Thanks to everyone who contributed to the collection of the best Balloon Juice posts written by our host, in Still Life with Cole and Pets and Composition #2, Cole and pets. (Pardon my French title for this post; I like the opposition between “still life” and “dead nature”.) Over 100 posts have been mentioned, going back ten years. At this point, we face a serious decision. I’ve talked with a few people in private, including John, and the consensus is that we need someone to take charge: This kind of thing isn’t going to go anywhere unless someone… has the passion, time, and energy to keep pushing it forward.
We need an editor (or maybe a small team). Someone who can form a plan to whip this collection into shape, and then carry out that plan. Someone to be in charge.
Not too long ago I’d have taken this on myself, because I think it’s a solid project, with the chance to produce a worthwhile piece of actual literature. I don’t have the time or (I’m sad to admit) the talent to do it, but it’s still tempting:
- You have flexibility. Would this be a self-published or traditional book? Agented or not? Print or e-book or both? Whoever’s in charge has a big say.
- You have a platform. Social media is apparently a big part of making a book popular. Balloon Juice hit the top fifty among political blogs ten years ago. Could you be in a better situation? Come on…
- You have a small army of helpers. A number of people have offered their writing talent, their connections to agents, copy-editing assistance, and so forth.
- You have a ton of rich, engaging text to work with. This is the best part, I think. Novelists are sometimes approached, so I’ve heard, by people who say, “I have a great idea for a story. All I need is for a talented person to put it into words.” Please. But in this case the words are already there.
- You could share in the glory. John Gardner, in The Art of Fiction, wrote, “Every true apprentice writer has, however he may try to keep it secret even from himself, only one major goal: glory.” I don’t think this is true, but the possibility doesn’t hurt.
Volunteer to take charge, in a comment.
kindness
A Balloon Juice coffee table book.
PhoenixRising
Delighted to see that those of us who know what is involved in turning some words people want to read into an actual book know better than to volunteer, and those who don’t know know better than to talk through their hats about how easy it would be.
Serious suggestion: Hire someone who does this work for a living, from the commentariat, in exchange for a percentage of the proceeds. That person would be called an ‘editor’, or publishing house if you want to go small-press/self-publish.
I know how to do those things, and…writing the words is actually not 80% of the work, and I don’t have time to do the other 50%. Unless I get 10 years to accomplish my half, because Cole did.
seaboogie
I’d like to volunteer for the editing and narrative process, and have some interesting ideas about the evolutionary format for the work, making it directly tied to the nature of it being a part of a blog, so an interesting format that would be really current and fresh in the formatting of it.
Don’t have a social media platform or any of the rest of that, but a knock on TBogg or Charles W Pierce’s doors might not hurt in that vein come launch time.
Contact me at bethintibATgmailDOTcom.
gussie
Volunteering’s a good thing, but there’s money on the table; what’s the split?
Morzer
I would suggest constructing a Balloon-Juice bathroom reader. Sadly, there’s already an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, but I think a mix of rants, best trolls, best comments, recipes and photographs might work well. I doubt that “Cole’s best posts” is going to cut it with a publisher.
Above all, work out what your project actually is. You won’t sell a proposal to any publishing house on the base of “it’s really cool and could be literature so hand over mega-quatloos now!” What differentiates this project from e.g. political essays, autobiography, generic rants etc etc? Is this meant to be a record of how a community evolved? How Cole evolved? How the blog-form evolved? How the aliens abducted the mustard?
In sum: what’s the big selling-point that makes this project worth noticing?
seaboogie
@PhoenixRising: I understand completely what you are saying, and WRT to the editing process, have a really good idea of the amount of work that this will be. If my idea for the narrative structure works, then that is a good chunk of the battle for the initial winnowing of so much stuff to wade through and select or omit. Or else it is way off base, and someone else can handle it. However I do have a fair bit of time to devote to this, especially if I trade in the time that I spend reading the blog and comments currently.
Trying to imaging a John Cole book tour – and even though he has pretty positive comments from his students for being a very entertaining professor, it is bound to be weird. Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) is doing an amazing job with her new book and some unconventional ways of promoting it, but hers is a very special niche.
With this project, the upcoming 2016 elections and the disillusionment of a former conservative seem to be the ideal platform, but that makes time pretty short in pulling it together.
