#rachel fershleiser

[atticusverses]

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[writerspit]

Not nostalgia

In the morning, I needed to go to my college to get some application forms signed. I put on my blue denim shirt ,the same I wore yesterday when we went to visit a mall to kill our time, and the same rugged blue white shaded jeans that is tighter than others that I bought to hold the tongue of those who made me double-think about my jean fitting. Got my applications printed and reached to scooty stand in hostel parking. As foreseeable as it could be, I found its seat covered with those filthy, muddy and slender limbs. I loathe those creatures. But in spite of that I worship one of them. I rubbed it with a piece of cloth. With each effort they became more and more obscure and finally enough to press my butt against it and ride my way to collage. I parked it in collage parking in front of second block still being skeptical and quashing my desires to park it beneath the trees.Because that area was wet enough to drown me four inch into the mud due to an untimely drizzle in the morning. After four months, I was walking on the same land, same grass, same gravels, same cobblestones, same pavement block and i felt nothing.Then I heard a car horn honk and I turn back. I’m still thinking what did I expect some girl asking me to hop in and offering me a quick trip to the north campus before entering  dull, tedious and weary schedule of south campus. Its not possible.Schedule is over and I had already finished that schedule seven months back after following it for three and a half year. What then nostalgia. No that’s not possible either. Because those things never happened. Whatever this feeling was, i needed to reach my training office where I have been going for four months. I needed to hurry up.  So I went into the office and asked madam to get it signed and stamped by HOD.She assured me she will get it done perhaps assuming it a work of infinite window. Well It was not.I need it by tomorrow. But I tell her this. 

After nine miles of journey, horrible security screening and grim scanning of my belongings, I reached inside the training campus. After covering few hundred meters and skipping the HR office, there came an aisle having two entry points. Each side of the aisle is surrounded by lawn. The Flowers,trees and plants I can't tell names of. I entered through one of the entry points discerning those black and white pavement blocks leading to the canteen. As I looked ahead, my view caught a series of flower baskets hanging in an unending sequence. And when that aisle ended, one flower pot was missing.  I guided myself to the canteen door and got myself on the first floor above the canteen only to find the student sitting area, a temporary dwelling place for all those interns who are themselves shirks or their mentors are, closed. In my case,we both are. Now I needed to reverse myself back to the HR office. 

As I came back treading on the same path or aisle, I again noticed that one missed flower pot and gratuitously looked for it. Stepping on those black and white blocks, I ended up with a familiar skepticism at the same point when the way scissored into two. Trying to choose my way out, I realized for the first time that none of that scissors’ hands ends at HR office front but cleverly bent around it. It was like someone paused a clapping hand while wrists touching and palms and fingers wide open and office front in the middle ready to get squeezed. And then I saw a flower. I kept looking at it. It wasn’t a flower. It was a puddle which reflected my past happenings and not-happenings.

-Ankit Kulshrestha

[authorstalker]

Edan Lepucki with Rachel Fershleiser at Books Are Magic

Allow me to set last night’s scene: Rachel was beautiful in blue and asked the best questions about Edan’s new novel, Woman No. 17. In addition to being charming and witty, Edan looked super hot in some sort of jungle jumpsuit and heels. Books Are Magic has only existed for one month and it’s already hosting my favorite book events—thank you Emma Straub!

On motherhood and writing:

Becoming a mother makes you think about your own parents and their lives before you came along. I was interested in the question of what makes a good mom, interested in people who have a history of trauma and carry that dysfunction with them.

My bad parenting days coincide with my bad writing days.

On the lit scene in Los Angeles: 

There’s a very supportive writing community, but being a novelist in LA is like being the lone physicist at an MFA party full of fiction writers. You stand out because you’re doing something different. 

The best way to find your people is to go to your local bookstore and attend their events.

The Hills are really mysterious and gross. 

Edan's past as a performance artist:

“Teen Dance” was a parody of a performance piece. I’d strip down to a flesh-colored suit, find the shyest person in the room and scream at them, “Are you staring at my camel toe?!” 

