Anyone catch the reference to Joe The Plumber’s search for a book deal, as reported on last night’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann? In case you missed it, here’s a bit from Keith Olbermann’s related blog entry over on Daily Kos:
I just managed to drop this in to tonight’s “Campaign Comment” and there aren’t a lot more details to be had, but I learned during Countdown tonight that Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher is now seeking a deal to write a book about his campaign experience.
This is from an unimpeachable source in the publishing industry, past whom very little in the field, gets. Good old all-American Joe, who has no motive whatsoever but keeping the electorate informed, who is the salt of the earth and the definition of America (now that Governor Palin isn’t, any more) is hoping to cash in.
So, my fellow writers . . . most of whom have been writing for years, working hard to secure representation, and striving to perfect your craft to persuade an agent to take you on and/or a publisher to invest in your work . . . politics aside, how ya feelin’ now?
Me, I’ll be putting a sign up in my yard offering my services as a plumber. It’s only fair — because, after all, anyone can do that, too, right?
Brian Jay Jones 
Oh, you didn’t just touch a nerve, you’re tapdancing on it to the merry tune of MWAH HA HA HA HA.
So unfair.
Over here, a model was interviewed about what she’d like to with her future, and she rattled off a list of Z-list celebrity aspirations like being on Big Brother, becoming a TV show hostess, sponsoring her own perfume and of course (of course) she’d write a novel someday.
I kept hoping I would happen to meet her on a city street, just so I could deck her. It would have been worth the jail time. Because you know that with her already-famous name, her “novel” of whatever unedited and unpolished crap she chose to write, would be published without question or even a query letter.
ARGH and argh again.
I would have liked Joe better if he’d come out with his own line of plumber accessories, like toilet plungers in his own likeness.
You know?
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I forget who, but an author recently blogged about her doctor saying he’d like to take a few months off to write a novel. She replied that she’d been thinking about taking a few months off to practice medicine.
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Wha???
Where did the vengeful irony come from?
I’m agented-yet-still-unpublished and I don’t wish the guy ill. Heck, more power to him. (Granted I’d respect him more if he wrote it himself sans ghost, but…)
C’mon. That book is money on the table — just waiting to be picked up. I’d pick it up.
Celebrity found S.J.W. the P. Maybe he sought it or maybe it just happened, but you can’t begrudge the guy for cashing in on his 15 minutes.
I don’t begrudge Cindy Shehan writing a book, exploiting/explaining the death of her soldier son. In the end, nobody bought it. Nobody bought Nancy Pelosi’s book either. I doubt many people are going to plunk down 27 clams to read the insights of a plumber from Ohio.
Come February, nobody is going to want to talk election politics for a long loooooong time.
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Susan: Plumber accessories! Now THERE’S an idea!
Stephen: *inserts rimshot appreciatively*
Dwight: Was that vengeful? Sorry, didn’t mean it to be. I’m sure you’re right, in that politics is skewing my persepective on EVERYTHING at the moment. I don’t begrudge Joe — he didn’t ask for this, so of course he’ll milk it — but I’m always disappointed that people think a book is something just ANYONE can crank out as part of their 15 minutes. But I’ll get over it.
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That’s exactly where I’m coming from: it’s the any-fool-can-write-a-book attitude that we all run into, over and over again, that’s so frustrating, and sometimes demoralising.
I *love* Stephen’s comment, and I’m going to remember that comeback!
And I thank Dwight, for the reminder that publication doesn’t equal success. I’d love to know his advance though…
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I agree with Dwight. Just look at David Iglesias, he couldn’t run the US Attorney’s Office and he has a book and a tour. Iglesias got fired for not indicting a politically connected man who, under a new US Attorney, has pled guilty and will spend five years in prison for swindling NM out of MILLIONS!! But no, Iglesias (who was/is a questionable attorney) has a National “book tour” and an alleged movie deal. No one–but me, a lowly book reader and not writer–is up in arms about that!
Glass Houses are not only hard to clean, but invite censure.
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Grr: Actually, I think you’re taking MY side on this one, and not Dwight’s. I won’t presume to speak for Dwight, but the way I understand his position, he would say of Iglesias, “Great! That’s money on the table — take the book deal and go for it while you think there’s still an audience for you.”
What if Iglesias (or JTP) had said instead, “You know, my story is so compelling, I think I’ll put together a band, write some songs, and go into a recording studio and cut a CD.” Everyone would be scratching their heads, going, “Where did THAT come from? What suddenly makes him a songwriter/musician?” But when they announce they’re writing a book, no one even blinks.
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BJJ: I was going to do a blog post about this when I heard Joe might be getting a book deal but I was too busy with school.
BTW, did you see Gloria Vanderbuilt has a first novel coming out?
These are the very reasons I’ve become the world’s oldest living grad student studying forensics – cause these days getting a book published is ALL about platform – it doesn’t matter how well you write (or if you even use adverbs! lol) – it’s ALL about how many “fans” aka non-readers you can get to buy your book (even if they don’t really intend to read it) or care if it’s badLY written or are discerning enough a reader to get that the book sucks.
It seems these days it’s all about getting people who aren’t capable of judging a book for its merits to buy a book – they won’t notice if a book is badLY written.
If I ever get a book deal it won’t be because I’m a card carrying member of the NY liberal elite, but because of my (soon-to-be) street cred as a criminal investigator – my “platform.”
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JD: IndubitabLY.
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