Morzer
@seaboogie:
There are scads of disillusioned conservatives to be found opinionating wherever you go – and nobody pays that much attention to them. I really would advise against trying to fit Cole into that generic niche, partly because it’s only one component of his rich array of personalities and partly because it’s really not different to what other writers have done recently. If you want a personal narrative to tie things together, maybe consider a coming of age/growing as a human being angle, with the former conservative stuff as part of that.
seaboogie
@Morzer: Well, a Balloon Juice bathroom reader would be the equivalent of the BJ pets calendar, and only of interest to the current denizens of this space – lurkers and commenters.
However, the narrative of a former Army guy, Reagan Republican feeling the desire to form a blog and opining (I haven’t read that early stuff) as he evolves into a ranty, emo, pet-loving Democrat who vacillates between eloquent and poignant posts and also telling the commenters to fuck off on a regular basis would be pretty interesting. The evolution of the front pagers is interesting too. Obamacare? I give you Richard Mayhew.
Anyway, I see this as a journey of discovery for John, with a short intro to each subject chapter (“In which our blogmaster addresses the rich stupidity of humankind in its many various ways…) followed by some posts, and then a few juicy comments from commenters.
Our fave chapters would be a) Pets, and b) Haplessness – in which the blogmaster forgets his pants, loses the mustard, mops naked, dislocates his shoulder while rescuing a dog, and abandons his car in a field…thankfully, this did not all happen on the same day – although given that it’s John, it certainly could have.
Morzer
@seaboogie:
I am still waiting for evidence that a collection of best posts would have a wider audience. I suspect that the greater the diversity of media and narrative arcs, the greater the potential for reaching beyond the misanthropic collective that reads, rants and rages hereabouts.
Regnad Kcin
if only i had a Kitchener-quality moustache
seaboogie
@Morzer: Good point on the timeliness angle. I work one PT shift a week at our local Indie bookstore, and the shelf life of most books is painfully brief. Last week I packed up a return that included John’s buddy Wiley Cash’s book “A Land More Kind Than Home”.
One of the perks of working there (I consider it volunteering because the pay is so crappy) is that I have access to Advance Reader’s Copies for free. I am currently reading “Kitchens of the Great Midwest”, and mentioned to Jude (who is the rather cynical manager there) that I was enjoying it. She told me that she hated it. To which I replied “It read’s like ‘The Shipping News” by E. Annie Proulx, with a bit of Wally Lamb, as if Garrison Keillor helped with the dialogue”, to which she responed “that’s why I hated it!”.
So no illusions here – whatever emerges is going to have the life-span of a moth to a flame, and naturally so.
seaboogie
@Morzer: Got it. But that’s much deeper, and a lot more writing – the project as proposed is much more current, trendy and ephemeral – hence my tying it to the upcoming presidential election.
seaboogie
@Morzer:
Understood and agreed. Also, seems to be a different project than the one proposed, but probably more worthy in its integrity. In terms of sales, probably not a lot of difference between that and banging out something interesting, trendy and timely.
And so you start with the vision, or else just abandon it and say “well, that was an interesting notion to entertain…”
I haven’t figured out block-quotes, and don’t have the energy for that tonight…humor me, please…
Ruckus
@seaboogie:
Thing is there is far more to the story than one election. It is a political coming of age story. And it is so for more than just John. I’ve been around for a while here and have seen others grow as well, probably including myself.
John should be the center of any story of course, it’s his house. But there is a rich vein of back story to a lot of his posts that would enhance the story as well.
Now as to how wide the audience would be, that’s always tough and it would probably depend on the structure of the project as much as the subject.
Ruckus
@Regnad Kcin:
I have the mustache but that’s not quite enough. Actually not even close to enough. But you knew that.
seaboogie
@Ruckus: That is a much deeper story, and would require a massive amount of research, interviews with John – much more expository detail. And yet – and still – it would be ephemeral in the book world, which is briefly indulgent – and unforgiving for more than most in the long term.
Yes, we care – but most would not. At the end of the day, it ties into politics, which is so ADD. The political shift is what makes it publishable right now, the rest of it – which is deeply nuanced – not so much.
hitchhiker
I would like to be involved. I’ve published 3 non-fiction books, the last of which was written on contract. The first was memoir, self-published through lulu. The second was crowd-funded through kickstarter, & it became the step that led to the third.
