Articles from March 2007

The Borders Problem

March 28th, 2007 · 3 Comments

We know that times are tough. In an era where your basic blogger can barely find the time to shop for new shoes (much less purses!*), sympathy must be expended to others in the industry. Even empathy, though that is harder for us to muster. Especially when it comes to the Borders chain. Borders hasn’t […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Rebranding A Publishing House, With Questions

March 26th, 2007 · 4 Comments

As part of our regular contemplation of the bookselling process, we recently turned our attention to branding. Branding, we believe, is a big problem for publishers. It is also, not surprisingly, a big problem for other major media, but we think it’s a problem for publishers especially. As all the beauty that is Web 2.0* […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

How To Manipulate Amazon, The Expensive Way

March 23rd, 2007 · 2 Comments

We are not going to suggest that we have friends who are, hmm, downright weird when it comes to Amazon rankings. Oh no. We will come out and say it: we have friends who, if they were engaged in some sort of freakish browser testing, would be assigned to the “try to break the reload […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts

Number 147 In A Series Of Feminist Rants

March 20th, 2007 · 6 Comments

Nothing boils our blood faster than the suggestion that today’s women authors lack imagination. Okay, maybe the suggestion that women writers simply cannot write as well as men authors, but we’ve ranted enough on that topic for this decade. Thus we’ll take the former topic for $500. Presence in the classroom is not necessarily an […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Are Newspapers The Best Place To Learn About Books?

March 19th, 2007 · 6 Comments

There has been much talk these past weeks about the decline of the newspaper book coverage. The reason, as we’ve been noting for quite some time, is that the advertising dollars simply do not support the the same kind of coverage that motion picture dollars support. You’ll also, if you take the time, notice that […]

File Under: Reviewing Reviewing

Thoughts on The Future of Books

March 14th, 2007 · 5 Comments

We find that we’re having some difficulty synthesizing the “Future of the Book: Dead or Alive” panel we attended on the final day of the hectic, overwhelming 2007 South by Southwest Interactive Festival. Perhaps it’s because the topic requires far longer than a one hour session. Perhaps it’s because we’re still wrapping our rain-soaked mind […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

Open Letter To The (Book) Publishing Industry

March 12th, 2007 · 21 Comments

Darlings, Where are you? We have been in the lovely city of Austin (the sun is shining, the grackles are, well, one doesn’t need to discuss the private functions of birds) since Thursday and haven’t seen you anywhere. We have gone so far as to take the rather rude step of reading nametags rather than […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

Friday Night, March 9, Something To Do

March 8th, 2007 · 2 Comments

We are en route to an exciting, undisclosed location. This involves rising at an unnatural hour and not posting original snark here. Yes, this does mean that you get to read something new and fresh for a change. While we do not normally get all L.A.-centric on you, sometimes needs must. Los Angeles is about […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Live Book Search versus Book Search: The Differences Are…

March 7th, 2007 · 2 Comments

We realize that many of you think that Booksquare is a well-oiled, well-planned, and well-considered machine. Some of you may even be under the impression that we plan our posts in advance. That is untrue. Most days we wake with a vague notion of maybe writing something brilliant. Most days, we end up erring on […]

File Under: Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright · The Future of Publishing

Do Publishing Houses Have A Future?

March 5th, 2007 · 11 Comments

It is an interesting question: what role do publishers serve in this modern world? In the past, the work of the publisher was very clear. Editing, marketing, and distribution occupied the days of those who poured out of Manhattan office buildings for lunch, for those who devoured manuscripts on the subway ride home. But as […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing