33 1/3 Series of books

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.

and this is how canons get ossified and reinforced :((((((((

sick of people talking about "canons"

I really would like to write one about Siamese Dream, but its been pitched to death so it seems like the publishers aren't interested for whatever reason.

with good reason.

damn, my self-imposed "no pumpkins bashing" rule gets broken over and over on ilm. please forgive me. but i blame anyone who mentions them, really.

love you, ned.

I fantasize about doing Secret Treaties.

I expected that from someone, tbh.

*says five hail neds*

I fantasize about doing Secret Treaties.

I would read the shit out of this!

its like a nervous tic...

Roffle.

i probably wouldn't be too interested in reading a siamese dream book (no offense jon) but it is surprising that there hasn't been a pumpkins one yet, considering that they had major commercial success, but still retain a die hard following. despite corgan's best efforts.

Someone do Blur's 13 plz

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.

tyler, why not just write a 'proper' feelies book, rather than just a 33 1/3? it might actually be easier.

despite corgan's best efforts.

The key here. But yeah, I know the band isn't cool to like anymore, but I had a really personal, intense relationship with that record and its one of the few I feel well equipped enough to write about. The Pumpkins have a really rabid following that would likely eat up a book like that, but I think the "hip" factor makes it a non-starter.

Are these for sale as eBooks at all yet? They'd be kind of perfect for the format.

I don't think so, I really keep hoping they will thugh.

why not just write a 'proper' feelies book
i dunno, wouldn't that sell even less copies? and be even more work? (see i'm clearly not the person to write this -- i need to think about the love, not the big bucks!)

Tyler is the boy with perpetual second thoughts.

how much do people tend to make out of these? how ilxors have written one?

how many, that is