Author name: Booksquare

Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism.

This Week’s Agent Phrase: Upmarket Women’s Fiction

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If we weren’t so lazy (and the chances of that changing are pretty much nil to none), we’d compile a dictionary of literary descriptions. Or a thesaurus. Or both. Wait, the husband is all excited about folksonomies — maybe that would be the right approach. We may actually have to pay attention the next time he rants and raves. So, Wendy Sherman, publishing alumnus (? — it strikes us that the older we get, the worse our Latin) and recently joined by Tracy Brown, has this agency. She likes brilliant use of language; he likes journalists who go deep into […]

Agents

On Reminding Us That The Tempest (And Appropriate Refreshment) Is Due Tomorrow

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The discourse at reading groups does not often have much in common with the language of scholarship. Prof Currie and a fellow English literature don were once barred from a book club lest they ruin the fun with talk of structuralism and the like. For others, that expulsion might represent a happy revolution. According to Professor John Sutherland, of London University: “People are reclaiming the right to read from pointy-headed academics”. Why the book club is more than a fad: It is a phenomenon that has become a near ubiquitous part of bourgeois life – and it is about far

Quote of the Week

That Which We Fear Must Be Made Metaphorical

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We often think that people are afraid to write about sex because it is, at its essence, so primal. Murder, for example, almost always has a reason, a motive. People rarely go off randomly killing. It is rare that violence is committed for the sheer joy of getting off, so to speak. But sex? It not only captures the full range of human emotions and behaviors, but it’s also something we do just for the hell of it. No ulterior scheme. No twisted meaning. No secret desire. It’s just sex. And we have been thoroughly brainwashed to believe that that

Books/Mags/Blogs

Our Kingdom For An Explanation

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Harlequin will launch a co-publishing partnership in Brazil with Record Publishing Group, beginning on April 1. The companies plan to issue 100 titles together in the first year. Okay, we don’t really have a kingdom, but we have a blog. Close enough. We look to you, our more intelligent readers, to provide information. As you can see, we have so little to go on, we don’t even have a link to a larger source (yes, yes, yes, we could go through the frustration of the Torstar corporate website, but, well, we’re lazy. And hungry. (Via Publisher’s Lunch)

Publishers and Editors

Advance Notice

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There is much grumbling from authors about advances. Generally, it is agreed that the amounts given aren’t big enough. When it comes to advances, one thing many authors neglect to consider is that the map is not the territory. Publishers calculate advances based on a variety of criteria, including anticipated revenue, but, at the end of the day, the success of a book is determined by what it earns. The way things work is that publishers take a lot of risk upfront on each book. They pay an advance against future earnings to the author, they pay to edit, they

Tools and Craft

And The Day Wouldn’t Be Complete Without This Item

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We have no idea why we’re feeling so cynical today — try as we might, our new positive mental attitude doesn’t seem to be working. We recite our mantra and practice visualizing thigns working out exactly the way we hope, and, well, maybe we need to get a different mantra. Either that or stay off the freeway. Or maybe have more coffee. Yes, that always seems to make the morning brighter. A much as we appreciate the work of all the Bronte’s, we must agree that Pride and Prejudice trumps Jane Eyre. The latter is too Victorian for our taste

Square Pegs

We’re Still Working Up To The Hearts and Flowers

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If we could have one wish fulfilled this Valentine’s Day (this is the holiday where wishes are granted, right?), it would be that people of all ideologies could read/hear people of other ideologies and absorb their thoughts without attack. That is to say, if you encounter a viewpoint that differs from yours, examine it for merits. The one thing we know for sure is that no two people see things the same way. Your truth differs from ours. Judge the story, painting, poem, movie, song, whatever as a whole. Maybe it won’t change your viewpoint — in fact, if you’re

Square Pegs

We’re Not Much For Themed Content, But The World Is Against Us

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Somehow, we didn’t get the memo that we’re supposed to get all worked up over Valentine’s Day (though we were excited that our horoscope hinted that we’d be showered with gifts all day long. That, we can get behind). The rest of the world, however, seems to be all Valentine’s all the time. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you know what we mean. And, sure, we’re going to take advantage of the hard work of others to fill our posts today. It will give us time to ponder the fact that there isn’t a holiday dedicated to the inherently

Square Pegs

We Suppose We’re Going To Have To Call Her Mary From Now On

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Continuing her self-outing, Mary Bly (publishing as Eloisa James) hits the New York Times op-ed section with what we hope is the opening of a real conversation about genre fiction’s place in the fiction spectrum. Yes, we mean all genre fiction. One would have to be sleeping to ignore the fact that other genres are viewed with some derision. This morning, we’re sort of feeling it’s genre fiction’s hewing to archetypes that makes them seem anti-intellectual. Bly has her take: Intellectuals never seem to believe that a strong story and an interest in relationships could explain the popularity of romance.

Square Pegs

Taking One For The Team, And Striking A Blow At The Paper of Record

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Now we’re not going to be all disingenuous and pretend we didn’t know that Eloisa James was a pseudonym. We knew she (the real person) was a highly regarded scholar, etc, etc. In fact, the only surprise we felt upon reading this article was…hmm, no surprise at all. How peculiar. Actually, it’s refreshing when a romance author addresses the realities of writing in the genre — especially when those realities butt up against academia and, shall we say, fear of the unknown. James makes an interesting point: denying what she writes shames her readers. And, of course, we wouldn’t be

Square Pegs
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