Articles from May 2007

Only The Dinosaurs Are Extinct

May 30th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Regular readers will recall that “death of the novel” stories appear in traditional print media (also, non-traditional non-print media) with comforting regularity. Sort of like Spring cleaning without the Windex. Somehow, there is an editorial guideline out there that equates “reading elsewhere” with the “death of reading”. We dispute this assertion. Those who declare that […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

The “Have A Great Holiday” Post

May 25th, 2007 · 2 Comments

So it’s the start of the Memorial Day holiday and we’re thinking ahead to three days of sloth (except for the shopping for the barbecue, then the actual cooking, oh, and, apparently we’re going to “clean”), and we’re thinking about summer reading. Summer reading is like winter reading except it frequently involves the hammock. Which […]

File Under: Square Pegs

What Happens In Omaha, Stays In Omaha

May 22nd, 2007 · 2 Comments

[BS Says: Judging a book by its cover is a time-honored tradition, and we put Timothy Schaffert’s Sex Parties…er, Devils in the Sugar Shop in the “Check it out” pile the moment we saw it. When Caitlin from Unbridled contacted us about the book, we were more than eager to hear what Timothy had to […]

File Under: Wrapped Up In Books

Simon & Schuster Changes The Rules: Goodbye Reversion of Rights!

May 19th, 2007 · 19 Comments

It is a general rule of life that the party who drafts a contract is the party who benefits the most. Sure, it’s not a law or anything. Think of it as more of a guideline. Thus, when Simon & Schuster announced (in a quiet, not designed to stir the waters way) that it was […]

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

The Story Of Your Life

May 17th, 2007 · 10 Comments

We were doing some casual research over the weekend — nothing strenuous, early summer has hit SoCal and when the choice comes down to blogging or sleeping in a hammock, well, what would you do — and realized something a bit distressing. There is nothing worse in this world than the bio pages on author […]

File Under: Back To Basics

Tell Us About The Future Of Publishing

May 15th, 2007 · 12 Comments

We spend quite a bit of time at Booksquare headquarters talking about what’s wrong with the publishing industry. These discussions usually focus on the industry’s seeming fear of new technology and the fact that, some days, it seems like the future of publishing will never happen. We suspect that it’s not so much a fear […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

You, Over There In The Choir! We’re Preaching

May 13th, 2007 · 8 Comments

From what we can tell, attending the Book Industry Study Group’s recent “Making Information Pay 2007” conference was like reading BS every day. Except there was probably less snark. And less wine. Reading the wrap-ups is like reading our posts. Is that going to stop us from highlighting a few key points? Of course not. […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

What If A Billion Kids Were Reading And Nobody Noticed?

May 9th, 2007 · 9 Comments

It is our belief that bookworms are born, not made. You know who we mean. The kid who sneaks in a paragraph when Mom’s back is turned. The child who devises an elaborate under-the-covers flashlight system because when it comes to sleep versus finishing a chapter, well, sleep isn’t all that important. The one who, […]

File Under: Square Pegs

The Great Hollywood Levy Scandal

May 7th, 2007 · 3 Comments

One of the things lurking on the edges of our memory is the state of foreign levy payments to talent in Hollywood. The LA Weekly brought that memory back, loud and fast. On the surface, this seems like a case of an unpaid $20 million — a mere pittance by Hollywood standards, as we well […]

File Under: Square Pegs

Save The Book Review, Save The World

May 1st, 2007 · 13 Comments

As we have seen over the past weeks, there has been much hand-wringing and navel-gazing on the topic of saving newspaper book review sections. To read some pundits, we need to save the world via book reviews (or, at the very least, literacy). We have been ranting about this topic for years now, and, frankly, […]

File Under: Reviewing Reviewing