‘It is the kind of run of bad luck or bad judgment that allows a certain type of man in the industry to complain there is too much oestrogen around.’ Row at HarperCollins after books fail to sell
We’re going to be honest — we had high hopes for the Guardian article on the tensions at HarperCollins in Great Britain. Perhaps it was the use of the word “row”. We had visions of fisticuffs dancing in our head. Instead, we got rumor and innuendo. Nothing wrong with that, but it appears that the row is nothing more than a group of executives who don’t really like each other, have different styles, and, perhaps, the kind of poor judgment that comes with loose purse strings. At least we got a decent quote of the week out of it. Row
For some, November revolves around food; for others, it revolves around the keyboard. You can tell who’s who by their approach to the Internet. Foodies search for a way to make green beans, mushroom soup, and little fried onions palatable. Writers obsessively check in at the National Novel Writing Month website. We’ll let the NaNoWriMo folks explain it : National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over talent and craft, NaNoWriMo is a
If you want to make people crazy, just mention that you attend school for the sheer joy of learning. But, they say, what about a job? A career? A resume padder? No, you insist, it is the learning I desire. Nothing more. Though we’ve taken formal writing classes, we’ve never really thought about entering a MFA program. It seems, to us, to be a plastic bubble sort of writing experience (though we know graduates of some programs, and they are not plastic bubble sort of people…but we know that you know what we mean). We read an article today that,
We discovered the truth about our profession from the news. This is not unusual when you work in Hollywood (the myth, not the location) — press releases are a fine way to discover your company has been sold and you’re about to be laid off. It says much about our powers of analysis that we were able read an article about creative accounting and realize, “Hey, they’re talking about us!” After ten long years, we left our glamorous (ha!) position in the entertainment industry to concentrate on writing. It’s hard to work up enthusiasm for anything when you spend two
Didn’t we read about the (next) biggest author since J.K. Rowling last month? How is it possible there’s another? Do they come off the assembly line or what? Shouldn’t the book, at the very least, be released worldwide before such pronouncements are made? Yes, that’s it — there should be some sort of standards before an author is declared the next Rowling. If only to level the playing field. After all, if everyone is the next big thing, what room is there for underachievers or authors of quiet little novels? The pressure is simply too great. We’ll add this to
Because if they don’t, we make things up. Like, oh, how it’s possible for an author to burn his original manuscripts. Like, what, the handwritten versions? The versions he did on the rickety old typewriter? The only print-outs in existence because not only does he burn things, but he deletes from his hard drive without backing up? See why we simply cannot be satisfied with this story? Author burns original manuscripts
We have an exceptionally contrary soul. We like to think it’s what is most charming about us. Today, we came home to find one of our lists buzzing with indignation (we do so love indignation, and jumped right in). There was an article out there that dissed chicklit. The type of dissing that lead some to declare they couldn’t get beyond the initial paragraphs. Pure drivel, we can’t be bothered, that sort of thing. Okay, we thought, we gotta get us some of that. And so we toddled off to read the article. We discovered an author with a dislike
We’re not sure what prompted the thought (and we’re too terrified to explore deeply), but the other day we were thinking about the sense of smell. You know, when you write, you’re supposed to evoke all five senses (more if you can manage it, but aim for at least the five). Ah, now we remember, we were thinking about a particular scene; we were working with a live critique group for a while, and one member felt everything about the scene was out of character — which we puzzled over as we were still working out that character on paper…everything
For those of you looking for your blog to launch your career in management, precedent has been set. Elizabeth Spiers has risen through the ranks from blogger to editor-in-chief. She takes over at MediaBistro, apparently pretty much as soon as she can pack up her desk and haul her belongings either up or down town (we are so not going to attempt geography this early in the morning). For those who see blogging as a way to leap into greater things with your writing career (as if the blog weren’t enough!), Spiers previously held a position at New York magazine
