Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

On Websites

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We realize we’re particularly picky about these things — we’re also particularly picky about matching shades of red — but in this day and age, a website is your number one, primary, first, initial, predominant, most critical, etc., marketing tool This goes for authors and agents. Too often, we see them presented as an afterthought or check mark on a To Do list. We’ve been particularly hard on agents without websites (because we assume they’re looking for business, but maybe we’re lamer at econ that we suspected), with good reason, we think. For example, we stumbled across the Talcott Notch […]

Agents

Video Killed The Radio Star, and All That

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In 1998 or so, we wrote an article (which we would locate if we weren’t so lazy and if we didn’t suspect it’s really bad) about ebooks and authors. At the time, there was a lot of fear and bravery surrounding this type of publishing. Since then, ebook sales have risen and the planet has continued to turn, pretty much on schedule. Ebooks haven’t destroyed the world. We suspect free will is alive and kicking. Yet a combination of fear and bravery continues to exist in ebook-world. We previously discussed authors giving away their works (gasp!). Now we bring you

Books/Mags/Blogs, Square Pegs

After All, Journalistic Integrity Is So Last Century

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It turns out that not everybody has a blog. This shocks us. If you’re planning to get rich with your blog, rethink this. You have a better chance of winning the lottery. Sex is good. You can read that any way you wish. There is a certain jump-the-shark feel to blogging articles lately (there is also a jump-the-shark feel to using the phrase jump-the-shark, but that’s another post). Now Wired’s gone and written a long story on the phenomenon. Yeah, another story about Nick Denton with Jason Calacanis making a guest appearance. We think blogs offer great opportunities for authors

Books/Mags/Blogs

Red Dress Speaks Español

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Red Dress Ink, building on its success in English-speaking chicklit (we may revisit this sentence later), will begin issuing books in Spanish. Seven titles, originally isssued in English, are hitting prime markets as we speak. More will follow, depending on the success of the initial run. Given the careful and extensive market research done by Harlequin, we predict success both for Red Dress and its authors. Red Dress Ink

Publishers and Editors

Flowchart Update

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Okay, students, pay attention. We have changes at Random House (you do keep your publisher org charts in pencil, right?). One: Nancy Miller (Ballantine) is now an executive editor. This means some of you may need to reprint your query letters. Two: Jonathan Karp is editor-in-chief of the imprints, including, but not limited to, RH Trade Paperbacks and Modern Library. Daniel Menaker is now executive editor-in-chief of RH Publishing Group (this is what happens when you run out of vertical titles; they expand horizontally). Apparently everything else will remain the same. Random House

Publishers and Editors

Even the Wine?

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We’re going to be honest: we believe everything we read. It’s so much easier than thinking and analyzing and looking up facts. But sometimes, we see an untruth so blatant it makes us raise our eyebrows and shake our heads. It happened right smack in the middle of Day Two of Brendan Gullifer’s experience at the Sydney Writers’ Festival (if you’ve never been to one, Gullifer nails the experience, though he seems a bit sober to us). What caught our attention was the part where Jane Palfreyman of Random House says, “…people send presents with their manuscripts – bottles of

Square Pegs

That Collective Unconscious Thing

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This week, we discussed favorite books and the plight of the translator. Lo and behond. it turns out thre’s a new translation of Booksquare favorite Notes from Underground. This is wonderful news (if you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for — it’s a long weekend with nothing but food, drink, and hammocks on the schedule). But…is buying this new edition hypocritic? After all, we make fun of friends who buy every newly remastered version of Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan (not that these are the only artists whose labels soak suckers by coaxing another layer

Books/Mags/Blogs

New Menu

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Publisher’s Lunch, the daily newsletter, is changing its menu, starting next Tuesday. Over the past several years, Michael Cader has focused time and energy on Publisher’s Marketplace while still serving Lunch daily (except when the chef takes time off). Marketplace members, who subscribe to the site, will receive a special Deluxe Lunch with lots of trimmings. Yes, Virginia, we live in a world where database integration is considered a “trimming”. Regular Lunch subscribers will receive a scaled-down version of the newsletter (the low carb option). In a week where The Bookseller moves toward pay-to-play (yes, we know — it was

Square Pegs

What, Exactly, Is Very Established?

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Once we got past all of Noah Lukeman’s accomplishments and set aside our depression at what the man has achieved in very few years, we read the latest in the MediaBistro pitching series with interest. And not a little confusion. What if you think you’re very established but your neighbor thinks you’re only well established? Where does the line get drawn? And who draws it? Pitching an Agent: Lukeman Literary Management (AvantGuild members only) Lukeman Literary Management

Agents

From Blog to Book, Update

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We’ve been seeking an angle on this Washingtonienne story, and, because our luck seems unusually high this week, we found one. The tell-all (and we do mean all; see Wonkette’s reproduction and, um, analysis) blogger has been contacted by Pilar Queen from Carlisle & Company who finds “…the people who have these blogs and post these Web sites are fascinating…” If she only knew. For more fascinating blog to book coverage, check out our previous stories. The Reliable Source (you’ll need to scroll down the article for the story) The Lost Washingtonienne (WONKETTE EXCLUSIVE, ETC., ETC.) Carlisle & Company

Books/Mags/Blogs
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