News Of The World: Regan Fired

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Wow, while we were taking an unexpected week off (the laptop headed off to the hospital for a hard drive-ectomy; while he was there, he got a keyboard lift, some work done to his memory, and what appears to be a motherboard tuck), the unexpected happened. Judith Regan, she being the one who promised to bring culture to our fine city of Los Angeles, got herself fired. As in they’re using the word “fired” — clearly, someone didn’t get the memo that the proper way to describe this event is “pursuing other projects” or “spending more time with her family” […]

The Business of Publishing

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 — Book Parties Made Easy

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About a month or so ago, we told a charming little story involving a bar, a girl, and a guest post. What you didn’t know (couldn’t know) was there was more to the story. It was through the girl (also known as Carolyn Turgeon) that we found the incredible artist and author, Molly Crabapple. That Molly also eats fire is just, in our rarely humble opinion, an added bonus. Naturally, one thing lead to another, and while we’re busily engaged with Molly on a Top Secret Project (a full-time, if not more, proposition), we thought nothing of inviting her to

Marketing For Introverts

On Writing Through Your Life

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In one way I’m just writing my way through my life, although I am playing a game of catch-up. Some writers do this but they are starting off younger. People are always saying how old I was when I wrote my first novel. But yes, some people who start writing in college have a longer trajectory — there is the college novel, the “I’ve just fallen in love” novel, the divorce novel, the “what life is like with children” novel. (Yes, we’re cheating this week with two quotes from the same piece. We like to keep you on your toes.

Quote of the Week

Quick Thoughts On Book Search

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Gosh, it seems like a year since we sat in a room and listened as a representative of Microsoft outlined the company’s ambitious plans for its book search project. In reality, it’s been closer to nine months. Which would make it six months since the company wooed authors and publishers at BookExpo America. “Come to us, and let us scan your books,” they said. Before we get into the point of this post, we want to dwell for a moment on this concept of scanning books. Unless policy has changed very recently, scanning is indeed how Microsoft is getting published

The Future of Publishing

When A Scandal Isn’t Really

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What is plagiarism? We do not ask out of idle curiosity, we ask because, well, it seems that everyone is doing it. Or at least being accused of doing it. Or something. This week’s offender is reputedly Ian McEwan — though his actual crime seems to be mired in the magical world of “Huh?” McEwan is accused of plagiarizing from the memoirs of the recently deceased romance author (and former war-time nurse) Lucilla Andrews. He clearly acknowledges that he used her source material. But what he quotes are historical facts from an eyewitness — is the wholesale lifting and stealing

Square Pegs

On Roses

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My agent actually told me that One Good Turn wasn’t put on the longlist for the Booker because it was regarded as genre fiction, and I just thought, “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” It is so elitist! To me, it’s like Gertrude Stein’s “A rose is a rose is a rose” — well, I say a book is a book is a book. There are good books, bad books, mediocre books. Why is it necessary to say it’s not any good because it is a crime novel, a romance, or whatever? Jane Austen wrote romance for heaven’s sake. Dickens wrote crime

Quote of the Week
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