A Workspace of Their Own

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We were talking with a friend last week about the great lengths writers achieve to avoid actually writing. Despite the fact that most of us truly derive pleasure from the act, many of us do strange things to avoid something we enjoy once we stop making excuses. Sometimes, changing your approach to your work is as simple as, well, treating it like work. Hence, The Grotto (and others of its type) in San Francisco. The concept is simple: writers share rent on office space. They occupy rooms with doors. We cannot imagine that cubicles would work as well. Someone will […]

Square Pegs

Your Bookseller, You Friend

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In his continuing coverage of all aspects of the business, Dan Wickett talks to independent booksellers about the advantages (and disadvantages) of a smaller, more intimate store. Hmm, that almost sounded like we have a prejudice in one direction. Surely that’s not so. As always, we found every word to be fascinating, but were particularly struck by this comment as it’s such a cool idea: Customer Service, without a doubt. I can safely say that the customers who shop at our store walk away having had an experience. There’s lots of conversation here, whether it be about news that local,

Square Pegs

Our June Commercial Break

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She woke up in a mood this morning. Went to sleep with, well, it doesn’t matter what was on her mind. Suffice to say pizza was involved. Miss Crankypants Talks About Image

Square Pegs

Required Harry Potter Coverage

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Probably, if J.K. Rowling called us at the crack of dawn, we wouldn’t answer the phone. But most people feel like the ringing is a summons and to let a call go to voicemail is a sin. Thus, this is how we learn that the press tour for the new Harry Potter title might be a little different than previous outings. Not, by the way, that the new Harry Potter book requires a press tour. We remain confident that it will sell just fine whether or not the author does the obligatory fawnfest on The Today Show. Rowling has refused

Square Pegs

On Effective Conference Strategies

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Five minutes after arriving, a woman approached me by the bar. “Excuse me,” she said, “are you one of the instructors?” “Yes,” I said. “I’m teaching the novel course in about 30 minutes.” “Oh, well, yes, I’m working on a novel,” she said, “but I was hoping you could tell me how to get an agent.” “Have you finished your book?” “No.” “How far along are you?” She reached into her purse and pulled out a handful of single-spaced pages. “I’ve done a detailed treatment of my novel,” she said, “but I thought maybe I could find an agent who

Quote of the Week

The More Things Change and All That

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It was just over a year ago that Romentics, a publisher of romances targeted toward gay men, landed on the scene. We thought, sure, the market is pretty robust, they’re going to do fine. It turns out that Scott Whittier and Scott Pomfret are meeting our expectations (for which we thank them). After all, if you’re looking for a little free publicity, there’s nothing like a long profile in the New York Times. Heck, one wonder what’s going on at the paper when the first thing on the page is a come-hither scene from one of Scott & Scott’s books

Publishers and Editors

Stereotype Breakdown #9

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As it turns out, Los Angeles is not only teeming with writers, but it’s also teeming with small, independent presses. Sure lots of attention has been focused a certain big house packing up its red pencils and moving to the land of eternal sunshine and good cheer, but what about the publishers who already call our fair city home? The LA Weekly offers a tour of our town’s publishers. As it turns out, there are publishers outside of New York. Next: we debunk the myth that the 405 is a freeway. Small Press Is Beautiful

Publishers and Editors

Where No Post Has Gone Before

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This is going to take a bit of cleverness, but we’re going to try to work two entirely different concepts into a single post*. Making this a particular challenge is the fact that it’s Monday morning, and one should never attempt cleverness on a Monday morning. We shouldn’t even attempt spelling — our first post was rejected by our brilliant human spell checker three times. Even our corrections had flaws. The spell checker quit when we cried because she’s mean. HelenKay Dimon has admitted a sordid truth: she reads Entertainment Weekly. But only for the articles. Apparently the fine folks

Books/Mags/Blogs

Following Up On Our Lead Story

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For those of you who are eagerly anticipating the outcome of the recent Romance Writers of America graphical standards flap, you can breathe a sigh of relief. The RWA board has voted to temporarily suspend the standards. A committee will be established to study the issue and make recommendations. For regular readers, this means our brief foray into the world of profanity has come to an end. It was fun while it lasted, but we were running out of creative ways to work the seven banned words into our posts. Our only regret as we come to the end of

Square Pegs

Self-Promotion: The Wild Frontier

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Our friend Lauren Baratz-Logsted (whom we’re learning is incredibly shy and not one to heckle her fellow authors) is helping our other friend Dan Wicektt out at Conversational Reading. Lauren is preparing for the release of A Little Change of Face by reliving some of her favorite adventures in self-promotion, including her blitz for her debut novel The Thin Pink Line. This meant the only person there was a nine-year-old girl with a notebook. She told me she wanted to be a writer too, but we both agreed that her mother probably wouldn’t approve of her reading my novel just

Books/Mags/Blogs
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