Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

In Which We Succumb

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We’re simply too lazy to fight the good fight. Plus we never know what to wear when going to battle against the trite and obvious. Black’s been done to death. Prints make us look short. And red is simply not our color. Yes, we’re blaming our retreat from headline bashing on sartorial indecision. It’s so much easier than admitting we can’t keep up. Soon the world will be overrun by headlines like the one below. We hope our small attempt at battle will earn us a place in history, though we lost the war. Once you get past the headline, […]

Publishers and Editors

Still Not Named Punch

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The last time we were in London, we were working. Getting up every morning, blow drying our hair, stumbling to the Tube, buying tabloids, making sure we were on the right color train, arriving at the office, that sort of thing. Pretty much like home except we let someone else do the driving. While we were earning our keep, the husband (who joined us on the trip as “technical support”) became addicted to something called The Big Breakfast. As he was thinking of storming Parliament that week, we supported anything that kept him out of trouble. He still misses that

Square Pegs

Yes, The Headline Was Phoned In

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We could have predicted the headline to the Boston Globe’s Zane interview. But let’s not dwell on that right now. Just this weekend we had a conversation with our friend Jill — she was, with great interest, reviewing a list of self-published books. Her conclusion at the end of the project? Lots of them out there. We couldn’t agree more. As the, uh, mysterious author Zane has, um, uncovered herself in recent weeks (an interview here, an interview there), so much has been made about her subject matter. Yeah, women write about sex. Yeah, women read about sex. The fact

Square Pegs

Not As Off-Topic As It Seems

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We must confess: we don’t always get the visual arts. Some stuff, sure, but more often than not we’re confused. That’s right — we can stare at works by Jackson Pollack all freakin’ day and end up as enlightened as a lamp post. Or the one where the artist framed the canvas that formerly lived under another work of art. Oh yeah baby, nothing says creative expression like a square formed by paint splotches. On the other hand, nothing offers us more pleasure than attending openings at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. We cannot pick our favorite moment,

Square Pegs

Community Service

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We’re not going to suggest that our friend Susan G is an angry woman; she just takes craft very seriously. Since the day we met her — we were staring at a cup of coffee that appeared to fading into the mist, she had the energy of one who’d been up for three days straight — she has been an advocate for the downtrodden, the poor, the preyed upon. Yes, writers. If you were to listen to Susan, you would hear variations on a theme: you must work hard. There are no shortcuts. It takes time. Don’t eat that entire

Tools and Craft

Back to Basics: Holiday Edition

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What? Is it a holiday or something? It’s as if the world’s gone silent…leaving us to make up our own entertainment. Never fear — this is a challenge we have successfully faced our entire life. We have been writing so long (since we held our first crayon, shunning stick figures and amorphous blobs representing houses and dogs for the foreign-to-our peers alphabet) that we sometimes forget the basic rule: stories must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Pretty much in that order, though the first rule of writing is that there are no rules for writing. If you’ve

Tools and Craft

We Suffer So You Reap

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Have we mentioned how irritating the Los Angeles Times website is? Especially when it comes to articles in the Calendar section? The Times does not want people to read them — of that we are convinced. Setting aside the registration hurdles, there are costs associated with accessing Calendar content. Why, we cannot say — most days we barely glance at anything more than the headlines when we read the section. This is really a shame, because every now and then we find something we want to share. Normally we resist the urge — why put another human through our unique

Square Pegs, Tools and Craft

Stopping Short of a Strip Tease (Pun, Alas, Intended)

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This writing thing we do, for most, comes with a goal. Have you considered it? Yes, yes, we know you want to be published, but that’s a step toward the goal. The winning moment comes when someone reads you. Picks up your books, drags out a twenty or two from a crowded wallet, and walks away, saying cheerfully, “I don’t need a bag. I’m starting this one right now.” MJ Rose’s blog at Publisher’s Marketplace, Buzz, Balls & Hype, focuses on publicity and writing. Earlier this week (last week — we can never be sure what with the dates changing

Books/Mags/Blogs

Well, We Couldn’t Let It Pass

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After having our fun at the expense of fine young men trying to find their literary niche, we must balance our karma a bit. Not a lot — we stopped and let a group of pedestrians cross the street this morning. Thus, we share with you an excerpt from the upcoming book Lads. For those hoping to peer inside the male soul, this particular section won’t do it for you. For those who’ve always wanted to know how magazines really come together, we suspect your suspicions will be validated. Excerpt: Lads – A former Maxim editor’s memoir recalls the frenzied,

Books/Mags/Blogs

A Name, A Title, That’s It

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Finally, at Warner Books, Melanie Murray has been named assistant editor. The grapevine does not mention her favorite sports or hobbies, though we suspect she’s partial to women’s fiction. That’s it. We’re going shopping! Time Warner Bookmark

Publishers and Editors
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