The Daily Square
Daily links from Medialoper: booksquare
Someone Else’s Money
A long time ago in a job far away, we were schooled in the basics of distribution deals: at all times, you need to remember that it’s someone else’s money. You collect and report as if you are only passing the funds on to the real owner. For this, you get a percentage, a fee, a payment that recognizes your own work and effort. But you do not own the money. This has been foremost in our mind as we read of the decline of the Publisher’s Group West and the chaos it has created. Well over one hundred publishers
On Bookshops, Used
In a town like London there are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money. Bookshop Memories (inspired by Robert Gray’s essay in today’s edition of Shelf Awareness, not yet posted online)
The Great Paid Review Scandal, Follow-Up
We were somewhat intrigued by Slate’s storyon self-published authors and Amazon’s BookSurge division. The fact that BookSurge offers paid reviews as part of the service didn’t make us blink. Sure, we wonder about the authors who believe this is a valuable service, but we’ll get to that in a moment. What gave us pause was the phrasing in an email from the company to an author (see page two of the story)– while Slate’s reading of the service was that the review would be written by a New York Times bestselling author (in this case, probably the extremely extended list),
Form Versus Function
Maybe it’s because we spent our childhood in a room lined with books. Truly, every wall, except for the ones that were really doorways, was filled with books. Eight feet of books, or maybe six feet*. Or maybe it’s because our schedule means that so much of our reading is done online. Really — there’s something tacky about pulling out a novel while you’re on a client’s clock. Or maybe it’s because, like all readers, it didn’t matter what form the reading material took — scraps of paper on the floor of a subway, cereal boxes, flashing signs over freeways
The Daily Square – Little White Cottage Edition
In which we worry about Marian Keyes, lament Art Buchwald, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge — or, rather, Coleridge’s financial shenanigans.
The Daily Square – Los Angeles Edition
In which we explore the ups and downs of literary Los Angeles, the ups and downs of free content, and the ups and downs being an editor. All in all, a good day for surfing the web.
In Which We Are Not Excited About Book Digitization
In between this and that this week (mostly that, hence so little this), we have been intrigued by the recent business venture announced by HarperCollins. As one of the few publishers who took a lead in digitizing its catalog, HC decided it could turn the free advice it has been offering fellow publishers into a business. This probably means that we should take back at least one snarky comment we’ve made about the lack of innovation in the publishing industry. We’ll have the assistant search the archives for just the right words for us to eat. We are not, however,