Bloggasm

Gwenda Bond is working on a novel for teenagers that she isn’t quite ready to talk about yet. She posts often about books and writing at her blog, Shaken & Stirred, writes an advice column for Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet as everyone’s Dear Aunt Gwenda, and co-edits Say… magazine with writer Christopher Rowe. She is a member of the recently formed LitBlog Co-op. She lives in Lexington with Mr. Rowe, who happens to be her spouse-type person, and their pets, Hemingway the Cat, Polydactyl, LLC, and Miss Emma the Dog-Girl, CPA.

Simon Owens: Since you focus a lot on both genre and non-genre work, do you think your blog is effective at getting readers to try genres they don’t normally read?

Gwenda Bond: That is, of course, the hope. I really started the blog to make recommendations (and to stop inundating a certain group of my friends with email links to stuff) and, as a reader, I don’t tend to draw very distinct lines in terms of genre. It troubles me that people may miss something they would love because it’s just in a section of the bookstore they’re unfamiliar with. In a glass half-full way, I tend to believe that a lot of people aren’t afraid to read different genres, they just feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed seeking those books out — this I base on every successful genre novel that’s made easier for mainstream readers to find.

I think I have a reputation as being generous with books, but that’s because I mostly don’t talk about ones I wouldn’t feel comfortable pressing on another person. I try to be as specific about my tastes as possible, so people can tell whether they might like a book I recommend or not. In my little sandbox world, I’m happy if one person reads something I recommend and really loves it — this is the joy of setting low bars: I get at least one email saying that for everything I rec. I am often troubled at how often people need to give caveats about genre books though (really, it’s GOOD!!! PROMISE!!!). A possible corollary to that old hippie phrase: If it’s good, read it.

Simon Owens: Have the other lit bloggers been pretty receptive to a genre blogger?

Gwenda Bond: Absolutely. Zebras, not horses.

Simon Owens: Has the blog helped you in promoting your Say… titles?

Gwenda Bond: Um, I’d say yes to the limited extent that I (or my partner-in-crime Christopher Rowe, the Real Editor) have tried doing so. We definitely got a lot of subscriptions during the drive we held last year. On the other hand, we’re teensy in terms of print runs. What we mostly do is try and get the magazines to those who will really enjoy it — and to the review outlets and best ofs. I don’t think I do much more on the blog than remind people that Say… exists when we drop an issue.

Simon Owens: How do you find most your literary news?

Gwenda Bond: I go to this laundromat and there’s this guy… I used to look more for “news,” but now I point to news stories I just come across and mostly link to other blog content that I want to make sure anyone who reads my site sees. Again, it’s largely to prevent me from inundating those I know with links. Any “real news” I get told about is top secret unless someone specifically tells me I can blog it. I think of myself as person/reader/writer and then blogger is somewhere way down the line. I don’t automatically feel the need to publish everything I’m told about. That just doesn’t interest me. I don’t want to be a news outlet so much.

Simon Owens: Do you get a lot of review copies from publishers? Which publishers contact you the most often?

Gwenda Bond: I get a flabbergasting amount of review copies — flabbergasting to me, anyway. I also get most of the ones I ask for, which is nice. I can’t say I actually break them down by publisher, but I will say that — for me, anyway — mainstream publishers are still way more likely to send books than genre publishers, something that I always find vaguely surprising. (This applies only to books sent to make me happy, not to books I request — I’ve actually never had any publisher turn down a request for a book yet.) Among the smaller publishers that I’ve found to be very good at judging taste and sending things proactively are Coffee House and Unbridled Books, both of which have excellent publicists. We’re also blessed with an excellent library just four blocks away, so I rely heavily on it too.

Simon Owens: Do you tend to nominate a lot of genre books to the Lit Blog Co-op?