So . . . I can write. I know what it means to see a project from idea to the thing you hold in your hand. I happened upon this blog on the day JC wrote one of his epic I-just-broke-my-whatever-while-looking-after-my-pet-dog/cat.
And I’ve read it every day since, now going on for several years. Any way that I can help, I will.
Ruckus
@seaboogie:
We differ on this. And not because I’m a regular here. It may be that I don’t really get the social media concept that everything seemingly has a half life of 60 seconds or less, but there is as you say a much more involved story here. To do it any justice other than just removing the need to individually search for John’s posts there needs to be depth to it. And yes I’d bet that it will be a loser in print, just as you point out. I’m not suggesting that any ink be spilled at all in this. Maybe a story site. This one gets a lot of viewers, doesn’t make a lot of money, I doubt that anything pulling the best of this together will make any either.
The Raven on the Hill
(deleted due to excessive snark)
seaboogie
@Ruckus: I hear you, and a good analogy would be the attention that followers and commenters pay to posts here, and how we are off to the next shiny, juicy post of the moment; publishing is an industry, and not so very different in that way.
BGinCHI
Sorry to be so late to the thread (in case you have missed it, I’m in Norway this year on sabbatical, so these posts hit while I’m asleep).
Thanks to seaboogie for throwing a hat into the ring for this project. It can certainly find a market, and an agent and publisher if someone is willing to give it shape and coherence. That will be a lot of work, as anyone who has done this sort of thing knows.
I spoke with RSA and told him that I’d be perfectly willing to take on a chapter (or even 2), in which I would make some category come together by collecting and editing posts. I suggested one on Cole’s travels and his comments on the various states/cities/localities he has visited. There are, as many of you have pointed out, many excellent topics for chapters in a book like this.
So I am a resource. I don’t have the time to take on the whole thing, as I’m working on a book project and revising another one. But I would definitely find the time to contribute.
I hope this comes together.
Anne Laurie
If Get Off My Internets is an indicator, there is still some kind of print market for “bloggers with a perspective”. Not sure that Cole’s perspective is Pinterest-able, but shopping his thoughts in an election year will probably be easier…
MomSense
A Tale of Two Kitties
What is the time frame for this project? Starting something before the holidays would be tough for me.
RSA
@seaboogie: Thanks! I’ll be in touch.
On a couple of other things:
@PhoenixRising:
This is what I was assuming could or would happen, with terms negotiated between Cole and whoever takes charge. Asking for a volunteer wasn’t the best way to put it; I didn’t mean to suggest working completely for free.
On the other hand, this is the kind of project that I think will take a fair amount of unpaid work before it becomes clear whether it could turn into anything at all. None of @Morzer‘s questions have been answered yet, on the scope and content of the book, readership, etc., everything that would go into a book proposal. So could it come off? Maybe! But it’s not even obvious yet what “it” is.
RSA
More thoughts: In case it’s not obvious, this is a commentariat-driven project. Some of us think it could turn into a cool and worthwhile book and have offered to contribute our time. How the proceeds would be split up is something that hasn’t come up.
Maybe I’ve been too much of a cheerleader about a Balloon Juice book. I do think it will be a lot of work. The one non-fiction book I wrote took about three years from the thought, “Hey, I could write a book,” to its appearance in print. And a couple of years more before the advance was earned back.
But it was still fun to do.
gogol's wife
I always envisioned that John himself would write a book.
Yes, writing a book is a lot of work. But he has it in him.
Denali
I know John could do it. See his ode to Las Vegas. So many of us have followed him on his path from staunch conservative to pretty consistent liberal, from alcoholic-induced rages to rages induced by a culture that has apparently gone insane. We have been a part of his life and we owe him a lot for sharing his joys and sorrows in Tunch’s sad passing and his love of his menagarie as well as his own ups and downs. His generosity towards friends and strangers alike is astonishing. I hope something as permanent as a book can come out in this epemeral world.
MazeDancer
@RSA:
Massive, giant, enormous amount of work.
