the message

Yesterday I finished Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger, and it completely blew me away.

Now, I love a lot of books. In fact, it's rare that I dislike a book at all. But there are some that just strike you on a whole different level, and I Am the Messenger is one of those.

It wasn't because of the plot. For example, a few books before this I read Ben Mezrich's Busting Vegas. Now, I'm not knocking this book in any way. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, and literally grinned the entire time I was reading (when I wasn't cringing-- things get dicey, no pun intended). But even if Mezrich didn't have a mastery of storytelling, I was already predisposed to love it, just like I was predisposed to love Ocean's 11, even it wasn't the greatest movie ever made. Trying to beat the casinos? Perfection. But even though I Am the Messenger, the story of underachieving, underage cab driver Ed Kennedy, whose life is turned upside down when he begins receiving mysterious messages forcing him to act in his community, had a completely engrossing storyline, it wasn't that that affected me so deeply.

It wasn't the characters, either, though they were quirky, complex, entertaining, and real. While there was no passionate crush this time, I certainly had a favorite character, and during this character's climax I literally welled up with tears of happiness. Yes. My favorite character literally made me cry tears of joy, and it still wasn't the characters that kept me reeling all day with the power of the novel.

It was the writing. Writing that lets you know you're in the shadow of true genius. Writing so phenomenal that you miss subway stops because you can't pull yourself out of the story. Writing so beautiful that you're emotionally on edge the rest of the day. Writing so amazing that you (I) realize all over again exactly why being an author is the most important thing in the world.

I could go on for pages about it, of course. I could write about how unique his style is; how I love that the senses are used in unconventional ways for stunning description, like tasting joy; how the carefully placed breaks only emphasize the power of the words themselves. But I won't, because, as you may have guessed by now, this isn't a book review.

Even if you hadn't guessed, you may have been thinking that the titles I mentioned sound familiar. Well, you're right.

Ben Mezrich is a New York Times bestselling author of many books, including Bringing Down the House (another great read), the basis for the movie 21, and The Accidental Billionaires (on my to-read list), the basis for the movie The Social Network.

And, of course, there's Markus Zusak. I Am the Messenger won several awards, but you're probably thinking of The Book Thief, another stunning read (and incredible bestseller) about a girl growing up in WWII... narrated by Death himself.

You may be wondering what's going on here. After all, isn't this a blog about saving mid-list authors?

Technically, yes. Absolutely. But it's more than that, too. Because specifically, it's not about contracts, or sales, or the business of publishing, or even the mid-list and the writers who reside there. It's about the written word, and the power it can hold. It's about those beautiful moments of clarity when your life is personally affected by a book. When a manuscript grabs a hold of you and doesn't let go for years. And it doesn't matter whether the writer is bestselling Richard Adams or mid-list Hilari Bell. The point is that even after reading Adams' Watership Down 15 times (the hailed "modern classic" and "modern epic" is one of my all-time favorites),my heart still beats faster with nerves every time I get to the chapter "Fear in the Dark" -- even though there shouldn't be any suspense, because I not only know what happens, I can quote it. The point is that I couldn't read another book for two days after finishing Bell's Player's Ruse, because the ending was such an emotionally charged whirlwind involving a character written so well I have a bordering-on-unhealthy crush on him.

So the point of this blog is not to fight for an abstract, the vague "mid-list." The point is to make sure that the books that affect us don't fade into oblivion. And sometimes they don't need our help, because they sell like Harry Potter books. Sometimes, they are Harry Potter books.But sometimes these books are on the mid-list, which is suffering. So we have to make sure that they survive to touch someone else's life, and we have to make sure the category of mid-list survives, so that more authors are given the opportunity to change our lives.

And that's why I made this blog. I'm going to continue reading whatever strikes my fancy, both best-seller and mid-list, but I'm only going to review mid-list books. Not only that, though-- the mid-list books that I really stand behind,the ones that really made me laugh, or think, or feel.

The ones that really deserve it.

