Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer

This book is everything I needed. I'm just getting my writing career off the ground, and getting adjusted to taking advantage of the tech available for advancing my career. It is all too easy to fall in the trap of social media in the name of networking...I like that Vandermeer doesn't shy away from this fact, and, in fact, makes it quite clear with plenty of warnings which don't come off as condescending or overbearing. I mean, come on. Vandermeer is the best--so of course BookLife is everything!

Booklife is an informative guide for creating a successful and balanced writing life. VanderMeer breaks the book into two sections: Public Booklife, covering marketing elements, and the Private Booklife, focusing on the writing process - while emphasizing the importance of creating an authentic balance between the two.The first section delves into online platforms and media opportunities including blogs, social networking (Twitter, FaceBook), book trailers, reviews, podcasts, and dedicated book / author websites, and provides insights to select the most effective and honest strategy. VanderMeer recommends setting goals and outlines how to create detailed plans. In part two, he discusses writing and revision, how to deal with rejections, and setting work schedules. This well-organized, thoughtful book concludes with more than 100 pages of appendices filled with information from and about agents, booksellers, editors, publicists, and published writers.

Just like the name of this book states, the focus and the examples are on writing and books. However, Booklife works as a practical guide also for anybody building their career in the networked online world. VanderMeers book fills the void of scarce ideas and advice on how to keep the public career self and private self separate but mutually supporting - without getting bitten in the behind later by the public self.VanderMeer writes with a warm and gentle voice, and emphasizes the importance of honesty, to one self and to others. Even if you are not a writer or don't even aspire to be one, this book can give you fresh ideas for your chosen path. And also very interesting insight into the world of book publication.

This book covers an amazing amount of ground, from big topics to small, and everything in between. As someone who had to figure out a lot of things for myself (when I started out writing a few years ago), I can appreciate the massive amounts of accumulated experience collected in this book, and I would recommend it to any writer, but especially those who don't have the benefit of a formal support structure, like a writing group or writing program. Even those parts that weren't applicable to my circumstances were enjoyable; in the solitary act of writing, it is nice to be able to open this book to almost any page and feel like you are having a conversation with a really smart, really helpful writer.

I found this book a little wordy. Probably much longer than it needed to be. Useful, but not a great resource. Finding tips and strategies will require some digging. The layout is visually pleasing but the information could have been arranged more formally, which would have made the tips and strategies easier to come by. It took me several days to read it through. The information is given in a very personal way, but it ends being not useful to the average writer, and author, seeking to gain understanding of the brave new world of publishing. I judge non-fiction or how-to books by the number of "dents," which for me means the number of highlighted passages, post-it-noted pages, and paper clipped or dog-eared pages. This book had few dents.

I've read and re-read and referred to this book many times since I first purchased it in 2011. By now it is heavily dog-eared, highlighted, sticky-noted, coffee and rain (yes)-stained. It remains one of my main go-to writing life advice resources. Highly recommended for writers and authors at all stages of the writing life.

Some details haven't aged well (e.g., MySpace). There's so much more to this book, though. I highlighted and bookmarked repeatedly! Useful and entertaining for writers at many stages of their careers.

Booklife is a nicely detailed book that outlines the new landscape of writing and publishing for the 21st Century. It makes the promotion and participation less intimidating. It is encouraging, even if you only do one or two of the suggestions. It is fabulous. Thank you Jeff Vandermeer!