On Spending Time With Your Peers
As in the works of many of PEN’s members, money plays a major role in the drama, but so, too, do pride, pique and principle. We should note that we view Quote of the Week much as we view happy hour. Writers at war
There’s A Joke Here Featuring Pens and Swords, But We’re Running Late
Seriously, we thought the British got all the fighting out with the War of 1812 (yes, but were there hearts really in Crimea?). On the other hand, it’s worth joining English PEN just for the conversation: Suspicion, distrust, backbiting, smear tactics, simple loathing and sometimes extremely unliterary abuse have come to characterise a struggle that has been waged until now behind the closed doors of London’s literary salons. Writers at war Them’s Fighting Words
Must Resist The Urge
Seriously, we tried not to comment on this. We really did. But we couldn’t stop ourself from clicking on the link. Reading the article (which was just like all the other articles). It was too much even for us. See, it’s like the bestselling book in the nation, yet: “We felt a majority of our customers would not be comfortable with the image in our stores,” Wal-Mart spokeswomen [sic] Karen Burk told the New York Daily News. Apparently it is up to us to state the obvious to Wal-Mart: yes, your customers are comfortable with full frontal nudity. They’ve seen
The Time Value of Money
We will admit that we’re big fans of the split accounting concept. We like that authors get paid in a timely manner (checks do not go to the agent for processing before the author receives a share), and we like that authors get paid in the event something happens to the agent. It’s not personal and doesn’t create additional work for the agent (if anything, it reduces administrative costs…yes, we know, we give, we give, we give). Today’s cautionary tale (aka a memo from the Author’s Guild) reminds us that it is indeed your money, and you should do everything
In Which We Confess to A Less-Than-Refined Sense of Humor
We’re on the anti-piracy record, so we believe we can be forgiven for this transgression: Latin American literary giant Gabriel Garcia Marquez has won the last laugh on book pirates by finely tuning the ending of his latest novel. The launch of the Spanish-language version of the book, “Memories of My Melancholy Whores,” was brought forward a week to Wednesday because bootleg copies have begun appearing on the streets of his native Colombia. But the pirate copies are not the same as the final version of the book, 77-year-old Garcia Marquez’s first novel in 10 years, editor Braulio Peralta said.
Secretly, It’s A Clever Analogy
We often hear about the power of the human spirit, etc, but what about the worm? Why is the worm so ignored? Talk about a species that goes to extraordinary lengths to survive. If you want perseverance*, we say go with the worm. We note this because it is inexplicably rainy (inexplicably in that it has persisted far too long for October in SoCal). There comes a point when even the worms cannot take the soaking. Inevitably and dangerously, they make the long trek from the lawn to the patio, up the back stairs — they always take the stairs
Are You A First-Time Author? Have We Got An Agent For You
At first glance (that’s Tim McCarver’s “I’ve been a sports announcer too long” hairstyle), RLR Literary might not seem hospitable to first-time authors. As MediaBistro tells us, if you’re writing a sports-related book, it’s possible — they pretty much have that area covered (but never say never). However, agents Jennifer Unter and Tara Mark go beyond the sports book (because, let’s face it, how many books does Don Zimmer have time to write?). A little smart chicklit here, some cool non-fiction there. Have a story about the entertainment industry? Hmmm, they might be interested. Unter gets extra credit points in
Things We Just Don’t Get
Was it just last week that we were talking about how things that sell in the United States don’t necessarily translate to international markets? It turns out it’s true — we didn’t just make it up to fill server space. As it turns out (we suggest sitting, though leaning is acceptable), romances that do well in the United States don’t necessarily sell in Europe. Now we’re not saying anything, but it doesn’t take a lot of marketing research to guess that cowboys wouldn’t be big in Italy. Except perhaps as a curiosity. Makes us wonder if some declines in Harlequin
Say What You Will About The Decline of Western Civilization
But we keep on adding to our dictionaries. None of that dead language thing for us. Nope, we believe the dictionary should never be done, only resting. We do derive some comfort from the knowledge that many words come and go — we remain hopeful the aurally displeasing bling-bling will enter the Abandoned Words Home. English has been the fastest-moving language for 100 years, says a new book, Larpers and Shroomers, the Language Report. The cool century – 100 years of being hip
Legal Mumb Jumbo
A long time ago, when we were young and innocent, we temped for a Major Hollywood Producer. Our major duties were to cut radishes and place them in a bowl of water in the office refrigerator (he never ate them, but we snuck more than a few), to carry his shoes from his office to the hallway when the shoeshine dude showed up (which is why we didn’t pursue full-time employment with MHP), and to return unsolicited screenplays unopened. We received very few instructions in the course of our employment, but one was a golden rule: they are not to