I once co-owned and ran a women’s networking company called TheLi.st, so named as a joke on the prevalence of lists in the media world where I operated. (My business partner Rachel Sklar and I sold it in 2020).
That world included a media website Rachel and I helped found and launch that was initially predicated on lists (the most amusing, eye-opening part of this was how many very powerful people in media were quietly and indignantly emailing us to pitch themselves and/or complain about their standing).
For a number of years, I was also the person who put together the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media list. Which was primarily an exercise in how much people (i.e. higher up editors) love “money raised” as a metric of success. I had to fight to get actual people on there who were clearly doing work that deserved recognition. (Years later my choices have largely proved out, whereas most of those splashy companies are, you will be shocked, shocked to learn, long gone.) (The Skimm is one great exception to this, btw.)
One of my first media gigs was attending the Time 100 in 2008, when Time magazine was still a publication people read and took very seriously.
In my book, there is a chapter that centers on my (and Joan Didion’s) packing list. (So many caftans…me, not Didion.)
Last month I made lists of my favorite French skincare products which more of you read than the one about my reading my own sex scenes.
People love lists. They love reading them. They love being on them. We want to be told we’re powerful, or adjacent to power, or where the power lies so we can aim for it. (At the same time, lists often obfuscate power, in my experience; the truly powerful don’t want you to know about them at all). I know from having made my fair share that lists are both totally inane and meaningless, and also can be very useful. They go on resumes. Time magazine may be collapsing as a publication but the Time 100 is going strong (and at this point, I assume, financially propping up the whole endeavor).
This is a big part of why there are so many lists these days. They are a guaranteed traffic/ticket/money generator. You will get eyes. Or people in seats. I’m quite certain you could make a list of the top 25,000 bagels in New York and every person on that list would post it in their window. There could be a bagel gala! You would feel great eating your Top 25,000 bagel.
When No One Tells You This came out I was consumed by lists. Both Most Anticipated and end of year Best Of. Was I on it? Why wasn’t I on it? How do I get on it? Look at the ones I’m on! (Six years later I can’t remember a single one except what got added to the paperback book cover, and even then I have to look). It seemed the best way to determine whether I mattered. (It was not.)
This time around I’m having a harder time taking it seriously. In part because I can’t help but laugh at some of the titles of these lists — 230 Books We’re Looking Forward to Reading This Year. 230 books!! My god, the poor intern or junior writer (or senior writer these days) that had to compile it. I’ve been there! In my mind’s eye I see an underpaid person scrounging through a pile of galleys and galley letters looking for the easiest copy and paste while trying to keep all the bases covered. No one has actually read most, if any, of these books. And this is just one example of many.
The other reason, I find myself a little checked out is because I don’t think these lists actually sell books, which is my main goal this time around. I say this, because the first time around, so much of what you’re desperate for is to be told you’ve written a good book. That you’re a good writer. I still like to be told this, obviously. But wanting only that sort feedback is a privilege restricted to people who have outside financial security. I want to continue writing books. I can be on every list ever made but if the books don’t leave the shelves it’s a nice instagram and nothing more. All sound and clicks signifying no rent.
The title of this W Magazine list “W Magazine’s Best, Most Talked-About Books of 2024” (which, full disclosure, I am on) felt like a (probably unintentional) in-joke. As a lifelong Page Six reader, I live for a most-talked about label. Please go forth and talk! But also, my book is not out for another six weeks and actual coverage has not really ramped up yet. What is being talked about? (Other than the cover, which admittedly is worth the conversation).
In her LitHub column this week, Maris Kreizman writes about the superficiality of these lists.
The book preview list is a highly imperfect form of coverage that seems to be, along with best-of the year lists, the most widely used kind of book reportage in media. With overall book coverage being pared down at most outlets, such lists have grown widely outsized in importance for authors and publishers and readers, as well as the writers who contribute punchy blurbs to them.
In addition to book coverage being pared down, there are, I think, simply too many books being published. There is a sense that in the last decade one of the ways the book publishing industry has dealt with the digital age is simply to throw everything against a wall and see what sticks. In a world with less gatekeepers (not necessarily a bad thing), and fewer workers, the list grows mighty as a tool to keep track.
In a post that went viral this week, Elle Griffin at the Elysian wrote that no one is reading books. This is not true, as this subsequent post does a good job of explaining. But what I did find helpful in Griffin’s post was this excerpt from the PRH/S&S merger testimony about how publishers will pay authors with platforms larger amounts, but then barely spend anything on marketing. This is the lived experience of many writers I know, but is a relief to actually see said out loud. It also accounts, I think, and as Maris points out, for the excess of lists. Lists are doing the job marketing no longer has the bandwidth to manage.
Maybe I’m totally wrong and lists do sell books, as well as everything else. But I still think it’s word of mouth. To wit: I just ordered Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, and Miranda July’s All Fours because both keep coming up on my friend’s instagram stories, and the former has been recommended to me so many times by people who’ve actually read it.
Good Decision: I’m on Shani Silver’s podcast this week. We recorded this interview last month when I was in Paris, and still two thirds butter.
I loved your first book and am rereading it in preparation for the release of ENJOY (already pre-ordered my copy). I can't wait! Also, I'm reading Big Swiss for the same reason as you, so I feel quite cool right now.