Say you were in a bookstore

and you saw a nonfiction journal written by a gay teenage boy from LA that documents his life as he becomes druggy and alcoholic. It's only written during the time he's bored in school, and consists mainly of mockery of everybody else around him, his thoughts about things irrelevant to pretty much anything, and a few stories of things going on in his life, as well as some of the negative effects the drugs are having on his life. Not in a health related way, but just in a social way, like with friends and family.

Would you have any interest in reading such a book?

I only ask because earlier in the year i started writing a journal type of thing in a notebook, and happened to start not long before i started doing drugs, and so as I wrote in it, i unknowingly documented my life as it changed around due to changing priorities.

My friend got a hold of it and asked if they could read it, and i just shrugged it off and said sure. and in the past week I guess she passed it around to a small number of people, all of whom just told me they really liked it, and i should 'have i published'

I never even considered publishing it, because thats not what it was for, and in all honesty I don't think people would be interested in reading it. The only reason I think these people like it so much is because they know me personally, as well as most of the people mentioned in the book, and I think strangers wouldn't really care at all because it in no way relates to them.

So I'm asking your opinions t see if this is something you might even be remotely interested in readiing.

I need money, and if I can honestly make even a few hundred bucks selling this journal I'd be glad to do it, but if I'm even gonna try I want to know that its something strangers would be interested in reading.

That could be interesting reading. If you could bother to scan it into your computer and send it to me, I'd give it a read and give you criticism to get over the whole "people who know you" issue. I mean I understand if you don't want to or anything if that involves too much internet trust, but yeah, as a concept, without knowing much about the contents in depth, I'd say yeah, you could have a market.

Only if he got straight, cleaned up his life, stopped doing drugs, and became successful. Keep working on it.

If I'm in a bookstore it's because I'm stalking the sexy European girl who works at the coffee counter and models at weekends.

Hypothetically, of course.

Reminds me of The Perks of Being a Wallflower except without the gay. It sounds like something I've heard about. I probably wouldn't read it, but I know a couple who might.

I personally would read only if you were straight. Hence I am a homophobe.

Think, If you wanted to read some of it, I could send you a few sections, but I don't think I want to commit to scanning over 130 odd pages of text for no reason.

As for the whole homophobic thing, I understand. The only reason I mentioned the gay thing is because at a few points in the journal where i purposely wrote a bunch of gay stuff about this kid who used to sit next to me in my bio class, because i knew he was a homophobe, and it made him uncomfortable.

That, and something about lighting this ladies 'yes on prop 8' sign on fire in her yard, are about the only real references to my homosexuality.

Take away the location and we pretty much have the same journal. It would be quite interesting to compare them if you ask me.

But mine will stay a journal.

To be honest, not really. It doesn't sound like this sort of thing would be well written. When writing on an emotional high or low writing tends to suffer...and plus, the whole "These are my struggles" material has kinda been played out to the extremes. Who knows though? Get it published and you can rip off Opra.

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Originally Posted by The Reflecting God

Think, If you wanted to read some of it, I could send you a few sections, but I don't think I want to commit to scanning over 130 odd pages of text for no reason.

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Sure. Send me sections.

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Originally Posted by no_brains_no_worries

When writing on an emotional high or low writing tends to suffer...

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I admit that this certainly can be the case, but I think that some of the best stuff I've written would run straight against that sweeping generalisation. I think I'd compromise with "emotional highs and lows tend to bring out extremes in quality of writing and ability TO write"

Send me sections too. I like reading people's diaries.

Send me sections as well, I'd enjoy reading that I think.

If I wanted to read that I would start reading blogs

it would have to be somehow different from all the other books along those lines to be interesting. and it doesn't sound like it would be interesting.

what would someone get from that book that they couldn't get from another?

also: my very best stuff has been written in times of extreme emotional lows. no exceptions. the worse i feel, the funnier i am and the better my writing is.

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Originally Posted by gwahir

also: my very best stuff has been written in times of extreme emotional lows. no exceptions. the worse i feel, the funnier i am and the better my writing is.

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From what I understand... that's the trend with most writers.

There are lots of terrible books published, so even if it wasn't great, try to get a little cash from getting it published.

Post in in sections in CD so that we cen all read it and have Oprah book club moments.. What fun-

Alright, hopefully I'll get it back tomorrow, and I'll try and find a way to scan it.

