PublishersWeekly.com

Disintermediating Amazon

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

More readers than ever are reading more books than ever. Yet for more than two decades now, for at least as long as I’ve been in publishing––and certainly preceding the rise of Amazon––the lamentations of publishers and storeowners have filled the land. There have been little blips along the way when things seemed to be looking up—a Harry Potter series here, an Oprah Winfrey selection there—but overall it’s been a long, sad decline. We’ve been an industry of enablers: giving huge discounts to mollify ailing stores; overstocking books to mollify ailing publishers. The outcome, more often than not, has been and continues to be shelf space stuffed with unsold product and massive returns. A very few benefit while almost everyone else involved, be they retailer, author, or publisher, suffers.

Evolving with the Industry

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

When I first entered the publishing industry back in 2006 as an author, there was still a giant chasm separating print and digital authors. The “digital books aren’t real books” mindset was still firmly in place, and even today, that lingers.

A Man of Vision

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Brian Gibson, CEO of the supplier of the ubiquitous supply chain system commonly referred to as Vista, died on April 22 after a 14-month fight against cancer. Most people in publishing will probably not know of Brian, but his impact on the industry over the past 30 years, in both the U.K. and the U.S., was profound.

Booksellers: What Business Are You In?: The TOC Perspective

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

If you’re a bricks-and-mortar bookseller, does your blood pressure rise when you think about e-retailers and their deep discounts? Do you look at e-books as a threat or an opportunity? Depending on how you answered those questions, you might need to ask yourself another one: what business are you really in?

Looking for a Ghost

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

I’ve ghosted books on nearly every conceivable subject. The first question every new ghostwriting client asks is, “Are you an expert or do you know anything about [fill in the blank]?” My answer is almost always the same: “No.”

The Upside of the DOJ Lawsuit

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Sometimes we need to be pushed to do what is best for us. That certainly appears to be the case with the publishers’ business model for e-books and its competitive strategy with Amazon.

The Sophomore Novel

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

This summer, I’m learning to ride a motorcycle. I plan to jump it through a flaming hoop at my book party.

People to People = Sales

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

A fascinating experiment in bookselling was recently launched in Tokyo: Daikanyama T-Site, created by Tsutaya, one of Japan’s leading bookstore chains. Unlike most of its stores, which are pulsating, neon-lit urban hubs where you can buy books, magazines, coffee, and DVDs till late at night, Daikanyama is more sedate, with glass walls, weathered wood floors and shelves, with a target audience of the over-50s, or what the Japanese call the “silver market.”

Cory Doctorow: A Whip to Beat Us With

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

‘Could You Personalize That?’

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

At a book fair I once signed two books to “Tom.” Tom turned out to be “Rod.” Rod refused my offer to sign new books for him. With a malicious grin, Rod said he planned to show my bloopers to his friends as evidence of our close personal friendship.

Finding a Gateway to Audio

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Maris Kreizman is audiobooks editor at eMusic, a music and audiobooks digital retailer.

Finding the Truth in Fiction

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

In a recent New York Times T magazine article, Holly Brubach, a writer I admire and a friend of Tanaquil Le Clercq, took umbrage at my audacity for depicting the life of the late great ballerina and fifth wife of George Balanchine in my forthcoming novel, The Master’s Muse. Brubach contends that fiction which imagines the lives of “real, usually famous people” aren’t novels at all, but a sort of lesser form, “custom-made for a culture fixated on celebrity.” Examples she cites are Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife: A Novel and Ann Beattie’s Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life. I assume she would include Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife and Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank, two recent books in the category that have captivated many readers.

Check it Out with Nancy Pearl: Finding that Next Good Book

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Bookstores Rock

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

If I were in charge of the world of publishing, my first edict would be Honor Thy Booksellers. Forget those pie charts showing bookstore sales on the wane, those bloggers or twitterers with adoring followers, the number of books Amazon can sell in a single click of its mighty mouse. Independent booksellers are the single most powerful cog in the publishing continuum and should be celebrated as such. Publishers’ reps, librarians, legitimate book reviewers, and literary critics are not far behind.