Woman No. 17 research and inspiration:

I took a speech therapist out for coffee to research Seth’s character (Seth is mute), but that’s it. If I know too much it inhibits my imagination.

When my first child was 14 months old he hadn’t talked yet. I didn’t know enough not to freak out and wondered what it would be like if he never spoke.

On technology in contemporary fiction: 

One of my goals was to make this book as contemporary as possible and to show the ways women constantly shit on themselves. I wanted to reverse the gaze. 

But how can a writer create a mysterious plot when everything today is so find-out-able (yesss, Rachel) thanks to technology? Lots of books right now are set in the 1980s and 90s to avoid the modern technology issue. 

Everyone’s not really themselves in Woman No. 17 and Twitter is another place where we’re not ourselves.

Edan’s writing process:

I’m a methodical writer—I write scenes in the order I think they’ll be read. When I hit page 100 I stop and read the manuscript to figure out what it’s trying to say.

When I’m writing a scene, I let the characters go at it (sometimes literally). Then I go to my notebook and trace what happened in the scene, and write down what questions the scene brought up.

She probably won’t write a story collection:

I find short stories painful to write. I can’t end them; you have to stick the landing with a story. Plus they’re hard to sell.

On the inclusion of animals in the books (Jaime Green asked a great question but I couldn’t write fast enough to get it down!):

I’m interested in vulnerable creatures. [Edan also said something smart about writing purposeful echoes between animals and characters in the book, but again, I wrote too slowly. Basically, the animals in the book are important!]

Edan’s current obsessions: 

Home decorating (because she’s moving); schoolhouse electric lighting; and venerable LA writer Carolyn See because California was compared to See’s novel, Golden Days. 

Edan’s book recommendations:

All of Emma Straub’s books; Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (I always recommend it even though it’s everywhere now); Marlena by Julie Buntin

The amazing Instagram project & NYT article inspired by the novel:

Mothers Before on Instagram is a photo collection of mothers before they became mothers. 

Edan wrote a New York Times op-ed about the project: “Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them.”

[electricliterature]

“The Thing Between Us” by Julie Buntin

Excerpted from the novel MARLENA

Recommended by Rachel Fershleiser

Issue No. 250

Read the full story on Electric Literature.

[kaythaney]

I’m crazy about After The Eclipse and I Am I Am I Am and truly think you’d love both.

— Rachel Fershleiser (@RachelFersh) March 18, 2018

[dans480report-blog]

A Future for Books Online: Tumblr’s Reblog Book Club by Elizabeth Minkel

January 2015, The Millions

http://themillions.com/2015/01/the-future-of-books-online-tumblrs-reblog-book-club.html

The Reblog Book Club

http://reblogbookclub.tumblr.com

This was the first source I found in my investigation, and perhaps the most important, because it describes a tangible beginning to the book community on Tumblr, which was essentially propagated by one person: Rachel Fershleiser. In 2013, she started a real book club on Tumblr, called Reblog Book Club, which, when Fershleiser left for a job at Houghton Mifflin, was working its way through its ninth read. The Reblog Book Club allowed (I’m using past tense here, because it seems that the club hasn’t been active in about a year), readers on Tumblr to come together through a book, and engage in discussion not only with each other, but with the author. On the club’s page, there’s a tab called “Ruta Responds,” which is specific to the most recent author, but was a constant for the club. Here, the author responded-- whenever she pleased-- to readers’ questions and discussions, each of which was tagged and reblogged by the official book club page itself. This created a cohesive discussion among members from all over the world, and allowed readers to interact with authors in ways that had never been seen before. 

The book club recommends this to its members: 

“Because this is a book club the Tumblr way, you can express your feelings about the book however you choose — a written review, fan art, gifs, poems, letters… Maybe you have nail art? Maybe you want to post a video blog talking through your ideas, a g-chat with a friend, or a song you think the characters would relate to? It’s all up to you! And, of course, you can reblog other people’s posts to add your own thoughts and responses. Ruta will be answering your Ask Box questions throughout the project.”

While an internet book club with real-time discussion was unique in itself, the types of engagement that were not only allowed but encouraged by Tumblr were perhaps even more unique. The book club was seeking the typical Tumblr types of fandom in the form of art that could be interpreted as literary criticism, which might not have been recognized in classical literary settings. 

