Here’s a brief AI-generated summary:
The speaker discusses an article about the New York Times bestseller list, highlighting how one author, Sy Montgomery, self-funded a book tour and made it onto the list. The speaker notes that the list is a cultural signifier and can help authors secure future publishing deals. They also mention their own struggles with self-management and their aspirations to make a movie next year. Despite feeling overwhelmed by the pace of the world and technology, the speaker expresses a genuine interest in the people they interview and a desire to share their insights.
Hey, I’ve been just sitting here. It’s a Saturday. Just got through putting the podcast up for tomorrow, and I’m sitting here looking at this article about the New York Times bestseller list, which I think is just hilarious. Yeah. Apparently this woman put some money into an actual book tour. She went out there and just did what people did in the old days, went to bookstores. Let’s see, what does it say here?
“She hired a PR pro and self-funded a tour in 2015, charming audiences in bookshops across the country with tales of how animals can expand our consciousness.” Now, that’s not fiction, that’s nonfiction, correct? So, very interesting. Very interesting that a person would put that money into making the New York Times bestseller list. That’s what it says here.
“Sy Montgomery spends money on three things, gas, groceries, and making the New York Times bestseller list.” It says bestsellers, but I think it should be just bestseller list. You guys need a copy editor, I think. Yes. “The New York Times bestseller lists, bestseller lists of which there are weekly, monthly, and genre specific varieties have long been arbitrators of culture, shadowy mixes of dictum and data. ‘It’s a bully pulpit,’ Montgomery says. Which is to say it offers a platform, but not a golden ticket.” Yeah. Boy, you’re telling me.
Yeah. Okay. I didn’t really read this article. There is this list. They compare the New York Times and the USA Today bestseller lists. I see many of the usual suspects. I recognize a guy named Stephen King. I’ve seen that name before. Let’s see, Nelson DeMille. I know the name DeMille. I know it from the movies, anyway. John Sanford, Anne Patchett, Ken Follett, James Patterson, Mike Lupica. He writes sports, doesn’t he? Barbara Kingsolver. Yes. These are all very familiar names to me, so yeah.
“A star is born.” A star? Well …
“Gaming the list.” That’s interesting. I guess. I don’t know.
“I need to lie down.” That’s the way I feel most days. I need to lie down all the time. I just want to lie down every time I get on the internet now. Oh, where’s the part I wanted to read? Yes.
“She posted self-effacing. Wait a minute. “And when Our Violent Ends, the sequel to Delights debuted on number one [hamina, hamina, hamina] Start over, Debbi.
“And when Our Violent Ends, the sequel to Delights debuted at number one on the New York Times young adult bestseller list, Gong celebrated on TikTok with live recordings of her giggling as her editor delivered the news.” Okay. “She posted self-effacing videos, joking ‘the size of my ego when distant relatives brag about their kids going to Ivy League schools, and my grandma pulls the, “my granddaughter graduated from an Ivy League as a New York Times bestseller card.”‘” Wow.
“McGrath, the English professor points out that the list is as much a cultural signifier as it is an accurate index of what the public is reading. The tagline makes it easier for readers to find a book”—Does it?— “within today’s info glut and makes it easier for an author to convince a publisher to let them write another one.” I have not found that to be the case, but then I haven’t tried very hard to reach any agents lately.
“‘It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,’ she says ‘It has a cumulative rich get richer effect, if you’ve managed it successfully.’ Sales come and go, but a New York Times bestseller bio line is forever.” Well, that may be. Maybe there’s truth to that. I don’t know. I haven’t found that magic whatever is supposed to come with it yet, or maybe I have and I just don’t know it. I don’t know much. I’m not very good at managing myself, which is why I keep thinking maybe I need a manager. Maybe I need someone to tell me you should be doing this. Or if not a manager, at least a mentor, something, something more than just me talking. I don’t know. We’ll see where things go.
I am hoping to make a movie next year. I honestly am, and I’m going to do it despite everything I feel, which is 90% of the time pretty crappy to be honest. But I do a very good job of looking otherwise, I think. I manage to smile. I manage to be cordial to people, and I do genuinely care about the people that I talk to and interview. They really have interesting things to say, interesting advice, which is why I need to get moving on, getting those books out there that capsulize their thoughts.
Sometimes I just can’t keep up with myself or anything else, with the world, with the internet, with technology, but I try. Talk to you later. Thanks for watching.