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I was sorry to hear that Frank Wilson, longtime editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s book coverage, has left the paper.

Frank was a lovely guy, a sharp dresser with a courtly manner and a wry sense of humor who presided with equanimity over all manner of upheaval and dismantlement, cutbacks and buyouts, and personnel changes at the paper (once upon a time, the Inquirer had a freestanding book section. Those were the days…).

I had the pleasure of writing the occasional book review for him when I was a reporter at the Inquirer. As a novelist, I was lucky enough to be the recipient of his generosity toward Philadelphia authors, who could depend on the Inky for regular, rigorous reviews.

Under Frank’s leadership, the Inquirer covered a broad range of books, from mysteries and memoir to poetry and YA. The paper would weigh in on the big books, but never seemed to suffer under the notion that if they didn’t review the latest by Philip Roth or Michael Chabon at the exact same moment, and in precisely the same way, as the rest of the critical establishment, they’d be taken outside and beaten.

Frank was generous to authors, but even more so to book bloggers, many of whom found their first in-print home on the Inquirer’s pages. That’s notable, given how many editors persist in peering down from their crumbling perches and dumping boiling oil on the barbarians at the gates.

I hope he’ll enjoy great success at whatever he turns his talents to next…and I look forward to keeping up with his adventures on his blog.

In other news, along with everyone else in lit-land, I’m enjoying the orgy of coverage – and the subsequent orgy of analysis of the orgy of coverage – that Charles Bock is receiving.

Bock, and his debut novel BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN, have been the subject of much attention from the New York Times – a breathless profile, a Valentine on the front of page of the NYT Book Review, followed by a much-less-impressed review in the daily paper – all of which has bitter, envious writers (which is to say, all of us) spinning ever-wilder conspiracy theories (his editor’s wife’s cousin once co-wrote a proposal for a cookbook with the Times’ editor’s first wife, and that’s why he’s getting so much press!)

I’m not convinced there’s a conspiracy here. Bock is the same writer the Times always falls for. Sometimes his name is Jonathan, and sometimes his name is Benjamin, or Gary, but he’s basically the same guy: white, male East Coast wunderkind poised to write the Next Big Book.

In fact, Bock sounds like a composite of the Times’ previous boycrushes: there’s a whiff of James Frey’s tattooed bad-assery leavened with Jonathan Safran Foer’s disarming boyishness; a bit of Jonathan Franzen’s relationship-wrecking obsessiveness, tempered by the Tom Perrotta-style revelation of a semi-shameful ghostwriting gig (Perrotta did R.L. Stine; Bock ghost-wrote Shaquille O’Neal’s autobiography).

However, there’s a difference between Bock and the paper’s other loves: namely, early evidence of greatness.

With Frey and Franzen, you had the big boast, backed up by big advances, film and foreign sales, and bookseller’s excitement (and, eventually, the Oprah endorsement). With Safran Foer and Perrotta, you had the glowing reviews, book-to-film adaptations, and strong sales of earlier work.

Bock’s advance was relatively modest, the pre-publication and early reviews were mixed, and the profile didn't mention film or foreign sales. As evidence of Bock's book's bigness, the Times offers that his editor's really excited, that his publisher put foil on its cover, that Bock has befriended many other important New York writers, and that he worked really, really hard for a really long time on Beautiful Children, which strikes me as an argument best advanced by well-meaning grandmas, not the paper of record.

Every writer who didn’t complete his or her book in college, grad school, or while on some cushy fellowship, wrote it while holding down a day job and managing relationships with relatives and loved ones. Which means that every writer has some version of the worked-so-hard-and-sacrificed-so-much story.

Personally, I’m more impressed by the mothers of young children who write their first novels books without agents, MFAs, fellowships, grants, and the encouragement of the assembled NYC literati than I am by a writer who had all of those things at his disposal. Getting up at four in the morning to write before getting the kids up and fed and dressed is more compelling than skipping date night at the Half King to stay home and slave over your opus.

I’m trying to put aside the hype and just enjoy the book, but it’s not easy. Once the effort it took to write the book becomes an intrinsic part of the narrative then every page, every paragraph, every sentence begs the question: Was it worth it? Did it pay off? Can I smell eleven years’ worth of sweat in every adverb and each adjective?

