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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Imagine Jacket Copy HQ as you will: an industrious nest of desk-chained journalists, a coffee-saturated, pajama-clad blogger alone in a dark apartment, a sunny patio filled with witty literati, observed by a blogger sipping chilled rose. Maybe we are all of those things, maybe we are none. But however you think of us, we’d like to know what you want from us.

This is a blog, after all, and the comments are always open. Yesterday a commenter, frustrated by our paying heed to Carrie Fisher, wrote:

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don’t you feel that you are contributing to the decline in quality literature by only spotlighting on high-profile authors and big-name deals while ignoring grassroots writers and struggling authors? I think your blog could be put to better use, and really make a difference in literature, if you gave more attention to unknown authors who are struggling to have their work know.

Longtime readers of Jacket Copy might protest that this blog gives much attention to new authors and small and independent presses. As a blogger here, I’d like to think we do. But maybe we should give more attention to them. Maybe that’s what you want.

To be perfectly honest, our traffic numbers show that a lot of you do want to read about Carrie Fisher. Do you want more about celebrity authors like her? (Not that there are many like her.) Do you want more short things, like clever lists? Or more longer things, like reviews? Do you want more videos? More attention paid to writers no longer with us, more focus on the academy, more highbrow literature, more chick lit, more literature in translation, more YA, more sci-fi, more publishing business, more short fiction, more nonfiction, more on L.A. events, or maybe less?

Phew. I can’t even list all the directions we might go. Where would you point us? The comments, as always, are ready and waiting.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

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