The Business of Publishing

Do You Believe In Magic?

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Well, don’t read the New York Times article on the role of book packagers in creating those books that young girls read like candy. The packager in question, Alloy, also plays a central role in the Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism scandal. So, yeah, a lot of books are the product of authorial imagination as gently sculpted by a kind-yet-ruthless editor before being polished by the sharp minds of marketing. Then there are the popular series such as “Gossip Girls” that come more from the corporate mind and are executed by a string of fairly anonymous authors. Think of it as the […]

The Business of Publishing

In Which Jill Goes Out Of Her Way To Raise Our Blood Pressure, Or You Too Can Write A Book In Three Days

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You know how the ones you love will push your buttons with little or no effort? That describes Jill Monroe to a “T”. She can, with a single email, get us worked up. By, oh, forwarding us link to “The Magic Formula: How To Plan, Write, Sell, and Promote Your Romance Fiction Novel”. No joke. Just three days of writing and you’ll have a publishable novel. We’re not big on the swearing, but, honestly, bullshit.

The Business of Publishing

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About P and L Statements But Were Afraid To Ask

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Anna Genoese, she of Tor and Anna Louise’s blog, has written of those things that makes our black little heart race: an article on how books do (or don’t) make money. You know it’s a going to be good when the first thing you read about is P&L statements. All we can say is that we hope there’s a royalty calculation in there somewhere…just for fun! Seriously, she lays out the whole thing: all those little costs that people forget about (ah, freight, we know you well). The cover wars — a bad cover can cost you in pre-ordered copies.

The Business of Publishing

Remixability and The Pulitzer Prize

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We don’t normally cover awards and such, what with so many being, well, awarded that it’s hard to keep up. But the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to Geraldine Brooks for her book March, and the very notion of this book highlights a favorite topic of ours: art building upon art. March tells the story of the father from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (official BS) hero). Alcott’s book focuses on the family at home during wartime — a domestic novel, if you will; Brooks writes about the war. Two sides of a story. Whether they create a

Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright

How Many Books Can One Subject Spawn?

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One wonders, however briefly, if publishers have a monster board that not only details the upcoming year’s production schedule by title, but also by subject matter. And then one wonders if those same publishers have their competition, title/subject, matter on the same monster board. Movie studios do it, so one would hope publishing houses do it. You do have to wonder sometimes because, as the New York Times points out, there’s a lot of competition for reading dollars in this market. And a slew of titles on the same topic can be either good or…confusing. Do you buy this book

Books/Mags/Blogs, The Business of Publishing

DRM For The Publishing Industry

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Publisher’s Lunch alerts us to a new approach to galley distribution. Simon & Schuster will be experimenting with new, more communicative galleys for Stephen King’s new book. The purpose, of course, is to cut down on selling those “Not For Sale” copies. To quote from Lunch:

The Future of Publishing

Innovation, Meet The Brick Wall

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This just in: the publishing business is inefficient! Hmm, okay, so that’s not really news. But the fact that they’re trying to do something about it is. Business Week explores the idea of multi-channel delivery — you know, releasing in multiple formats simultaneously. The article starts off with amusing anecdotes — customers walking out of bookstores because they don’t want to wait a week for product, and bookstores over-ordering to meet quotas…then sending large quantities of books back. The so-called Caravan Project

The Future of Publishing

Same Old War, New Twist

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Ron Hogan of GalleyCat is taking a deeper look at science fiction and fantasy. After this week’s column in Publisher’s Weekly (also featuring a column by the inestimable Gwenda Bond), Ron continues to explore the idea of science fiction, reviews, and respect. We will forgive you if you find that many of the pro and con arguments of reviewing science fiction in the New York Times sound familiar. Substitute “romance” for “science fiction”, or insert the word “mystery”, and you’ll realize it’s another phase in the genre fiction wars. Only…only this time, genre fiction has advanced the field. The New

The Business of Publishing

Stopping The Blook In Its Tracks

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Before we get started on our topic, we must clear the air. In no way, shape, or form do we support the use of the word “blook”. We demand that this word be stricken from the nation’s vocabulary immediately — think of the children! Do not let this word perpetuate. And with that, we plunge directly into the going-on-years-now phenomenon that is bloggers writing books. Or is it blogs that become books? Nevermind — the source of the material is far less important than the fact that the Wall Street Journal got sucked into the might Lulu.com promotion machine (extra

Non-Traditional Publishing

Revisiting The Second Novel, Again

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We are most intrigued by the notion of a “first novel” versus a “second” novel, because, quite possibly, the first is really the second, or maybe even the third. It is the rare author who hits the big-time on the first effort. In the world of writing, that first manuscript is often viewed as a collector of dust bunnies — why else would you keep it under your (virtual or physical) bed? Thus we scratch our head when second published novels are dismissed a bit callously: Some critics say that it comes about because, having poured all their effort into

The Business of Publishing
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