Gwenda Bond: Well, I’ve only been a nominator once so far, and I did nominate a genre title, Jeff Ford’s The Girl in the Glass. As a nominator, I’m just looking for a book that readers of the LBC may have overlooked that I think is wonderful. Many, many genres titles are going to fit that criteria, because they are so often off the radar of all but genre readers.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Gwenda Bond: Oh dear. I never know what’s coming out when. A few books I was really looking forward to have just come out and I’m in the process of reading them — Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek, Andrea Seigel’s To Feel Stuff, Geoff Ryman’s The King’s Last Song, Julie Phillips’ Tiptree biography. I’m very much looking forward to Cecil Castellucci’s next novel Beige , Holly Black’s Ironside and Justine Larbalestier’s Magic’s Child (oddly, all YA); there aren’t even ARCs I can covet of those yet. Of things getting ready to come out, I would recommend any of the above, plus M.T. Anderson’s Octavian Nothing: Volume 1 and John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines (more YAs). Oh, and David Levithan’s new one. I also can’t WAIT for all the original anthologies Ellen Datlow has in the works. Or for Karen Joy Fowler’s next novel (!), or John Kessel’s or Kelley Eskridge’s, for that matter–but, sadly, these don’t exactly exist yet, though I understand all are in the works. On the upside, Nicola Griffith’s next Aud novel has, according to Wiscon news, been turned in, so that one should be forthcoming (if not soon enough). I’m going to kick myself for leaving something out, I just know it.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Gwenda Bond: I think everybody reads the obvious ones (Maud Newton, Ed Rants, the Mumpsimus, Tingle Alley, etc.). I love Jeff Bryant’s Syntax of Things and Carolyn Pinkhaus’s Pinky’s Paperhaus (and both of them just joined the LBC recently). Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray and Jenny Davidson at Light Reading are two of my absolute faves. I also love Rarely Likable and wish she’d post more–and Jay Tomio’s Bodhisattva is great. But I read way too many. Please, check out the blogroll and read the cutesy tags. In case Gavin blogs consistently now that he has a real one, I’ll say him too. And the more personal blogs of Chance Morrison, Meghan McCarron, Dave Schwartz and David Moles. That’s way too many, I know. Damn. I’m such a rec-whore.

Matt Borondy is addicted to highways, casinos, books, and monasteries, and his grand ambition is to create a mobile home/poker room/Zen center/internet cafe that holds author readings in random cities across the world. Since his efforts to drum up venture capital for that project have mysteriously failed, he focuses instead on editing the online magazine Identity Theory, with the help of over a dozen other eclectic book junkies and failed venture capitalists. Identity Theory publishes interviews with authors and musicians, hosts a social justice blog and a book blog, and offers regular doses of original fiction, nonfiction, visual art, poetry and reviews. New stuff goes up on the site every week day, as if by magic.

Simon Owens: Identity Theory has been around since 2000, which is a long time in internet years. Did it always use a blog-type format?

Matt Borondy: I guess it depends on what you mean by blog-type format. From a technological standpoint, the overall site doesn’t function like a blog–it’s a much more static, handmade sort of thing, though we do house some actual blogs. From a content standpoint, I guess we’ve always been blog-like in the sense that we are informal and regularly published and liberal in our use of hypertext.

Simon Owens: As someone who heads one of the older literary sites, how effective do you think book blogs are at promoting books? Do you think they’ll eventually be able to create new trends in publishing?

Matt Borondy: Publishing houses seem sold on the idea of viral marketing via the Internet, so I’d assume it’s working out for them. It’s such a low-cost, high-reward medium: low cost for the Web publishers, high reward for the publishing houses. I just wish it were the other way around so that I could buy a new car. Here at Identity Theory we take advantage of the minimal overhead and vast reach of Web publishing to give serious writers a chance to talk about their craft for a countless number of pages, and to help publish and promote younger, lesser-known writers who otherwise would have great difficulty getting attention from mainstream press. That’s why I started the site and why it has continued to thrive. As far as trends in publishing, I just pray to God with whatever religious faith I have left that I never, ever come across another book that attempts to recreate what Abe Lincoln’s blog would have been like.

Simon Owens: How hard is it to work with an all-volunteer staff? Do you find it hard to keep the troops motivated?