And, it was successful:

“The conversations in the Reblog Book Club are nearly always civil, and usually pretty warm and engaged — something that’s particularly notable online. Perhaps it’s because Fershleiser is there to moderate, or perhaps it’s because the author is there, too, or perhaps it speaks to the kinds of readers attracted to the group. ‘This is my own little push-back against the idea that online conversation has to be mean and shallow,” Fershleiser said. “Not only are people kind and thoughtful, the conversation is nuanced and in-depth and we read complicated books about complicated characters and have complicated responses to them, and I think that’s wonderful. I want to smash it in the face of people who think that enjoying the Internet is the opposite of people enjoying real books.’”

The audience of the book club was mostly women, aged preteen and up. Of course, Tumblr users in general are younger and more female than the users of any other social media site (for specific and interesting statistics about Tumblr users see: https://kanguro.fi/blog/who-uses-tumblr-17-statistics-marketers-need-to-know-about-tumblr/). But, the audience, though widely impacted by who was already using Tumblr, was also drawn by specific authors or books which were chosen for the club. While the club began with a YA novel, it expanded its reach by choosing books that could be classified alongside other novels with older audiences. However, each of the books had one thing in common: a badass lady protagonist. 

“The titles that followed Fangirl transcended genre labels and age designations. In the book store they’d be classified as middle grade, YA, and adult, verse and prose; in reality, they’re more like a collection of books about complex female protagonists getting things done.”

It’s unclear on the blog’s official page whether or not it will continue, but regardless, it created a world on Tumblr that is still alive despite the page’s current stagnancy. 

[jennierosehalperin-blog1]

Townhall, not Shopping Mall! Community, making, and the future of the Internet

I presented a version of this talk at the 2014 Futurebook Conference in London, England. They also kindly featured me in the program. Thank you to The Bookseller for a wonderful conference filled with innovation and intelligent people!

A few days ago, I was in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, often considered the most beautiful library in the world. My enthusiastic guide told the following story:

After the Reformation (when all the books in Oxford were burned), Sir Thomas Bodleydecided to create a place where people could go and access all the world’s information at their fingertips, for free.

“What does that sound like?” she asked. “…the Internet?”

While this is a lovely conceit, the part of the story that resonated with me for this talk is the other big change that Bodley made, which was to work with publishers, who were largely a monopoly at that point, to fill his library for free by turning the library into a copyright library. While this seemed antithetical to the ways that publishers worked, in giving a copy of their very expensive books away, they left an indelible and permanent mark on the face of human knowledge. It was not only preservation, but self-preservation.

Bodley was what people nowadays would probably call “an innovator” and maybe even in the parlance of my field, a “community manager.”

By thinking outside of the scheme of how publishing works, he joined together with a group of skeptics and created one of the greatest knowledge repositories in the world, one that still exists 700 years later. This speaks to a few issues:

Sharing economies, community, and publishing should and do go hand in hand and have since the birth of libraries. By stepping outside of traditional models, you are creating a world filled with limitless knowledge and crafting it in new and unexpected ways.

The bound manuscript is one of the most enduring technologies. This story remains relevant because books are still books and people are still reading them.

As the same time, things are definitely changing. For the most part, books and manuscripts were pretty much identifiable as books and manuscripts for the past 1000 years.

But what if I were to give Google Maps to a 16th Century Map Maker? Or what if I were to show Joseph Pulitzer Medium? Or what if I were to hand Gutenberg a Kindle? Or Project Gutenberg for that matter? What if I were to explain to Thomas Bodley how I shared the new Lena Dunham book with a friend by sending her the file instead of actually handing her the physical book? What if I were to try to explain Lena Dunham?

These innovations have all taken place within the last twenty years, and I would argue that we haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of the innovations that are to come.

We need to accept that the future of the printed word may vary from words on paper to an ereader or computer in 500 years, but I want to emphasize that in the 500 years to come, it will more likely vary from the ereader to a giant question mark.

