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Re: The Way We Write Now: Novelists and Their Blogs

Bill Landay — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:46:35 -0000

Michele, I think you have it exactly right. Like it or not, writers do have to be entrepreneurs now. What makes it especially difficult for us writers, though, is that there is no direct contact with the customer (because books are consumed in private) and during the long stretches between books the writer really has no product to market anyway, except his back list which sells very slowly in the absence of a new book. That and the fact that, after spending months alone with our thoughts and our made-up characters, we novelists often are not the most extroverted people anyway! Thanks for chiming in.

Re: Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow: Why Writers Get Stuck

Bill Landay — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:21:20 -0000

To Pall: Are laziness and lack of discipline the only explanations for non-productivity? If you are a writer -- or any other sort of artist or creative person -- who has never hit a snag, then you are a rare bird. Writers who are not so lucky, I hope, will find some comfort in understanding the process. "Be disciplined, gain focus" is great advice. The trouble comes when you are disciplined and focused ... and nonetheless stuck. The application of more and more focus to a problem is not always enough to solve it, as anyone who has stared at a crossword puzzle will tell you.

With all that said, "Cut the crap, get to work, be more disciplined" is also a good message for writers to hear. Sometimes -- sometimes -- a kick in the pants is called for, and I'm glad you added one here.

Re: Things I Love: The AlphaSmart Neo

Bill Landay — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:58:34 -0000

Steph, Love your solution to the backlight issue. I'm surprised to see these things selling for such a high price in Australia. $600 is about three times what they cost in the U.S. and much too high for such a simple gadget. Also I see from your own blog that I'm not alone in my AlphaSmart obsession.

Re: Writers as Performers

Bill Landay — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:53:27 -0000

Hey Doug,

I agree, books ought to be the ultimate long-tail product, especially when eBooks and print-on-demand arrive in earnest and the cost of delivery goes down virtually to zero. As for Kindle vs. iPod, I agree re. the devices. I saw a Kindle for the first time a few weeks ago and was very disappointed at how clumsy and ugly it is. I agree, too, that digital will not overturn physical media for books the way it has for music CD's. But over the long term I can definitely see it going that way because of the added advantages of digital books (ease of delivery, ability to carry many books/mags at a time, lower costs). Lots of people read books on the go just as they use music, on subways, in airports, etc. The killer device may be the iPhone (or a competitor), though, not the Kindle. I have heard that reading books on iPhone is already as good as Kindle but have not tried it. (I don't have an iPhone.) I completely agree re. eBook pricing. It should be much lower to reflect lower costs. For that matter, I think all book pricing is too high. $25 for a new hardcover genre novel is just not realistic for most people, especially in this economy.

Thanks for your comment.

Re: Top 10 Reasons That Geeks Should Love the Tour de France

Bill Landay — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:19:48 -0000

No man who dated Sheryl Crow could be a geek. Even if he does have a "hump in his back" (per the wind tunnel video).

Re: Kickstarter

Bill Landay — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:57:03 -0000

Very cool-looking project, Michael. Good luck with it. Visitors, have a look at Michael's link.

Re: A Random Walk in Boston

Bill Landay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:45:44 -0000

Thirty years! This blog may not be around in thirty days.

Re: Best Boston Movie Ever: “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”

Bill Landay — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:50:22 -0000

Hey Larry Darrell. (Hm, that voice is strangely familiar...)

I agree re. Gus Van Sant. He is great. Liked "Milk," loved "Elephant." But to me "Good Will Hunting" just does not make it. I loved it when it came out, and it certainly has a few great moments. As the big-league debut of Damon and Affleck it is still interesting. But a great movie? I don't know. A matter of opinion, I guess.

I agree, too, that most movies could be relocated without sacrificing much. Most but not all. I'm talking about the special ones that are rooted in a particular place. They do exist.

"The Verdict" -- great movie, for sure, and Newman's performance is fantastic. Is the Boston setting essential to the story? Yeah, maybe. I can see your point.

A good movie debate! I love it.

Re: Why the Strangler?

Bill Landay — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:35:55 -0000

Thank you, Dana. A comment like that makes my day.

Re: All the hype in the world (why PR isn’t enough to build your business)

Bill Landay — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:49:04 -0000

The strength of Facebook -- and the source of all that stickiness -- is also its weakness: a feed populated mostly with personal friends (however attenuated the "friendship"). That makes for much less interesting content than the broader, more public sort of feeds people tend to follow on Twitter. My Twitter feed is full of brilliant, interesting people I've never met, all talking about their areas of expertise; my Facebook feed is full of old friends from high school, all talking about themselves. Which do you think is more interesting? Which would you visit more often? FB may yet bury Twitter, as you predict, but it's too soon to make this call. We don't yet know what Twitter will look like in a few years.

Re: The Definitive Boston Crime Novel: “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”

Bill Landay — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:04:24 -0000

Thanks, Gordon.

Re: Why the Strangler?

Bill Landay — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:43:47 -0000

Thanks for your comment, Henry. Obviously George Nassar is a key figure in the Strangler case, and too little has been reported about him. First-hand details like the ones you've added here are rare -- and chilling. As I'm sure you know, Nassar was still serving a life sentence as late as February 2008, when his latest appeal was denied. (Details here: http://bit.ly/13Gi0R) As far as I know, he still is alive and well at 77 years old.