It’s like going to a restaurant and ordering a hundred dollar steak. With every bite, you’ll be asking: Is it good? Really good? Really really good? A hundred dollars’ worth of good? Is it exponentially better than the steak I normally get at the place around the corner? Can I taste the pesticide-free grass and filtered spring water the cow was enjoying in every morsel?

We’ll see…but so far I’m worried. There’s an awful lot of graphic sex which has me thinking things like, Five labial piercings? That seems a little excessive. I wonder if there were only four in the Year Seven draft. Or, Oh, wow, a fat person being compared to Jabba the Hutt. That hasn’t been fresh since India Knight did it in MY LIFE ON A PLATE.

But, like I said, trying to read with an open mind. Trying! Trying really really hard!

First of all, a big welcome to all the GalleyCat readers coming through The Publishing Spot today. It's a real honor to meet all these new people.

Over at GalleyCat, Ron Hogan has been running some fabulous self-publishing advice, and I dug through our archives to bring out some more wisdom from writers I interviewed here. Here are my Top Five Self-Publishing and Print-on-Demand Links... 

1- Richard Grayson- This New York writer rescued his book, With Hitler In New York using the print-on-demand Back in Print bookstore at the Authors Guild--allowing us to savor every surreal page.

2- Victoria Strauss- This professional novelist blogs about the pitfalls of self-publishing at Writer Beware!--debunking myths about the profitability and popularity of our humble profession. Read this essay for more cautionary tales.

3- Nick Mamatas- This science fiction writer took his first novel and re-packaged it as a web project with a Creative Commons license. His project spawned a conversation that included novelists like John Scalzi and Charles Stross.

4- M.J. Rose- This writing and marketing guru (with a number of self-promoted books under her belt) runs some of the smartest book marketing websites on the Internet--helping self-published and published authors alike. Here's a sample essay about self-publishing.

5- Josh Kilmer-Purcell- While this memoirist landed a deal with a publishing company, he did it through the support of The Memoirists Collective, a band of supportive writers (that he helped build) who helped each other self-publicize their books.

Do you have a success story to add? Drop us a line in the comments section and I'll summarize the best posts next week. 

It's the eve of the National Book Awards--one of the most dramatic honors a published, well-respected writer can receive--and I'm writing about self-publishing.

I think the hype around bestsellers and the hullabaloo surrounding writing awards creates the false impression that writing will somehow make you rich and famous. If you're thinking about self-publishing, don't do it because you're looking for money and awards--it's dangerous lie that will distract you from the love of writing that got you here in the first place.

Over at Writer Beware, novelist Victoria Strauss is blogging about the pitfalls of self publishing, debunking myths about the profitability and popularity of our humble profession. Read her essay and follow the links as you think about print-on-demand or self-publishing. Take your morning dose of reality:

"Brunonia Barry's self-pubbed debut novel ... has garnered a lot of press and spawned a flurry of blog posts. (Scratch a self-publishing success story, though, and you usually find a special circumstance of some sort--this article enumerates some of the advantages Barry had that most self-pubbed authors don't.) ... there are the shills trying to make a buck on the writerly pipe dreams that inevitably result from this kind of hype."

I'll be covering the National Book Awards with Marydell, Levi Asher, Ed Champion, and Sarah Weinman, but I won't be looking for get-rich-quick or get-famous-quick schemes. I'll come back with practical stories about how to keep writing because you love it, not because you expect to win the novel-writing lottery.

So you want to go to writing school, but you can't afford to leave your job and become a graduate student. In the past, only trust-fund kids could afford that kind of move.

Not anymore.

Erika Dreifus, the practicing writer guru (and Five Easy Questions graduate), is offering her low-residency handbook for free this month. Her Primer on Low-Residency Programs will introduce you to all the creative writing schools that allow you to work from home on your degree. (Thanks, Tom Kealey) 

After reading a few of her short stories, I watched Miranda July's wonderful little film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. She's a great writer to watch. BookSlut has a great interview that explores July's unique, inspiring writing style.

The founder of the groundbreaking print-on-demand company, Lulu.com, is interviewed in the Guardian this weekend, giving an look at the economics of digital publication. Check it out:

"'You've got to pump at least 30,000 books through it every month just to pay the lease costs. Everyone understood this, but they didn't realise that it wasn't a question of 30,000 of the same book, or six runs of 5,000 books: it could be 30,000 completely different books, one at a time.' Lulu's average print run for a book is 'less than two'."

(Thanks to Poetry Hut for the link)