International literacy rates have risen rapidly over the past 100 years and companies are scrambling to be the first to reach what they call “developing markets” in terms of connectivity. In the vein of Mark Surman’s talk at the Mozilla Festival this year, I will instead call these economies post-colonial economies.

Because we (as people of the book) are fundamentally idealists who believe that the printed word can change lives, we need to be engaged with rethinking the printed word in a way that recognizes power structures and does not settle for the limited choices that the corporate Internet provides (think Facebook vs WhatsApp). This is not as a panacea to fix the world’s ills.

In the Atlantic last year, Phil Nichols wrote an excellent piece that paralleled Web literacy and early 20th century literacy movements. The dualities between “connected” and “non-connected,” he writes, impose the same kinds of binaries and blind cure-all for social ills that the “literacy” movement imposed in the early 20th century. In equating “connectedness” with opportunity, we are “hiding an ideology that is rooted in social control.”

Surman, who is director of the Mozilla Foundation, claims that the Web, which had so much potential to become a free and open virtual meeting place for communities, has started to resemble a shopping mall. While I can go there and meet with my friends, it’s still controlled by cameras that are watching my every move and its sole motive is to get me to buy things.

85 percent of North America is connected to the Internet and 40 percent of the world is connected. Connectivity increased at a rate of 676% in the past 13 years. Studies show that literacy and connectivity go hand in hand.

How do you envision a fully connected world? How do you envision a fully literate world? How can we empower a new generation of connected communities to become learners rather than consumers?

I’m not one of these technology nuts who’s going to argue that books are going to somehow leave their containers and become networked floating apparatuses, and I’m not going to argue that the ereader is a significantly different vessel than the physical book.

I’m also not going to argue that we’re going to have a world of people who are only Web literate and not reading books in twenty years. To make any kind of future prediction would be a false prophesy, elitist, and perhaps dangerous.

Although I don’t know what the printed word will look like in the next 500 years,

I want to take a moment to think outside the book,

to think outside traditional publishing models, and to embrace the instantaneousness, randomness, and spontaneity of the Internet as it could be, not as it is now.

One way I want you to embrace the wonderful wide Web is to try to at least partially decouple your social media followers from your community.

Twitter and other forms of social media are certainly a delightful and fun way for communities to communicate and get involved, but your viral campaign, if you have it, is not your community.

True communities of practice are groups of people who come together to think beyond traditional models and innovate within a domain. For a touchstone, a community of practice is something like the Penguin Labs internal innovation center that Tom Weldon spoke about this morning and not like Penguin’s 600,000 followers on Twitter. How can we bring people together to allow for innovation, communication, and creation?

The Internet provides new and unlimited opportunities for community and innovation, but we have to start managing communities and embracing the people we touch as makers rather than simply followers or consumers.

The maker economy is here— participatory content creation has become the norm rather than the exception. You have the potential to reach and mobilize 2.1 billion people and let them tell you what they want, but you have to identify leaders and early adopters and you have to empower them.

How do you recognize the people who create content for you? I don’t mean authors, but instead the ambassadors who want to get involved and stay involved with your brand.

I want to ask you, in the spirit of innovation from the edges

What is your next platform for radical participation? How are you enabling your community to bring you to the next level? How can you differentiate your brand and make every single person you touch psyched to read your content, together? How can you create a community of practice?

Community is conversation. Your users are not your community.

Ask yourself the question Rachel Fershleiser asked when building a community on Tumblr: Are you reaching out to the people who want to hear from you and encouraging them or are you just letting your community be unplanned and organic?

There reaches a point where we reach the limit of unplanned organic growth. Know when you reach this limit.

Target, plan, be upbeat, and encourage people to talk to one another without your help and stretch the creativity of your work to the upper limit.

Does this model look different from when you started working in publishing? Good.

As the story of the Bodelian Library illustrated, sometimes a totally crazy idea can be the beginning of an enduring institution.

To repeat, the book is one of the most durable technologies and publishing is one of the most durable industries in history. Its durability has been put to the test more than once, and it will surely be put to the test again. Think of your current concerns as a minor stumbling block in a history filled with success, a history that has documented and shaped the world.

