Who Did You Hit with That Book Club?

Would you pay $250 a year to hire the services of a book-group facilitator? Apparently that’s just what some New Yorkers are doing. A New York Times article chronicles the troubles many book groups have–mostly with members who monopolize conversation or selecting books the whole group can agree to.

My wife and I have been part of a book group for over a year now. It was inspired by some friends who saw The Jane Austen Book Club and thought it would be fun. Five couples, mostly neighbors, meet five times a year. For each meeting a different couple selects the book we discuss, hosts the group and leads the discussion.

In addition, it costs us nothing. Our local library gets ten copies of each book on loan from other libraries.

In the course of our first year we read

The Sparrow

Children of God

Saturday Night Lights

Devil in the White City

Sin in the Second City

It’s been a good mix of fiction and nonfiction with a nice dose of Chicago-themed books. Interestingly, while each couple can choose one book a year, members have not taken this an an opportunity to impose their book taste on the group. Actually, the tendency has been to think quite hard about what books most everyone in the group would appreciate.

Sure, we could probably have more balanced discussions with quieter ones speaking up more and those of use happy to hear our own voices backing off more. (OK, I confess.) Maybe a facilitator could help us with that. But for $250 a year? As my colleague Gary Deddo said, “Only in New York City! Groups that are willing to pay for one and probably couldn’t function without it. Do facilitators have to be psychiatrists as well?”

Business Casual

In Making Room for Leadership, MaryKate Morse tells this story:

In the early eighties, my family and I returned to the United States after working in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia for several years. It was the end of the summer, and a recession was in full swing. My husband, Randy, applied everywhere for a job, but he couldn’t get one. . . . By December our savings was nearly gone, and we were getting anxious. Randy decided to do something out of character for him–he went out and bought a new, contemporary suit, shelling out a couple hundred dollars in the process. At his next job interview, dressed in his new suit, he was offered the job. We do not think that was coincidental. (p. 103)

Before the age of gender-inclusive language, the saying was, “Clothes make the man.” I used to understand this to mean that the impression people have of you is significantly based on what you wear. That is Morse’s point, and there is a good measure of truth to that.

But when I was in high school I noticed another dimension to this contemporary proverb. I discovered that when I wore a suit, others didn’t just treat me differently. I acted differently. I carried myself more erect (which my mother, who always complained about my slouching, would appreciate). I walked differently–with more purpose. I gestured differently–with more confidence. I talked differently–with a more formal vocabulary. In fact, everything about me seemed to be more formal, as if I’d aged several years just by putting on a coat and tie.

When I mentioned this recently to one friend my age, he thought that sealed the case against casual dress at work. I wasn’t so sure. Yes, professional dress can help us conduct ourselves more professionally. Sloppy dress could possibly induce sloppy work. But perhaps casual is not the same as sloppy. Perhaps neat and casual dress can help us be at once careful in our work and more relational with our coworkers.

I don’t believe how I dress at work has much effect on me now. Probably being a high school nerd, I had a much greater sense of sophistication in a suit than I do now as an adult nerd in a suit. As with most of my colleagues, my Casual Friday has turned into Casual Monday through Friday, as I rarely don a coat and tie in the office.

In tough economic times, dress tends to become more conservative. So we may see that shift in the near future as we saw in the eighties. In any case, in how we dress we will all still be balancing the value of taking ourselves (and being taken) more seriously, with the value of being approachable and relational.

Publish Without Perishing?

My colleague Sally Craft recently spotted two very different perspectives on the future of book publishing that are worth reading and pondering together.

The first, “How to Publish Without Perishing,” from a guest columnist, author James Gleick, was posted at the New York Times.

The second, “To Publish Without Perishing,” is from a guest blogger, NYU college professor Clay Shirky. This response to Gleick’s piece was posted at BoingBoing.com.

So I want to believe Gleick. But should I? You tell me.

Giving Voice

I once emceed at a conference and was responsible for handling the question and answer session after a major talk. There were about three hundred in attendance and dozens wanted to ask questions, but we only had fifteen minutes available in the schedule. I had the roving mike and raced around the room trying to get as many questions as possible but only managed about five.
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Should Book Editors Be Writers?

One of our long-term veteran editors, Linda Doll (and my coauthor of Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength.), used to tell interns and employees alike in the editorial department that if you wanted to be a writer you came to the wrong place. A book editor’s job is to edit. If you want to write, fine–do that on your own time. But don’t expect to have your cravings, yearnings, desires and dreams for writing fulfilled at the office. A harsh dose of reality? Perhaps. But reality nonetheless.
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What I Like to Read vs. What I Like to Publish

When I read on my own time, I tend to gravitate toward history, science fiction, fantasy and New Testament studies. Sometimes I’ll throw in some literary fiction or theology or management/leadership books. Sometimes I’ll read a bestseller just to see what the buzz is all about. And I always listen closely to the recommendations of friends and colleagues which can lead me into any number of genres. And if you want to see where my reading interests have taken me at any time, just check out the list on the right hand column of this page.
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Be Careful What You Wish For

In my car in recent days, I’ve been listening to Sara Paretsky’s Fire Sale, featuring her favorite detective, V. I. Warshawski.

Many fans of this genre have recommended Paretsky to me, so I thought this would be a pretty painless way to test her out. In ways the book is predictable: evangelical Christians are the bad guys–greedy, hypocritical, even violent. Or they are good-hearted but impossibly naïve.
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Ban the Next Book Clause

Every so often I am talking to an author about a potential book and he or she will say, “Well, I will have to check with my previous publisher first. In my contract I gave them first option on my next book.”

I am always amazed when I hear this. We got rid of the “next book clause” from our contracts thirty years ago. I thought such arrangements disappeared with the era of the dime novel. Apparently not.
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So You Want to Be a Book Editor?

Every so often we at IVP get asked what it takes, or how one prepares, to be an editor. The question came regularly enough that my predecessor at IVP, Jim Sire, jotted down some thoughts which we have since been passing on to folks for over two decades. His comments are just as relevant now as they were then, so here they are.

So you want to be an editor? Or, less boldly, so you want to consider being an editor? Here are some matters to take into account.
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