Word DJ
Written by David on April 19th, 2009In his post reacting to Jason Weaver’s piece on post-punk publishing last week, Mike Cane pointed out that books, along with being inherently more difficult to sample than music, don’t have any true equivalent to the DJ.
“What’s the equivalent of a DJ for a writer or book? A reviewer? Which reviewer and where?”
The growth of electronic publishing will mean that an ever increasing number of people, liberated from the authority of the traditional gatekeepers, will be able to publish their work. That’s a good thing. Probably the biggest negative of this phenomenon, however, is that it will become increasingly difficult for readers to discover the good stuff among all the “sludge.”
Book reviewers don’t really do this job. They write about the book itself but typically offer only small samples. They usually only look at newly published work and, with some exceptions, only touch books published by established publishing houses. Plus, I don’t see our current conception of a “book” staying the same for too much longer. In an e-dominant world, written content will come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I’ve previously spoken of the possibility of “super readers,” but here I’ve included a bit more detail. I’m not sure whether any of this would actually work, but it would be interesting if some people tried a little somethin’ like this:
- Just as with traditional music DJ’s, a “word DJ” would have a fairly consistent taste (though not necessarily a niche or genre) and people with a similar taste would follow the word DJ’s who share their own taste and who do the best job of turning them on to new stuff.
- Rather than simply making recommendations, the word DJ gives significantly sized samples of whatever kind of work fits in with the DJ’s specialty. Fiction or non-fiction. Samples from books, samples from short stories or articles that might be published only online and even samples from poems (or entire poems).
- The word DJ would most certainly not limit herself to newly published work. Any work from any period could potentially be included.
- As with music DJ’s, some word DJ’s would have a narrow focus and some would be more ecclectic.
- Also as with music DJ’s, some word DJ’s would focus upon one written work at a time, while others might do “remixes” that cut up and mix together work from various writers and works.
- The true purpose of the word DJ is to take their readers on a journey, not to evaluate written works critically.
- The word DJ does not to tell his readers “Go buy and read this ENTIRE book.” In many cases, readers will go and buy and read the entire book, but they will often be content to read only the sample.
- Everything that is sampled would have a convenient link to purchase the entire work. The word DJ’s could even get an affiliate-type commission.
- Word DJ’s would need to sample much larger segments of a work than would normally be permissible under “fair use.” Wise writers and their publishers (if they have them) would happily go along with this.
There are bookish bloggers doing some of these kinds of things already. But I wonder if consciously thinking about this person as a “DJ” would change how the DJ works and how others would read the DJ’s aggregations.
I’m sure there is a better term than “word DJ,” too. Suggestions?
Update: In the Comments, Blissfool correctly points out “If a DJ is a disk jockey, and a VJ is a video jockey then surely a Book DJ would be a BJ?” Oh, yes! How could I have missed that?! This idea may well catch on…
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Hi David, just got a pingback of this interesting post. Your blog is new to me but I’ve certainly got a lot from this idea. It’s made me realize that I do some of this already in my posts, trying to bring strands together and suggest connections, almost like sequencing tracks. But your list takes it further and I wonder what else I can include. I’m very intrigued!
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>>>The word DJ’s could even get an affiliate-type commission.
No. That taints the opinion in my view.
I use free blog services and don’t run any ads of my own. It also prevents me from running ads of my own. I am suspicious of reviews with such links.
19
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Hi Jason. Damn you’re fast! Amazing reflexes! Yes, I feel like something like what I’ve described is already happening, though I’m sure it will look very different in a few years than anything I can imagine now. If I had more time, I might try something like this myself. Will have to leave it to those with more time and energy than I have, I guess. I’ll be keeping an eye on your place now that I’ve found it (thanks, Mike).
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Mike, I thought of the same thing. This type of earning is not an essential component of this, but I think a good DJ’s motivation to include only quality content would mean they would not include something just for the money. If the DJ was good, I really wouldn’t care if he was making $1 if someone clicked and purchased. But like I said, having this kind of arrangement isn’t essential. One could opt simply not to follow DJ’s that did it.
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Unless the DJ vetted the ads.
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If a DJ is a disk jockey, and a VJ is a video jockey then surely a Book DJ would be a BJ? Am I correct with the jockey bit? It looks weird when written and if so, why is it that and would the root of the word lead to the new word creation? I think that it is a really interesting idea - but would hazard that it would be snappedinto the terrain of the “spoken word” scene - which would bring into debate the apparent divide and mutual ‘elitism’ between the page and stage…
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Must say I’m with Mike on this one. I’m not *totally* against affiliation (especially with full disclosure) and, as you say, one can opt out but my agenda is increasingly that online projects are too quickly swamped by a kind of gold rush mentality. It’s getting hard to keep ‘business models’ (a genteelism?) out of any conversation these days! I wouldn’t shoot any idea down but would rather emphasize independent voices.
20
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A “BJ”! Good call, Blissfool. This idea may catch on yet.
Jason, I’d be completely fine with letting the $$$ element go. Just a random idea, really. Even with it, I’m sure 99% of BJ’s (heh heh) would earn enough per month for a cup of coffee (or less).
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actually i have heard people describe the story of a book, mostly sci-fi since it is a sequence of interesting ideas, in a few minutes, and i believe they may be called BJ’s
in fact, i believe there might be a space in terms of radio or podcasts for this skill.
of course, the danger being that the book is spoilt but with so many books out there, i welcome the notion