Quote of the Week

All books should be exactly as long as they need to be. There is no ideal length. Big Ideas, Little Books: What a Concept!

Five minutes after arriving, a woman approached me by the bar. “Excuse me,” she said, “are you one of the instructors?” “Yes,” I said. “I’m teaching the novel course in about 30 minutes.” “Oh, well, yes, I’m working on a novel,” she said, “but I was hoping you could tell me how to get an agent.” “Have you finished your book?” “No.” “How far along are you?” She reached into her purse and pulled out a handful of single-spaced pages. “I’ve done a detailed treatment of my novel,” she said, “but I thought maybe I could find an agent who

The paradox of writing fiction is that, at least for the author, it is reality. My characters are trapped in a situation that’s achingly plausible; I’ve got to help them through it to a credible resolution. This feels like decent, blue-collar work. And it has the small satisfaction of human-scale protest. A novel is a story, and stories have a kind of primitive power—they’re the weeds that grow in the sidewalk cracks, the campfire fables and telephone tales that can never be stamped out. The Writing on the Wall: When Reality Isn’t Enough – Jesse Kornbluth on why fiction is

No one said anything about blogging… Comics: Speed Bump

Discounts offered by wholesalers could make it tempting for independent booksellers to blow off the publisher and buy directly from discount outlets like Costco because there is no real financial incentive to buy from publishers—the price turns out to be just about the same, minus the cost of shipping. Though the above practice could be detrimental to relationships between publishers and booksellers, it does hold a great deal of appeal for authors, whose book sales could count twice—once when a bookseller purchases said book from the discount outlet, once when a customer buys the book from the bookstore. The Adam

“The Washingtonienne” is proof positive that the book industry, when it sniffs the rich aroma of profit, can fling aside its 18th-century ways and boogie with the big boys. Ordinarily it is the dumbest business on the planet, taking nine months to a year — or more — to shepherd a manuscript through editing and production, a process that involves endless expense-account lunches at which absolutely nothing is accomplished, sales conferences (sometimes in exotic locales) at which editors’ immense egos are stroked and/or destroyed, and the demolition of whole forests to print news releases that nobody reads. Capitol Hill Siren’s

The editor in chief of Cabinet magazine, Sina Najafi, said his worst-selling issue had the subject of failure as its theme. “We asked the printer to cut the magazine a couple degrees off so that it would look awkward or crooked on the shelf next to books or other issues.” Some booksellers returned the issues, and some subscribers complained. One in Germany measured the difference and asked, “Can I get a new issue?” In Search Of the Perfect Little Magazine

“Unlike scientists or musicians, say, writers tend to mature with age.” The age of 50 marks authors’ peak: Fifty is the perfect age to write a novel, a study of the best-selling authors of the past 50 years has shown.

“Whack away at everything pertaining to literary life – mechanical part as well as the rest. Learn to set type, learn to work at the ‘case,’ learn to be a practical printer, and whatever you do learn condensation.” Walt Whitman’s advice: don’t become a poet

In addition to being ubiquitous, Ellery Queen was fictitious. Gumshoe Who Wore Pince-Nez