Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

S&S: Coming To A Cellphone Near You

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We are, quite understandably, enthusiastic about the idea of publishing giants using new technology to reach readers. Simon & Schuster, or rather Simon & Schuster Spotlight Entertainment (makes one wonder, no?), has officially entered the cell phone promotion market. The new program will send text messages, excerpts, cover art, and whatever else fits on a cell phone to subscribers. Initial content will be geared toward women (He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys – seems like a perfect fit, doesn’t it?). S&S has partnered with a company called MobileSidewalk to push the content to cellphones, […]

Publishers and Editors

Remixability and The Pulitzer Prize

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We don’t normally cover awards and such, what with so many being, well, awarded that it’s hard to keep up. But the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to Geraldine Brooks for her book March, and the very notion of this book highlights a favorite topic of ours: art building upon art. March tells the story of the father from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (official BS) hero). Alcott’s book focuses on the family at home during wartime — a domestic novel, if you will; Brooks writes about the war. Two sides of a story. Whether they create a

Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright

Child Welfare Run Amok

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The library-that-yanked-the-manga story has been circulating for a few days now, showing no signs of dying. This is, sadly, a fairly typical story in our culture. Paul Gravett’s Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics was pulled due to, ahem, sexual content. Needless to say, a mother of a 16-year boy started the ball rolling. This leads to one of our favorite rants. First, of course, we’re going to point out the obvious: true Japanese manga is not kids’ stuff. While there are certainly manga geared toward the younger audience, this stuff is read by adult men. Manga is racy stuff.

Square Pegs

The Title Of This Post Has Been Used Before

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As we have been slowly (make that really slowly) working on another project, we have become enthralled by the notion of multiple books by the same title. It has has taken all of our inconsiderable will power to avoid the temptation to delve deeply into the “same title, different book” canon*. Let us just say that the Associated Press story (via The Los Angeles Times) article on this very topic is not doing much for our resolve. Especially since there’s this: Romance, mystery and other genre books are particularly likely to have recycled titles because of the vast numbers that

Square Pegs

On Proving What You Know To Be True

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When editors and agents reject a manuscript they tend to use a tried and trusted formulation: ‘Thank you for your submission, which I read and enjoyed. Unfortunately I don’t feel it is quite right for us.’ John Howard’s children’s book, The Key to Chintak, garnered so many of these identikit responses that he suspected the editors and agents weren’t even bothering to turn the title page. So he sent in a new manuscript, The Tin Drum, not his own words this time but extracts from a washing-machine manual. After a delay the replies started to arrive. You’ve guessed it: ‘Thank

Quote of the Week

How Many Books Can One Subject Spawn?

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One wonders, however briefly, if publishers have a monster board that not only details the upcoming year’s production schedule by title, but also by subject matter. And then one wonders if those same publishers have their competition, title/subject, matter on the same monster board. Movie studios do it, so one would hope publishing houses do it. You do have to wonder sometimes because, as the New York Times points out, there’s a lot of competition for reading dollars in this market. And a slew of titles on the same topic can be either good or…confusing. Do you buy this book

Books/Mags/Blogs, The Business of Publishing

Unexpected Results: Winning High School

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Unless you count reunions, there is nothing worse than high school. It’s as if an ancient sadist stroked his (or her) bearded chin and said, “How, I wonder, can I destroy their psyches for life?” Another moment passes and the answer comes, “High school! Of course. I am both diabolical and brilliant. Also, I had an unfortunate experience in gym.” Oh wait. Releasing your first book might count. Rejections, reviews, and people telling you that your life’s work is all wrong (and they should know, they have an idea for a book). Our friend Joan Kelly, author of The Pleasure’s

Wrapped Up In Books

DRM For The Publishing Industry

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Publisher’s Lunch alerts us to a new approach to galley distribution. Simon & Schuster will be experimenting with new, more communicative galleys for Stephen King’s new book. The purpose, of course, is to cut down on selling those “Not For Sale” copies. To quote from Lunch:

The Future of Publishing

Innovation, Meet The Brick Wall

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This just in: the publishing business is inefficient! Hmm, okay, so that’s not really news. But the fact that they’re trying to do something about it is. Business Week explores the idea of multi-channel delivery — you know, releasing in multiple formats simultaneously. The article starts off with amusing anecdotes — customers walking out of bookstores because they don’t want to wait a week for product, and bookstores over-ordering to meet quotas…then sending large quantities of books back. The so-called Caravan Project

The Future of Publishing

Finally, Our Ultimate Dan Brown Post

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Jill — who helpfully stepped up to the plate yesterday with a rousing post on author branding and STDs — noted that we allowed a bit of wiggle room on the Dan Brown issue when we last mentioned the court case (also, anytime we can use the word penultimate in a post, we’re happy). Thus we can bring you today’s happy news without breaking any vows of silence. The verdict is in. Brown and Random House — already celebrating because both the trade paperback and mass market paperback versions of The Da Vinci Code debuted at number one this week,

Square Pegs
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