The Questionless Books Interview: Literary Photographer John W. MacDonald

Inspired by the Proust Questionnaire, The Questionless Books Interview gets a host of lit-types (authors, editors, publishers, publicists, designers, booksellers, readers, bloggers, journalists, etc.) to finish a bunch of statements about the state of literature and the "future of books".

John loves to photograph (bookish) people and his photographs have been published in various books, newspapers and magazines. His latest work can be seen on-line here: http://weblog.johnwmacdonald.com

I am a... photographer

I am known to... some people

I do this in... various places

I do this because... it's enjoyable

I do this when... I go out

The way I do this is... click, click and sometimes click again

At its core, a Writer is... somewhere between f/5.6 to f/8

As opposed to an Author, who is... f/1.4

A Writer is responsible for... writing

As opposed to an Author, who is responsible for... authoring

At its core, Publishing is... a dream

As opposed to Editing, which is... a chore

A Publisher should always... pay for author photos

As opposed to an Editor, who should always... be necessary

A Manuscript that's ready to be read by others is... not a book

As opposed to a Book that's ready to be ready by others, which [was]... a manuscript

A Manuscript should always be... legible

As opposed to a Book, which should always be... edited.

At its core, Bookselling is... useful

As opposed to Book Marketing, which is... futile

The smallest unit of narrative is... the sound of one page turning

To be a Book a thing must be... in book form

The biggest reason to be scared of the future is... the past

The biggest reason to anticipate the future is... the past

In the future we will all... die

At his/her core, a Reader is... to be appreciated