Matt Borondy: The Identity Theory staff is a wonderfully diverse group–geographically, ethnically, and ideologically–and they’re all very cool and into our project. For me the challenge in working on the site—and this is one that they probably share—is that publishing a website involves a heavy dose of abstract and self-invented responsibility. I have to remind myself, while staring into the abyss that is this monitor, that there are real people reading the site, that the writers we’re publishing, interviewing, and reviewing are real, and that what we do has some effect on the literary community and the world in general. Anytime you work with people who are far away and work on something that is not tangible and that can be made to appear or disappear with the click of a mouse, there’s a challenge of connecting your work with your reality–if that makes sense. So, there’s always a struggle with motivation, which can typically be eliminated with a heavy dose of caffeine.

Maybe someday I’ll set Identity Theory up like Project Mayhem in “Fight Club” or like an old monastery, where I’ll make a headquarters in an abandoned house and force potential staff members to stand outside for three days without food, water, or encouragement, and then eventually let the persistent ones in and have them shave their heads and wear black all the time while reading fiction submissions and coordinating book reviews. That would ensure that everyone we get is 100% motivated from the start.

Simon Owens: How did you get the prizes for your raffle fundraiser? Were they donated?

Matt Borondy: The writers I was working with at the time of the fundraiser, people like Scott Snyder and Mia Fontaine and Toni Schlesinger as well as our own Christian Bauman, were nice enough to donate books to the raffle. Some of the other raffle prizes were totally random: while on vacation in L.A. I saw that Douglas Coupland was doing a reading in Beverly Hills, so I had him sign a book (which I accidentally walked out of Dutton’s without paying for, Winona Ryder style, but then went back in and purchased). As a last-minute thing, I thought it’d be cool to offer one of the winners a chance to be interviewed on the site, which was free. Other prizes came from my wallet and various other sources which election-year politics prevent me from mentioning. Next time around I will be more aggressive about having all the prizes donated—this particular raffle was more of a virtual party than a fundraiser, so it wasn’t entirely profit-driven.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Matt Borondy: I’m waiting for someone to give Robert Birnbaum a book deal. And I’m wondering when the heck Alex Shapiro is going to stop messing around on Pandora and finish his first book of fiction. Aside from that, I have too much of a backlog to look forward to upcoming books. Anyone who reads Identity Theory or your site should check out “The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book”, edited by the magnificent Jane Friedman.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement your own?

Matt Borondy: If I had gone to elementary school with Claire Zulkey and Maud Newton I would have chased them around the playground endlessly, leading to broken hearts and who knows what else—maybe a restraining order or two, some hours in detention. But since we’re adults living in different states I have to settle for reading their weblogs and wishing I could be as smart and tuned in as they are. Claire’s interview archive is great, and Maud has, I think, the best blog out there. Neal Pollack’s The Maelstrom is entertaining—he’s a writer who fits the medium well. And I have a lot of respect for what the people at MobyLives are doing, as well as the Bat Segundo Show, a literary podcast published on Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant. That makes five, right? Can I add one more? Go read Fungible Convictions.

C. Max Magee started The Millions in 2003, because his roommate at the time convinced him that having a blog was a good hobby. Max was skeptical, but, working at a bookstore at the time, he began writing about books and got hooked. Since starting the blog, Max has attended the Medill School of Journalism, and currently lives, temporarily, in Washington, DC, with his wife. He writes about the stock market for his day job, but also has written freelance articles for Poets & Writers and other publications.

Simon Owens: The Millions is one of the older book blogs out there. Do you think that newer book blogs will have a harder time finding an audience since the market is more saturated?

C. Max Magee: No. I think that as long as a blogger writes well and adds something to the conversation, he won’t have any trouble finding an audience. It was fun to be one of the first to do a blog about books, but it’s been much more fun being part of a larger group of book blogs that play off of and interact with one another. In fact, I’d love to see even more book blogs enter the fray.

Simon Owens: Do you think your formal education in journalism has affected your blogging style at all?

C. Max Magee: Yes, though perhaps subconsciously. After being trained in a certain style of writing and using that style daily, it’s hard to break out of it when I sit down to blog. I find that when I do a newsy item in particular I revert to the classic “inverted pyramid” style that I learned in J-school. On the other hand, I really enjoy the freedom the blog gives me to write in the first person and to be creative in ways that I can’t with the other writing I do.

Simon Owens: Are there any new publishing trends that have developed in the 21st century? How has the internet changed how publishers promote books?

