Doomed

Computer program predicts best sellers 

Therefore, we are doomed

The headline caught my eye first, of course. "Oh, crap," I thought. We already have issues with publishers who won't consider a book unless they recognize the name of the author - those who have already published and sold lots of copies, or famous celebrities who will sell well just because their names are on the cover. Heck, publishers today are likely to drop awesome authors who never manage to produce blockbusters. Just as Mary Doria Russell, author of the amazing sci-fi novels The Sparrow and Children of God. She even considered letting The Sparrow be made into a movie, knowing it would probably be a terrible idea, just for the exposure. The decision to retain the integrity of her work likely lost her her publisher:

So even if the credits had read, "Based on a title by Mary Doria Russell," a Brad Pitt movie would have made a difference in my visibility and in publishers' interest in my next novel. I don't have to apologize to readers for how badly mangled The Sparrow was, but my sales have never made headlines, and that cost me my publisher. All five of my novels have been bestsellers, but Random House dumped me two years ago because they weren't blockbusters, defined as 100,000 copies in hardcover. I do a third of that. [Source]

Note: I couldn't find proper attribution for this image,
but it links to the earliest example of it I could find online.

So, yeah, the idea of a computer program that can predict best sellers is terrifying. How many publishers will take a manuscript, run it though the Blockbuster-Predict-o-Matic, and reject anything that doesn't make the cut? I'll agree with that byline - "we are doomed."

I, for one, am not fond of most best sellers. Some, like the Harry Potter series, are awesome. Others, like Inferno, I have less than zero interest in, and don't ask me about Fifty Shades of Grey or the Twilight series unless you have a spare half hour for my ranting. Best sellers get that way because most people like them - but not everyone. So what happens to those of us with different tastes in reading material? We'll be left scrounging for something to read, I suppose. And what about those authors who don't write blockbusters? Well, as Russell says:

I know a dozen other midlist novelists with great reviews and good sales who've been dropped and never found another publisher because their numbers "didn't fit the algorithm."....Sorry to be so down on the industry, but I've just spent time with yet another literary novelist who got dumped by a publisher and was then told by her agent, "Books about mothers searching for kidnapped children are hot. Write one of those, and I can sell it." When I hear that from a talented author, I despair. [Source]

I can't help but think of the many, many authors - my treasured Lovecraft among them - who were not best selling authors during their lifetimes but who have had an enormous impact on modern literature. I don't know about you, but I don't want to leave behind a world more influenced by Twilight than The Sparrow.

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In personal news, I went out to dinner with my friend Heather. We went to college together ("Berea, Berea, Beloved!"), and she was in town for a conference. It was awesome! We actually grew up not far from each other, but didn't meet until college. She teaches Political Science, and was presenting on how politicians and citizens use Twitter for political purposes. It makes me want to go back to school!

Links!

• Random Acts: January's theme is "hunger." So, go out and fix that, people.
• Inside the Bell Jar: Wise and brave words from the Prosthetic Medic. If you don't know his story yet - go read from the beginning. It'll teach you to treasure your loved ones and the time you have together, to be grateful for your blessings, and to see beyond your limitations - to keep reaching for your dreams. Also, to be careful around waterfalls. 
• West Virginia chemical spill triggers nausea and vomiting among residents: Particularly distressing, in my (not so humble) opinion is that a disaster that led more than 600 people to call emergency services "with concerns on a wide range of symptoms from chemical exposure," including "nausea, vomiting, some dizziness, headaches, diarrhoea [sic], reddening skin, itches and rashes" (and, it turns out, contaminated the water supply for about 300,000 people)  was not reported, because it didn't have to be - after all, it was a storage facility, not a production site, and the leaked chemical is "not subject to federal government regulation as a hazardous material." I don't care if you've accidentally leaked Kool-Aid powder into the public water supply - you report it. More and more and I'm sure there's more...
• The Book Seer: A nice little tool! You put in the title and author of a book, and it lists recommendations from Amazon. It apparently will one day list recommendations from LibraryThing. It also links to search engines for local bookstores and local libraries, but in the U.K., so the rest of us are on our own. Still, if you don't already know where your local bookstores and libraries are - you need to find out. They are your best friends.
• For my nurse friends and family (Hi, Charlie Sue!) to drool over: X-Ray glasses which can see through skin unveiled. This is also great news for those of us who are too used to getting stuck two or three (or seven) times before the nurse gets the vein. If I had the extra $10k, I'd invest in a pair as a present for my doctor's office.
• Do You Love Science? Of course you do. Which science career is right for you? Not listed: library science. /sigh
• Jan 11, 1978: Song of Solomon wins National Book Critics Circle Award: I loved this novel, the first I'd read by its author, and I've loved many Toni Morrison novels since. She is amazing.
• Continuing the "Dads are Awesome" trend: Stay at home dad leaves post-its for his wife: Too cute!