The Millions has an interesting essay on why literary authors are transitioning into the world of genre-writing. Whether the cause be jumping on the most marketable bandwagon, or pressure from agents, publisher nudging or a style-change by the author, there is a plethora of explanatory theories, there is an undeniable presence of genre writing on bestseller lists. How come the shift never happens in the opposite direction (from genre writing to literary)? This essay’s got food for thought.

“…this crappy market may actually end up producing better books. Because hybrids, bastards, and half-breeds tend to be heartier than those delicate offspring that result from too much careful inbreeding.”

“If asking contributors to write for free then collecting 50K is good karma, what’s bad karma, Mark?”

I know we’ve been linking to a lot of Rumpus contributor Steve Almond lately, but the guy’s on a truth-to-power roll. Also, he’s awesome.

This time, it’s in the form of an email exchange between him and the agent Mark Reiter, who asked him to contribute for free to a compilation the agent’s getting $50,ooo for putting together.

(via Cheryl Strayed)

The book blogs had a great week — here’s some of what they have to say:

This is very cool. Check out The Underground Library, a community in which “books are given out to Members of the Library, who are asked to SIGN their name by the Due Date and PASS the book to someone who they think will like it..” (via)

Hemingway, Churchill fail computerized essay grading system. (via)

“Eschscholtzias” reads like a railway accident of its own – a fatal collision between Latin and German.” On “fossil poetry.” (via)

HTMLGiant’s got a great video on Raymond Carver.

“Who needs an agent? You do.”

“(J.G. Ballard) didn’t believe that human actions were rational or easily fathomable, and it was probably this, more than any view of history or aesthetic theory, that led him away from what he regarded as the staleness and artificiality of contemporary literature.” (via)

by Joshua Mohr

Lately people have been asking me why I decided to publish my novel, Some Things that Meant the World to Me, with a small press. Instinctively, my gut wants to lie, stammer some kind of self-justification: “Well, uh, I felt that a boutique house (note that I didn’t say “small press”) would give me more attention (i.e. answer my emails) and nurture the book in a way true to my artistic vision (i.e. not perform fellatio on the marketing department)

…more

The future of book reviewing is online.

I say this not as a cheerleader for all things hi-tech (hell, I don’t even own an iPod), nor as some prophet of the post-physical book, but because the model of book reviewing we’re used to – delivered by the priestly class of critics; limited by paper, ink, column inches; determined by the latest microtrend and by who an author’s agent had lunch with – is clearly history. …more