I know this sounds like a self-serving argument, but I think Twitter and Wikipedia’s notability requirements are total bullshit. For those of you that don’t know (or who don’t need to know, lucky bastards!), in order to publish an entry on Wikipedia or to get verified on Twitter as an author, you have to have what’s known as notability, but this criterion is actually absurd in practice.
Before I list my reasons why I think notability is deeply flawed, let me first start by saying that I understand the utility of this criterion too, at least in theory: in order to prevent impersonation, satirization (that the general public thinks is legit like the Babylon Bee, for example), and also to prevent randos from creating their own Wikipedia entries or pretending they’re suddenly authors after writing some derivative, late-night, caffeine-induced Hemingway or Cat Person story on their Medium page, notability sets a much higher bar for writers and that’s a good thing.
Interestingly, it’s not enough to publish (a bunch of) short stories in some of the best print and online literary journals, Twitter/Wikipedia says. It’s not enough to publish books with respected/prestigious/well-known small presses, Twitter/Wikipedia says. People must be writing about you in order for you to be a notable writer.
Here’s my critique:
Notability relies upon independent major media sources to determine eligibility which means that unless the LA Times has written about you as a person, you’re not notable enough. This is obviously ridiculous. There are a number of important, well-regarded, brilliant, & influential writers in LA who have never had the honor of being mentioned autobiographically in the LA Times. And there’s a big reason for that: very few newspapers write about authors anymore (if at all) unless they’re completely famous or they live in Minneapolis where books are still part of the popular imagination, but Wikipedia/Twitter didn’t say you have to be famous, they just said you have to be notable.
Beyond that, the budgets for newspapers in general and books sections in particular have been slashed for decades now, meaning authors are now competing with every other form of entertainment for attention. That’s not a fair fight.
As I’ve discovered every time I apply for verification on Twitter—call me stubborn and self-loathing if you want—having your work reviewed in the prominent literary media across the country doesn’t count either. Book reviews in the Chicago Review of Books, Cleveland Review of Books, or university affiliated media sources, don’t count towards notability. Interviews with you about upcoming books in the LA Review of Books, ZYZZYVA, No Contact, & Juked don’t count either, and those literary journals are top-notch within the writing community. IOW, almost every prominent literary media source outside of The New Yorker and Harpers doesn’t qualify as notable, and that’s fucking stupid.
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