Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

"Yes, I Drank the Kool-Aid--and I Went Back for Seconds"

"Three Easy Rules for Impressing the Powers That Be (and Maybe Becoming One Yourself, A Simpleton's Guide)"

"The Pegasus Plan: How to Get the Job You Want, the Respect You Deserve, and the Employees You Need in Order to Succeed for Life" 

Those are just a few of the imaginary self-help books that novelist Ed Park invented for his book, Personal Days. His office satire is jam-packed with exaggerated career advice from fictional gurus.

Today Park--a founding editor at The Believer and literary blogger over at The Dizzies--shows us how imaginary books can improve your fictional world. It's part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.

In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. 

Jason Boog:
Your book also features one of my favorite literary tricks--satirical imaginary books-inside-the-book. How did you craft these hilarious faux-self-help books? Any advice for writers looking to add some fake-book satire to their work?

Ed Park:
I’ve always loved the vertiginous method of including fictional books within a work of fiction, whether the author provides tantalizing passages or just titles. Continue reading...

Some examples: The Necronomicon in H.P. Lovecraft, The Optimist in George Gissing’s New Grub Street, Nick Jenkins’s works in Anthony Powell.

I conjured the meat of Personal Days on my laptop—but the made-up books were devised on my old manual typewriter.

I had been working away at Part II and, perhaps without being fully conscious, began pecking away on the typewriter, not sure what I was hoping to produce, or even if what I was doing would be part of the book.

Out came business self-help blather, management bromides, absurd mercenary repetitions. This went on for pages…