ScrewIowa » Lauren Small

Everything old is new again

Lauren Small — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:06:53 +0000

Gutenberg, it turns out, made no money on his new invention: the printing press. He died “bankrupt and disappointed” after printing 180 copies of the Bible. From the beginning, printers were bedeviled with the question of how to make money from books. How many copies to run off? How to market the books? Writers tried to involve themselves in book production–or gave up in despair on making money. Publishing books, they decided, was only good for advancing their career. Meanwhile, the books that sold the most were ones focussed on news, sensation, and excitement.

Sound familiar?

Small consolation, perhaps, if you’re a writer out there, struggling to find an audience, and to make ends meet. But perhaps it’s helpful to know you’re not–and haven’t been, for hundreds of years–the only one. Read more. . .

Sad News for Book Browsers

Lauren Small — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:48:44 +0000

For readers who like to hold a book in their hands before buying it, and who enjoying wandering through the aisles of a book store, waiting for inspiration to strike from a new, unexpected corner: there is sad news in the book-buying world. Barnes and Noble, hit by continued losses, is now officially for sale. Read more. .

I’m lucky enough to have two book stores in my area–a B & N and in independent. Yes, shopping there is often more expensive than online. But there’s no comparison to the support the brick and mortar sellers give to readers–and writers.

Are you still lucky enough to have a book store in your part of the world? What does it mean to you?

Tweet or twit?

Lauren Small — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:17:30 +0000

Should writers twitter? Is it a valid way to connect to an audience or boost sales? Does twittering play a role in a writer’s life–even if nothing more than to let off steam?

Read two articles by writers asking themselves those questions:

The first is by Peggy Orenstein.

The second is about Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights.

(Full disclosure. I don’t use twitter–don’t write tweets and don’t receive them. Twitter, to my mind, is too close to fritter–which is what I’m afraid I would end up doing to my time if I subscribed.)

Readers: Do you twitter? Why or why not?

Wonder Woman gets a Makeover

Lauren Small — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:16:18 +0000

In the old days we called them comic books, and they were a guilty pleasure, bought for a few nickels at the corner drugstore, toted back home where we flopped on our stomachs on the floor of our rooms or lay in the hammock in the summer backyard to read them. Nowadays they’ve made their way into the classroom where they’re called Graphic Novels, and teachers use them as a means of enticing reluctant students to enjoy reading. Wonder Woman was always a favorite–a lone fist-fighting Amazon in a pack of male super heroes. She’s still going strong, as her new slightly punk, slightly Goth look shows. Remember bullets and bracelets? It’s how a hardworking supergal kept the bad guys at bay.

Peek into the Updike Archives

Lauren Small — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:46:00 +0000

The John Updike archives won’t be open for several more years, but you can get a peek at them here. He was a brilliant letter writer, among other things, who once confessed, “Whatever the many failings of my work, let it stand as a manifesto of my love for the time in which I was born.” A true modernist at that. What’s your favorite Updike moment?

Answer to Corporate Greed: the Novel?

Lauren Small — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:02:17 +0000

Fifty years ago, the manager of Bell System decided his executives needed to be not just good followers but leaders, too: the kind of people who knew not just how to answer questions but how to know what questions are worth asking. The solution? Give the executives (some of whom didn’t have college degrees) a crash course in the liberal arts–including seminars on Joyce’s Ulysses. The result? The executives reported that the book had enriched their lives in many ways. They were more curious about the world around them and, during the ravages of the McCarthy era, were able to see things not in black and white but in shades of grey.

The educational institute was deemed a success—and also ultimately discontinued. Bell discovered that its executives were more dynamic intellectually, but also less likely to put the company’s bottom line ahead of their families and communities. Read more. . .

Readers, is literature a solution for the modern-day corporate problems that plague us? Maybe we should all send our favorite executives a copy of Ulysses. Who knows? It just might change the world.

Bloggers Beware

Lauren Small — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:26:21 +0000

There has been some controversy recently about bloggers accepting free merchandise in exchange for posting about products. Readers–what do you think? Does the practice need to be monitored? Should bloggers always reveal their relationship to a commercial company? Or are the products fair reimbursement for work that is–in most cases–unpaid? Read more. . .

Coffeehouse Meditations Review

Lauren Small — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:11:25 +0000

Congratulations to Nina Romano on a wonderful review of her new poetry collection, Coffeehouse Meditations, in the New York Journal of Books. Here’s the link. For more information on this enchanting collection, or to order your own copy, click here.

Pippi Longstocking–with a dragon tattoo?

Lauren Small — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:14:55 +0000

It might seem hard to believe but apparently Pippi Longstocking was a model for Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander–the girl with the dragon tattoo. Pippi, for those of you who remember the character from the children’s book, was an unusual girl, independent, outrageous, a loner with a strong sense of justice–not unlike Lisbeth. Lisbeth’s new apartment even is called “V. Kulla”–certainly a nod to Villa Villekulla, where Pippi lived. Some characters, it seems, do grow up. Read more. . .

The Passing of an Era. . .Clickety-Clack

Lauren Small — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:25:27 +0000

The last typewriter has just been banned from The Writers Room, that haven in Greenwich Village where New Yorkers, perennially short on space, can rent a cubicle to work in. Noise, it appears, is the issue. For writers who are famously superstitious about how–and where–they write, this is certainly a loss. Maybe returning to pencil on paper would be a solution? Readers, how do you write? Read more. . .