“New Blogger” vs. “Legacy Blogger”

"Good news"? Or another death-knell?

My friend Mary Scriver is struggling with the changes Google Blogger hath wrought. We've had some back-and-forth on the matter. Google is making some terrible errors, I think. This is my latest email to her, commiserating with her plight.

Hi Mary - 

This is one of those times when I wish I could mask-up, hop in the car and come over. There are tweaks to "New Blogger" that might work for you, but they do take some searching for. 

In the main, however, I am also deeply unhappy with the direction Google is taking with this new template. Google engineer Avery Pennarun nails it on the head with this comment: "Smart people have a problem, especially (although not only) when you put them in large groups. That problem is an ability to convincingly rationalize nearly everything." 

In this case the engineers reworking Google's Blogspot have convinced themselves, not unreasonably, that easier accessibility via "smart" phone is a necessity for the great majority of internet users and thus a necessity for Blogspot bloggers as well. This is not unintelligent thinking. But it does not do a rigorous enough job of analyzing what Google Blogspot does best RIGHT NOW, and thus what they need to retain and reinforce to remain a viable platform in a roiling market of internet users. 

Blogger/Blogspot is, as most blogging platforms, a predominantly word-based platform. People compose and post more text to Blogspot than they do anything else. Thus it does not compete directly with Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or really any of the other social media. Pictures and videos and soundfiles can all be posted on Blogspot, but mostly the people using Blogger are writers. Were I a member of Blogspot's think-tank I would highlight that and keep that the focus of Blogger. Other means of communication -- videos, pictures, soundfiles -- should be encouraged, particularly via properties that Google has acquired. Hey, make it a priority to provide ease of access to YouTube, YouTube Music, Google Photo, etc. Data-mining these media interdependencies ought to yield rich results. But always always always assure that composing and posting words is the highest priority -- because that is the current user's highest priority, and it won't change with a radically reimagined user template. 

Returning to the field of phone use, I'd say ease of phone display is a must. Ease of composing and posting via phone, not so much. Most phone users have accounts with YouTube and Google Photo etc. Make sure the cross-platform use here is super-easy. But keep the focus of word composition where it is properly done -- on the home or office computer/laptop. "Legacy Blogger" very much outperforms "New Blogger" on that front. 

Anyway, I have "Left Feedback" with Google and received nary an AI-generated peep of acknowledgment. I notice the hard deadline for those of us who prefer Legacy Blogger keeps getting kicked down the road. Initially it was July, no? Now it is the end of September (correction: September 1). Hopefully this signifies some reconsideration occurring among the fine engineers in charge of Google Blogger. 

Best, WP/dpr 

Gasperau, Yet Again

It is old news to Canadians that Gasperau has hammered out a deal with Douglas & McIntyre for the trade-paperback edition of Johanna Skibsrud's The Sentimentalists. On further reflection this seems the right thing to do: had they dug in their heels as the sole publishers of this year's Giller winner, Gasperau would have become The Long-Running Skibsrud Show. After all they do have other, equally worthy authors on their catalog.

Gasperau, Redux

“I like that,” said my wife. “But it would never work for publishers of youth fiction.”

Whoah. Truer words were never spoken. When teens fall in love with a book, they don't just want to read it again and again: they want to read all of its many, many sequels. Trilogies are good, but sweeping sagas are so much better. Authorial typing/publisher printing cannot be done quickly enough to sate the literate adolescent.

The girls polished off The Hunger Games trilogy in short order. Right now they are taken with Michael Grant's Gone series. My older daughter lives in the hope that she will enjoy all four of P.D. Baccalario's Century Quartet books, but I wouldn't put money on it. Baccalario will have to type faster if he hopes to close two more sales before my daughter's growing perspicacity sniffs out his deficits as a writer.

The teen market is significant — in fact it's likely the sole aspect of publishing that's keeping print afloat. And quality control is, for the most part, optional (the sole exception being series continuity: publishers can let grammar take a hit, or authorial voice and perspective slip in a kaleidoscopic flurry, but they'd better keep a sharp eye on continuity). Harriet Stratemeyer Adams had it right: if you have a good thing going with teen readers, the words “too hasty” do not apply to publication.

Whither Successful On-Line Fiction?

What might successful on-line fiction look like? Some thoughts:

It would be serialized. Like Dickens, or any of the penny-dreadfuls, on-line fiction would probably need to be serialized. Subscriptions, or feeds, could thus be enabled.

Each episode would be short. Technology does not seem to encourage lengthy perusal, or extended meditation. The reader could easily capture the day's episode on their iPhone, or what-have-you.

Each episode would attempt to chart and excite desire. This one has always seemed like a no-brainer, but it is usually the obvious that needs expressing.

More anon, as the possibilities occur. And, as ever, throw your own thoughts into the stew.

Of Books And Such

I get a kick out of Michelle Kerns: she's got a lot of "get over it & get on with it" sass that makes for refreshing reading about reading. To wit: Book Reviewing As A Bloodsport; The Top 20 Most Annoying Book Review Cliches (Hm. Guilty of the first four, at least); and Book Review Bingo. If any of that tickles you, there's more of same at the sidebar.

Also: Carole Baron (Knopf) makes the case for editors at publishers. Personally, as much fun as self-publishing is, it's the editor I miss the most -- for editing, as much as any of the other fine roles Baron and company provide.

And finally, Michael Blowhard recently pointed me to Writer 2.0, a collection of pros trying to dowse out a financially feasible future for writer-types. It's still early in the (extremely erratic) game, but I like what I see.