No non-fiction book is going to attract a publisher without a platform. While Balloon Juice is an excellent platform, it is Mr. Cole’s platform. Without John’s enthusiastic commitment to publishing – and promotion – there is no platform.
John Cole has never given any indication that he wants to be famous, or even well known. He has never tried to translate his considerable skills and excellent speaking voice into anything visible. John barely wants to leave the house, much less share wisdom on MSNBC.
He is one of the few possible contenders for “ranting, but kind, liberal”. A niche that’s never been well filled. (RIP, Air America) If he wanted visibility, he could have it in an instant. The upswing in podcasts, alone, today, would give open road to both creative satisfaction and wider fame.
This is not a group project. It’s a John Cole project. He can hire all the help he desires to create a project where someone else does the work, a time honored tradition. But If he isn’t excited by it, don’t even try.
That said, one possible group effort is an e-book funded by Kickstarter/GoFundMe. That crowd sourcing is a way people sell self-published books in advance. John can keep his share or donate to MARC, or anywhere.
Say, 3K copies are pre-sold at $15 each. Then John hires an editor/designer. Editor creates structure. Doles out various chapters to various screened and hired sub-editors, who are either paid or donate. These are low wages for top talent, but publishing is not a sure path to fortune these days, as has been discussed in threads where authors here at BJ share advance figures.
Trying to do this without John, personally, choosing the professionals involved guarantees sub-excellent results. So does trying to do this with volunteers, no matter how skilled. It’s too big.
RSA
@MazeDancer:
You’re very persuasive. You’ve hit on some points I honestly haven’t thought much about. Thanks.
jacy
If you want to self-publish — I can guide you through that. It used to be my job — and I still dispense a lot of advice to clients. I also network with a ton of writers and publishers. I was an editor for nearly 20 years, a freelance writer, and now write fiction and design books. Anyone who wants to put together something can tap me — contact me through my website.
WaterGirl
@jacy: jacy! I was just thinking about you last night and wondering how you are, but wasn’t able to recall your name – just that it was a short name with just 4 letters. And then here you are!
If we’ve had an update from you I must have missed it. Things must be better or you probably wouldn’t have either the time or the energy to offer yourself as a resource. Hoping so, anyway!
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer:
I’m not at all sure I agree with that. Cole’s immediate response to RSA’s suggestion on the blog was – hey, if you want to put that together, go for it! (paraphrased)
I’m sure it is a crazy ton of work, but it’s not too crazy for BJ! I’ve already seen some great ideas on this thread, and I would hate to see the enthusiasm for this project deflated. Some really great things can come out of situations where people get in over their heads, and have to figure it out as they go. With all the time, energy and talent of various BJ commenters, I think this could be great.
Edit: I always re-read my comment after posting, checking for errors, etc. This time it struck me that “situations where people get in over their heads and have to figure it out as they go” is not a bad description of this thing that we call life.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I’m no expert on this stuff, but it seems to me that it doesn’t have to be some giant project to start. It doesn’t have to be an encyclopedia of all the great topics that JC has shared with us, and posters with each other, over the years.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to start with an e-book that JC could put in his store, with say 3 general themes? Having volunteers (one or more) take one of the topics (as BGinCHI suggested above) would seem to make sense. If it drags out or if there’s some problem that hits, it won’t be as big a deal as if one shoots for a real publisher from the get-go. If it sells well, then it can be revised and expanded and then pitched to Random House or Regnery ;-) to take a stab at the best-seller list. They can turn around books very quickly if they’re really interested.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Marina
I love editing and proofreading. If I can be of help, let me know.
Ramalama
I’d be happy to help too. Went to school for fiction + poetry, and am working on a comedy cookbook (hey, real recipes with jokes). But my luxurious lifestyle is supported by ghost writing, content creation (uh, writing for websites), seo blah blah, and technical writing. I also develop WordPress sites for kicks. I used to also proofread, but since I spend a lot of time surrounded by francophones in french Canadia, that part of my brain does cartwheels.
I also have experience with self-publishing (not my self), and I’m kind of thinking that the bathroom coffee table book would do well without a traditional publisher because there’s already this platform.
Marina
@Ramalama:
Off topic, but: Got any tips on how to enter the field of ghostwriting, especially without getting screwed over?
Thanks.