Crowdsourcing and Literary Merit

January 6, 2010

crowdsourcing_title

Crowdsourcing: good thing, bad thing? The FT has an interesting, if short, piece on one lucky author who benefitted from the arrival of a very Web 2.0 phenomenon in the literary world. Miranda Dickinson’s Fairytale of New York was one of more than 10,000 manuscripts uploaded to an online “slush pile” launched in September 2008 by publishers HarperCollins. The putative authors submit to having their work reviewed by some 135,000 online readers, who, says the FT, have replaced “the handful of editors” who used to perform this task. Ms Dickinson’s work failed to reach the top 70 but was nevertheless spotted and her literary career has now begun.

We asked a reasonably well-known, long-published British author for her views on crowdsourcing in the literary realm. Her response was not as condemnatory as we expected, though it may nevertheless ruffle a few feathers:

“Everyone knows that publishers’ slush piles are traditionally overseen by pretty young things with thirds in English from indifferent universities. They read the first sentence of an MS and if by some miracle their attention is not diverted by discussion of what happened at the cocktail bar the night before, or the appearance of a handsome postboy, they might even read a whole paragraph. If, by then, they are still vaguely absorbed they will read another paragraph or two, but even then plenty can stop them from turning the page. If they do, and find they like what they’re reading, they refer it on to someone who actually understands literature, an editor. If they don’t, they have the power to write the “Thank for thinking of us but your novel is not suitable for our list – best of luck elsewhere” rejection letter. The point is that the process by which a literary work surfaces from the slush pile is hopelessly hit and miss. Crowdsourcing is probably an improvement on this.”

Our author pleaded for anonymity, and we will respect her wishes. It seems to us that though her views are trenchant and somewhat cynical, she has a point. However, one man who isn’t so keen on crowdsourcing is Canadian writer Bill Casselman, at whose eminently readable website we discovered the arresting image above. Casselman specialises in Canadian etymology but has some hard-hitting views on crowdsourcing.

 

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The Sea: A Holy Hush?

July 25, 2010

For a certain poet, an unspoiled stretch of seaside was like “the holy hush there is in the land on Christmas morning. The roads fairly empty, the sky almost free of aeroplanes and you begin to hear and see and smell once more”.

But who uttered these lines?

(It’s a Monday, and this is your starter for 10 – and yes, we’re fresh to the metropolis, from a coastal sojourn.)

Alastair Brett: Certainly Not Certifiably Insane

July 23, 2010

The following words appeared in a Times article in 2003, about the paper’s recently departed Head of Legal, Alastair Brett. They’ve been doing the rounds in the wake of Brett’s sudden exit last week, though without attribution. Who, we wonder, wrote them? Two suspects present themselves – our own occasional scribe, Alex Wade, and Dominic Carman, son of the late, great George (an old mucker of Brett’s). Or was someone else the author? Whatever: the fact remains that Brett was a fearless, tenacious and excellent newspaper lawyer, a man whose commitment to press freedom coursed through every vein in his body. We don’t know the precise reasons for his departure, but he will be missed.

“[He] is known for his impassioned commitment to press freedom – so impassioned that he has been described as “certifiably insane”. Capable of an intimidatory snarl or two, and prepared to be stubborn, Brett is far from mad. He is erudite, charming (so the ladies say), and not known for sitting on the fence. If his sanity has, tongue firmly in cheek, been questioned, one thing not open to doubt is that Brett epitomises the old school Fleet Street lawyer”.

Pictured: Fleet Street -  not the same as it used to be.

Black in the black if he wants to sue for libel

July 23, 2010

A curious observation leaps at us from Roy Greenslade’s piece about whether Conrad Black, shortly to roam the high-class hotels of the world again as a free man, will return to the UK and carry out his threat to sue his biographer, Tom Bower, for libel:

I somehow doubt that he would have the appetite, or the funds, to pursue a libel action, but Black marches to the sound of his own drummer, so he might just do that. Even if he did, my money would still be on Bower winning.

Hang on, Roy – what about suing via a no win, no fee deal? Funds or no funds, a CFA would see Conrad through – though maybe he’ll remember what happened to the last press baron who sued Bower. Anyone for Richard Desmond’s curious dalliance with libel?

Pictured: the kind of place in which Conrad Black may be spotted (if not at the Royal Courts of Justice).