News about publishers and the crazy things they do.
While we prefer our tea bitter and cold, some parts of the world think it’s just fine with sugar. We don’t understand this. If you do, you may be the write (get it?) person to contribute to Belle Books’ latest collection of stories. Not-surprisingly-titled More Sweet Tea, the book will feature short stories about growing up in the South. Queries only at this time. Belle Books Website
Suzanne Kirk is retiring from Scribner, effective, well, soon enough that you probably shouldn’t try to sell her anything. Apparently the retirement will allow her to do her full duty by her cat — we have some experience in this area and assure Suzanne that the needs of cats grow directly in proportion to the amount of time you devote to them (i.e., you will never reach the level they deem appropriate for a species of their stature).
Last week, we discussed the recent Random House decision to cut ebook royalties. And we remain surprised at the relative lack of uproar on this topic — this is a big deal, and we believe other publishers will take further liberties with these type of royalties, counting on the fact that most authors don’t understand the technology or royalty accounting (it’s a bit like algebra, but with real numbers). In an unrelated but topically similar story, we learn that changes in statutory pricing has a positive effect on readers in Scotland, is pretty good for the publishers, and hits the
We start the week thinking about the idea of joining hands and finding peace. Okay, we were joking about the joining hands thing. It’s a big country. What we’re really thinking about his how publishers can work together to improve sales. We have two cases in point (articles from PW — trial subscription available). First, a story about two similar books being released under two different Penguin imprints. The rivalry here is fascinating…makes us wonder why Penguin doesn’t take the approach of Tor and the Wizards of the West Coast. Both publishers are releasing new works by fantasy author Margaret
Webster Younce is now senior editor at Houghton Mifflin. Our extensive research did not reveal Younce’s focus or desires (we did to do extensive research. How many of you knew that Younce wrote books? Thought so.). Proceed with caution. Houghton Mifflin Company
Editor and agent changes were so swift and fast this week, we couldn’t keep up. Oh wait, sorry. We could keep up, but that would have cut into our lounging by the pool time. Sometimes you have to keep your priorities straight. But when you play, you pay, and we have a few updates for you. As always, we recommend you use a pencil to update your org charts. First up: Sarah Crichton has been given her own imprint at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Crichton has been waiting patiently for the perfect opportunity, and now FSG will allow her to
We don’t know where to begin. Random House has announced it’s cutting royalty rates for ebook sales, effective May 31, 2004 (we were a bit bemused by the Author’s Guild comment “Random says it will honor its promise to pay 50 percent of net receipts on e-book sales for works under contract by May 31” as that should be a given — to do otherwise would be a breach of contract). RH previously had the highest royalty rates in the industry. As we noted previously, contrary to popular lore, there are hard costs associated with ebook distribution. However, the costs
And now we make a loose connection to another recent topic, and (how is this for convenient?), an argument about censorship we had with our mother (normally the most liberal of souls, but strangely puritanical on the subject of rap lyrics). Salon reviews, no, that’s not right…Salon discusses Nile Southern’s recounting of his father’s experiences with a novel called Candy. Written at a time when American Puritanism resulted in works of art being censored (think Tropic of Cancer), Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg created a story and character who would inspire all manner of legislation if written today. And perhaps
Seriously, back in April when we mentioned Penguin’s promotion to get British men to read, we thought it was a joke. It is with heavy heart that we report it wasn’t. Cash to men who are caught reading. Because men with noses in books are more attractive to women. We can’t begin to speculate on the outcome of this particular promotion. We think the Good Booking concept is supposed to convince men that reading will help them attain the women of their dreams, so read away. Yes, this is a continuation of the “men don’t read” theory. We still don’t
In a weird way, there has been a certain theme to what we’ve been reading and discussing this week. On one level, we have the business aspect of writing (Maud Newton’s article, below, includes a quote from a New Yorker editor who hints that authors don’t know as much about the business part of submitting as they should). On another, we have the connections concept. Newton’s interview with Brigid Hughes explores the MFA route to publication concept — if you finish the right program (and the names are limited), an MFA is practically a signed contract. Yes, that was our