Rural Longings

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 48,841,966 people live in rural areas. An “urban” area has a population of 50,000 or more. An “urban cluster” covers towns with 2,500 to 50,000 people. Below that is “rural.” Sixteen percent of the American population lives in rural areas, and I’m one of them. I choose not to live in an urban area for a variety of reasons and, for the most part, it doesn’t affect my quality of life. I’m a midlist author, and my agent and editor couldn’t care less where I live. E-mail and telephones keep me connected, and FedEx keeps the paperwork flowing (when real paper is required.)

Check it Out with Nancy Pearl: European Inter-war Fiction and More

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Egypt Revisited

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Growing up, I always knew I would have something to do with books. I even dared to hope that I might write one. Books were my initiation into worlds far removed from my quiet nursery life in a majestic home on the banks of the Nile. They exerted an irresistible pull on my childhood, a magnetic component of adventure, companionship, exotica, and escape. I was a voracious reader, often to my mother’s despair.

Listening to the Grass Grow

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Fifteen years ago I moved off the power grid—away from the cultural electricity of New York City and urban life in general. It was a vocational leap of faith, but very similar to the leaps that all writers coming to work at a remote colony must make.

The Value Of a Book

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0400

How much money is a book really worth? Is it the $25 to $30 publishers typically ask for the hardcover edition? Is it the discounted price plus shipping that an online retailer charges? What if there’s only a Kindle edition you can buy, for 99 cents? Is that same book worth nothing on days when it’s given away free? Is it even correct to call such a digital entity “a book”? The easy answer is that a book is whatever readers decide is a book, and it’s worth whatever they’re willing to pay for it.

Shoptalk

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Publishers Weekly arrives in my mailbox each week, as its name says, which seems too often sometimes. I’m apt to groan when I see it because I know it will likely contain some depressing news about the publishing world, and because I also know that I must read it, for it is my link to what’s going on in this world. But I subscribe because I consider it one of the tools of my trade: writing. And after settling down with a new issue of PW, I am always enlightened.

The ToC Perspective: A Call for a Unified E-book Market

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0400

O'Reilly Media's general manager, publisher and a chair of the TOC conferences, Joe Wikert, takes on the current e-book market in his first column for PW.

Ghosts of a Memoir

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0400

I wanted to write my own memoir, but I’d get stuck with every try. If I dug up my childhood demons, my parents would be devastated. Besides, what if my story was boring? I preferred the safety of reporting on other people’s lives for magazines and Web sites. I also write young adult novels (I’ve written seven), gleefully stepping out of reality instead of diving into it.

With A Little Help: Digital Lysenkoism

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Talking with the lower echelon employees of publishing reminds me of a description I once read about the mutual embarrassment of Western and Soviet biologists when they talked about genetics. Soviet-era scientists were required, on pain of imprisonment, to endorse Lysenkoism, a discredited theory of inheritance favored by Stalin for ideological reasons.

The Power Of the Pen

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0400

I have always loved making stories, and by that I mean the process of making them, taking the words in my head and giving them physical form. A gift of a blank notebook for my eighth birthday inspired my first attempt at a novel. I only got six pages into it, but I took great joy in ruling pencil lines for my sentences. At 10, I spent a year’s worth of pocket money on a typewriter. I still remember the satisfaction its smart click against the page gave me. But in the end I did not love my typewriter. My inability to achieve perfection with it often made me cry. I was too stern for erasing fluid, and I didn’t like processions of errors across a page. At 15, a computer seemed the answer. My parents made me take a typing course, which taught me a great deal about the dating situations of the other students (mainly young women in their 20s) and also how to type fast.

Check it Out with Nancy Pearl: New Year's Resolutions 2012

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0400

A Wish for the New Year

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0400

When exactly did Amazon become the generic for bookstore? When did it become accepted, standard policy to fill in the “available @” with only its name and not with the name of a particular bookstore? When did the letter go out to journalists at newspapers, magazines, blogs, commentators on public radio, and other radio and TV shows that Amazon deserved to be given hundreds of thousands of dollars of free advertising through the invocation of its name as the “go to” place from which to purchase books? The irony is that you cannot actually “go” there.

