Annabel Lee is a publisher, poet and the Brooklyn-based editor who helped Jeffrey Goldsmith tighten up This Book Can Make You Famous. She’s been working in the lit and art scene in NYC for decades. In this special podcast, we talk about the book, and what intrigued her about the Make You Famous project.
Annabel: Hi Jeff, How are you today?
Jeffery: Pretty good. So you’re a highly sought after editor who already have too many projects, but I’m really glad my mentor Jeff Goldberg introduced me to you. What intrigued you about this book about fame?
Annabel: It’s something that everyone needs to know about in order to understand how to get along in the world now: social media, the news, the way it is, enjoying your life, fame is really important and success is really important.
Jeffrey: Okay. And in a way that’s true. So when we say fame, success might have been a similar — might have used that in the title, but it really focuses how to become known, how to become recognized. One thing you mentioned is that you feel like each chapter stands on its own. Are there any particular chapters that you related to that you enjoy reading and thinking about?
Annabel: There was the — I think the tension… where you talked about activism and being active within the world and issues that really matter to you. That one was really important to me — getting your hands dirty; even though a lot of that was about gardening, which is something I’ve only done as a hobby a part of my life and a bit about cannabis in there, not the specific things, but it is that idea of getting your hands dirty because I’ve been a printer, I’ve been a very hands-on person and that’s something that I really could relate to. The measuring fame, I found I could relate to a lot because there are a couple of chapters where you talk about sort of data gathering and how it works now and those were really relevant to me because social media is so important, and the kind of responses you get and where they come from. Those were some of the ones that I think of right off the bat. Although, of course self-publishing which is what this book is about and I’ve done some of that on my own is very relevant to me.
Jeffrey: So the altruistic approach, approach testing something so that it may change in the world, you know, the one about gardening you can actually become famous by gardening is also super interesting. So those sort of relate, I mean, it’s less the flashy lifestyle and more of the… and even self-publishing it’s more of the doing the work to become known for something, something you believe in whether it’s a book or whether it’s a cause or whether it’s something you’ve actually grown with your hands; you like these ideas?
Annabel: Oh, very much so, because when you’ve got something that’s an inner passion for you and it can get to this point in your life where you wonder like, “Is this something I should pursue?” Like, “what’s the point of this tiny little…?” Whether it’s a hobby or an interest or something; there is a reason to do it, and that is that if you go deeper with it, if you really follow your heart and really do the best you can with it because you love to do it, it is going to make you famous. I mean Busting chapter also have a lot of that kind of idea where you’ve got a Rod Stewart just doing his thing, but the thing is, he didn’t get himself all scattered, he didn’t go all over the map “you know, maybe I should be doing this in order to make a living,” no, what he did is say, “this is what I love and I’m going to stick to it.” And he became famous for that. He became famous as much for his talent as for his perseverance.
Jeffrey: Right, so that’s something the listeners probably don’t know is that Rod Stewart started out as a harmonica player on the street and got his first gig as a harmonica player in a band and became the guy who sang, Don’t you think I’m sexy… What’s the song? Don’t you want my body?
Annabel: Yes, if you think I’m sexy and you want my body, come on baby, let it go…
Jeffrey: Exactly. I saw him on the street. I think I saw him on 57th street like 20/30 years ago with an old girlfriend Yona, and he ran away from us once we recognized him.
Annabel: What I think will be interesting for readers is how much you want some of the experiences that you’ve had where you gained some wisdom and knowledge about what fame is and how famous people have come into it. You have something that you’ve bought to this book that you’re bringing up here when you mentioned meeting Rod Stewart, you know, seeing him — that throughout the book, scattered throughout are personal experiences that you valued, experiences you had personally. So the readers get to be your buddy and live some of those experiences with you and learn what you learned and we find out how you gained the wisdom to be able to write a book that has the validity that this book has. It’s not only that what you’re saying is true, it’s that it’s lived experience and we get to re-live it with you.
