How Not To Start A Book Club

October 3rd, 2006 · 3 Comments

Possibly one of the most fascinating things going on this week (yes, back from vacation and ready to go) is the story of Borders and its online book club. After sitting on the sidelines for about ten years, the retail giant has decided it’s about time to go with a little book club love. Alas, […]

File Under: Books/Mags/Blogs

On Slow, Painful Baby Steps

October 2nd, 2006 · Comments Off on On Slow, Painful Baby Steps

“For me the Web is like a teenager’s room,” Menaker [Daniel Menaker, editor-in-chief of the Random House Publishing Group] said. “It can be very messy, and you don’t quite know how to bring order to it. But you can’t ignore it. You have to deal with it.” Booked-Up Publishers Could Be in a Bind

File Under: Quote of the Week

Lazy Daze Of…Fall

September 26th, 2006 · Comments Off on Lazy Daze Of…Fall

We are just now getting around to taking our summer vacation. There’s an excellent chance that we’ll feel the urge to post from our undisclosed location…if that’s the case, expect nothing from brilliance, if not, well, we’re in a bad mood this week anyway. Nothing worse than a cranky blogger, right? And, yes, we were […]

File Under: Square Pegs

In Which The Publishing Industry Continues To Exhibit A Profound Lack Of Understanding Of The Real World

September 25th, 2006 · Comments Off on In Which The Publishing Industry Continues To Exhibit A Profound Lack Of Understanding Of The Real World

There is a saying that, if we recall correctly, suggests that closing the barn door after the horse escapes is rather foolish. Unless you are really trying to protect hay, in which case, you may ultimately be seen as practical. We are not sure the latest scheme initiated by publishers will be seen as practical, […]

File Under: The Future of Publishing

Make Her Laugh Make Her Cry

September 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on Make Her Laugh Make Her Cry

Once upon a time, you could write a book and that was that. Somehow — magic, probably — customers found the books and fortunes were made. Hmm, not entirely true. Authors have always been part artist, part salespeople; it’s simply that the marketing thing wasn’t mentioned in public. Bad for digestion, you know. At Three […]

File Under: Publishers and Editors

Contest Emptor

September 18th, 2006 · Comments Off on Contest Emptor

Let us all be honest for a moment: writing contests are often fundraisers. While you, the writer, might get a critique and maybe your work will make its way to an editor or agent’s desk, the contests are often a way for organizations to make money. No shame in that, by the way, but those […]

File Under: Square Pegs

On Learning Something New

September 16th, 2006 · Comments Off on On Learning Something New

The task of flipping the book upside-down every eight pages is actually less tedious than it sounds. An outsider novelist goes, er, traditional: Mark Z. Danielewski’s postmodern cred is genuine, but so is his attention to the teenage heart in the new ‘Only Revolutions.’

File Under: Quote of the Week

If Content Is King…

September 15th, 2006 · Comments Off on If Content Is King…

We’re going to do something dangerous. We’re going to make an assumption (yes, yes, we know): we’re going to assume that a few of you are old enough to remember the olden days. Those halcyon moments of yore, when watching television meant taking what they wanted to show you, when listening to the radio meant […]

File Under: Marketing For Introverts · The Future of Publishing

In Which A Publisher Speaks Openly

September 13th, 2006 · Comments Off on In Which A Publisher Speaks Openly

We do so love interviews with editors, but so often they are politically correct. You know how it goes: good story, strong writing, make me happy. Always helpful, but not always realistic. Publishing is, after all, as much a business as an art. Maybe that’s why we found MediaBistro’s interview with Richard Nash of Soft […]

File Under: Publishers and Editors

More Web Advice For Writers

September 12th, 2006 · 7 Comments

Let us start the day by returning to a topic near and dear to everyone’s heart: your website. For reasons that shall remain private, we have been doing a worldwide tour of author websites for the past several weeks, and can say that there’s something rotten in the state of websites. First, the tough love. […]

File Under: Back To Basics · Marketing For Introverts