And remember, you can help too: support your favorite mid-list authors, spread the word, follow me on twitter, and email an original review to doingitwrite@gmail.com for a guest spot on my blog. And keep reading. As nerdy as it sounds, having your eyes fill with tears of joy is everything it's cracked up to be.

publishing, the power of social networking, and other stuff too

The obvious: It's super important to garner interest for mid-list authors if we want to keep them on the shelves. The more people that are interested, the more money bookstores and publishers will make, the more likely publishers will pick up the books, and fight to keep them in chain bookstores.

The Not-So-Obvious: To really make a difference, you have to know exactly what you're dealing with, and that's the process it takes to get a book on a shelf. I've realized, today, that I know less about that than I thought I did.

I'm not saying anything about the process either way. What I am saying is that I need to be more informed to figure out the best capacity in which I and others can help.

But in the meantime...

Okay, I know what you're thinking: Why the heck is this girl blogging about books? She is clearly the Next Great Talent in the art world.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. And really, it's no big thing. I just threw it together in a few minutes.

But I'm not here to talk about me. That's for the future visitors of the Louvre to do. For now, I'm going to talk more about what we can do spread the word and gain interest for our favorite mid-list authors and books.

There's this blog, of course, where I will continue to post reviews of some of my favorite mid-list books. Also, if you write an original review and email it to me at doingitwrite@gmail.com, I'll try to post it on the blog in a special "Guest Reviewer" post (so email me your name and any info you'd like posted about yourself). This should help get the word out about books that we love, and hopefully others will fall in love with them too, spreading the word, buying the books-- a domino effect.

But there are other ways to spread the word outside of word-of-mouth and following (and telling your friends to follow) this blog. And it's all in the hands of two superheroes, Facebook and Twitter, who, in a rare moment, posed for me and let me render their actual selves to the world for the first time.

I created my Twitter account just to try to drum up interest for the blog, but then I panicked and thought that all of the followers I worked so hard to get would probably un-follow me if the only thing I tweeted was "new post." Now, while it will still be primarily to try to get people to read this, I've also begun posting about books I'm currently reading (since I mostly read mid-list authors, anyway) and other mid-list books I enjoy. There will be more of these than reviews, because they take far less time to write. (The length of my posts so far should make it pretty obvious that this "140 characters" business doesn't really fly with me.) So follow me on Twitter and hear about books and the blog. Also, if you follow me, more people might follow suit and see the blog and... domino effect again.

And then there's Facebook. Join fan pages for books and authors that you love, creating tangible proof that there are many people who love a certain book/author. Spread the word about your favorite books and authors, and about the plight of the mid-list author. The more people that read the books we love, and the more people who know the situation, the more we can do to help.

Social networking can have its drawbacks, but it's powerful, too. It's a fast, simple way to spread word about an issue to so many people, and so quickly.

Let's face it-- if you were that good, you'd wear a cape, too.

And now, a note here about other things.

First let me begin this note with a shout out. As you know if you've read my first post, this entire thing started when I received a response to an email I'd sent to author Hilari Bell. After I created the blog, I emailed both Hilari Bell and Michael Gerber, the authors of my favorite series' in trouble (see my reviews of their books in the posts below). I told them about the blog and sent the link, and both responded the next day. They were incredibly nice, supportive, and basically awesome-- and I would like to thank them both for that. Additionally, it was actually Mr. Gerber who made me realize that I know less about the publishing business than I thought.

And so now I have this to say. Contact your favorite authors. Let them know that you love their books, and see if they're up to anything. I know that neither Bell nor Gerber are idle. Bell is working to get more publicity for the Knight and Rogue series in order to save Michael and Fisk, and Gerber is planning on launching a new project that will directly connect author and reader, without all the red tape (meaning that fewer numbers will be needed to ensure that the series continues). Keep informed about what authors are doing for their books, and support them. Neither of these projects mentioned are launched yet, but if you're an author and have a plan, or are a reader who comes across a plan, I'd be happy to re-post links on here.

And remember, keep reading. Keep telling people about the books you love, and send me reviews! I can't do it all here, people-- I have my budding stardom as an artist to deal with. ; )