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In the BS ‘verse, there are a few universal truths. Let’s focus on two: “it’s not the idea”, it’s the execution, and “if you have even a remotely successful movie, you will be sued.” The latter concept is so universal, you can practically set your watch by it. We do not pretend to have secret […]

What is the estimate? The total number of blogs doubles every few months or so? A new blog is created every minute? There are more blogs than there are people? Something like that. It’s hard to be read in the crowd. You can ask a dozen bloggers why they blog — helpfully, you’ll get a […]

It the kind of week where it’s hard to get anything going. We do not suffer weather well in SoCal, and a strange conspiracy between an overheated sun and June gloom has lead to what is, for us, oppressive humidity. We, denizens of the region, do not object in principle to humidity. It is simply […]

So, yeah, it’s 2006, and the Association of American University Presses (c’mon, you’ve heard of them) got together to talk about “Transforming Publishing”. It turns out this digital future thing is now and university presses need to get on board. Shouldn’t they have had this conversation back in, oh, 1996? But let’s let bygones be […]

Jill, thinking she’d get us worked up this morning, sent along a lovely story about a county that has cut the budget for Spanish-language fiction for adults. They will continue to fund children’s books and non-fiction, but not “pleasure reading” for the adults. Because you know, when adults read for pleasure, there’s no telling what […]

As we all learned with last week’s Britney Spears meltdown, it is important that you have people — those mysterious creatures who make life run smoothly — to halt the growing epidemic of foot-in-mouth disease. We believe that if John Updike’s people would simply step forward and whisper something like “John, you sound like an […]

We find our attention diverted by a rather interesting little pieces from BBC News where we are told the John Steinbeck’s children from a first marriage have been awarded rights to his novels and — apparently — two pictures produced by Paramount. Something about: US District Judge Richard Owen said US copyright laws now recognised […]

Here is what we worry about: name-dropping in novels is so prevalent that readers, those poor, innocent readers, might not be able to discern between legitimate product placement and legitimate characterization. That is unfair to marketers who might pay big bucks for a fleeting mention in a 100,000 word novel. We feel sorry for them, […]

This week, MediaBistro turns it fine eye to Tricia Boczkowski of Simon Spotlight Entertainment — one of those imprints we’ve never fully grasped, so we do appreciate the additional information. Spotlight is specifically geared to capture the attention of the ever-lucrative 18-to-34 demographic. All that slacking and lounging could be spent reading you know. Now, […]

Reading is a funny thing. If you can do it (and, sadly, not everyone can, but that’s another post for another day), you do it without thinking. All day long, you take in letters forming words forming paragraphs forming stories. When you’re reading, you’re at the car wash, the dentist, work, home, on the subway, […]