33 1/3 Series of books

like many others I submitted a proposal which wasn't accepted. I wouldn't have given up nor would (imho) Continuum have been unconvinced by what I would have written.

Having had my proposal for a book on Black Vinyl Shoes (and power-pop more generally) rejected a number of years ago--which, ditto, I never would have abandoned and, in my very unhumble opinion, would have been excellent--I'm glad that the secret curse I put on the entire series is finally starting to take effect.

They are still publishing books, guys, so it's not like these six or so cancels has affected output (also six cancels from six different writers doesn't seem like a lot to me). Folks get busy, get other better offers, or realize that the project isn't worth the time, I don't know, it doesn't surprise me at all. That said I am bummed that Skiz Fernando's Wu-Tang book isn't ever coming out cuz while his book on Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking sounds interesting it isn't really the same sort of reading.

Either way if your proposal is a good one, resubmit it again.

that's not how it works, Alex in SF

Sorry I'm not totally clear on the rules submission (I know they periodically do open calls). Can you not resubmit a tweaked proposal?

they pretty much only do open calls unless you're Jonathan Letham

The Who Sell Out by John Dougan

This was something of a revelation for me. Tremendously illuminating history of UK pirate radio.

As weird as it looks now, I knew a couple of fellow thirteen-year-olds who bought Roll With It.

haha – wrong thread

maybe the right one too, if I pitched this.

The author participated in that One Week One Band tumblr a week or two ago and tackled all things Portishead, not just Dummy. http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com

holy shit this site is amazing

what're normally regarded as the best? Fancy putting a few on my Xmas list...

Live At The Apollo is the bestest ime. Disagree with s. dude about Nation Of Millions tbh. If you like 69 Love Songs, that one is great, if you're not into the record it's probably of no interest.

(annoyingly it does keep directing you to a dedicated website for even more, than even on archive.org is nothing but a big imagemap with 90% of the images missing)

what're normally regarded as the best? Fancy putting a few on my Xmas list...

David Bowie, Low (I've read a dozen)

Sabbath, Throbbing Gristle, Eno are my favs (and not just because the authors post here.)

The Sabbath one hit me hard. Made my wife read it and, even though she has no use for or familiarity with the band, she was similarly moved.

Of the dozen or so I've got, the Prince, MBV, Eno, TG, Joni Mitchell & Minutemen ones are all great, the Tribe one is good although people seem a little down on the writing.

I guess I didn't like the U2 one and really couldn't get on with the Radiohead, ditching it 3/4 of the way in.

Per 33 1/3's website:

Unfortunately we are not accepting proposals at the moment. We have a bunch of awesome 33 1/3s lined up for publication in the next two years. Please check back soon.

Oh also six canceled titles since the series began is really not that bad... I worked for a publisher and there was always a book here or there that fell off the list, for any variety of reasons.

Sabbath and Celine are the best ones I've read so far but both are, for one reason or another, probably unusual for the series.

Of the straight history/critical analysis ones I've read, Bill Janovitz' one on Exile is terrific, and Philip Shaw's one on Horses has a lot of interesting pre-history (though it goes surprisingly light on the album itself).

New call for proposals.

In the middle of the Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones. A huge amount of conjecture, but somehow the writer seems to make it valid and hugely entertaining.

I'd love to read a Let England Shake one.

Damn, that's a lot of requrements.

it is actually... i guess they must get a lot of applications and want to vet only the people who are deadly serious about it. i remember applying a few years ago and it was just something like 1000 words about what you wanted to do.

Yeah, that is quite a few more requirements this time around, particularly the part about how the author is going to market it.

I was wondering why I wasn't more up for this myself this time and it hit me -- I just came off a stop-start three year project that would be a kind-of equivalent with the Disco Inferno feature in Pitchfork. So in my own way I think I've done my time!

whenever a call for new proposals comes up i think i should pitch Crazy Rhythms, but I don't think it'd sell all that well! not that i'm really the person to write it, but it sort of seems like that album belongs in this series...i'd read it, anyway.

I'd read it! I'd consider pitching, but I know the album I'd best be equipped to write about has been submitted and rejected over and over again.

yeah, i mean, i can see maybe 2,000 people being excited about a feelies book. guess it would help that there's literally no competition.
have these books always been no-advance deals? as someone who has written a (non-music) book w/o advance, it's a little bit of a drag. so far i've made about $10 in royalties.

Are y'all following Whiney/aero discussing this on Twitter? Very entertaining.

It is entertaining, both have some pretty good points about the whole thing though.

Definitely! Esp. aero's point about publishing getting hit w/what music did and this being the new normal.

Yeah, I really can't figure out if I'm Team Aero or Team Whiney at this point, because I definitely felt that kneejerk "what? there'll never be any royalties" when I saw the posting. But this is where things are right now.

Side topic, was Whiney banned again? He's noticably absent from the poll threads.

http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

helpful post, tbh

hmmm, i guess if i had the opportunity to write one of these, i could buy a zillion copies at cost and then sell them in my store forever. bound to make some money that way eventually. i could just make people buy them. guilt them into buying one.

i only have one album i'd really want to write about though and i don't know how popular it would be.

I've had oneive been writing in my head for a while now, but now that the call is up and the due date is relatively soon (relative to the lst of requirements, that is; when I submitted one in '08 thy didn't want nearly this much) I'm wondering if I'll ever have time to get enough of it own on paper.

i only have one album i'd really want to write about though and i don't know how popular it would be.

The world wants to know!

what bands haven't been covered by this series who would actually sell a bunch of books? looking over the list of already published volumes i'm drawing a blank. i guess sales could also depend on whether the writer is a "known" writer.

ned i still need to read your whole disco inferno thing. it's really long! good going, obviously.

Hey, thank ya. Still surprised it came together as well as it did.

oh but jungle brothers done by the forces of nature. its weirdly the only album i've ever wanted to write at length about. and, within that, also write about a bunch of other stuff.

The. Clash feels like one of the few titans that hasn't been covered yet, though I know that a "London calling" book has been stuck in limbo for years.

Think outside the rockist pantheon, though, and there are tonnes of major records that haven't been covered.

has anyone done an Orb/Orbital/Prodigy book?

isn't this series pretty much about the "rockist pantheon," aside from a few exceptions like the Celine Dion one?
I guess the 00s are fair game now. Is This It, by David Fricke. Sung Tongs by Carles.

Carles is clearly going to pitch the Lana Del Rey album.

isn't this series pretty much about the "rockist pantheon,"

all the more reason to think outside it

i think my reaction to the list of requirements ("ehhhh whatever then") might be demonstrative of my lack of ambition/attention span

xpost -- Rather.

There's a Sung Tongs one? Cool!

all the more reason to think outside it

Well, yeah, but the problem here becomes reconciling this with the need for a demonstrable audience for the book. Not to say that doesn't exist for records/artists outside the canon, but surely its a huge consideration.

ha, i was just making the sung tongs one (and the strokes one) up...
and yeah, thinking outside the pantheon is a good idea, just don't know if that's what the publishers are looking for. still, would be interesting to know if in the wake of the Dion book there was a flurry of offbeat pitches.