Pointless Publishing, Thy Name is Twitterature
Hey everyone! Feeling down, listless, depleted from the strain of reading all those classics stacked on your nightstand? Are Joyce, Shakespeare and Dante getting in the way of your busy texting, tweeting and blogging lifestyle? Oh, happy day then because two college sophomores have great news for you! This fall they’ll have a new book coming out, courtesy of Penguin, called, TWITTERATURE: THE WORLD’S GREATEST BOOKS, NOW PRESENTED IN TWENTY TWEETS OR LESS. Isn’t that fabulous? Now that literature is being reduced to “its purest form,” those18-35 year-old hipsters can finally get their read on and start a revolution. Think of the possibilities! Think of the opportunities! Think of this as the crock of chocolate drops that it truly is!
This book is offensive: not in a First Amendment, “I can write anything I want kind of way,” but a, “Here’s another useless piece of fluff to divert your time. You and your friends can astound each other with your new found, limited knowledge of the classics. It’ll be like junior high all over again.” Give me a freaking break.
TWITTERATURE is nothing more than a marketing ploy that hopes to capitalize on the trend that is the Twitter bandwagon. It doesn’t fill a need or add any value to society, it advocates dumbing down readers for the sake of expediency and is another garish example of big publishing’s, “We’ll print anything that sells” philosophy. The reason the publishing industry is in its current state of turmoil is because it lacks leadership. Dumb ass decisions like the publishing of this book are not helping the cause.
The irony is that big publishing keeps trying to convince us of its relevance as gatekeepers in the industry (implying that a high level of quality and integrity in published works can only be maintained by their hands). Self-published books couldn’t possibly be deemed equal when such impeccable standards as big publishing’s are implemented, it’s ridiculous. Yes, clearly that is the case. Does anyone else get the feeling that big publishing at this very moment has its eyes glued to Twitter and Digg, waiting for someone, anyone, to point out the next blockbuster trend to which they can ride the coattails? Is this leadership? Pandering to the LCD in order to increase one’s profit margin, regardless of cost to the community? Is this the reputation you wish to establish? Wake up, big publishing. Evolution is at hand. Mediocrity will only prolong the suffering.
Getting back to TWITTERATURE, a book that doesn’t yet exist, allow me to explain my reasons for loathing the concept. As I said, it doesn’t fill a need or add value to society. Has anyone ever heard of Cliff’s Notes? Sure we have. Without them many of us wouldn’t have graduated high school. Some of us had better things to do than read long, dry tomes and some of us were deterred by the archaic language, so Cliff’s Notes saved the day by pointing out major themes and explaining their significance to the story- need fulfilled. Cliff’s Notes has established itself as a user-friendly product of high quality that is recognized and proven as a valuable companion piece to literature. And now there’s TWITTERATURE, a book designed as a “humorous retelling of works of great literature in Twitter format.” That’s it? Who is the target audience for this book? It certainly isn’t fans of classic literature, so one would assume it’s for people who wouldn’t normally read such stories. If that’s the case, the marketing plan is already at odds with itself because people who can’t be bothered to invest time in a book wouldn’t be reading these stories anyway. WTF? The logical conclusion is that the merit of the book is its novelty value: nothing about this book is geared toward inspiring in the reader deep thought, imagination or even escape. Don’t we have enough cheesy sitcoms to discuss around the water cooler? Do we need TWITTERATURE as well?
As the authors so ably put it, “…as great as the classics are, who has time to read those big, long books anymore?” Indeed. Okay, let’s talk about limited free time in this hustle and bustle world. The reason people read (fiction anyway) is for the pleasure of it. It is something to look forward to, something for which you would make the time, like playing a favorite video game or spending an evening with a friend. Those of us who like to read do so with a willing spirit and adapt ourselves to the style of the author or the subject matter or we choose something else. That’s another question, what is the Twitter book’s intention: to get people to read, or to change their reading habits? For those of us no longer in school, there is no more required reading. We can pick books up and put them down at our leisure, so what’s the rush? This new book advocates breaking a story down into its purest form (2800 characters or less), presumably to make it more palatable to the reader who again, is short on time. What we’re talking about is not even a Reader’s Digest version, but something like a micro book report done Twitter style. What is the point? The readers of this book will be provided with the barest, watered-down essentials of the story and thus take away about as much from the experience. There will be no learning, no enrichment from reading these “classics,” so I ask again WHAT IS THE POINT?
Some of you may wonder why I spend so much time remonstrating big publishing. Do I have a vendetta? Is it a cry for attention? No, sorry, no. I call out big publishing because it isn’t living up to its potential and that irks me. Large publishing companies are living in the past; simply getting on board with the bare minimum of technology and following trends will not revive the industry (it will not help long term). I consider Penguin to be at the forefront of this new era with contributions like We Tell Stories and their enriched eBook offerings (added extras like you would get with DVDs) because at least it’s a start, but when they go and sponsor something like TWITTERATURE it makes my head want to explode. It’s like watching a child learning to walk for the first time, only to find him two minutes later sitting in the cat box and eating his own boogers. It doesn’t have to be this way. The publishing community wants to love you, big publishing, but you’re making it so, so hard.
We don’t need more of the same, big publishing. We need risk takers and visionaries who will collaborate with their authors and readers in order to produce products that are desirable, not just acceptable. We need people who can raise the bar on our entertainment habits by engaging us with things that are fun and smart rather than keep us numb and dumbed down. We want to be better, so we need you to be better. Is it more conducive to include a reading guide inside the book or make readers search for one on your website? Amazon.com is already known and used by most people: is a phone app for the specific purpose of allowing people to buy directly from you going to impress the general public? Are gimmicky offerings like personalized printed book dedications really going to improve sales or increase brand recognition in a positive way? Do your blog entries engage casual readers or only those immersed in the publishing industry? Big, bold thinking means re-evaluating what you have to offer the layperson and it seems that precious little of that is happening. Dazzle us with something meaningful, big publishing. Give us a reason to care again.
