How Build Box Office Numbers Through Faux Controversy

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Maybe it’s the wind, we don’t know, but this article about the Catholic Church calling for The Da Vinci Code to receive an adult rating tickled our funny bone. We agree that protecting children is important — in fact, we think children should be protected from movies with violence, especially gratuitous violence. But we don’t always get what we want. We would like to remind the Church that this book has been made available in millions of households around the world, including many households with children. At this points, the kids have been exposed. Also, we’d like to remind everyone […]

Square Pegs

High-Level Summit, Publishing Style

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Random House and a group of UK agents convened for a summit regarding the future of publishing. Or rather, the future of publishing as it relates to author compensation. We were taken by this rather prosaic comment regarding money or lack thereof: Transworld Publisher Larry Finlay said: “There’s no reduction of advances for the big names, but there are far more higher discount clauses in contracts now. That leads to reduced royalties, which could ultimately mean lower advances. Publishers are feeling the pain – unearned advances have increased.” The Publishing News coverage of this top-secret meeting doesn’t suggest that the

The Business of Publishing

Are You Phlegmatic?

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The LitBlog Co-Op unveils its final nominee for this quarter: Rupert Thomson’s The Divided Kingdom. Check out Bookdwarf’s description of this excellent book. But wait, there’s more! At the end of her post, there’s a link to discover your quarter. In light of recent discussions here, our region (helpfully revealed above) should come as no surprise. Starting Monday, the Co-Op begins a weeklong discussion of Anders Monson’s Other Electricities. The Co-Op has put together a party’s worth o’ fun, including podcasts, guest authors, rousing debate, and balloon tricks. Hmm, maybe you shouldn’t expect the balloon tricks — sometimes we misread

Books/Mags/Blogs

Protecting The Innocent

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We have a friend — let’s call him Peter — who has been trying to get us worked up over the James Frey flap. Other individuals have given up on the goal, but Peter keeps trying. It’s simply not going to happen, but he’s stubborn. He tries little things, like pointing out that he was three chapters into the mess, but now has to give it up. “Return it,” we say. “You kept your receipt, right?” Of course he didn’t. “Here’s someone who’s all worked up,” we say, forwarding endless links to endless articles. He reads them all, only temporarily

The Business of Publishing

Gently Steering You Elsewhere, Again

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We have long admired Jennifer Crusie both personally and professionally, and were elated to discover that one of her early novels, Anyone But You, was being re-released. Of course, as discussed here earlier this month, HQN chose to release this book as a hardcover. Sure we questioned the wisdom of paying hardcover (well, closer to trade paperback) prices for this book, but we were hypocritical, typing with one hand, ordering the book with the other. We want you to make your own decisions before plunking down cash (what does a plunk sound like anyway?), so we bring to you a

Books/Mags/Blogs

On The Challenges of Trilogies

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I will say that writing the trilogy has presented me with a lot of challenges in that you’re trying to write one story and maintain a story arch over three books. I can barely organize my sock drawer, and I think you can tell from talking to me that I can barely organize my thoughts. I never outline anything, and I never plan anything in advance, I always jokingly say that for me, writing is like standing at the open mouth of the plane, holding on to the ripcord, looking down and saying this could all end badly, or it

Quote of the Week

Blatantly Commercial, And He’s Okay

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It is no secret that publishing is a commercial endeavor, but often editors like to pretend it isn’t. If you had to publish a roman a clef written by Nicole Richie, you’d want to live in an alternate reality, too. Jeremie Ruby-Strauss has skipped the inner turmoil that marks an editor’s rite of passage, and is wholeheartedly embracing his commercial mandate. Kensington’s new imprint, Rebel Base Books, is targeted directly, well, at guys like Jeremie: The imprint comprises books based on humor websites. We didn’t set out to exploit an underserved demographic, we just ferreted out opportunities where we could,

Publishers and Editors

And Today. . .

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Yesterday, Garner (which Jill has been monitoring on the Amazon charts and, based on her detailed analysis, has declared a major hit). Today??? Yes, you have to go there. It will be worth it, we promise. But we’ll give you a clue this time: we keep mixing this author up with the dude from Varnaline. If you know what we mean (and you should, you really should), you’ll want this book. LitBlog Co-Op

Books/Mags/Blogs
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