Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

Next, He’ll Confess To Reading Magazines For The Pictures

Once upon a time, we took great pride in the fact that we always finished books. For reasons more perverse than practical, we would slog through to the bitter end, if only to figure out how the thing got published. Then books started piling up, littered with bookmarks stuck in the middle, some closer to the beginning than we’d care to admit. Still, we maintained the fiction of finishing everything we started long after it became apparent that we were fooling nobody. This, of course, is not something we’d admit in public. We have our reputation to consider. Also there […]

Square Pegs

Early Morning Analogies

We cannot say why we’re amused by this item, except that we do appreciate hubris. Even more so, we appreciate people calling out those with excess hubris. This isn’t the first time Page Six has been accused of lifting gossip from others, and it probably won’t be the last. We’re not so sure about honor among gossip columists (do they have their own guild?), but we do know it’s important to properly credit the work of others. Without requiring they pay for the privilege. C.J.: Reheated item was fresh here

Square Pegs

One of Those Convenient Moments of Convergence

Comic books and characters, together again for the first time. Right. Anyway, for those looking for immortality (and what with the 24-hour day not being enough, who isn’t?), Neil Gaiman has generously offered to help. You can live forever as a cruise ship. Or rather your name can live forever, emblazoned on the cruise ship in Gaiman’s upcoming Anasi Boys. Bidding is already fast and furious (and, sadly, too rich for our blood). From the auction: All proceeds from this auction will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that specializes in the defense of First

Square Pegs

You Are What You Write (Or Not)

The idea of character versus reality has come up in many ways over the past few days. For example, today Ana Marie Cox, a keynote speaker at SXSW explained that Wonkette is a character (it was also revealed that she’s married…this was news only to Robert Scoble). If you’re a fiction writer, this makes perfect sense. After all, our nearest and dearest know that we don’t know everything; we cannot, for example, convert miles to kilometers. Character, or rather how you present yourself in various situations, has threaded through the SXSW sessions (note: in our defense, we have not attended

Tools and Craft

May We Suggest A Brief Navel Gazing Respite?

We went into this article on the, uh, death of first fiction filled with appropriate sympathy. Truly. For many reasons, not all of which are selfish, we want authors to succeed and write and publish. We want lots of variety when it comes to reading choices. We need appropriate material for dark and stormy moods; we need just the right thing for first day of spring moods. Let us suggest that today’s literary fiction doesn’t sell at blockbuster levels because it doesn’t speak to mass audiences. We remain perplexed by the continued success of The Da Vinci Code, but the

Books/Mags/Blogs

Previously On Booksquare

See, if they were charging, we wouldn’t be able to bring yet another New York Times article to your attention. One, we might suggest, that has actual topical relevance to this blog. Endings. Writing them, to be specific. As it turns out, what goes up must come down. Or stories must end. Hmm, perhaps this is how the soap opera evolved. They couldn’t figure out how to wrap all the storylines up. Actually, due to a variety of reasons (like, oh, not wanting people to know how things end in this fast-paced ifnormation era), television series are pushing the writing

Square Pegs

Not That We’re Suggesting The Metrics Are Wrong

Far be it for us to read something and wonder if perhaps someone is looking through the wrong end of the binoculars, but, well, that does seem to be the case for Mr. Atwood: “A big part of the motivation for newspapers to charge for their online content is not the revenue it will generate, but the revenue it will save, by slowing the erosion of their print subscriptions,” Mr. Atwood said. “We’re in the midst of a long and painful transition.” Let us get this straight. Print subscriptions are dropping. Online readership is growing. Online ad sales are up.

Square Pegs

Sometimes An Odd Notion

In favor of reincarnation: surely this isn’t our only chance to get it right. Against reincarnation: surely we would have come back rich. As we read Jane Guills’ backstory for Nectar From A Stone, we were struck by the idea that sometimes you just don’t know. Things happen that cannot be explained. Then again, why do they need to be explained? Why not just accept the convergence or the weirdness or the fact that what you least expect is exactly what you need? Jane Guill’s Backstory for Nectar from A Stone

Books/Mags/Blogs

Also, Standing Naked On A Street Corner

We suppose we must begin with a question: has there ever been a point in publishing history where every book released into the wild came accompanied by an unlimited promotion budget? We ask because we are not certain if the large number of books being released truly means that authors need to be more creative with marketing, or if authors have always been required to exercise ingenuity and guile. Marketing is our biggest fear. It goes back to kindergarten and playing the fat lady in the school circus. This was before the point in our life when we discovered food

Tools and Craft

On Something Completely Different

“Spamalot” fans who signed up for a newsletter on the Broadway musical’s official Web site may end up getting, well, spammed a lot. “Movin’ Out” devotees may have the same problem. A security glitch – now fixed – exposed the names and postal and e-mail addresses of more than 31,000 people to savvy computer users. That we could not resist should come as no surprise to anyone. What to Expect of ‘Spamalot’? A Lot of Spam

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