Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

Talkin’ Copyright Blues

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Just before we headed off for our long weekend of fun, fun, fun, we paused over Sara Nelson’s comments about Kevin Kelly’s New York Times Magazine article “Scan This Book”. Nelson specifically takes issue with Kelly’s comments on copyright — even as she agrees that there are serious problems. Copyright in this country is a mess. Kelly noted that copyright was originally established to protect the artist, a sort of quid pro quo. The government would protect rights to an artist’s work for a certain period of time; in return, the artist would allow his or her work to enter […]

Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright

Highly Effective Blogging: Just Like Highly Effective Writing

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Though we are (typically) late to the game, we are going to play along with ProBlogger’s “Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers” game. This, of course, suggests that we are a highly effective blogger. As it turns out, the habits that make for good blogging also make for good writing. Who knew? So, what does make a blogger highly effective? Heck if we know, but this is what works around here:

Tools and Craft

Following Up On Unbridled’s Innovative Project

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We are very enthusiastic about the current online serialization project going on at Unbridled Books. This is a really cool, innovative project — and that more independent publishers could benefit from this model. Briefly, Unbridled is serializing Golem Song by Marc Estrin. Subscribers will be able to access new chapters of the book every week, with the final chapter being made available at the same time the print version of the novel is published. Additionally, subscribers will be able to access Estrin’s podcast reading of his novel. Subscriptions are $8; subscriptions with a signed copy of the book are $15.95

Non-Traditional Publishing, Publishers and Editors

There She Is

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Over in LBC-land, Yannick Murphy, author of Here They Come has taken the stage. Her first post delves into the process of writing and pruning a book — the choices an author must make for the story. And the regret an author feels when favorite moments must give way to the narrative flow. She describes the goal she wanted to achieve before her editor entered the picture (darn editors!) and acknowledges the good and the bittersweet of making changes:

Books/Mags/Blogs

On Stopping With The Me Versus You

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Column inches in the blogosphere are infinite and, for those who need to weigh in and for readers hungry for something uncensored, it’s a bonanza. Our mission may be different, but maybe we can learn to do things differently. Instead of catering to people who don’t read, why not try going after those who do? Call it an experiment. And let’s not get caught up in the legitimacy game of who is the real critic and who isn’t. For now, it’s whoever has the gumption to write and post their opinions. By the way, check out all the posts in

Quote of the Week

Authors At BEA: Probably Not

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In a recent comment, author Mia Zachary asked, quite rightly, why some people think authors shouldn’t attend BookExpo America. After all, from her perspective, she made good contacts with booksellers, got some quality time with her editor, and the price was right. All excellent points. Any time you, the author, can get yourself in front of people who will help your career — and you can do so in a non-obnoxious manner — we say go for it. However…while the floor of the conference is rife with authors (which, if you close your eyes and imagine it, well, yeah, not

Marketing For Introverts

When Thinking Out-of-the-Box, Actually Leave The Box

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We have a bit of snark to work out of our system this morning, and what better way than to get all cranky on a poor, innocent soul who quite possibly had nothing to do with titling her article “Novel Ways to Publicize Your Fiction Book”. Our issue, of course, is that these are not particularly novel ways. That is not say they will not work, but it’s time for fiction writers to stop thinking like non-fiction writers. Perhaps is because we have recently encountered a large number of people dressed like dogs (or Pillsbury Doughboys) and at least one

Marketing For Introverts

Print-on-Demand Becomes On Demand

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As we continue to process our BookExpo America experience, we’ll be posting all sorts of exciting news. We did want to start your morning (it’s always morning somewhere) with an introduction to what we believe was one of the coolest announcements of the conference. Amazon.com (you may have heard of them) unveiled a complement of new features designed toward moving the publishing game into this brave new digital era. We’ll be looking at these with our noted depth later, but one item caught our attention: Amazon’s aggressive move into Print-On-Demand.

The Future of Publishing

A Little Bit O’Name Checking

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So, let’s say you’re in the French Embassy — should you expect to run into all of your friends? Oddly, the answer is yes. We started our round of what we have been assured will be non-stop partying (oh, to be young and energetic again!) with a visit to the French Embassy, courtesy of Dalkey Archives. We then moved on to the Hyperion party, where Amy Goodman was far to worked up for our blood sugar level. Joining us in last night’s revels* were The Happy Booker (truly happy) and Mr. Booker, Pinky, Ed, Bookdwarf, Ron Hogan, Mark Sarvas, Lauren

Square Pegs

A Parallel Between Wireless Connectivity And Publishing

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Not that we’re the type to complain*, and we’re going to be talking more about this as we get our thoughts in order (one thought, we have discovered, got on the wrong train last night and is somewhere in Virginia — as the rest of the thoughts are safe in Maryland [it turns out the states on this side of the country are really close together], we need to wait for its arrival)..where were we?…ah, thoughts, thinking, complaining. Okay, so we are at BookExpo America. It is, and there is no other way to describe this, a big-ass conference. You

The Future of Publishing
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