Who Owns History?

This article on history and copyright is interesting. (Probably more so for me than for you, since I've written a book of historical fiction that used a lot of research from a lot of other history books, but still.)

Query Shark

One other thing I've got to read: the archives from this awesome blog I've somehow only now discovered, Query Shark.

I've gotten so used to the current No-Response-means-No state of the industry that this agent's level of author (and public) interaction seems downright saintly. Although I think my query letter's damn near perfect, and my manuscript's not far behind, I'm still going to put the former through the Query Shark wringer.

Wait, no, that's mixing metaphors. Damn! I'm going to feed it to the Query Shark and see if it gets chewed up, digested, or excreted. There. Much better!

Criticism of "Criticism of Criticism"

I lied.

I realized it pretty soon after I posted my "Criticism of Criticism" post. (I just updated this with a hyperlink, in case you're too lazy to scroll two posts down.)

I like to think I'm a pretty honest online reviewer, and generally I do my best to write my honest opinion of everything I review. But there have been a few instances where I've reviewed books for friends, or family of friends, or people who have tracked me down based on my Amazon reviews, and in some of those cases, I'm sure I've skewed my reviews a little, for predictable reasons--wanting to make a friend happy, wanting to make a stranger feel like they'd written a crappy book, wanting to encourage a stranger, wanting to make a friend feel crappy, whatever. And I also didn't always do the standard journalist full-disclosure-disclaimer. That isn't to say that those reviews were wholly inaccurate, but they were also probably not the same reviews I'd have written if I'd just plucked the same book off the shelf.

Why am I telling you this? Two words: Catholic Guilt. I'm pretty sure my main point's still pretty valid, though--online reviews supposedly indicate quality, but it's hard to gauge the quality of the reviews themselves. And nothing is ever really objective, anyway.

OK, this post has gotten way too meta-, or existential, or something. I'm going to go read Irrationality, by Stuart Sutherland, which discusses the formation of opinions with far more wit and knowledge and research than I ever could muster. Or maybe I'll read A Dog About Town, which, despite the corny cover art, is really a well-written and fun book. And I'm not just saying that because I'm friends with the author. Or am I?

(I'm not. Honest!)

Steal Like an Artist

I don't think I posted this the last time I came across it, but I came across it again. So read it!

Criticism of Criticism

This is a pretty fascinating piece about what seems to be a growing problem--the fake online review.

As for me...hmm. I've been writing Amazon reviews for some time now; I don't quite have the sheer focus and productivity necessary to climb into the top ranks, but I did get to the point where they started sending me free stuff (through their Vine program) as long as I reviewed it. And think I wrote fewer positive reviews of that stuff, and I eventually kinda stopped reading their newsletter of new free stuff they sent (and are still sending) out every month.

Why? Frankly, I'm usually writing reviews because I'm passionate about something. (Sometimes it's because it's new and I want to sound off early, but not often.) I don't care if 721 other people are giving their take on Goodfellas, it's a movie that meant a lot to me, so if I can articulate that in a semi-interesting way, I'm gonna have my say, too. So when I'm writing reviews for me, I end up giving a lot of positive reviews, because I generally review things I love. (Granted, there are some exceptions.)

Anyway, when they were sending me stuff and I had to review it, even though I got to pick what they were sending me, some irrational and unknown combination of factors (frustration about my sense of obligation, willful refusal to see what other people were writing about those products) led me to write reviews that were probably slightly more negative, on the whole. And they still kept sending me emails to get new free stuff, so I totally respected them all the more. (Full disclosure: I did recently apply for a book editor job there. No word yet, but, hey, it could still happen.) But my interest in the Vine program withered.

Anyway, I can honestly say I was never tempted to try and contact someone to get paid for a good review, or turn in a review that didn't represent my actual opinion of a product that I had consumed in its entirety. But can I honestly say my reviews were accurate, and unbiased by emotion? Probably not, as this book and this book make clear.

Long story short, there are plenty of great and relatively trustworthy reviewers online, but they have a host of biases of which they're not even aware. And there are an even greater number of mediocre reviewers, and an unknown (but possibly even greater) number of paid review whores/hitmen/man-whores/hitwomen. (Like how I balanced out all the sexism in that analogy?) So we need people to do a better job of reviewing these reviewers, so we can sort out the wheat from the chaff. Criticism of criticism, people, that's the next frontier. Let's get crackin'!

Haight And Ashbury, 2011

Out on the road today
I saw a Deadhead sticker
On a 1936 Mercedes roadster
California License Plate:
ACQUIRE
Up on Ashbury and Haight
Owner smoking a cigar
Don Henley wouldn’t dare
To write something so bizarre
Dirty hippies still wandering around Golden Gate Park
In the dark
About how tattered and filthy and worn
Their dreams have become
Looking all deranged
Head stores are legal now
But the world hasn't changed
The kids are not allright
They're still dropping out of schools
And singing in vestibules
Guitar case hungry for the dollars
They’ve also got CDs
And a website
I might look down my nose
But I’m buyin’, too
Into the whole scene
Selling projects of mine
Online
Posting pictures of their signs
And the paintings in store windows
Trolling for Twitter hits
Obama and McCain, lighting up with green
Doing bong rips, high on money
Is this art
Or a construction project?
Are we all working
Here on Haight and Ashbury
Trying to bury the things in us we hate
And to not be ordinary
Unless it sells?
Looking at these scruffy kids
Turning my nose up at their smells
Dirty patchouli hair, my head is just as much a mess
Inside, I just hide it better
With a shaved head and a sweater
What the shit?
Maybe I can relate
To the guy with the Mercedes, too, more than I care to admit
I can see
Maybe I hate
That he’s more honest than me