C. Max Magee: Well, for one thing, I get a lot of emails from people promoting their books. I think that the Internet is very good at allowing people with similar interests to find one another and form a community, which, loosely defined, is what the book blog world is. While this feature of the Internet is great for finding people to chat about David Foster Wallace with, it also preassembles audiences for marketers to target. Since publishers know that me and my fellow book bloggers reach a lot of avid readers, they try to get us to promote their books to those readers. So far, I think the relationship between bloggers and publishers has been mostly healthy and symbiotic, but to a certain extent we’re still working out the details.

Simon Owens: Which magazines and newspapers have the best book critics?

C. Max Magee: To be honest, I couldn’t say. I tend to seek out reviews because I’m interested in the book being reviewed, not in the reviewer. I read tons of book news and reviews online based on what headlines grab me, and the only publication that I read cover to cover without fail is the New Yorker.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

C. Max Magee: I have about 50 books in my “to be read” pile (it’s a box actually since we’re in the process of moving), so I’m dreading new books more than I’m looking forward to them, but here’s a post I did recently about my “most anticipated books” for the second half of 2006.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

C. Max Magee: I read a ton of book blogs, but I read blogs on other subjects as well, so, in the interest of mixing things up, here are some of those:

The Comics Curmudgeon- I’ve long been amused by the newspaper funnies, but often wondered why they are so strange. Josh explains with his riotous blog.

Freakonomics Blog – I like Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s blog for two reasons. As a former econ major and current business writer I’m interested in the subject matter, but I also think it’s great because it’s an example of how a couple of authors are continuing to interact with their audience, long after the publication of their book.

Tropical Toxic – Asaf and Tomer Hanuka are a pair of tremendously talented artists and professional illustrators who happen to be twin brothers. On their blog, they give a “behind the scenes” look at how they create their stunning work.

Roch Around the Clock – Have I mentioned that I’m a big baseball fan? I know that this blog eminates from a big daily newspaper, but I still like it. Roch Kubatko is a sportswriter who writes for the Baltimore Sun and blogs about the Baltimore Orioles and other topics. I’m a huge Orioles fan, and Kubatko has provided a great place to join my beleaguered compatriots in bemoaning the Orioles’ consistantly woeful performance.

Emdashes – Ok, one literary blog. I’m a New Yorker fanatic, and Emdashes is a blog all about the magazine, so I can’t help but read it.

Jessica Stockton is the Book Nerd behind the blog The Written Nerd. She worked in coffee houses, publishing houses, literary agencies, and as a freelance writer before discovering her true calling as an independent bookseller. A native of California, she graduated from New York University with an English degree in 2001 and now lives happily with her fiance in Brooklyn. Jessica currently works on store publicity and design at McNally Robinson Booksellers in SoHo and writes reviews for Publishers Weekly, and she will join the board of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association this fall. Her goal is to open a fabulous independent bookstore and performance space in Brooklyn within the next few years, with its very own store blog.

Simon Owens: Do you think that working in a bookstore adds a unique perspective to your lit blogging?

Jessica Stockton efinitely! I think every lit blogger comes from a unique perspective, and mine is that of a bookseller. I’ve written a bit about how bloggers and indie booksellers come from a similar place, in that they build trust in their readership (or customer base) by being honest about the books they love, and in that their success is totally dependent on building relationships. Independent bookstores are an alternative to corporate chain bookstores, as blogs are alternatives to mainstream online media — the showcasing of individual voices.

I want to blog as an independent bookseller as much as a reader or writer — to talk about the issues we face, our strengths and enthusiasms, and the imporance of the independent bookstore in the book world. I’ve found that a lot of the readers of my blog are people in the book industry, and some of them may be people who don’t read litblogs regularly — they’re just curious about what one of their own has to say. This is kind of inspiring, as I’m hoping to inspire new collaborations between the blogging world and the book world, and foster the kinds of conversations that the internet is uniquely capable of creating.

Simon Owens: How did you become a freelance writer for Publisher’s Weekly? Do you ever grow frustrated that they don’t use bylines when they publish your reviews?