Don’t be afraid of the person who calls you up and says, “I have this crazy idea that may just change the way you work…” While the industry may shift, the printed word will always prevail.

Publishing has been around in some shape or form for 1000 years. Here’s hoping that it’s around for another 1000 more.

[mollitudo]

Once you think more about drawing connections and less about having a megaphone, you’re basically a matchmaker.

How Rachel Fershleiser Finds Readers Where They Already Are

Talking to Rachel about books and the internet.

[wordbookstores]

The Weekly WORD, BK

WORD Brooklyn is offering up two quality book launches on 5/25.  In our Greenpoint store, we will be celebrating the release of Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe, in conversation with Rachel Fershleiser.  Meanwhile at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Manhattan, WORD is co-presenting Sebastian Junger in conversation with David Epstein, and tickets are available here.

On 5/26 WORD is hosting Bad Advice From Bad Women, a panel featuring the brilliant minds of Jenny Zhang, Lola Pellegrino, Alexandra Molotkow, Haley Mlotek, Morgan Jerkins, and Charlotte Shane.

Greenpoint Comedy Night returns on Saturday night with a full lineup of funny people and beers from Brooklyn brewery.  

[carpentrix]

One final reminder, friends. Tonight at 7 pm I'll be at Community Bookstore in Park Slope in conversation with Heidi Julavits and @rachelfershleiser. Please do come.

[unwrapping]

Tumblr... “A place to find other weirdos who were superfans of the same stuff we were.” — @rachelfershleiser, Tumblr literary evangelist [video]

[authorstalker]

Last night I was #blessed to meet author Julie Buntin and hear her read from her upcoming debut novel, Marlena. 

1) Julie is as nice as her writing is beautiful.

2) The new book cover is lovely, particularly against a blue wall, nestled between giraffes. 

3) She read from one of my favorite parts and I must remind you that I was blown away by this book and you should absolutely preorder it. Here is the IndieBound link. :) 

April 4, y’all! GET PUMPED. 

[nikkthepeyemp-blog]

I got drunk, he took advantage.

"Not Quite What I Was Planning Six word memoirs" -Nicalina Conaway

[cbfbg]

TFW you get when you get to meet @rachelfershleiser IRL at Feminist as F*uck!!!! Thank you bookternet!!

[jcadette]

It sure can.

[dans480report-blog]

What Writers Need To Know About Tumblr by Jason Boog

Adweek, March 2013

http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/what-writers-need-to-know-about-tumblr/67648

Essentially, all of this adds up to one thing: Tumblr is important for marketing books, particularly novels with strong female characters that appeal to young(er) audiences made up of women. In that spirit, the same key player, Fershleiser, gave advice to writers on Tumblr (back in 2013, but it still seems applicable). 

Here’s what she says: (with comments from me)

“Don’t get fancy with your URL.” She recommends “firstname.lastname.tumblr.com.” This makes it easy for readers to find you before, during, and after a marketing campaign of a single book. 

“Find people to follow.” If you follow book people on Tumblr, you’ll be more likely to understand the networks that have previously been created, as well as the type of engagement that readers/writers/publishers/editors have with each other on this forum.

 “Go to the Goodies page and grab a Bookmarklet for your browser.” She explains what a Bookmarklet is on her personal Tumblr: http://rachelfershleiser.com/post/16929090083/how-to-use-a-tumblr-bookmarklet-all-you-amazing. Above all, this seems important for writers whose main websites are not on Tumblr. It’s basically a button on your web browser that allows you to share outside content directly onto your Tumblr-- making it easy to write a blog post on your website or a Tweet and then immediately share it to your Tumblr without extra work. 

“Tag all your posts with relevant topics like “books” or “lit” or “Knopf” or “Rachel Fershleiser” or “Friday Night Lights.”” This is kind of obvious and it’s also a lot like Twitter; these relevant words or phrases are called “Tags” but closely resemble hashtags. They’ll make it easier for people to find your page and posts on the site. 

“Like and reblog actively.” If you do this, you’ll see what your audience is interested in, and become and active part of the community. You won’t just be a name on a book; you’ll be engaging in book conversations with people from around the world.