Re: Walter Cronkite and “The Strangler”

Bill Landay — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:52:21 -0000

It is fascinating to me (born in 1963) to hear from people who remember these places and can add these sorts of details. I don't know if you've read my novel "The Strangler," but Station 16 play a part in it. Thanks for your comment, Henry.

Re: Walter Cronkite and “The Strangler”

Bill Landay — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:28:32 -0000

Thanks for your comments, Henry. Please chip in anytime with memories of old Boston. Those recollections are always welcome around here. In fact, the recollections of a few old cops contributed mightily to "The Strangler."

The Casablanca is still open, but it ain't what it used to be. In its current form, it would fit right in at your local shopping mall. For that matter, Harvard Square itself is beginning to look like a shopping mall.

You're right about Boston, too. It's getting so a crime writer can hardly find material here anymore. Which is good news for everyone in town who is not a crime writer, I suppose.

Thanks for the kind words about my book. Stick with me, I'll get better at this.

Re: “Free” and the Future of Publishing

Bill Landay — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:02:33 -0000

I agree, the web affords new opportunities for authors to promote our own books. At the same time, a massively disruptive technology like the web and digital publishing is so unpredictable. It is good for the disruptors (web entrepreneurs) and of course for the public, catastrophic for "legacy" media companies (traditional publishing houses). And for authors? Who knows. I have my fingers crossed but I would not dare predict. Thanks for your comment, Doug.

Re: “Free” and the Future of Publishing

Bill Landay — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:48:34 -0000

Hi Paul. I generally agree with this. I assume you've read Kevin Kelly's theory about finding "1,000 True Fans" to support an artistic career. (If not, look here: http://www.kk.org/thetechni...

The new wrinkle, I think, is that earning one's keep via traditional publishing vs. painstakingly nurturing a fan base online are not alternatives anymore. Authors have to do both. Even authors with decent contracts at old-line publishing houses (like me) are cultivating their base of "1,000 True Fans." It is as if, having watched the publishers get so badly rocked this year, every author is suddenly aware of how short a distance it is from the short head down to the long tail.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Personally, I enjoy blogging and interacting with fans. But I imagine some authors don't. And for all authors maintaining an online presence certainly takes time and energy away from the real work of novel-writing. But that is a quibble, isn't it? It is a privilege to be a full-time writer in this society. We can't expect to be insulated from these crass commercial concerns as the last generation was. What an idyllic writing life Updike led, in retrospect! I never saw that bastard on Twitter - not once!

Thanks for commenting, Paul.

Re: Platform 201 for Busy Writers: 1,000 True Fans

Bill Landay — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:57:27 -0000

Terrific post, Guy. This really helps crystallize a lot of ideas I've been mulling. Thank you.

Re: “Free” and the Future of Publishing

Bill Landay — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:57:40 -0000

Fred Wilson had a blog post recently that summarized things in a nice phrase: "Monetize the audience, not the content." Read it here: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/200...

Re: Best Boston Movie Ever: “The Friends of Eddie Coyle”

Bill Landay — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:05:24 -0000

Terry Teachout is another fan of "Eddie Coyle." http://www.artsjournal.com/...

Re: Walter Cronkite and “The Strangler”

Bill Landay — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:14:32 -0000

Hi Henry. I'm going to email you to talk about Eddie Walsh. I'm always looking for sources, and at the moment I'm researching a project on the old Combat Zone, particularly in the mid seventies. Maybe Eddie Walsh would have some memories to contribute. For that matter, maybe you would!

Re: Why authors should (and shouldn’t) blog

Bill Landay — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:52:10 -0000

Hi Doug. Agreed on all points. In fact our conversation awhile ago helped clarify for me that blogging for pleasure is the only sensible approach, if only because the commercial benefits will be hard to measure.

Re: Barbara Mensch’s photographs of New York

Bill Landay — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:41:33 -0000

And now we have. Thanks for stopping by, Barbara. Your work is really lovely and interesting. Thank you for creating it. Now grab your camera and get back out there!

Re: Boston’s Wonderful/Terrible City Hall

Bill Landay — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:44:58 -0000

So true, Doug. The interior is equally good in this way. It's like a big maze that begs to be explored. The original design called for lots of warmer materials, furnishings, and lighting to soften the "brutalism" of all that hard molded concrete. Menino is great at making the trains run on time but his taste in architecture is, for lack of a better word, brutish. In this one battle, at least, I am rooting against him.

Re: Title Trouble

Bill Landay — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:43:13 -0000

Yup. And I fully expect to be exiled from Newton when the book comes out. But no dogs will be harmed (or even walked) in the making of this novel.

Re: Title Trouble

Bill Landay — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:19:33 -0000

Hi Eben. The biblical name seems like an obvious angle, doesn't it? But I can't seem to make it work.

FWIW I was in a bar last night (not an everyday occurrence, I assure you) and the people around us overheard the conversation I was having with a writer friend about this. Before I knew it, I had an inebriated focus group going. Their choice was "Line of Descent," and by a very wide margin. They thought it was intriguing and liked the double entendre. They disliked "Cold Spring Park" as too dull and thought it said nothing about the story. Hey, you take your advice wherever you can get it.

Thanks for chipping in.