Square Pegs

Though we can sometimes be rough on reviewers, we do understand that they have tough jobs. Sure it’s reading, but it’s reading for work. Suddenly the choice is less what do I want to read, and more what do I have to read. Also, it is a well-known* fact that authors don’t say things nearly as well as the reviewer could. MediaBistro’s Toolbox , which is fast becoming an essential resource, takes on the wild world of reviewing, talking to Lizzie Skurnick (The Old Hag, among other publications) and Maud Newton MaudNewton.com, among other publications). Lizzie’s take on reviewing: The […]

In our proposal for adding a small levy to every used book sale, we noted that other models for this type of fee exist. Many countries in the world assess a fee on blank media, assuming that these items will be used on copyrighted materials. The basic theory is that blank CDs or DVDs will be used to copy material from television, other CDs, or media. The levy mitigates lost revenue from this copying. And while it’s not exactly the same thing as selling a book on the secondary market, it is a model. Oddly enough, this is not our

There must be something in the Kool-Aid this week — all sorts of talk about used book sales and related issues are floating through the Internets. While we remain perfectly content with our proposal and our belief system, we feel it’s important to present another point of view. We believe you can never have too much information. A recent study conducted by Anindya Ghose of New York University and Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang of Carnegie-Mellon suggests that used book sales benefit the publishing industry. The group studied sales of bestsellers on Amazon.com, and, on the surface, it appears

We have simples rules for buying used books: the author must be dead or the book must be out of print or unattainable through normal retail channels. While we rarely borrow books, we do loan them, having learned that all it takes is matching the right reader with the right author for future happiness. In our spare time, we fiddle on roofs. We do fully realize that our rules don’t work for everyone. As noted in recent comments, we believe that most readers do not understand the publishing business model. For some, there is a notion that they’ve purchased the

We have some bad news for the Boston Globe: the party shut down about three months ago. It is no longer appropriate to write a story about any subtitle relating to changing the world. We cannot be sure, but we believe we banned further discussion. Carry on. The story that changed the world – How a subtitle became a bestseller The Post That Changed The WorldK

It is an interesting thing that artists do not benefit from their works beyond the first sale. With certain notable exceptions — residuals in the motion picture industry and music publishing royalties come to mind — you get one chance to make a dime off your work. Thereafter, it can change hands, for profit, as many times as possible without additional compensation to the artist. And, you will say, that’s how it’s always been. The Financial Times takes a look at the expansion of the French law that imposes at 3% resale levy on works of art (not fully defined

Sometimes we must go with the flow, or at least distract our mind from really, truly, horribly bad almost-pop music while waiting for the next operator (our call is really important to someone, just not entity we’re calling). Thus we bring you yet another story about women and book sales. It’s our last one this week, we swear*. As it turns out, women are buying and reading books by women. We’ll let you take a moment to absorb this news. Done? Good. Duh. But it’s the fault of bookclubs (and here we thought those evil institutions were responsible for increased

Sometimes, stories make the rounds on the Internets and we just sit back and wonder what people are thinking. Or perhaps these are cases where we should worry that people are thinking at all. Sometimes it’s better to disengage the brain. Print-on-Demand publisher Lulu.com has scored a nice bit of publicity by issuing a press release suggesting that the end of the male bestseller is nigh and all that. Also, the sky is falling. In some quarters, the story is being given straight treatment, so much so that when we read the following quote, we simply cannot tell if reporters

It’s been a rough year for libraries, but as we suspected, they continue to exist and thrive. Not so long ago, it appeared the Salinas public library would close due to lack of funds; today, it’s not a sure thing, but the community came to realize the important place the library serves in their collective lives. This will be a choice faced by many citizens in the coming years. Now comes words that prisoners in San Quentin have raised funds for the libary. Reasons varied, but center around the prisoners’ belief that better education would have changed their paths. Now

Grumpy Old Bookman (via Susan Gable, who might just be promoted to research assistant if she doesn’t watch herself) points us to another in our series of “Look At That, The Girl Can Think” stories. In today’s episode, on a show called University Challenge, the Romance Novelists Association (the British version of Romance Writers of America, or perhaps it’s the other way around) firmly trounces the team from Wisden, which is the cricketers bible and run by people with, and we quote, “…an astonishing memory for obscure facts and statistics. And, naturally, they are all educated chaps.” Despite such a