Nov 28, 2022·edited Sep 15, 2023Liked by Jason McBride
That's flabbergasting that you couldn't be listed in two categories. Have these book sellers never heard of Shel Silverstein, E.E. Cummings or Charles Bukowski???? Furthermore, these booksellers obviously aren't too savvy in marketing if they don't know that a multi-category listing has a higher chance of making a sale. Keep on truckin' Jason and you'll eventually find the right marketer.
Right? Some people take poetry too seriously and give it an elite status that doesn't fit with its history as a popular storytelling medium.
I think the problem I ran into was mostly automated algorithms made by short-sighted people. Retailers use some version of the same categorization system that is related to, but not identical to the good old Dewey Decimal system. The automated systems of some retailers have a hard rule that books can be in multiple categories but they must all be fiction or non-fiction, not both. Some retailers like Amazon don't have that rule and there, my books are found in poetry categories and fiction categories like adventure or horror depending on the book. Poetry is stuck in non-fiction because that's where Dewey put it. If I remember correctly, I think Apple was one of the biggest retailers to reject fiction and non-fiction listings. It may be different now.
I will definitely keep on going since I can't stop even if I wanted to :)
It's weird. If you head to the library the grown-up poetry is almost always shelved in the 800s in the non-fiction section. I suppose it's there because the pre-search engine algorithm created by the Dewey Decimal system felt it would be easier for librarians and patrons to find a volume of poetry if it was all together instead of by author last name as fiction is usually shelved.
Systems always have a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde duality.
Thanks for being a close reader! I'm kind of proud of that one-line poem.
That's flabbergasting that you couldn't be listed in two categories. Have these book sellers never heard of Shel Silverstein, E.E. Cummings or Charles Bukowski???? Furthermore, these booksellers obviously aren't too savvy in marketing if they don't know that a multi-category listing has a higher chance of making a sale. Keep on truckin' Jason and you'll eventually find the right marketer.
Right? Some people take poetry too seriously and give it an elite status that doesn't fit with its history as a popular storytelling medium.
I think the problem I ran into was mostly automated algorithms made by short-sighted people. Retailers use some version of the same categorization system that is related to, but not identical to the good old Dewey Decimal system. The automated systems of some retailers have a hard rule that books can be in multiple categories but they must all be fiction or non-fiction, not both. Some retailers like Amazon don't have that rule and there, my books are found in poetry categories and fiction categories like adventure or horror depending on the book. Poetry is stuck in non-fiction because that's where Dewey put it. If I remember correctly, I think Apple was one of the biggest retailers to reject fiction and non-fiction listings. It may be different now.
I will definitely keep on going since I can't stop even if I wanted to :)
How odd, I never really thought about poetry as fiction or NF until now.
That opening (and closing) line is a poem in itself.
It's weird. If you head to the library the grown-up poetry is almost always shelved in the 800s in the non-fiction section. I suppose it's there because the pre-search engine algorithm created by the Dewey Decimal system felt it would be easier for librarians and patrons to find a volume of poetry if it was all together instead of by author last name as fiction is usually shelved.
Systems always have a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde duality.
Thanks for being a close reader! I'm kind of proud of that one-line poem.
Jason, I was seriously trying to tap it into haiku syllables