The Business of Publishing

Booksquare Interview, Part Two: Will She Ever Shut Up?

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As the week continues to break the World Crawling Record, we continue our lengthy discussion with one of our favorite people. For those just catching up — and, yes, we are implying that you missed yesterday’s brilliance — we are answering the question that nobody has bothered to ask us. Yet. Sad but true: we could pretty much do this forever. You’ve been warned. Yesterday, we discussed the “how” of character blogs. Today, we’re thinking about where and what. Let’s jump right in.

Marketing For Introverts

In Which Booksquare Is Interviewed

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So it’s like the slowest week in the history of the world — and we can’t find a thing to inspire us. Thus, we turn, well, to us. Yeah, well, you try to find inspiration on a Tuesday morning in August. Not so easy, is it? We’re heading up to Yosemite for the annual Yosemite Writer’s Conference this coming weekend. We’ll be speaking on various aspects of blogging and online promotion. As we mentally prepared to Talk To People, we got to thinking about character blogs — you know them, and either love or loathe them. We were thinking so

Marketing For Introverts

Where Are All The Authors From?

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Apparently, there is a rise in agents charging upfront and reading fees in the United Kingdom. Of course predators exist everywhere — if there is a sucker born every minute, then there is also a huckster born soon after. What perplexes us is the fact that people fall for these tricks over and over. We were particularly struck by this notion: One reason for the rise in complaints is that demand for agents vastly outstrips supply. “Too many people want to be published,” [Clare ]Alexander [president of the Association of Authors’ Agents] says. But why? Are there really so many

The Business of Publishing

MySpace Can Be YourSpace

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Recently, a friend asked, “How do I get friends on MySpace?” Now, while the snarky answer was, “You have to be a friend first”, it wasn’t entirely untrue. Social media sites are often part of an elaborate numbers game — the most popular user of MySpace has over a million friends. Let’s all be honest here: she’s not sending that many Christmas cards every year. Rachel Kramer Bussel’s article at MediaBistro about MySpace discusses how authors can use the social network to build audience. It’s a cautionary tale if we’ve ever read one. The key to remember is that MySpace

Marketing For Introverts

Losing The Backlist Battle

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We were intrigued by the idea that the publishing industry is essentially squeezing itself out of the backlist market — at first thought, it seems almost impossible. After all, aren’t the publishers producing all those lovely books? Surely they are making oodles of money. Of course they are. Such is the beauty of backlist. Advances are earned out (hopefully). Artwork and typesetting costs have been recouped. Sure, pesky little items like royalties and manufacturing costs remain, but those are manageable and predictable.

The Future of Publishing

E-Readers — Perfection Not Required

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Last week (so long ago), we pointed you to a little piece from Engadget about the iPod and its possible future as an e-reader. Other than our fascination the weird phrasing associated with publisher compliance — “…according to a source at a major publishing house, they were just ordered to archive all their manuscripts — every single one — and send them over to Apple’s Cupertino HQ…” — we were mildly interested in this development. Let’s be honest, making text available on an iPod is a tweaking of technology. The story was picked up by Tom’s Hardware (yes, we know,

The Future of Publishing

They Really, Really Want To Direct

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After several weeks of non-stop action (with, alas, several more to go), we are pleased to find something that tickles our snark-o-meter to the point that we actually chuckled. Before our first cup of coffee. Publishers want to get them some of that movie business swag, because while the devil wears Prada, Random House isn’t even getting decent hand-me-downs. The core reason, of course, is that motion picture rights are sold separately from publishing rights. Publishers don’t own books, authors do, and the more rights you sign over to someone else, the less you get to keep for yourself. If

The Business of Publishing

The Secret Life of Digital Books

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So, yeah, it’s 2006, and the Association of American University Presses (c’mon, you’ve heard of them) got together to talk about “Transforming Publishing”. It turns out this digital future thing is now and university presses need to get on board. Shouldn’t they have had this conversation back in, oh, 1996? But let’s let bygones be whatever and focus on the fact that university presses are facing unique challenges: large collections, low volume sales, and lack of infrastructure. It is our opinion that the universities would be wise to take advantage of the deep corporate pockets on the pants of Google

The Future of Publishing

The Age Of Increased Novelty

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As we all learned with last week’s Britney Spears meltdown, it is important that you have people — those mysterious creatures who make life run smoothly — to halt the growing epidemic of foot-in-mouth disease. We believe that if John Updike’s people would simply step forward and whisper something like “John, you sound like an ass” in his ear, it would be very helpful. Because a revered American writer is sounding like a doddering fool. It ain’t an age thing — Kurt Vonnegut recently did a book tour and managed to sound like he’s in touch with the modern world.

The Future of Publishing

And, Now, A Case Totally Destined For Appeal

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We find our attention diverted by a rather interesting little pieces from BBC News where we are told the John Steinbeck’s children from a first marriage have been awarded rights to his novels and — apparently — two pictures produced by Paramount. Something about: US District Judge Richard Owen said US copyright laws now recognised young writers like Steinbeck could not “predict the high stature they would attain” when they signed early contracts. The law permits authors or their heirs to terminate contracts or renegotiate deals “allowing creators or their heirs appropriate rewards for their artistic gifts to our culture,”

Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright
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