Articles from February 2007

How To Build A Better Pirate

February 28th, 2007 · 3 Comments

The creative community has an almost unnatural fear of piracy. Billions are being spent to protect works of art from “unlawful distribution”. Billions. Like millions, but bigger. Because it starts with a B. The belief is that each and every time someone grabs something off the Internet for free, a sale is lost. There isn’t […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

See, It’s Because Women Can’t Review Military History…

February 26th, 2007 · 10 Comments

It’s a funny thing, isn’t it, how the New York Times Book Review — or rather its editorial staff — keeps digging holes and then tripping headfirst into them. You’d think they’d absorb the knowledge that their male-to-female reviewer ratio is woeful, maybe take some conscious steps to correct the problem, and, well, move on. […]

File Under: Reviewing Reviewing

A Brief Overview of Creative Commons

February 20th, 2007 · 6 Comments

As many of you are aware, we strongly advocate a little thing called “knowing what you’re doing”. This does not contradict our position when it comes to Making Stuff Up. Quite the contrary. We believe, among other things, that people who sign contracts should know what the contracts say. We also believe that people who […]

File Under: Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright

What, Exactly, Is A Sale, Anyway?

February 19th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Tell us, dear friends, are you as amused as we are by the coverage of the Clive Cussler versus Philip Anschutz debacle? You know the one — Mr. Anschutz is accusing Mr. Cussler of, gasp!, overstating his sales in order to receive a bigger paycheck. Somehow (and this has never really been made clear), this […]

File Under: The Business of Publishing

Why Maureen Dowd Should Avoid Bookstores

February 14th, 2007 · 6 Comments

Recently, Maureen Dowd went to a bookstore. This shouldn’t be news, but one suspects this was a rare event in her life. One also suspects she’ll avoid the experience in the future. What she saw terrified her: nubile pink books snuggled up against aged gray novels. Surely she thought the sweet young things would take […]

File Under: Reviewing Reviewing

The Dear Reader Letter – Now With Lies And Humiliation

February 13th, 2007 · 4 Comments

It’s been a little over two years when Booksquare suggested I blog over here. It was December 2004. My first book was out, and BS thought people might want to read about a first time author’s trials and tribulations. Or maybe she didn’t think I’d really do it and has been secretly laughing about it […]

File Under: Jill's First Blog

Puzzling Over MySpace

February 12th, 2007 · 1 Comment

We woke today with grand plans to execute a post with brilliance and wit, but now we’re, well, thinking about the MySpace thing and, as always, remain puzzled by the media’s insistence that it’s going to save the world (when we all know that fate rests on the fragile shoulders of Peter Petrelli). While we’re […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts

Dressed For Oppressed

February 10th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Yesterday, guest blogger Diane Lefer set the stage for today’s post by telling us about symbols and their visceral impact on people. In today’s installment, she protests, goes to jail, wins a grant, doesn’t get the money, learns that key to surviving incarceration is knowing show tunes, deals with a cat who isn’t shy about […]

File Under: Square Pegs

When Symbols Matter

February 9th, 2007 · 3 Comments

We are proud to say that we meet many fascinating people. What seems like a casual hello at an open house can lead to a lengthy, intense discussion about something you never expected. When we met Diane Lefer at a party, we discovered that a mutual friend had been trying to get us in the […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Save The Bookstore, Save The Community

February 7th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Far be it for us to tell other people how to run their business, but we simply cannot take the strain any longer. For weeks now, all the major newspapers have run stories about the decline of this neighborhood bookstore, the threat to that small shop, the fear that we’re losing the souls of our […]

File Under: Square Pegs