Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

Reading is the Best Medicine

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Someone once told us that writing comedy is easy — a bit like falling off a log. Sure, if the log is 1,000 feet up, and when you look down, you realize you’re falling onto a bunch of sharp knives. Okay, maybe writing funny isn’t that hard, but it’s not easy. Especially when the only person you amuse is yourself. It probably should go without saying that happens to us. A lot. That being said, there’s an intrinsic part to writing funny, as Jonathan Ames points out: Comedy is often asked about, and there are courses on it, but sometimes […]

Square Pegs

Yes, Yes, Well What Did They Expect?

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Beginning authors often worry that someone with steal their ideas. This worry is usually supplanted by the realization that there are far too many of them out there, and it might be nice if someone took a few off a person’s mind. The truth is that two people, when faced with the exact same idea, will take it in different directions. This is why eyewitness reports are notoriously unreliable. People create their own reality. Thus it was inevitable that a book (a chain novel) written by 19 authors would have a few problems: But like almost any collective effort, the

Books/Mags/Blogs

Faith in the System

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We didn’t need to our belief in truth, justice, and all that reinforced, but it’s always nice to know it’s still out there. Particularly the part about lawsuits. Just as one can gauge the distance of storms by the sound of lightning, one can predict the timing of lawsuits based on media exposure. Yes, Norma Khouri is considering a lawsuit (look, we’re giving the Pamela Anderson wrote a book story a pass; we need some entertainment). Proof presented by Khouri to her publisher regarding the authenticity of her book remains under scrutiny, but lawsuits are forever. Or something like that.

Square Pegs

Agency Hangs Out Shingle, Forgets Website

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We hate to show our age, but sometimes one must sound like a broken record. Until agents realize the importance of a website, we will continue to mention the lack. For example, agent Sue Yuen left the Susan Herner Rights Agency and started inko Inc. (Yes, we think that’s right, but, alas, can only find inconsistent Internet references, with nary a website to guide us). Agency contact information is: inko Inc. PO Box 372, Brooklyn, NY 11218. Phone: (718) 686-6021.

Agents

Another Day, Another Meeting

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We don’t do this meeting thing on purpose — we make it quite clear to clients that dragging us out of the house to do this sort of thing affects our personal life. They find this to be a challenge rather than a warning. Hence, no time to do what we want today, so massive updates will have to wait another day. But we won’t leave without a few tidbits. For instance, the latest in the “Pitching” series from MediaBistro. They visit with Richard Curtis, and learn that he’s seeing fiction sales as tougher, but not impossible. His agency specializes

Agents, Square Pegs

Agent Alert

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We are told that agent Paige Wheeler will be doing a full-day workshop for the Orange County Romance Writers of America on Saturday, August 14, 2004. Wheeler will discuss the anatomy of a good query letter (hint: include your contact information!) and reveal the inner life of an agent. Oops, we meant a day in the life. Could be the same thing — we’re not sure. Orange County RWA Meeting Paige Wheeler Creative Media Agency

Agents

That Language We Can’t Always Figure Out

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Our first thought on encountering this lament to the English language was, yeah, tell it like it is. Then we had a second thought. Those are the dangerous ones. Sometimes they lead to third thoughts, and we all know what kind of trouble that causes. We are extremely disciplined, however, and controlled our mind. If only we could exert the same influence over weather — it’s destined to be a scorcher and we’re headed inland. Right, we had a second thought (the problem with thoughts is they tend to snowball). Perhaps we’ve read too many novels. Or perhaps we’ve spent

Tools and Craft

From The Not-So-Shocking Files

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We have so many items of interest today — and an impending meeting*. Sometimes life simply isn’t fair. As we are not so good at brevity, we will get to a few things, and leave your appetite whetted for the rest. Well, it sounded good before we typed it out. For those of you who thought all reality television was sponataneous, we salute you. You have achieved the Budhha mind sought by television executives. For those who felt “nobody can be that dumb,” well, yes, they can. You need to get out of the house more. After all, do you

Square Pegs

Following The Green

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Sarah’s holding a discussion about literary authors looking over at the crime genre and thinking “I’m gonna get me some of that.” Sort of like all those people who say to romance authors, “I can do that. You just plug Tab A into Tab B” (for some reason, non-authors think romance is the easy way into publishing, though we suspect mystery authors get the same types of comments: “All you need is a body, huh?”). We think about this a lot — why do we write what we write? Our answer (of course we have one) is that we just

Square Pegs

True Stories of Guerrilla Tactics

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Now some would suggest we’re just trying to find ways to work our obsessions into your consciousness. They would be right. Hence this article — it marries our love of anime (we keep the husband up late at nights downloading* episodes of Samurai Shamploo (note: the husband says it’s Samurai Champloo; we’ll go with either spelling), which has become our new Cowboy Bebop, though Spike remains number one in our heart) with our belief in subverting tradition, especially as it relates to promotion. We frequently write about making content free and how it can build a buzz; we remain convinced

Tools and Craft
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