Jessica Stockton: I happened to mention to a customer that I was looking for freelance work, and they passed my name along to someone in the PW editorial department. I’ve been doing it for about three years now — longer than many of their reviewers last, I think! I appreciate the writing practice and the access to new books that the job gives me, but it’s not one that offers a lot of money or prestige, and that’s okay. I have gotten my name on a couple of author interviews I did for PW, which is always exciting. I thought for a while the PW gig would be a first step into a glamorous reviewing career, but since my career focus is much more on bookselling now, I’m pretty content to review anonymously as long as I get good stuff to read. (Not that I’d object if anyone wanted to offer me a reviewer gig…)

Simon Owens: Have you nominated anything to the Lit-Blog Co-op yet?

Jessica Stockton : Everyone gets to take a turn nominating, and since I just joined this summer (and won’t be posting until the fall round of books), my name hasn’t come up yet as a nominator. But don’t worry, I will….

Simon Owens: If you had to pick any small presses that you wish the big publishers would emulate, which would you choose?

Jessica Stockton : Small Beer Press, run by writer Kelly Link and her husband, is one that I greatly admire. They’re willing to take risks and aren’t afraid of the convergence of electronic and print media — they post some of their stories online in hopes of creating word of mouth, and have found that it increases, rather than decreases book sales. They also only publish a small list of really good stuff, which they can choose to do as they don’t have to answre to shareholders.

New York Review of Books’ beautiful reissues of lost classics are one of the most valuable things to happen to publishing in the last few years. I wish larger publishers would take a look at their backlist and bring some of their older titles back into print, not in a cheap print-on-demand format but with the care NYRB lavishes on those little-known old books. They’ve grasped the Long Tail theory: sell less of more (lots of titles that only sell a few copies each), rather than focusing every bit of time and money on the few big bestsellers (that get returned half the time anyway). There are a number of small presses that are doing that, and I hope big publishers will start to see the light.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Jessica Stockton: Richard Powers has a new book coming out in the fall — I haven’t seen it yet, but he’s one of my favorite authors and I’m really excited about it. Susanna Clarke, who wrote the fabulous Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, is working on a new massive fantasy novel that I’m sure will be awesome, but in the meantime she’s publishing a collection of stories set in the same world, also this fall.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Jessica Stockton: If you’re interested in blogs from booksellers (and others in the book industry), these can’t be beat — they’re my first clicks when I have time to read blogs!

Fresh Eyes — Robert Gray, formerly of Northshire Bookstore, currently running Fresh Eyes Now

Bookseller Chick — an anonymous bookseller at a chain store in California, who’s taught me that yes, chain bookstores have smart readers too

Book Dwarf — Megan Sullivan of Harvard Bookstore, great bookseller and linker

Episode Soldier — Aubrey of Arches Book Company in Moab, Utah, a newbie blogger but a great writer and reader

Publishing Insider — Carl Lennertz of HarperCollins, former American Booksellers Association employee, wide-ranging and clever links

Ben Granger has been writing as reviewer and interviewer for Spike Magazine since early 2004, and writing as blog commentator for its blog Splinters since mid 2005.”

Simon Owens: As a book blogger, how successful do you think lit blogs are at promoting titles compared to other review venues?

Ben Granger: When reading blogs you have the thrill of the “samizdat” (not to be confused with the nut-ball right-wing website of the same name), feeling that this person writing before you is either praising or damning because they want to, there’s no time-serving or monied agenda behind it. They’re less likely to be engaging in internecine feuds or back-licking with their author mates either. In that sense, a review on a blog can seem more honest and valid. Of course it may not be, but it feels like it. But then reviews in established papers and magazines have massively higher audiences, which -may- just off-set this. It’s the old quantity/quality conundrum dontcha know.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed that more and more authors are putting up their books for free online. Do you think this increases their chances at success? Are more and more publishers becoming open to this method?

Ben Granger: Music downloads were supposed to spell the death of the music industry, and of course didn’t. The success of Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen (Christ I feel like a desperate aging hepster writing that) can be purely put down to free downloads leading into multi-million sales. I see no reason why this shouldn’t follow in the book world, though I think it’s too early to tell at this stage. I would like to think it would, there’s something sweetly democratic about it. But let’s not go mad. Most stuff put out free will stay free, and largely free of readers too.

