Tools and Craft

Looking for an etiquette primer for authors? Or just looking for a few behavioral guidelines? Or just wondering what makes the editor/author relationship work? Elizabeth Spiers spoke with a few editors about how things work in the real world (note: the real world bears no resemblance to what you see on television). First item of note relates to the editing part of editing: “The worst sort of person who, when they give you a manuscript, is so exhausted and spent by it, they’re upset by any sort of changes you want to make,” says one editor. “They accuse you of […]

MJ Rose is conducting a survey of authors who use their advances as their marketing budgets. Pop over to Buzz, Balls & Hype to respond. Advances – The New Marketing Budget

While we imagine there are some out there who love doing publicity, most authors seem to treat it like a chore — one that could make or break a career (possibly if cleaning refrigerator had such impact, we’d be more inclined in that direction). Publishers offer varying levels of marketing support to authors, commensurate with past experience or future hopes. Yes, Virginia, this means that many authors don’t get to sit on the couch next to Katie Couric. Most authors do signings in bookstores in towns they never thought they’d visit, facing an audience of one or two curious people.

We lauded the iPod experiment at the South Huntington Public Library in South Huntington, New York when it was announced, and it’s good to know our enthusiasm has been repaid. Library customers are embracing the technology. [Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. But it’s always good to have alternatives.] Book Standard looks at the growing industry and two key audiences: young folks and older folks. Those in their middle ages* really do need to jump on the bandwagon to remain relevant, don’t they? While the iPod phenomenon is credited with the huge increase in audiobook sales/rentals, we’d like to suggest that

We have survived Tod Goldberg’s class! Our brain is stuffed with useless pop culture trivia and ear worms looping really bad songs from the seventies. Really bad songs. “Sylvia’s Mother” bad. We’re quite sure that within a week, the entire class would have been tortured with snippets of “Seasons in the Sun.” Now, it wasn’t all fun and games. Between sets, Tod engaged in what we believe is known as teaching. Because he is the sort who could always use a little ego boost, we will oblige: we learned new and exciting things over the course of several months and

Here it is, our problem in a nutshell: With him were two journalists (myself and the jovial novelist Sam Lipsyte, who was profiling him for GQ), as well as Sylvie Christophe from the French Consulate, dashingly attired in a formfitting white jacket and knee-length white pants. Well, we didn’t say it was a little nut, did we? We read the LA Weekly’s profile of Michel Houellebecq without glancing at the byline of the piece. It wasn’t important. Yet it took only minutes for us to know without question that the author (of the article; our French is sufficient to discern

We see how this works: you move into someone else’s blog and invite all your friends over. Very clever. Dan Wickett is throwing a major party right now, and while we can’t keep up with all the posts, we’ll try to tap into various conversations as we wander around the room. You can click on recent posts to mingle with other guests. Lauren Cerand talks about her journey into the world of independent publicity. If you’ve been paying attention to what’s going on the ‘hood, you know that Cerand’s clients are building buzz in a world where buzz is hard

A confession. We have a soft spot in our little black heart for romantic comedies. However, and this is important, even we were not sucker enough to see Miss Congeniality 2. Why? Because it was a foregone conclusion that the character played by Sandra Bullock would be like many of the other characters played by Sandra Bullock, who has the misfortune of typifying the modern romantic heroine. As Carina Chocano describes this monster: Quirky but impeccably soignée, Charlie (the boy’s name implies you can trust her) works a series of sporadic, menial jobs but is not poor. In fact, she

Hey, sometimes the song fits the mood. Also the song really does have a killer guitar riff. But that’s beside the point. The Happy Booker tagged us earlier today to let us know that she’s posted a fun article about love and critiquing. Not necessarily in that order. We’re not saying anything (much), but Kate and Jim Lehrer aren’t the only couple to have the following exchange. Whether being like the Booksquare household is comforting or terrifying is up to them. Say, I read a chapter or first draft of Jim’s new book. All amiability, I begin by telling him

Jill, we know you’re busy. This makes us sad because we’d rather be spending our days on IM, too. No, of course we’re not going to admit our separation is all our fault. We abandoned you in your moment(s) of need and you turned to a, say it isn’t so, real job to keep you company during those long daylight hours. We feel especially bad because we know you’re waiting for us to get back to you. And we’re getting right on it. It’s been a long, ugly day. If Mercury is not retrograde, it’s not for lack of trying.