And I in no way claim that it's good writing. Once again, it was never meant to be good writing. It wasn
t even actually meant to be a journal. It was meant to keep track of things for a friend who had to go live in mexico for a while, and wanted to be able to get up to speed on everything he missed when he got back. I just never got around to giving it to him.

Again, I stress the point that I doubt any of you will be interested in it once you actually read a piece.

Pro-tip: No one will want to read this if you continually express how you believe readers would find this uninteresting. Even if you don't think that others will want to read your journal, you still need to try to convince others that it is worth reading.

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Originally Posted by KT_

Pro-tip: No one will want to read this if you continually express how you believe readers would find this uninteresting. Even if you don't think that others will want to read your journal, you still need to try to convince others that it is worth reading.

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So you're saying that if you want to sell something you have to make it seem that the target audience will think it's great even though it's crap? Interesting concept. I wonder if it will work?

The above was sarcasm. I am in no way disagreeing with KT_. My post was to whole heartedly agree.

WHY WOULD I BE IN A BOOKSTORE

I just want to add that books don't get published and sold in bookstores just because you and a few of your friends want them to be.

There's a bit more to the process.

I started doing this myself years ago because I thought it would make good reading.
I didn't have the effort/energy/will/motivation to write out everyday though.

I'd be interesting in reading a book like this though.

edit:
also lol yes

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Originally Posted by jared

I just want to add that books don't get published and sold in bookstores just because you and a few of your friends want them to be.

There's a bit more to the process.

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Originally Posted by jared

I just want to add that books don't get published and sold in bookstores just because you and a few of your friends want them to be.

There's a bit more to the process.

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Yes, I'm very aware of the difficulty involved in getting a book published. Thats why I've been telling m friends it'll probably never happen.

As far as marketing goes, I'm not trying to get any of you to buy the book. I'm trying to see if it's even worth the effort to try and market it.

Anyway, I couldn't get my scanner working, so i just snapped some pictures of the pages with my slr. they're uploading now. When they finish I will edit this post or something.


EDIT:

It finished uploading, and I rotated most of the pictures. They're kind of dark from under exposure [to lazy to take two seconds to set it] and i think one has a slight bur. If you cant read my handwriting, I'm sorry.

Also, these are all relatively from around the same time period. Two of the sections tie in together, and if you read them you'll quickly be able to figure out which ones. I blacked out the dates for...personal reasons I guess. And blocked out some of the text that wasn't part of the passages I copies, as not to cause confusion.

http://s363.photobucket.com/albums/oo79/RzLrd/book/

I would probably pick it up briefly to see if there was anything titillating, but to be honest I probably wouldn't buy it.

Would never be caught dead in a bookstore. =x

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Originally Posted by Janglez

Would never be caught dead in a bookstore. =x

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The US is one of the few nations on Earth where actively suppressing your intellect is something to be proud of.

Well then go me?

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Originally Posted by sycld

The US is one of the few nations on Earth where actively suppressing your intellect is something to be proud of.

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And not going in a bookstore doesn't mean I dont read.

Don't be so quick to judge, actions are reactions.

Well then why would you be ashamed to enter a bookstore...?

I don't want people to know how motha trucking smart I really am because it might affect the way some kids think of me and/or loss of friends.

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Originally Posted by Janglez

I don't want people to know how motha trucking smart I really am because it might affect the way some kids think of me and/or loss of friends.

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Well even though you're not anti-intellectual, you still feel the need to make it look like you are, which unfortunately still supports my point :(

sycld protip janglez is about 13

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Originally Posted by sycld

Well even though you're not anti-intellectual, you still feel the need to make it look like you are, which unfortunately still supports my point :(

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Unfortunately sycld is right, what a sick world we live in where sycld is right.... *shakes head*

P.S. We need a "negative head shaking" emoticon.

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Originally Posted by gwahir

sycld protip janglez is about 13

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oh well then nevermind.

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Originally Posted by MrTroy

Unfortunately sycld is right, what a sick world we live in where sycld is right.... *shakes head*

P.S. We need a "negative head shaking" emoticon.

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you should kill yourself now because I'm frequently right.

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Originally Posted by sycld

oh well then nevermind.



you should kill yourself now because I'm frequently right.

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Yeah you didn't know that?

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Originally Posted by Jungles

I don't want people to know how moths trucking smart I really am because it might affect the way some kids think of me and/or loss of friends.

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Hint #1: Those aren't friends you have. Hint #2: You're not as smart as you think you are apparently.:allecto: