Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

Put That Book Down and Nobody Will Get Hurt

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For further proof that getting an entire species to behave in accordance with a single set of rules, we point to a recent mistake by a grocery store in Canada (names, except Canada’s and one judge who’s due for her fifteen minutes are excluded to protect the innocent). Yes, it appears that someone accidentally shelved the new Harry Potter and, gasp!, someone accidentally bought it. You’d think with all this modern technology and the ability to send a man to the moon and whatnot, there’d be a way to stop customers from buying books. Oh wait, there is: the legal […]

Books/Mags/Blogs

Keeping Pushing The Book Publishing Model Blues

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If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently, you’ve noticed two major stories: Shrek2 and The Incredibles were victims of stronger-than-expected DVD returns. There are all kinds of questions being asked of the studios behind these films, but, oddly, nobody’s asking about overproduction. Nobody’s asking why the system isn’t more efficient. Hollywood is lucky in that a few films making it big can pay a lot of bills. But you have you understand that there’s a long revenue stream attached to every movie and television series. For one or two books to carry a publishing house in the same

Books/Mags/Blogs

This Just In: New York No Longer Center of Universe

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There is, if you can believe it, a debate that rages long and loud: to New York agent or not to New York agent. The crowd on the left believes proximity makes for good agenting. The crowd on the rights notes new technologies like airplanes, telephones, and even something we hear is called “electronic mail.” Someone mentioned something called a “fax machine”, but we have been unable to track down any further details. As agent Rick Broadhead says, Prospective clients with caller ID may be confused by Broadhead’s 416 area code, but the Canadian dismisses the idea that an agent

Agents

This One’s For The Kids

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Here’s one we missed — an agency looking for a wide range of projects, including (yes, kids, it’s true) children’s and young adult fiction. Jennifer DeChiara and Stephen Fraser are incredibly picky, but if they like your work, expect lots of loving care from the agency. Vitals: The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency, 254 Park Avenue South, Ste 2L New York, NY, 10010, (212) 777-2706. Traditional queries (snail mail, SASE) suggested. Pitching an Agent: The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency — These agents aren’t concerned with a writer’s age or previous publishing experience—but if you don’t have the writing chops to back

Agents

Are Female Crime Writers Pushed Aside?

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The authors behind The Lipstick Chronicles (Susan McBride, Sarah Strohmeyer, Harley Jane Kozak, Nancy Martin’s) take a look at the idea of a girl ghetto in crime fiction. The discussion features Laura Lippman, David Montgomery, Sarah Weinman, and Harlan Coben, each of whom addresses the idea that women are pushed to the edges of this genre. Their conclusions tend to say no, with qualifiers. The responses are interesting, but we found that one recurring theme didn’t get explored fully (given the format and the fact that the Lipsticks couldn’t have predicted this, it’s understandable): the idea that people write what

Books/Mags/Blogs

We, Too, Get Cranky Around Birthday Time

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If we were to say, oh, literary fiction sales suck because all literary fiction sucks, not only would people scream, but we’d have to admit to a slight exaggeration. Only some literary fiction sucks — the law of averages prevents all books of any genre from being the best ever. There is excellent literary fiction and there is bad literary fiction. From a consumer perspective, which is presumably the purpose of writing reviews as they come a little too late in the process to help the author craft a better novel, knowing which books are worth reading and which books

Square Pegs

Toward a Utopia of Book Reviewing for Women

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Recently, we posted a short piece where we read too much into a few words. Most of our enlightened readers got the point immediately. A few chastised us for, well, overreading a few words (which we’d stated up front, so that ship had sailed) and went off on another tangent entirely. Which was fine, but not really the point we wanted to make. So let us try again: bias can be as blatant as using the qualifier “leggy” before calling someone an essayist (because, unless we’re missing something important, the two descriptions are unrelated). Bias can also exist by omission,

Wrapped Up In Books

Hey, Is That A Writer In Your Pocket?

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Forget the personal trainer. That’s so last year. Anyone who’s anyone has a personal screenwriter. See, it’s not enough to have one, two, three, ten screenwriters toil over a script — the star or director also needs to bring along someone who understands his or her vision. Very important. Of course, being a personal screenwriter isn’t just stepping on toes and revising carefully crafted dialogue. It’s also a highly lucrative job, sometimes lasting the duration of of production. A good writer who scrimps and saves over this period can almost afford a house in Culver City. As long as they

Square Pegs

Has The YA Market Reached Its Zenith?

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Just this past weekend, we found ourself in a bookstore, lost in the Young Adult titles. We remarked, quite casually, to the mother that the YA craze was bigger than we’d believed. She, being the smug type, assured us that we don’t know everything. Well, we know this: Dorchester is stepping out of the YA game. The Smooch line is no more. No word on why, though we’ve heard rumors of slow sales, possibly due to less-than-optimal distribution. This is only a guess.

Publishers and Editors
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