Booksquare

It’s been a rough year for libraries, but as we suspected, they continue to exist and thrive. Not so long ago, it appeared the Salinas public library would close due to lack of funds; today, it’s not a sure thing, but the community came to realize the important place the library serves in their collective […]

While we imagine there are some out there who love doing publicity, most authors seem to treat it like a chore — one that could make or break a career (possibly if cleaning refrigerator had such impact, we’d be more inclined in that direction). Publishers offer varying levels of marketing support to authors, commensurate with […]

In an essay at Powell’s, our friend Martha O’Connor talks about her journey from wide-eyed innocent to stark raving mad author, with a slightly pink side trip thrown in for good measure. Her journey, like so many, truly began when she realized her first mistake: Now I’m quick to admit that my first book, which […]

Last week, someone suggested that women’s fiction doesn’t get reviewed because it’s about characters (or perhaps character studies), while men’s fiction is about ideas. While we don’t want to get into a discussion on the importance of characters in fiction (we take the position that they are a key element), we also don’t want to […]

It appears that someone out there is impersonating agent Deidre Knight by sending letters to authors, assuring publication and a low agency commission. Let us assure you that The Knight Agency doesn’t need to drum up additional business — this is a scam, and someone is trading on Knight’s sterling reputation. Do not fall for […]

In their continuing series of editors, MediaBistro talks to Julia Cheiffetz of Random House. And Cheiffetz talks about her current project, a book with the controversial title of This Is Not Chicklit* and why she believes it’s important for diverse voices in literature. One day when I was out for a jog, I started to […]

Grumpy Old Bookman (via Susan Gable, who might just be promoted to research assistant if she doesn’t watch herself) points us to another in our series of “Look At That, The Girl Can Think” stories. In today’s episode, on a show called University Challenge, the Romance Novelists Association (the British version of Romance Writers of […]

We work this morning with the powerful sense that finding book-related news would be as easy as, well, opening our laptop. Wrong. It is as if the world took the entire weekend off. We cannot understand what could be happening — it seems like something should be catching our attention. In unrelated news, it appears […]

Yes, the latest Harry Potter book is practically leaping out of its cardboard boxes, twitching with excitement. Yes, lots of parties tonight. Many children will be up past their bedtimes. One would think the publisher would have set a more reasonable release time for the book, knowing how cranky children can be without a full […]

The LA Indpendent has a nice profile of local blogger Kevin Roderick, proprieter of LA Observed, a site that has earned a spot in a very special “check early and often” folder in our RSS reader. About his site, Roderick says: “It really started for selfish reasons,” he explains. “I wanted to stay more connected […]