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While Michael Korda’s imminent retirement from Simon & Schuster is news in and of itself, we find we’re more fascinated by the way the man redefines “retirement”. Our understanding has always been that a retired person gets up at ungodly hours (eventually leading to driving one of the airport vans because today’s youth simply can’t […]

We have been informed that it is cheating* to use the same article for two different purposes on the same day. Normally, we would try to work our way around the issue by, well, posting this little piece tomorrow. Today, however, we have decided to live life to the fullest** and that includes writing about […]

Some of you may recall a post or six where we discussed the notion that consumers really want to consume entertainment in the manner most convenient for them. For example, most of the world wants MP3s they can migrate between machines without a hassle. What does the music industry do? Anything but. And then they […]

We are forever in search of creative ways to force ourself to meet deadlines. For the record, setting “pretend” deadlines allows us to have “pretend” last-minute crises that cause us to miss our deadline, leading to “pretend” hand-wringing over the whole disaster. Then we pretend to move on, but really, all that faking it wears […]

Go up to a writer and ask this question: do you hear voices in your head? If the answer is a cheerful “yes”, most people back away slowly. No need to find out what the voices are saying. Other writers, of course, will move closer, eager to compare experiences. It is always strange to learn […]

The headline below says it all. We are going to hide under the covers for a while. Please send messages by carrier pigeon once the danger has passed. Britney Spears to Write a Kabbalah Children’s Book?

We have yet to note a scenario where an publisher fails to over-anticipate demand for books. Scholastic, apparently, got a little giddy after the first day of sales for the latest Harry Potter title and went and started the printing presses. Now they have approximately 2.5 million more copies of the book than they need. […]