This is unlikely to surprise anyone who read my last letter, but I’ve decided to leave BuzzFeed.
There’s no way to quantify what being books editor at BuzzFeed has given me, and I meant it every time I described it as a dream job. My colleagues and editors are geniuses; I’ve become a better writer and reader because of them, Karolina Waclawiak and Tomi Obaro especially. I am grateful. But I’m also angry having watched what I loved most about the job slowly disappear, resentful for having to try so hard to defend it.
I’ve spent much of the past four years fielding questions about my plan to change (our) book coverage, to prove its “success,” and it took me that long to trust my instinct that substantial, creative, insightful writing that broadens the scope of mainstream book criticism, coverage which prioritizes writers (and readers!) traditionally pushed out of the conversation, is enough. Finding those writers, giving them a platform, delivering their ideas to an audience hungry for them, is enough. Readers want to read about books.
It’s not a sexy answer; a book recommendation list or comparative review is rarely sexy but both can provoke and inspire and illuminate. That neither will bring in hundreds of thousands of views or dollars isn’t a failure, doesn’t necessitate fixing or shifting or disrupting or elevating or whichever optimization buzzword feels most palatable. If you value book coverage only to the extent that it brings in a major profit, you do not value book coverage. If the longevity of your coverage hinges on monetization — and if you’re looking for return on investment before actually investing — you are consigning yourself, and more significantly your writers and editors, to failure.
I took for granted this idea that part of my job had to be figuring out how book coverage could bring in more money so I could justify continuing the work. It shouldn’t be. I’m not interested. The problem isn’t the work; it’s that the work is at the mercy of capital. The problem is an underlying system inextricable from greed, and I can’t fix that.
Please don’t take any of this as reason to stop reading or supporting BuzzFeed Books — Shyla Watson, Farrah Penn, and Kirby Beaton have been running the show and are absolute powerhouses and bonafide book lovers.
I’ll continue looking for a place that would like me to write or edit for them. (Get in touch if that’s you!) And in the meantime, I’ll be writing about books in this newsletter — more frequently than twice a year, I promise — and I hope you’ll subscribe. As always, you can find my favorite books here.
Happy reading,
Ari