Game 23: #5 Seed Men With Pens Versus #8 Seed Publishing Careers

The Matchup

Fifth-seeded Men with Pens squeaked through a first-round victory against a very strong opponent. Eighth-seeded Publishing Careers had the biggest upset of the first round when they took down a number one seed that didn’t bring its A game. MWP come in with huge crowd support and a killer reputation. PC is the Cinderella, looking to keep that clock from striking midnight.

Community

Men With Pens

The crowd is certainly with MWP. Over the past 10 posts, the hungry bunch over at MWP knocked back about 27 comments per post. The community knows the difference between a meal and a snack too, virtually ignoring any post that doesn’t have substance. The quality of their comments is quite strong. About 20 comments per post are of value and add to the discussion. You definitely want to read the comments when you read a MWP post. Leaving them out would be like skipping dessert. (Sorry about all the food metaphors, it must be a leftover of Younce’s Food Blogging articles at TWJ)

Result: Three-pointer, nothing but net.

Publishing Careers

Unfortunately, PC can’t compete when it comes to comments. The blog doesn’t get much traffic, which is a shame. Also, the annoying Blogspot comment interface probably holds some people back. Author Lori Hand does get a few comments, averaging one per post, and always responds.

Result: PC picks up a point from the charity stripe.

MWP jumps out to a 3-1 lead.

Value

Men With Pens

The focus of MWP over the past 10 posts has been leaning more towards motivation than mechanics. Even the article on fiction writing by Harry McLeod was focused primarily on inspiration and some other esoteric qualities that I’m still trying to wrap my head around. Motivation is great but I hope they get back to some more nuts and bolts articles soon, and that they don’t reserve all of their best stuff for guest blogging on other sites.

Result: MWP finger-rolls the ball in for two-points.

Publishing Careers

PC author Lori Hand has been on the road in England, so her more recent posts are a sort of travelogue of literary places and events. She also covers grammar, publishing advances, book proposal gaffes and a tribute to a recently deceased mentor. What I love about this blog is that it goes in directions none of the other competing blogs go in.

Result: PC hits a three-point shot.

PC gains some ground but MWP still leads with a score of 5-3.

Top Commented Article #1

Men With Pens

Is Charging More the Right Thing to Do?

This article discusses the reasons why MWP doesn’t raise its business rates (for the services they provide) despite a great deal of recent success and attention. It is a repudiation of the “what the market will bear” philosophy that most businesses operate under. Of course, it could just be a clever way of marketing their services by declaring how cheap they are as part of an article. If so, they pulled it off brilliantly because they generated 64 comments (including a few by me). The conversation centered around what is fair and whether or not Canadians make for good capitalists.

Result: With an assist from their community, MWP hits the three-point play.

Publishing Careers

More About Penelope’s Grammar Rant

Hand discusses blogging, grammar and typos. Her argument is that the standards for perfection in blogging should not rise to that of books or magazines because it isn’t a printed medium and because blogging is more about immediacy than the slow, vetted process of writing for magazines or books. It is an interesting argument. There are two comments (plus two responses) but they aren’t really substantive.

Result: PC hits a two-point jumper from the paint.

MWP extends its lead to 8-5.

Top Commented Article #2

Men With Pens

When You Don’t Want to Be Big Business

This article also covers the topic of how much it too much, but this time MWP discusses the size of your business. The underlying philosophy is that it is better to do a little less work very well than to take on too much and sacrifice both your energy and your quality in the pursuit of more money. One again, the comments are plentiful and add to the conversation.

Result: MWP hits another three-point shot.

Publishing Careers

Dr. Samuel E. Longmire, 1938-2008

Hand pays tribute to a literary mentor. It reminded me of the last time I attended a poetry reading at my old university. Virtually all of the same faculty remained, but they looked substantially worse for the fifteen years of wear since I had been their student.

Result: PC gets two points on a short jumper.

MWP extends its lead to 11-7. PC cannot catch them, but we’ll play it out.

Top Commented Article #3

Men With Pens

What Does Writing Mean to You?

MWP’s James Chartrand discusses what he loves about writing and his experience and studies in writing. The community responds with their own explanations of why they write. This is part of a meme that’s been circulating around the web for a long time, but it makes for good reading.

Result: MWP hits a turnaround jump shot for two points.

Publishing Careers

Quickie: Two New Blogs

PC hands out some link love. In the comments, one of the recipients thanks Hand for the mention.

Result: A free throw for a point.

MWP wins it with a score of 13-8.

Post Game Analysis

Men With Pen’s involved community was just too much for the tiny Publishing Careers blog. I really do hope that Publishing Careers gets some more traffic because I think there are some valuable articles that people interested in writing and publishing can find real value in. As for Men With Pens, they continue to impress, although I’m hoping to see some more writing-focused articles from them.