Spoil the Plot, or Spare the Riled

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Would you like to read a PW review that went something like this? “The butler turns out to be the murderer in the latest cozy from Jessica Fletcher. In a classic gather-the-suspects-in-the-parlor ending, the modern Miss Marple again IDs the culprit, this time by realizing the significance of the depth of sprinkles sunk into an ice cream sundae on a hot day, after several other characters—the pastor, the chiropodist, and the actuarial student—come under suspicion for a couple of chapters each.”

One Way or The Other

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Everyone knows publishing is in the process of deep structural change. As Richard Nash observed, those who are waiting for all the technological/e-publishing dust to settle and for things to “return to normal” are going to be intensely frustrated. There is no final state of rest in view. Change from here on out will be continuous, creating both the greatest possibilities and the deepest instability in the publishing industry.

The Scarlet Letter

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Not since Hester Prynne walked out of prison with an infant in her arms and “a rag of scarlet cloth” in the shape of the letter A has there been such public hue and cry as Amazon has provoked in the past few weeks. But one small publisher commends Amazon for being a key partner.

You Can Fool Mother Nature

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0400

If you’ve ever had to board up the windows of your home and run for the hills because a monstrous storm was headed your way, you’ll understand what I faced last August. In a bizarre turn of events, it was also the moment I received an offer for my first novel.

When a Reviewer Becomes the Reviewed

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0400

When reviewers have a book published, what retribution can they expect for their (surely unintended) sins? I’m not asking for argument’s sake, but because I’m about to learn.

Check It Out with Nancy Pearl: December 2011 - ALA and Digital Downloads

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Cory Doctorow: Copyrights vs. Human Rights

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0400

An Experiment

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

When Amazon began offering one free (ostensibly “borrowed”) e-book per month to members of its new Prime program, I was intrigued. I don’t know if a free digital book a month from Amazon is a good thing or a less-than-good thing, or whether the terms are good, bad, or indifferent. What I do know is that refusing to participate in Amazon Prime denies publishers, authors, and agents one thing they need most: data.

How the (Publisher) Grinch Stole Christmas

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Anyone who has been in the book business for more than two weeks knows that the Christmas selling season is absolutely crucial to a retail store’s success. Most bookstores do three or four times the business in December compared with any other single month of the year. It’s not even close.

In Praise of Older Men (and Women) Writers

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

For the past three nights—during hours when I could have been sleeping or drinking wine with friends or writing my own past-deadline journalism—I sipped tea and compulsively read Jamil Ahmad’s novel, The Wandering Falcon. It’s a beautiful book, sure, but it’s also a wise book, and its author—a first-time novelist—is 80 years old.

Check It Out with Nancy Pearl: November 2011 - Book Awards

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Barbies, Barking, and Boxes: How to Improve Author Events

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

At one of my first book events, I entered to find a grand total of three people waiting to hear me read. A few seconds into my remarks, a woman and her son stood, and the mother asked, in broken English, “No Thomas Train?” I wanted to scream, “Choo-choo!” to keep them there, but I shook my head and off they went leaving me with one rather bewildered woman who asked if I’d still be reading. I walked away from the podium, turned a chair to face her and said, “Of course.”

The God Particle of Literature

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

If we can see the world in a grain of sand, as William Blake suggests, then surely all of world literature is contained in the humble asterisk.

E-readers Are Tools Of Change

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Albert Einstein once said, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” Having Albert on my side was a huge confidence booster at the recent O’Reilly Tools of Change conference in Frankfurt, as I prepared to tell conference goers that the best way to tackle illiteracy and poverty in Africa is to give children and teachers e-readers loaded with donated e-books. Because, as absurd as that idea may sound, it is brilliant—and, best of all, it is working.

A Bookstore With a View

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Over the past two decades, bookselling everywhere in the world has changed tremendously. I would like to show how big these changes were for me by telling you the story of Harmony, my book shop at Assi Ghat in Varanasi.

Check It Out: with Nancy Pearl: Book Reviewing and More

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Language Arts

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The death of translation in the English-speaking world has been greatly exaggerated... but who has what it takes?

With a Little Help: Now at Your Library

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A Lucky Author Gives Back

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

My first book, a memoir about rape as well as the education of a writer, was somewhat ironically named Lucky. It is a word I’ve come to use a lot these days, but now there is little irony attached. I have been lucky in my editors, Jane Rosenman and Asya Muchnick, women who roll up their sleeves and make work better.

