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.
On The Secrets Of Book Reviewing
Evelyn Waugh once said that the golden rule of book reviewing is that you should never give a bad review to a book you have not read. This is now seen as rather old-fashioned and romantic. No book reviewer ever has time to read the whole book, not for the money they are paying you. The vital thing is to give the impression that you HAVE read the whole book. Masterclass: how to write a book review
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,
The Daily Square – Repeat Edition
In which we repeat ourselves. You may skip this one without feeling guilt.
Considering Accessibility
Do you know that blind people use computers? This is not an idle question. Do you realize this? In addition to blind people, there are deaf people, people with cognitive problems, individuals with mobility problems, and, yes, people who are too vain to admit they need help reading tiny print. Normally, we would raise this issue in conjunction with a rant about making your website accessible. Yes, accessibility continues to be a very important issue to us — and, frankly, just about the smartest thing you can do if you want to be found on the Internet. Remember, the biggest
The Daily Square – Who’s Gonna Save The World Edition
Today we’re all about the writing contests. It’s a slow day.
How The iPhone Can Save The Book Business
Here’s how things work: yesterday, Paramount Pictures announced they’re going to make downloads of feature films available via iTunes. In other news, Apple changed its name and announced the long-anticipated iPhone. Lightbulb, on. Bad timing, Paramount. Great news, book industry. Omigosh, you’re saying, cellphone? Books? Hello? Apples, oranges, dropped calls, excessive fees, itty bitty screens. Okay, the following is mostly fantasy. But fantasy based on solid science. As we know it*. In addition to an exclusive deal with Cingular (‘nother story, ‘nother day), the iPhone does stuff like surf the web, play media files, and make phone calls (a key
The Daily Square – I Like Birds Edition
We look at the lovely history of chapbooks, the sheer, uh, cluelessness of OJ Simpson, and take another look at literary guilt…as in, guilt? You don’t know guilt.
The Daily Square – Find The River Edition
Gosh, so much news, so little time. Book publicists and Amazon’s price guarantee. We wonder why reading makes people feel guilty and how cell phone novels remain a trend in Japan.