Author name: Booksquare

We discovered the truth about our profession from the news. This is not unusual when you work in Hollywood (the myth, not the location) — press releases are a fine way to discover your company has been sold and you’re about to be laid off. It says much about our powers of analysis that we were able read an article about creative accounting and realize, “Hey, they’re talking about us!” After ten long years, we left our glamorous (ha!) position in the entertainment industry to concentrate on writing. It’s hard to work up enthusiasm for anything when you spend two […]

Didn’t we read about the (next) biggest author since J.K. Rowling last month? How is it possible there’s another? Do they come off the assembly line or what? Shouldn’t the book, at the very least, be released worldwide before such pronouncements are made? Yes, that’s it — there should be some sort of standards before an author is declared the next Rowling. If only to level the playing field. After all, if everyone is the next big thing, what room is there for underachievers or authors of quiet little novels? The pressure is simply too great. We’ll add this to

Because if they don’t, we make things up. Like, oh, how it’s possible for an author to burn his original manuscripts. Like, what, the handwritten versions? The versions he did on the rickety old typewriter? The only print-outs in existence because not only does he burn things, but he deletes from his hard drive without backing up? See why we simply cannot be satisfied with this story? Author burns original manuscripts

We know, we know. We should be nicer. We should also get up earlier and eat better. It’s all so difficult. But, in a world where far too many books are published, you can’t expect each one to receive the careful, thoughtful, undivided attention it surely deserves. Even if the world of book reviewers magically increased ten-fold, the law of averages and volume and probably other laws we don’t know about would dictate that not every book would get critical attention. Yet, rather than accepting the industry for what it is (and we all complain about the industry in some

Inefficiences are inherent to entertainment industries like publishing. Business has to change, but it takes time. Consumer pressure is a start, but is it consumer pressure when the consumer is taken out of the decision chain? Writing about Wal-Mart and censorship is somewhat of a hobby for us (yes, we could take up knitting, but the cats…). We have argued that Wal-Mart’s business practices are a form of backdoor censorship. They’re the only game in town for many consumers, and they have sufficient purchasing power to dictate content and packaging. Wal-Mart imposes its vision of morality (no sex, but, boy,

The Walt Disney Company has done more to change this country’s copyright law in the past two decades than was done in the previous centuries. It is not a stretch to suggest that as a company, they understand and appreciate copyright and its value more than most. It is also not a stretch to say they have taken incredible advantage of the public domain to expand their empire. So, yes, we’re choking-back-laughter-amused when we read comments like this: Disney contends the copyright in the U.S. expired before the 1998 law and the book now resides in the public domain. Sick