There’s no such thing as The One All-Purpose Guide to writing any more than there is for any other topic- you mix and match information from a multiplicity of sources, all with divergent angles from which they’re coming at the basic idea. Jeff’s concentration in Booklife (as I gather it from the smattering of reviews/not-reviews/discussions I’ve read online thus far) on the matter of authorship-as-career rather than writing-as-process is a point of view that I’ve been missing so far.

As a fiction writer, I live and work in a near total vacuum. I have no readers, no feedback to cull. As a newly-minted online “presence,” I am practically nonexistent… which is really perfectly fine; I have no burning desire to have a spotlight swung in my direction. But I am often distracted by the sheer enormity of online information to the point of paralysis, and I am continually dogged by the usual demons, you know: doubt, despair. Yes, I manage to assemble my sentences and meet a weekly, contractual deadline; the pages go out, the pages are ultimately read by someone, somewhere. But at times I feel I might as well be Robinson Crusoe.

For several months now, I have been a regular reader of VanderMeer’s blog, ECSTATIC DAYS. It is readily obvious that Jeff is passionately committed to the process of writing. Not fame, writing. He displays by example the daily—even hourly—grappling of the words and the work and the precision of language required; even a casual reader will be struck by VanderMeer’s commitment to story and fiction, and glean straightaway that writing is most likely the most vital part of his life. I have come to trust Jeff’s careful and reasoned analysis of many charged and fraught issues; while he is certainly equipped with the wit and the wherewithal to thrust his own “persona” into the center ring, he has time and again focused on the issue at hand. His concerns are ultimately about the work. The work, the words, the books, and a life spent consumed with all three. Indeed, as he states in his comment above, his body of fiction stands as evidence of this ideal.

So yes, though I am bereft of readers and I yearn for comrades, I am continually and selfishly grateful for the example set—and the daily victories won—by Jeff VanderMeer. I don’t always agree with him, I don’t want to “be” him… but I am damn glad he is in there punching the blank page every day.

I’m going to buy this book, I look forward to BOOKLIFE. I expect it will help me find my way—my own way—as a writer in 21st century.

I just ordered Finch and Booklife together from Amazon, and I’ve got to say, the price was right! I’ve noticed some trends in Jeff’s books – fine, satisfyingly literate writing in genre settings; quality art on the book covers and tie-in products; and now – highly competitive pricing. You can’t beat a combination like that!

The fact is, I agree with much of what Crispin says about how you should approach writing and a writing career, and nothing in Booklife works against that. I absolutely believe in the integrity of the writing first and foremost. Booklife, in terms of your career, just gives writers a series of mix-and-match strategies they can use in support of that creativity–and also half the book is devoted to very personal things connected to creativity.

I’m deeply confused and saddened by Crispin’s misreading of the book, which at times seems willful. Her definition of “ally,” for example, is the same as mine of “contact.” If anything I go further by stating that “contacts” are really opportunities for collaborations and other acts of creativity. She misrepresents also the five minimum elements for success by discussing it out of context–it’s five minimum elements for doing publicity if you want to opt out of doing much at all, in favor of being a hermit-type writer, that’s all. It’s providing an option for the writer who really doesn’t want to do PR but feels simultaneously horrible about not doing any PR for their book. It’s not a cynical you-must-do-these-things-to-be-a-successful writer list.

I appreciate you offering up some of the quotes on my blog about the book as a balance. The fact is, though, that Crispin has done my book a huge disservice just because, as she more or less admitted in a follow-up Bookslut entry, she was depressed about her own career.

I don’t ever think of anything in writing in a cynical way and this is a terrible misreading of the book.

Nor is there anywhere in Booklife where I don’t demonstrate how devoted I am to the idea of the personal act of writing. My entire body of fiction is evidence of this ideal.

Jeff VanderMeer