From the Editors: ‘Make Me Laugh’

threerivers.jpgZeroing in on humor and pop-culture books, editor Carrie Thornton of Three Rivers Press tells Rachel Kramer Bussel that she likes titles that “show just how weird everyone is”:

Many of your books also have a pop culture bent, from Spin magazine’s 20 Years of Alternative Music to the book version of The Marijuana-Logues. Is there anything prospective authors should or shouldn’t do when approaching the world of pop culture?
I tend to avoid books that focus on highly specialized or esoteric elements of pop culture — sometimes culty things are that way for a reason, and the audience for a book on the subject is probably going to have too small an audience for my list. I also try to avoid books that are extremely of the moment — in that the topic is hot right now but may not be nine months from now. I prefer to focus on books that focus on an evergreen subject where there is clearly established, long-term interest — The Book of Exodus, my recent book on the making of Bob Marley’s Exodus record comes to mind. Generation after generation comes to Marley, and I think that book will have a very long life.

Read more of their talk here.

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