Booksquare

So, okay, it’s street date for your book and you’re 35,000 miles above ground and out of touch with your audience. What to do? Send a quick “hey, it’s available on Amazon” post to Twitter and turn off your cell phone for the duration of the flight. That’s what Gary Vaynerchuk did.
There’s a reason that [...]

BS is moving into its shiny new headquarters today (as long as the Internet gods shine upon us!), so all thoughts are focused on frantic last-minute packing. Only the cat has completed her move-related tasks, though, in all honesty, she didn’t bring as many clothes. Frantic minds need distractions, and we have a fun one [...]

This past week, I encountered a string of things that made me smile, reminding me that the Internet is a really cool place for people who love to read. What’s exciting is that these are fun items that aren’t flashy, twirly, or even sparkly. They’re just plain fun. So here’s my current shortlist of things [...]

Sometimes I think that everyone’s worried about the future of books, but nobody’s doing anything about it*. More precisely, I think the people who hand-wring the most are the same people who forget why people read in the first place. These are the folks who place books on ivory pedestals and disdain anyone who reads [...]

It is inevitable, in a conference setting, that one will disagree with the information being presented. Sometimes it’s a different point of view, sometimes it’s that the presenter is working off old, inaccurate information. Sometimes, even, it’s a simple case of someone trying to make a point, and getting the message across in a sloppy, [...]

As a long-time romance novel reader — yes, Mom, I know, but I never warmed to the serial killers — I know that many of the books will never qualify as “great”. Still, there are a lot of talented writers telling incredible stories with amazing voice and creativity in the genre. This is so for [...]

What do you fear more: obscurity or piracy? Seems to me most people fear the latter because we’re told that piracy is bad and must be stopped. 400,000 books were published/distributed in the United States in 2007, according to Rachel Donadio’s recent New York Times article (”You’re an Author? Me Too!”). If you’re trying to [...]

Last week’s JK Rowling/Warner Brothers versus RDR Books trial made me very uncomfortable. On one hand, I completely support an author’s right to protect copyright. It’s time this nation (world, really) learned serious lessons about copyright — what it is, how it’s applied, fair use (yes, kids, fair use is part of copyright). But there’s [...]

Philip Parker has won today’s “Worst Person in Publishing” award. I wanted to give him the “Worst Person in the World” title, but, well, I’m fairly certain that’s been copyrighted. Hmm, maybe the ”’New York Times”’ will share the honors, if only due to its continued lack of critical thinking when it comes to covering [...]

The BS family is very excited to have debut author TJ Bennett with us today. I’ve known her for years and am thrilled that someone recognized her talent and published her novel. I asked TJ to talk about some of the challenges and benefits that come from writing for a small press. At the end [...]