Simon Owens: Do you feel that book blogs are more open to small press titles than other mainstream review venues?

Ben Granger: Without a doubt. The bottom line is they review what they want to. I believe it was MC Hammer who once remarked of the Addams Family, they “Do what they wanna do, say what they wanna say, live how they wanna live, play how they wanna play”. A trillion considerations that mainstream reviews will take into account do not have to be done so by the bloggerati, so obviously small press titles will benefit. But it still boils down to the individual blogger’s interests in the end. They will also tend to be obsessed with reviewing and talking about just what they like, and time considerations on their life (if they’ve got a job like) will sometimes mean they’re even less likely to review what they don’t like than a mainstream reviewer. I’ve been sent several plugs from a creepy site trying to promote the virtues of incest. No thanks mate.

Simon Owens: What are some of your favorite literary genres?

Ben Granger: Impossible to say. Using “genre” in its most reductive sense, “crime”, “sci-fi”, “horror” etc. I’m not usually a fan of that lot, though I’ll like some of the best ie. PK Dick, Lovecraft, Ballard, Jake Arnott if we’re including crime etc. To be honest though I will usually read older books rather than new releases, so a new one really has to grab its teeth in my bum-cheeks for me to take interest. Bret Ellis’s Lunar Park succeeded superbly in that respect. But my reference points are in the past, I’m looking for something which approaches Celine, Greene, E. Bronte, Wilde, Parker, Orwell, Pat Hamilton or dozens of others I’ve loved.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Ben Granger: One of the absolute favourite books of my youth was Ripley Bogle by Robert Mcliam Wilson, an extraordinary account of a jaded, brilliant Irish down-and-out’s odyssey through London. I hear that Wilson, long missing from the literary scene, is to write a new novel called The Extremists later this year. I’m very much looking forward to that. Incidentally, I only found out about it from people posting comments on a blog post I did on Ripley Bogle. Another beautiful outcome of the medium!

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Ben Granger: When it comes to literary weblogs I’m afraid I don’t usually venture out of the ‘Brit-Lit-Blogs’ of which Splinters is a part. Ready Steady Book, Buzzwords, This Space, Bookworld and Scarecrow are all good reads, and usually from writers a good deal more committed than myself. There’s your five. What more do you want? How Stalinist that makes me sound, true though. If we’re allowed just sites rather than blogs, then another five would be Lenin’s Tomb, the site of journalist Johann Hari’s site (both these representing the political polar extremes of my zig-zagging brain), Bookmunch (fine review site), openDemocracy and MorrisseySolo.

(Related posts: Interview with Scott Esposito from Conversational Reading, New Best-of anthology to hit the market, INterview with Mark Sarvas from The Elegant Variation, Interview with Dan Wickett from The Emerging Writers Network, Interview with Michael Allen from The Grumpy Old Bookman)

James from ShortTermMemoryLoss.com is a writer, publisher and activist from London, England. The STML litzine – not so much a blog as an occasional column on literary matters, or otherwise – was conceived as a cheap way of making friends, but has since expanded into an expensive way of making friends; still, at least there are friends. Running mostly on reviews, cheap red wine, and bile since 1999, STML intends to take over the world, preferably by teatime.

Simon Owens: Do you think that the popularity of book blogs will eventually be able to influence new trends in publishing?

James Bridle: Not immediately, certainly not in the mass market, and possibly not ever. The only thing that influences trends in publishing is mass readership, so what book blogs can do is influence new trends in reading: pointing out overlooked and underrated writers who would otherwise receive little or no publicity, or carrying the torch for those who would otherwise fade into out-of-print obscurity. The big and ever-consolidating publishing houses have a stranglehold on the mainstream reviewers, so it’s the duty of independent voices to raise up books that would otherwise pass beneath the radar. But at the same time, who wants to influence new trends in publishing? It’s a dirty business, and most of us would rather concentrate on the product than the process.

Simon Owens: Does having a blog for the online magazine help in promoting the fiction you publish elsewhere on the site?

