There’s Blockbuster, And Then There’s Blockbuster

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Far be it for us to suggest that movie stars don’t matter (no, we’ll let Stephen King do it for us), but if one thing is clear, it’s that big names don’t necessarily pull in big audiences (this is why there is speculation that Vin Diesel should have avoided pulling a Schwarzenegger). Motion picture studios love, love, love to spend lots of money on really lousy films. This is not something to understand or analyze; it is sufficient to accept this as gospel. It is the story that matters, boffo opening weekends aside (it takes a lot to miss the […]

Square Pegs

We Connect The Dots So You Don’t Have To

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Much as we love Edward Wyatt (and we do), we cannot help but leave his story about Glynn Wilson dropping his case against Kitty Kelley, et al, without a few questions. Maybe it’s because we don’t get it (we are admittedly slow, but that isn’t a crime, necessarily). Let us begin by noting that the Kansas City Star story (first link) suggests that the judge was about to rule that copyright law didn’t cover the story on the Internet; Wyatt’s story (second link) notes that, because the way the law is written, Wilson’s ability to recover damages was limited because

Tools and Craft

The Smell of Sarcasm in the Morning

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Lest some think we’re cranky this morning (not cranky, just reeling from the screw-up at Yahoo! during our fantasy league’s two screwed up drafts this weekend; suffice to say that somehow Yahoo! placed our keeper and team captain, Albert Pujols, on our team, as is proper, and three other teams. We do not share well.), we will express our delight in this essay about ghostwriters. It is a fine morning for sarcasm, and we are responding accordingly: But in recent times a cloud has begun to hang over the deliciously vaporous world of ghostwriting. This is because greater transparency about

Books/Mags/Blogs

In Defense of Literary Agents

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Yesterday, Robert McCrum, perhaps festivaled out, indulged in a maudlin piece about the state of writing today (at first we thought he was headed for Nostalgia, but then he took a sharp left). He asks “Who are you writing for?” He worries that far too many write to catch the eye of agents, neglecting to consider that agents are readers too. If you can reach out and touch even one agent, it’s possible you will reach out touch many “real” readers. McCrum mentions Charles Dickens as a writer who broke the mold by drawing adoring crowds wherever he went (wait,

Square Pegs

Probably He Sets His Alarm Clock Ten Minutes Ahead

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David Thayer of Collected Miscellany and The Untrained Eye discusses the stumbling block of many an author: The Working Title. Every author encounters this in some form or the other — Thayer explains the reason: It’s probably why writers have brains that are shaped differently from regular people; there are odd tissue formations where plot, character, subtext are imprisoned by the forces of sloth, distraction, infomercials and the nagging doubt of the resident skeptic in the Medulla Subplotgotta who wants to know the working title before he lifts a finger. Clearly he hasn’t stumbled on our clever solution: working title

Tools and Craft

This Won’t Be The Last Time

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Call us crazy, but we suspect we’ll be posting lots and lots of breathless “you can read a novel on your cell phone” stories in the coming year. Oh sure, there’s a chance we’ll get bored with the concept, but there’s also a chance we’ll get over our obsession with Lo Mein. Today, we learn that reading novels via cell phone is all the rage in Japan. Also that this bodes well for Random House’s investment in Vocel (which we previously applauded). Also that you can have your cell phone stories turned into a television series. There were other major

Square Pegs

Gray Lady Lit, And Ladies Who Love It

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Guesting over at Beatrice, Jennifer Weiner takes up Ron Hogan’s offer to continue the conversation started last week (or the week before that, we can’t say which week) by Meg Wolitzer. After dismissing her mea culpas without a trace of guilt, Weiner addresses Wolitzer’s faux guilt over deriving pleasure from chicklit. After all, Weiner sometimes picks up titles from a category she calls The Gray Ladies: Unlike chick lit, which typically arrives swathed in pink with a pair of high heels kicking up on the cover, Gray Lady lit immediately lets you know the gravity of its intentions: Austere fonts

Books/Mags/Blogs

Bad, Mad, and Not Forgotten

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We draw your attention to this interesting biography of Jazz Age author Joseph Montcore March. March, the artist, lived on the edge, often quite literally. March, the person, took his social responsibilities very seriously. His work continues to resonate with readers, even though, as noted, the hipster dialogue of his great work The Wild Party is quaint by today’s standards. As will be the language of our books one hundred years from now. The question “Is it poetry?” has dogged The Wild Party since its first publication. (The best answer may be William S. Burroughs’: “Of course it’s poetry. It

Books/Mags/Blogs

Another Thought (Yes, Two In One Day…A Record!)

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Yesterday, Susan Gable said something that struck us what some might call a Missed Opportunity. In response to our thoughts on bigger books with bigger prices, Susan noted that she found out about her publisher’s large print editions of books from…Amazon. Now, we formerly worked in the motion picture industry and are quite accustomed to learning things like “Hey, we just sold the company” via Daily Variety, but that’s a different story. The movie business exists to crush peons. But authors are different. By necessity and custom, they are self-promotional machines. If publishers tell their authors about all the cool

Publishers and Editors

In Which We Entertain A Radical Thought

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Far be it for us to tell others how to conduct their own business*, but we would be remiss if we didn’t suggest to the Catholic Church that timing matters. For example, if a book has rested at the top of bestsellers lists for, well, forever, then perhaps a scold about reading the so-called heresy would have been better received two years ago (give or take). See, the problem is that once everyone has purchased their requisite two copies (this is our theory on the book’s continued bestsellerdom), it’s like closing the barn door after the pigs race out. Presuming

Books/Mags/Blogs
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