Today I speak with Will Leitch, a fellow I cannot say I do not personally but that is only because there are so few University of Illinois fans representing on the Internet. Will's first foray into Young Adult literature, Catch, is now out. He also edits the sports blog Deadspin and the website The Black Table.
Did you set out to write a YA book or did it turn into one?
Well, it all depends on what you mean by a YA book. They're selling it as a YA book, but that's because the publishing company does YA books. But there's such a stigma involved with that, for reasons unbeknowst to me. It's just a book. It's about someone who is a young adult, but I hope that the themes it covers are universal. I hope that people who are 15 will enjoy it, or 25, or 65. Not 95-year-olds, though. They're going to freaking hate it.
What was the most difficult part of working on the book: the execution? the editing? the promoting?
The editing. I'm such a little b***h about editing. It's the least fun part; I'd rather just give them the book, tell them, "OK, do whatever you want with it" and then not have to think about it anymore. The writing is the hardest part, but it's also, without a doubt, the most fun. The best part of promoting it is talking to kind souls like yourself.
From working with Deadspin, what have you learned about professional blogging that came as a surprise to you?
I was surprised how helpful everyone was. It's exciting that everybody wanted to be a part of it; I get more emails from readers with suggestions, little notes or criticisms, than I know what to do with. I hope the site comes across as collective as it actually is. It's my site in that I type everything in there, but I really feel like it's more a communal site. The readers are just as responsible for everything that's there as I am -- probably more. That was a pleasant surprise. I was really afraid it would just be me sitting alone in my apartment, wondering if anyone out there was listening.
You also didn't have much experience in sports writing before, did you? Do you think it's easier or harder than it looks?
Well, I'd worked for The Sporting News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but I never had much intention of being a sportswriter. Frankly, I don't consider myself a sportswriter now. Sportswriters go to games and interview the players and eat the free buffets and travel all the time and, in my dreams anyway, wear funny little hats. I just type really fast about sports. The only hard part about it is having the television on ESPN all ... day ... long. It's enough to kill a man.
You also work on the site BlackTable.com. Do you think that literary/zine-y websites are taking a back seat to blogs of late? If a writer wants visibility, is it better for them to get linked by Gawker or to contribute to the Black Table or McSweeney's?
Well, both. One of the main reasons the Black Table initially became so visible was because it launched the very same week as Gawker. They were just starting out, we were just starting out, they linked to us, made us more visible, and we gave them quality long-form stuff to link to. The trick is to be versatile, do both. I'd never run a blog in my life before Denton and Co. hired me to do one. For me, it's harder to write so short. I had to learn more how to do a blog the right way than I did to write the right way for The Black Table. A good writer, starting out, trying to get noticed, in my opinion, writes anywhere, everywhere, for free, for whomever will take him/her. That's not only the best way to gain visibility, it's the best way to get better.
