of us who were working on novels before (or, like me, finally realized it was high time to get off her ass and start working on one as well) is give a greater visibility not only to our personalities and tastes but to our work as well. It's no accident most of my freelance work has resulted from my own blogging, and that my writing has improved from blogging on a regular basis, but if I gave up the blog tomorrow, I'd still be writing.

In Laila's case, I think, Moorish Girl gave readers a window into her voice, which is thoughtful and measured and very compelling. This translates into the stories of hers I have read so far and will no doubt further translate into her future work.

Posted by: Sarah | January 10, 2005 at 06:43 AM

One of the reasons checking in on you all is so addictive is that it's very clear you are real writers -- which springs from being real readers. Even the most cynical and sly among you wear your passions on your sleeve.

Posted by: Karen | January 10, 2005 at 07:25 AM

laila is one of those wonderful writers i've gotten to know through zoetrope's writing workshop. when i read her news on zoetrope, i almost let out a yelp. good things do happen to those who work hard and are talented...that's laila.

Posted by: daniel olivas | January 10, 2005 at 07:28 AM

That settles it. If I can't cash in, then clearly there's no reason to start a blog...Okay, gotta go turn in these cans and bottles.

Posted by: Jimmy Beck | January 10, 2005 at 07:32 AM

Mr. Beck, I would have thought the chance to parlay your blog fame into a Playgirl spread would have had you up and blogging months ago. What will it take?!?

Posted by: CAAF | January 10, 2005 at 08:39 AM

Mark,

Your point about Laila being a writer first, blogger second is well-taken. I was wondering when the image of the litblogoshpere was going to start moving from "people who write about authors" to "people who are authors and who write about authors." As you noted, a lot of us are writers first, bloggers second and Laila's book is a great indication that we're serious about books and that we know what we're talking about.

Of course, Laila book is, first off, a triumph for Laila, and I'd like to offer congratulations.

Posted by: Scott | January 10, 2005 at 09:28 AM

Well put and well-earned congratulations to Laila!

Posted by: Jim Ruland | January 10, 2005 at 10:41 AM

Huge congratulations to Laila. She is a very talented writer.

Posted by: Katie Weekley | January 10, 2005 at 12:09 PM

I knew Laila to be a very talented and gracious writer for five years before I stumbled on her blog. That's the main reason I read her blog (the other being that I'm not likely to hear of North African and Middle Eastern writers and books any other way).

Also, her book sounds like something I'd definitely want to read, regardless of her blog or anything else.

Congratulations to her.

Posted by: Carl Peel | January 10, 2005 at 01:32 PM

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. You've all been very generous with your praise. I'm sure we'll see other writers in our community get published very soon. I look forward to toasting you all when the time comes!

Posted by: MG | January 10, 2005 at 02:55 PM

Congrats to Laila! At last a writer who's a writer first!!! We all love that! I will look forward to it!

Posted by: Angela | January 10, 2005 at 03:08 PM

Blogging means that you have built an audience over time, and publishing houses like it when their PR is already done for them. A lot of writers write for and follow the litblogs with literary projects of their own fermenting in the back of their minds; we don't need no stinking publishers to validate our efforts.

I'm in a different market than the lit market. But my erotic fiction site(see my URL--warning, somewhat not worksafe) gets 3000 unique visitors a month (compared to first books, which rarely sell over that).

Then there's money. Hey, a few thousand dollars in royalties is nice, I don't deny it. But when it goes out of print, or when the publisher decides to make it available only in a proprietary digital format, suddenly the Faustian bargain doesn't seem so swell anymore. Suddenly the 95 years of copyright control seems like forever.

We need a new infrastructure to reward writers directly, without compelling them to give up their copyright for 95 years. I'm talking about POD, a donation system, something. I agree, having a book publication is real world validation that impresses people. But it means little else.

While I think we should applaud litbloggers for completing a project, we need to change our definition of what constitutes success. For example, I feel that my literary erotica project is "very successful." I would rather hear more successful stories about POD successes than people who have "succeeded" with mainstream publishing.

I know Moorishgirl's fiction is good (and I've read one or two of her stories already to know she is talented). But in two years used copies of her book will be floating around on amazon.com for under a $1. Perhaps I'll buy a copy, and out of the $4.50 I'll spend, Amazon will receive the largest portion, and Moorishgirl will receive not one dime.

Posted by: Hapax Legomenon | January 11, 2005 at 04:07 PM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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SECOND LOOK

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 10, 2005

WE'RE SO PROUD

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 10, 2005

WE'RE SO PROUD

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism