Can E smarten up Washington fiction? And other local and regional novels, too?
The latest brave soul to try a Washington novel is Leonard Downie, Jr., executive editor of the Washington Post. In the video to the right, he mulls over the challenges, sex scenes included, with media veteran Carol Joynt, a local YouTube diva and owner of Nathan’s Restaurant in Georgetown. Pub date is early 2009, the publisher is Knopf, and the working title is The Rules of the Game. It’s about investigative reporting, politics, and espionage, among other topics, love included (such a thing in D.C.?).
May Len Downie sell a million copies, E and P. I’ve been working similar territory, and ideally the used-car-lot effect will kick in—proximity helping all players. Alas, the genre has suffered its share of losers. The classic D.C. novel, of course, is Henry Adams‘ 1880 book, Democracy, which some might dismiss as second-rate James. Of the most recent Washington novels, my favorite might be from my political opposite, Christopher Buckley, author of the satirical Boomsday, a hoot.
The Name Syndrome
Still, even more than publishing at large, D.C. fiction suffers from the Name Syndrome, with marketer-driven publishers showing a distinct favoritism toward the output of Power People and other VIP figures, often regardless of their talent or lack thereof. Writing good D.C. fiction is made all the more difficult by the shallowness of the PP—a point remarked on yesterday during a discussion on an e-mail list of Washington Independent Writers. How to make complex characters out of bores? On second thought, some of the bores can also be boors, especially the Capitol Hill variety, and that can get interesting.
The inevitable E Angle
Could E help D.C. fiction and other local varieties? Absolutely—by making it easier for publishers to take chances on fiction based on merit, as opposed, say, to the number of times the authors have been on national TV.
With fewer distribution hassles, E could shorten the time it takes for obscure but well-done local fiction in the States and elsewhere to be noticed by national and even international audiences. It’s all the more reason to be wary of Amazon cornering the market for E and shaking down publishers for favorable treatment. Don’t go by the present: look ahead.
If you really like the performance model: Meanwhile having seen Joynt so deftly at work—promoting her restaurant, in effect, along with herself—I’ve got a question. Could other writers with a knack for video hire themselves out as interviewers for successful local restaurants and do accompanying blogs? I hate the idea of the performance model as the main choice for writers, but if it works for you, why not use it? The restaurant-interview-blog scenario would be perfect for book promo. Your sponsor could even sell your autographed hardbacks on the spot. Imagine the customer-draw possibilities for the restaurant: Read your blog and see YouTube videos, drive in, eat, watch your show in person, meet you, then read your autographed book.
Technorati Tags: Leonard Downie,Len Downie,Washington,Washington Post,newspaper novels
September 9th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
[...] Reading Knopf’s description of the book on Amazon, it’s hard to see how he’ll pull it off without a few Postie stand-ins. And back in April, as the video below shows, he told Nathan’s owner Carol Joynt that the book came “largely from my own experience.” In the interview, he also discusses the responses he got from his agent and editor after filing his first draft of sex scenes. That’s at about 1:30 (via): [...]