Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

Ebook Obsession Becomes Dangerous, Intervention Requested

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Despite our vow to stop writing about ebooks this weeks, we were sucked back in against our normally strong will. Publisher’s Weekly breathlessly reports on the unveiling of Sony’s new-to-the-U.S.-market ebook reader. Despite yesterday’s story about ebook sales increasing, PW sees the new device as a beacon of hope because A similar device introduced into the Japanese market last year was a hit, giving Sony executives hope that despite the failure of e-books to catch on in the U.S., a better reader may encourage consumers to give e-books a second look. Reviews of the Librie device (which was either a […]

The Future of Publishing

As The Fiction Trends

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We read Nick Chiles’s opinion piece on the changing face of black fiction with mixed feelings. First, we wanted to take him aside and promise that everything would be all right. Then we realized that popular fiction will never meet his standards; everything would not be all right. For those of you who don’t explore beyond your favorite section of the bookstore, you should know that many major chains now have a section called (give or take) “African American Literature”. The reason you should know this is that these misguided bookstores are thinking that the target audiences are better served

Books/Mags/Blogs

This Agent Goes To New York…

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A former public relations professional leaves the rainy safety of the Pacific Northwest to become a literary agent in New York. No, this is not a new television series, it’s Janet Reid’s life. After burning out in the PR business, Reid turned to agenting. Her agency, opened in 2003, features a mixed list of fiction and non-fiction, placed at a mix of big and small publishing houses. Reid’s eclectic tastes include genre fiction: While Reid represents various types of fiction, she is one of those rare agents who is interested in selling mysteries. “Good mystery writers, I think, they have

Agents

Ebook Obsession Enters Day Three, Send Fuel and Water. Also New Subject To Rave About

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We have reached our threshold on ebook news for the week — three posts is far more than our limited attention span can manage. In fact, we’d give up now if Publisher’s Weekly hadn’t gone and written an inane sentence: Other additions to the list—from the astrology guide by Susan Miller, The Year Ahead (at No. 15) to romance titles like J.W. McKenna’s Office Slave, from Renaissance eBooks (at No. 23), and Fictionwise.com’s Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold (at No. 19)—highlight the fact that more women are reading e-books as well. Okay, we’ll buy the notion the romance is

The Business of Publishing

Books Once Again Safe To Eat

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As noted by David Thayer recently, Hershey, the maker of fine chocolate products*, decided that no publicity is good publicity. They thought that throwing a fit and saying “no way” to their signature product on a book cover would be a better plan than, oh, having lots and lots of customers walking by the book, seeing the Hershey name, and thinking, “You know, a kiss sounds good right about now.” As we’re sure you’re aware, filing a lawsuit is always the optimal conflict resolution tool. Sure, you can talk, maybe have a meeting, raise a few concerns, come to a

Books/Mags/Blogs, The Business of Publishing

Prognosticating For Beginners

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Far be it for us to offer tips on how to do one’s job, but, well, we have to go there. We can’t sit back and watch folly. As you’re surely aware, now is the time of year for all manner of lists. A lot of “Best Of” stuff is happening, and a lot of earth-shattering approaches. Our friend Jim, for instance, put an old release (or two) on his round-up of last year’s best music. This after making fun of someone for putting an old record on her list last year. We will not name names (oops, we did),

Books/Mags/Blogs

Smith Wins Last-Ever Whitbread, Sort Of

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Just as the Whitbread conglomerate pulls out of the annual Whitbread awards — apparently they don’t fit the current business model — announcements are made regarding this year’s winners. The British do love their book awards, and they love to draw out the process. You have your long lists, your short lists, your winners, and then your uber-winners. Ali Smith, winner of the Best Novel title, is now up against a slate of other bests to see who gets the big money. Also honor and bragging rights. This leads us to wonder, as is our nature, about the pronunciation of

Books/Mags/Blogs

Overpriced Ebooks: A Case Study

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Hmm, case study sounds so, well, businessy. Let’s say this is more of a case in point. We will use Jennifer Crusie’s Anyone But You as it is a prime example of Pricing Gone Wild. This title was released in paperback in 1996. The retail price, if we’re squinting at the enlarged cover properly was .50, page count was not much. It was a fun read, though. We were happy to learn that Harlequin had rereleased this classic title. We were less happy to learn that it was rereleased as a hardcover with a retail price of, gulp, 16.95 (discounted

The Business of Publishing

Contrary Thoughts

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Now far be it for us to suggest that a clearly scientific project lead to the wrong conclusions, but, well, we’d like to make a small case for subjectivity. Recently, in the name of Needing Something To Do, The Sunday Times sent opening chapters of V.S. Naipaul’s In a Free State and Stanley Middleton’s Holiday to a group of editors and agents. These timeless classics of great authors (or something like that) were rejected. The exercise by The Sunday Times draws attention to concerns that the industry has become incapable of spotting genuine literary talent. While our first tendency is

The Business of Publishing
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