POD Resuscitated

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Print-on-Demand is a technology waiting for the right moment. It is an esssential component of the Long Tail (talk about your dinner conversation topic!). We believe Amazon’s purchase of BookSurge will lead to lower prices and wider usage. Dan Wickett (have we mentioned him today?) guests over at Conversational Reading, discussing his experiences with POD. He touches on something that had us knitting our delicate brow. Books that go through the Author Guild’s Back In Print program are apparently copies of the original books. If you’re thinking standing-in-front-of-the-Xerox-machine, you are apparently thinking right. This makes sense for really old works, […]

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The Emerging Dan Network

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We admit it — when we heard that Dan Wickett was hanging out at The Happy Booker’s place, we raced right over, stopping only for red lights and to finish our previous post. We blog safely and in accordance to the rules of the ‘sphere. What did we find? Yes, another in the continuing series of photos with strategically placed books. Though we insist you read the interview for yourself, we can promise that Dan’s responses confirm our longheld and widely supported thesis: he doesn’t sleep. No time for that. He denies this (if we’d paid attention in science, we’d

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Failing The Reviewer’s Test

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We have flirted for nearly a week with the idea of posting about this, well, rather strange commentary on Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book. Part of us felt like, “Yeah, it’s a particularly vitriolic review. So what.” Another part of us questioned the motivation of the reviewer. Foer failed the final — despite the fact he wasn’t enrolled in the class. Harry Siegel walked into the book with preconceived notions about the characters and writing style. The work met his expections accordingly. We would have accepted a review that assessed the story, the writing, the plot, but that wasn’t enough.

Books/Mags/Blogs

Coming To A Bar Near You

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Did anyone else greet the news of first-time authors touring the club circuit with trepidation? Authors hitting local lounges? Surely no good could come of that. Next they’d fancy themselves rock musicians. Oh, wait, that already happened. Does nobody understand the importance of pre-assigned roles in this world? Okay, fine, we’ll admit it: we like this concept, though like Marya Hornbacher we have concern about what happens when authors share rooms on the road. Dueling laptops at dawn? The First Fiction Tour hits the clubs

Books/Mags/Blogs

Their Eyes Met Across The Stainless Steel Corridor…A Romance Was Born. Then A Trend.

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Sure, a few weeks ago we were excited as heck about Trainman. We do love absurd publishing stories, and the fact that a man could meet the woman of his dreams on a Tokyo train and woo her with help from the denizens of a chatroom captured our short attention. But that was then, this is now, and we cannot believe a cute story has lead to ugly results: It has also sent Japanese book publishers frantically surfing chat rooms looking for the next gold mine of electronic correspondence. “Trainman” proved that the narrative threads of a chat line can

Books/Mags/Blogs

The Classic Love/Hate Relationship

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Prolific writers are viewed with distrust. Nobody should be able to produce so many words in so short a time. It isn’t seemly. It probably isn’t healthy. It surely isn’t literary. It’s like a Tom Waits song. “What’s he building in there?” ‘Round about three years ago, we flirted with the idea of becoming prolific. Do you realize that one cannot be lazy and prolific simultaneously? Let us assure you that this is a fact. Two aspects of the to be prolific or not to be prolific argument bother us. First a quote: Genre publishing has become so fierce that

Tools and Craft

Declining Culture

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We are, frankly, still reeling from the idea that Culture will soon be coming to Los Angeles. What next, we worry, sculpture gardens and charades? See, right now, one can safely sit in a public place, reading a book. If Culture appears, people might see the book and attempt to make conversation. You know, talk about the book. The book you are trying to read. There is a better than 50% chance that this conversation will result in the divulging of key plot points or the ending. We must stop Culture before it stops us. Los Angeles is not emotionally

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On The Importance of Parental Guidance

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“I wanted to be a writer since before I knew how to read, but my parents are immigrants and they believed that pursuing such an impractical profession would lead to a life of grief,” she [Lan Samantha Chang] said with a laugh, adding that her parents years ago had read about Iowa in a Chinese newspaper and admired it as a haven for writers. Chang to head Iowa writers program

Quote of the Week

More Promotion

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We are cheap and easy and filled with links today, though many of them don’t seem to be landing here. We will work to improve our aim. More press about the Litblog Co-Op. Literary Bloggers Stoke Interest in Books

Books/Mags/Blogs

More Thoughts On Learning From the Mistakes of Others

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How, then, are we supposed to find art? Bookstores are shoulder-to-shoulder bestsellers. Television is filled with that Donald man. Movies, well, when we start thinking Foul Play is the best of the season’s crop…. Music? Unless you’re very lucky in your local radio choices, you’re not getting anywhere near the breadth of available tunes. How do you find new, interesting stuff Last week, we announced the formation of the Litblog Co-Op. We will remind you of its mission because it’s worth repeating: What would happen if a bunch of your favorite literary blogs got together four times a year and

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