Books/Mags/Blogs

We have (roughly) estimated that 90% of Los Angeles’s traffic woes can be directly attributed to a uniquely human phenomenon: the inability to drive past the scene of an accident without gawking. Such is our fascination with lad lit (our poll remains open, and exactly one potential reader would pick up a book marketed to “lads” — the rest are running for the hills). We can’t help anyone involved, but that won’t stop us from staring and wondering why these things happen. Much like the current crop of lad books that sound strangely retro. And we don’t mean that in […]

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are the new darlings of the literary world. We cannot believe we just typed that sentence, but sure enough, there it is on our screen. And the cats can’t spell. Let us begin again. Pitt and Aniston are acquiring rights to books like it’s going out of style (which is not possible as Hollywood is a town of copycats, and the golden duo does it, the rest will follow like well-tanned sheep). Which leads us to, first, wonder how anyone can say the following with a straight face: Brad and Jen started Plan B as

Self-publishing, like any publishing choice, is a highly personal decision. In our experience, those who choose to self-publish fall into two broad categories: the first, people who just want their books published, no matter what (and no matter the quality of the work; this is our mental definition of vanity publishing); second, those who have tried every avenue and, despite strong work, cannot get published. It is usually the latter who find eventual success via traditional publishing routes. We will not deny that self-publishing scams exist (this is the modern world) and we will not suggest that self-publishing will save

It’s Friday, Things are slow. We’re supposed to be tackling a spreadsheet that makes us cry. So indulge us for a moment. For some people, grocery shopping is a chore; for us, it is an integral part of our social life. We see a lot of things at our local store, but looking back, we’ve never actually witnessed a customer picking up a tabloid and adding to their pile. We see such items being picked up, skimmed, and replaced on the shelf, but never bought. Though someone must, right? Circulation appears to be up (though we read about sufficient circulation

One advantage of laziness is that sometimes other people read and analyze things well before we work our way down the first screen. And while we are certainly capable of writing megabyts about novels and social issues (yeah, we know, the megabytes have already been written, just this week alone, we’ve been all over the concept), we’re going to let Sarah Weinman tackle this subject as it relates to mysteries. We won’t add a thing. Okay, except for the part where the article notes that authors tackled social issues in the 1930s, too. Um, not to be one of those

Just today, we had a pseudo-marketing discussion with a friend (pseudo because we don’t have a clue from marketing), and talked about how word of mouth is really important. And we weren’t meaning verbal stuff. Alas! The media has seen the light. We never got the fuss over “deep linking” — it was always our belief that only those who way overpaid for their home page design railed (and sued) against the practice. You don’t read the yellow pages from the beginning to get to listings for pizza delivery…you pretty much head straight for the “piz…” section. Now certain organizations

Lad lit, if anything, should be considered something of a minor miracle. It has died and been resurrected so often, surely there are mystical forces behind its scenes. Especially given its relatively short existence. But despite its tenacious grip on life (we imagine it to be a bit like the ants that won’t quit, even when it’s quite obvious that we have superior technology and powerful motivation), lad lit is apparently not really grabbing the male reader by the…well, at all. We understand the need for neat marketing terms. Honest. But from our vantage point (Pasadena), no man calls himself

This is only a test. Do not become alarmed. We are testing to see if the husband really does read our blog or if we are safe in spilling his secrets to one and all. We will know if he trots out of the Bat Cave to dissect this news we picked up from Maud Newton. He is, after all, convinced that George Saunders is his long lost brother. CivilWarLand coming to a theater near you? Adams by George Saunders (yes, it’s short story you — and you know who you are — haven’t read)