James Bridle: Not really. The two aren’t particularly connected, any more than the blog promotes the music, mapping and Londonphiliac sections of the site that coexist with it. The magazine is very inward-looking, always pleased when someone takes an interest, but generally just hanging out in the corner, muttering quietly to itself. The blog is more look-at-me, look-at-me, extrovert, running around, changing the music and doing coke off old paperbacks (new ones have too much gloss finishing, which tends to stick to the lines). That said, some friends made on the blog have expressed an interest in the fiction – several pieces are appearing in the next Laugh It Off annual, a truly excellent publication out of South Africa.

Simon Owens: Do you have a particular literary genre that you specialize in when blogging?

James Bridle: Absolutely not. Anything that interests and excites is likely to get a look-in, whether that’s the latest necrophiliac screed from Supervert or a decades-old spy thriller from John le Carre. Filth and perversion help, obviously, but your actual Twentieth- and increasingly Twenty-first-century fiction occupies the bulk of STML space, while a well-turned travel book (Wilfred Thesiger, Martha Gellhorn and Kevin Rushby are favourites) or literary biography has been known to sneak in under the ropes.

Simon Owens: You’ve obviously collected a very large number of books. Where did you get most of them?

James Bridle: Approximately 50% purchased from first- and second-hand booksellers in five continents, from the basements of Charing Cross to the back streets of Addis Ababa to shacks high above the Indus; the others won in combat; purloined from friends; inherited from maiden aunts; secreted about one’s person in public libraries; stolen from pubs and backpacker hostels; begged from publishers with unfulfilled promises of reviews; sold by tramps for smack monies; found beneath floorboards and on top of old cupboards; salvaged from dumpsters; rescued from house fires; lost and refound on underground trains; received as the gifts of a grateful nation; forced upon us by wannabe authors with a wild look in their eyes; traded for jam; obtained with menaces; and otherwise bought, borrowed, thieved, kept, read and loved.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

James Bridle: To be honest, so much of our consumption is second-hand or later that news of new releases often takes months to filter through the literary topsoil. Like a lot of other people, the new Thomas Pynchon, due this autumn, is a rare counterexample: it’s on pre-order over in the States and occasionally bringing us out in sweats at the prospect of new Pig Bodine adventures. It would also be remiss not to mention stunning and bizarre new books due from Steve Aylett and Stewart Home early next year: these are talents which defy the dross that currently passes for novels in these parts. Apologies for the self-promotion inherent in that statement [Full disclosure: STML has relations, occasionally biblical, with the publisher], but if we’re not going to cheerlead these writers, who will?

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

James Bridle: Starting with BritLitBlogs, which is a bit like asking the genie for five more wishes, but worth it all the same, no time is wasted that is spent hanging with Dogmatika and The Midnight Bell, and discerning readers should also take note of Through A Glass Darkly. More important than any of those right now, however, is Mazen Kerbaj’s deeply affecting Kerblog, live from Beirut. Here and now, boys: attention.

(Related posts: Interview with Stephen Mitchelmore from This Space, Interview with Terry Teachout and Laura Demanski from About Last Night, Interview with Spurious, Interview with George Murray from Bookninja, An essay on conflicts of interest for journalists)

Levi Asher is a writer and web developer from Queens,New York. Siince launching Literary Kicks in 1994, he’s co-edited two books of internet-based fiction and poetry, Coffeehouse: Writers from the Web in 1997 and Action Poetry: Literary Tribes from the Internet Age in 2004. In 1998 he directed a critically acclaimed digital movie based on Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground which he plans to re-release on YouTube as soon as he finds the time. As a web developer, Levi has led the development of sites including PearlJam.com and WordsWithoutBorders.org, and has worked on sites such as BobDylan.com, HistoryChannel.com and many others.

Simon Owens: How did you get the idea for October Earth, and did it turn out any differently than you had hoped?

