Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

How To Feel Old Without Really Trying

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We continue to listen to Stephen King on our iPod…he’s discussing his love of fifties-era film. Horror film, specifically. Perhaps this was on our mind yesterday when we were puzzling through an accounting conundrum. Hmm, not quite true. The accounting was quite clear — it was the explanation from the tech guy that required us to print an email and draw a diagram. Even then, we were quite convinced either our understanding of the English language was off, or he was contradicting himself. To make a long story short, the problem related to old-time serials — the short films shown […]

Square Pegs

In Six Months, This Will Come Up In A Marketing Meeting

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The rain has stopped, the cats are reacquainting themselves with something called “sun”, and the day promises to be glorious. Yes, that means we’re headed out to Culver City to spend the day locked in a building. There are so many things wrong with this, we cannot begin to list them. Okay, we can, but it’s polite to shower before meetings, and we are nothing if not polite. So, if you haven’t heard about Virtual Book Tours, we can assure this: they will be all the rage sooner than you think. MJ Rose gets to the bottom of the concept

Tools and Craft

Cheap Amusement

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We realize that we need to get over our amusement with Tom Wolfe and his latest book. It’s not his fault that he made it so easy. And it’s not like we don’t like his work. Maybe it’s the part where he says stuff like: Women of Yale, listen up: What most disappoints Wolfe about modern college students is the loss of feminine innocence. When I press him [Wolfe] to pass judgment on college kids, he allowed, “I cannot get used to women talking like men.” Quite possibly, our fascination with this subject is Wolfe’s inability to put himself into

Books/Mags/Blogs

Not A Job for Autodidacts

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So it’s all night with the thunder. Finally, sleep, and then the parrots started going crazy. We estimate there are over one hundred parrots screaming and terrorizing the neighborhood. Apparently, they’re going to keep doing this until it stops raining and trees regain appropriate leaf cover. The husband thinks it’s time to make little parrots and nature isn’t cooperating. We think parrots are loud and proud and easily riled up by instigator parrots. We are currently listening to On Writing on our iPod (goal: catch up on reading while enjoying the splendors of the treadmill; result: we like loud, fast

Books/Mags/Blogs

Eventually, We’re Going To Stop Giving It Away For Free

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Before we get started, we must say, again, that while many ills can be laid at Harlequin’s feet (and we can detail them, if provoked), ripped bodices are not on the list. We reiterate our plea to journalists everywhere: drop the cliches. They make you look like hack writers. Try to come up with something fresh for us to rant about. We need a good challenge. Now that we’ve settled that, let us delve into the conundrum that is TorStar profits and why they’re dwindling. More than one Booksquare reader thought we were up to this task, and we live

Publishers and Editors

We Can’t Begin…

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No really, we can’t. No details, no specifics, no explanation. We can only remember that English is that most imprecise of languages. Also, that HST greatly influenced the Booksquare household. Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself Here’s the direct link to David Thayer’s tribute to HST. We like his comments about Thompson writing as if life were a war zone. There are days…there are definitely days! Whiskey and Gorillas: Doctor Thompson Farewell As for us, we can only say you haven’t done Hawaii until you’ve done it Thompson style. He told the truth the travel agencies don’t dare: come December,

Square Pegs

Sarah Gets Her Poll Up

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Phase Three of the genre fiction advances, etc. information collection project is in full swing as Sarah Weinman posts her survey for crime and mystery authors. Names not required, confidentiality respected. Would you like to take a survey?

Square Pegs

Catching Up on Reading Blogs

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Yesterday, we spent time catching up on favorite blogs. Of course, catching up involves a lot of cruising from site to site, following interesting links. Then following more links. And then wandering lost in the wilderness for a few days. Yes, this means that we didn’t so much catch-up as misplace our purpose somewhere around Blog 3. Now, some would be ashamed and embarrassed to admit they fall a month or two behind on reading. Around here, we consider that to be pretty darn good. In fact, if we were able to keep up with everything, that would mean something

Agents

Okay, Seriously, Just Call Us And We’ll Help

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Pay attention: we are about to dip our toes into the water of the mighty Sincere. We think Random House is moving in the right direction with its investment in Vocel. Yes, you read it right. The publishing giant is making a bold, brilliant move. Now, all they need to do is contact us, and we can skillfully guide them to success. RH has noted that many people today reach for their cell phones before they reach for their glasses in the morning (we do hope they did not pay a market research company to provide this information). They also,

Publishers and Editors

A Point We Hadn’t Considered

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You know it’s one of those days when you start heading for the shower in the morning, and start seriously considering the fact that you have to get clean about forty-five minutes before you’re due at friend’s for dinner. And still, you can’t find the energy to stand and do what needs to be done. Oh no, you’d rather beat a dead horse (or beat a dead horse after spending an afternoon catching up on RSS feeds…oh, the feed reader built into Thunderbird is beyond wonderful!). Ron of Beatrice picks up the Mary Bly story, and makes an interesting comment.

Books/Mags/Blogs
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