Books/Mags/Blogs

Yes, we know, and in theory we’re in the car, driving to a client’s office. Here’s hoping they don’t check in here this morning. Here’s another post that started us on on our New Year’s theme (we’re still desperately seeking a catchy title, so anyone with title karma, feel free to chime in). While we’re not one hundred percent sold on the idea, this is something that caught our attention: Fiction, generally, doesn’t have enough change left in the P&L to pay for a decent marketing campaign. The way to solve the problem would be to waive the advance and […]

For a moment there, we thought we’d give Sara Nelson a chance to settle into her new job, make some changes, that sort of thing. And maybe it’s because, for some reason*, our well-used copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was not where it’s supposed to be. The other four or five books in the trilogy were easily located, as were the Dirk Gently books. But the original is not to be found. At least before six p.m. this evening. So, we thought (recalling that our brakes are being surgically repaired), we have choices: a) punt — we’ve

Over the past few weeks, we’ve read various articles and blog postings about the state of the publishing industry. While each author focused on a different aspect of the whole mess, a bunch of common ideas surfaced. At first, we thought we’d address the matter with one of our patented lenghty-beyond-belief posts, but have you ever written one of those? All those words take a lot of time. So, until we can gather our thoughts and achieve at least a modicum of coherence (which is really more than you expect from us on a normal basis), we’re going to start

Here’s our problem: we don’t know if we’re more shocked that someone is claiming large portions of The Da Vinci Code were plagiarized from his work, or that one of the points of similarity were the multiple concurrent plot threads that all came together in the end. Yes, the evil plagiarism lawsuit has reared its ugly head. Pardon us if we don’t seem to be taking this seriously. We assure that we do. However, there are certain things you can count on…taxes, death, and a lawsuit filed in the wake of a successful television show, movie, book, and/or record. You

It’s rough, being a literary icon. First, you must be written in a time before typewriters, much less computers. Then your author, that scamp, cannot find a single poet to sing your praises — once upon a time, this was the height of fashion in literary marketing. You must even undergo scrutiny from those souls who make New York editors seem like pussycats: the Inquisitors. Despite all this, you go on to be the kind of literary success that leads to your name becoming the basis for all types of excellent Scrabble words. And still, people complain: Detractors argue that

Far be it for us to question journalists and their facts, but Sixty Minutes started it. First off, they leapt without looking onto the “sex sells” bandwagon. Such is their girth that they never once realized that the soft landing was due to the many stories published on the topic about six months ago. Okay, we thought, we can forgive them. There’s a lot of news to cover, and they do not have our razor-sharp focus. Then we meandered down to the middle of the story and stopped. Cold*. Yes, we encountered a sentence that made us ponder and, then,

Opinion: While Weblogs have grabbed the public’s attention mostly for their political revelations, their value as forums for collective knowledge is becoming known in other areas as well. You know what? The above statement is, well, not insightful, but certainly a great starting point for a discussion on how easy-to-use software (and the lack of technical knowledge) can be used to expand knowledge and information-sharing. Because this is something we are particularly interested in (see: all previous articles on this topic), we went the whole nine yards and read the darn thing. It’s pretty much a rehash of the yards

Here’s how we imagine the conversation: Editor: It’s been 24-hours. We gotta do another manga story. Reporter: But, boss, what else is there to say? I’ve been on this story 24/7 since last June. Editor: Find something! Reporter: Ooookay. I’ll try. Editor: Do not try. Do. And so our intrepid hero, balancing his editor on his shoulders, trudges off to the nearest bookstore and stakes out the manga section*. At first, he considers a story on the breadth and depth of the titles. Then he thinks about rearranging the shelves by color. He wonders what in the world Inuyasha is

Milwaukie-based Dark Horse is now enjoying another growth spurt thanks to the popularity of a once-obscure Japanese comic style called “manga.” We’re presuming the author of this fine article means that manga was once obscure in the United States, as it wasn’t particularly obscure in Japan. But that’s not our concern at the moment. As it turns out, retailers are devoting increasing floor space to manga (as they are anime — much to our delight). Apparently, humans are visual creatures and like pictures. Yeah, that’s why we subscribe to so many magazines. It’s not like we’re reading the articles or

Genre fiction is popular with library patrons. Yes, yes, we know. Blurting out shocking news is rude. We should have prepared you. To be honest, we tried to ease our way into this post, but found the best approach was fast and blunt. It’s how we’d want to hear this. So, as it shakes out this week (which apparently closely resembles other weeks, except more people are on vacation), mysteries are hot. Romances are almost as hot. Mysteries with romantic sub-plots or romances with mystery plots (yes, we typed correctly…no matter how much you try, “romance” isn’t really a plotline)