How The Publishing Industry Can Save Money

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Word on the street is that Donald Rumsfeld is shopping his memoirs. If I recall correctly, it sounded like he was paying courtesy calls to the major publishing houses. “Hi, pleased to meet you. I’ll be expecting you to offer me a lot of money soon.” And it doesn’t matter what a publisher’s political bent might be, the response wasn’t so much starry-eyed as dollar sign-eyed. Though I am clearly not one to give fiscal advice, I can say this: stop the madness! While it seems like a coup to score the memoirs of the moment — these are not

Square Pegs

On Crime Fiction

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Is there still something disreputable about it? I continue to find the crime novel the perfect vehicle for an unflinching discussion of contemporary issues. After all, the detective has an “all-areas pass” to every aspect of the contemporary urban scene, and this is a way for the crime writer to take the reader into forbidden territory; for instance, it was always my mission in the Rebus books to show people an Edinburgh that the tourist doesn’t see. And crime fiction has always been good at articulating the fears that society has harboured at all moments of history – such as

Quote of the Week

Borders Publishes A Book, Will It Change The World?

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So Borders has seen Barnes & Noble and raised the stakes: rather than ad nauseum reprints of classic, public domain cash cows, novels, Borders has gone ahead and published an original novel by a living, breathing author. Living, breathing authors are useful because they can do things like publicity. You don’t see Charles Dickens out flogging his work, do you? Publishers could invest the outlandish sums they spend on co-op advertising in other forms of marketing. It is only a matter of time before Amazon takes this step. In fact, if Amazon hasn’t been actively (or casually) discussing this very

The Future of Publishing
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