Levi Asher: This took place in October 2004, back when nobody knew how the upcoming Bush/Kerry election would turn out. With the direction of American foreign policy at stake and the intensity of emotion very high on both the pro-war and anti-war sides, I thought it’d be a good idea to use LitKicks to put a literary spin on all the hot topics of the day. We picked a bunch of quotes from the widest variety of texts we could find — some Jean-Paul Sartre, some Gilgamesh, some 50 Cent — and we followed each quote with a question that you could only answer by choosing a side: “yes” or “no”. You couldn’t post without voting — you were forced to stake a position if you wanted to participate. In a way I was hoping to make people feel uncomfortable with the very concept of taking a side on an issue, because anytime you vote one way and not another you are oversimplifying something — you are leaving something out. I loved the way October Earth turned out — many people participated, and I think everybody “got it”. The only thing that didn’t turn out the way I wanted is that two days after it ended, on November 2, George W. Bush was re-elected.

Simon Owens: How has your experience been with the Lit-blog Co-op? How effective is it in promoting overlooked titles?

Levi Asher: I haven’t been there long enough to have had an experience yet, but I have a very good feeling about it so far. One reason I think they might be effective is that I went to my local bookstore to pick up “Michael Martone,” the Co-op’s Summer 2006 Read This selection, and the clerk told me it was way sold out, their distributor couldn’t keep up with the demand, it would take four weeks. This tells me two things — first, the Litblog Co-op is generating real sales, and second, this bookstore should get a better distributor, since they are obviously at the bottom of the food chain.

Simon Owens: How do you go about choosing which books to review for your site and which to skip over?

Levi Asher: Many litblogs only review books from established publishers, but I’ve made a point of opening LitKicks up to poetry chapbooks, self-published novels and small-press books. I review books from corporate publishing houses as well, but I get much greater satisfaction from being the first one in the world to praise, say, a wonderful chapbook that comes straight out of Kinko’s that only a few people in the world have ever seen. I don’t know if a good review from me will actually generate sales, but I hope it helps these poets in some way. On a practical level, I also like reviewing poetry chapbooks because I can read them pretty quickly. I hate getting 600 page novels in the mail, though I understand that this is an unavoidable occupational hazard.

Simon Owens: When you wrote and finished your novel, The Summer of the Mets, were you able to use the blog to market it at all?

Levi Asher: I didn’t, and I wish I had! I published this for the first-time as an e-book on September 25, 2001, and like the rest of the world I was still reeling from the shock of September 11. I wasn’t thinking about publicity at all. Well, the Mets are in first-place again this year, and it’s the 20th anniversary of the 1986 World Series (which is the backdrop of the novel’s love story). I am thinking of buying some blog-ads on some baseball sites in October. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I think it’s an excellent story, if I say so myself, but I’ve done a horrible job of marketing it.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Levi Asher: I am not a big Thomas Pynchon fan, so I can’t say I’m looking forward to his upcoming monolith of postmodern obscurity. I’m not a Jonathan Lethem fan so I’m not looking forward to his upcoming novel either. I really can’t think of a book I’m looking forward to. Maybe I think all the writers of the world should shut up for a while so I can catch up. Oh, I think it’s ridiculous that Rick Moody’s The Diviners is still not out in paperback. His publishers were not kind enough to send me a review copy and I don’t like paying $25 for a book so I guess I’m looking forward to reading this book when it finally comes out in paperback so I can read the damn thing.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Levi Asher: There are probably at least thirty literary blogs I check on a regular basis. Here are the five I probably check most often:

– Ed Champion’s Return of the Reluctant. I am glad Ed Champion is around because, like me, he’s not afraid to be an asshole in public. I think too many litbloggers are hung up on politeness, and often hold back on saying what they really think. And then there are a few like Ed who just let it rip, and if people are offended that’s their problem. This is a good way to run a blog.

– Jeff Bryant’s Syntax of Things. Jeff is much politer than Ed (or me) but I think it comes naturally to him. He happens to like many of the same authors I do, he’s a good writer, and he often adds a welcome personal touch.

– Bud Parr’s MetaxuCafe. This is a collective of many up-and-coming litblogs. You can always find something new to read there.

– Bookslut. What can I say? Everybody knows about Bookslut and they don’t need more publicity, but they do a great job and I’d be lost without them.

– Words Without Borders. I’m actually part of the WordsWithoutBorders staff, so maybe I shouldn’t include them here, but I want to so I will. Their agenda is to promote international literature, and I can’t think of a better reason for a website to exist.