Friday is here, and with it the Book Expo crowds. There are at least three times as many people in the Convention Center today as yesterday. I saw one man in an elephant suit, a cadre of hip-looking black-haired teenagers escorting a plush red character with X-ed out eyes, and several sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal romance booths staffed by busty women in low-cut black velvet and lace. Everyone is wearing color-coded badges so we can tell the publishers from the industry professionals from the exhibitors – though, frankly, what the difference is, exactly, can only be explained using a Venn diagram. I spent my morning weaving my way through the exhibition halls, introducing myself to writers and publishers (and, I’m sure, a few industry professionals).
Everyone was very friendly, and very interested in WEbook, with one exception – the woman at the Mystery Writers of America booth firmly rebuffed my advances, telling me that, “We’re about getting traditionally published. We’re a professional writers’ association.” Well! A glance at their website tells me that “MWA is the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction.” I guess that doesn’t include me.
My encounter with MWA reminded me of something Jeff Howe said yesterday in his talk on crowd-sourcing: The internet enables and encourages “amateur culture.” It’s no longer necessary to be a professional designer in order to get your t-shirt design recognized and created by Threadless. You don’t have to be a professional humor writer to get a cartoon caption in The New Yorker. The vast majority of people populating LibraryThing are definitely not professional librarians, which is why the site’s bibliographic information is so rich, meaningful, and downright fun.
Dictionary.com defines amateur as “a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.” The word stems from the Latin amator – lover. I’d like to think pleasure and financial benefit aren’t mutually exclusive, but in any case I’m all for loosening the boundaries that determine who can create books (or t-shirts, or cartoons, or songs). And I’d much rather read a book written by a lover than by a professional.
In other news, I never found Clay Shirky, and downtown L.A. is an empty skin of a town, with no guts, no heart, and no place to buy lunch. But the weather’s nice.
-- Melissa
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