Selling to the English-Speaking World

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

We’ve often been told that only 3% of the fiction on sale every year in the English-speaking world has been translated from any other language. I can tell you it’s true. Agents try to be optimistic: “There is an increasing audience for translated fiction,” we say. “Look at Murakami and Stieg Larsson’s sales in the U.S. and U.K.”

Letter from the President: September 2011

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Defining 'Library'

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A few years ago, I opened the proceedings of a summit that brought together publishers, technologists, funders, and librarians by ripping the cover off a paperback book. I was attempting, feebly, to make a point about the inviolability of books.

Check It Out with Nancy Pearl: September 2011

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Twitter by the Numbers

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

There’s been a lot of talk about “followers” and “friends” and “likes” in social media. I agree that the size of one’s audience matters, but there are other numbers that are arguably better measures of impact and overall strength of one’s Twitter feed.

Eye on the Prize

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

My spring ritual: reading the full-page list of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship winners in the New York Times. Who do I know? Amy! Phillip! Kathy! Ben! Even good friends don’t tell you they’re applying. Accepting condolences for “No, I didn’t get it”? A writer would rather have a colonoscopy. No sane person expects to get a Guggenheim. How could they? It’s easier getting into Harvard. The odds are roughly one in 20.

Unsettled

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

After six years of legal maneuvering, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on August 17, 2011, rejected a proposed settlement in a class action copyright suit filed by freelance writers against periodical publishers and electronic database operators—a decision, experts say, that will likely kill the beleaguered Google Book Settlement as well.

9/11 in Our Minds, and Our Books

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

We all have our stories of that day. Here’s mine.

Whither the Cookbook?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I don’t pretend that by the end of this article we’ll have the future of cookbook publishing figured out, but we all know, as publishers, the opportunities and challenges of the Internet. Instant access prompts enormous gateways to consumer engagement as well as the problem of readily available free content (free recipes as an obvious example).

Solitary Refinement

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Susan Salter Reynolds was a columnist and features writer at the Los Angeles Times for 23 years. Before that, she was an assistant editor at the New York Review of Books.

Fatal Mistakes

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Borders is dead. Newspapers, magazines, and blogs are using metaphors like "dinosaur" to describe its end. But for me, a former employee, it's more like Old Yeller: a once great friend who got sick and had to be put down.

Renaissance: Are niches the new mass market?

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Contract Headaches

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Back in May, when Harold Camping swore that the world would end, an agent I follow on Twitter said something to the effect of, "If I knew the rapture was coming I wouldn't have spent my last year on Earth negotiating the new [a certain Big Six publisher] boilerplate."

Common Goals: AAP on the GSU e-reserve lawsuit

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Paul Courant's recent Soapbox op-ed ("Adversary or Enemy?") doesn't address what motivated three academic publishers to sue, with great reluctance, Georgia State University for copyright infringement: GSU was, and is, systematically downloading and scanning substantial portions of books and posting them on e-reserve, semester after semester, for tens of thousands of students without paying a cent for royalties to the authors and publishers who created the materials.

Guy (Author) Needs Women!

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A male writer tries to convince his female readers his stories aren't just for the boys, even if his book jackets make it look that way.

With A Little Help: Heuristics

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Do You Know What a Book Publicist Does?

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

"People in this business still assume that the only good thing a publicist does is book appearances on Oprah or The Today Show or Good Morning America."

Adversary or Enemy?: A Publisher Lawsuit Crosses the Line

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I once took one of those pricey business school executive education workshops designed to teach leadership skills, and one of the things I learned was the importance of distinguishing between adversaries and enemies. Adversarial engagements are part of everyday life. As an academic administrator, a library manager, and a faculty member, I frequently find that some of my best friends are my adversaries, often in mutually beneficial relationships.

Murder 101: A Bestselling Author Teaches A 'Killer' Class

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Two years ago, Time Out New York asked me to write a set of instructions on how to murder a dinner guest. It was one of the most thrilling writing assignments I'd ever been given. I unleashed my inner P.D. James and created the most foolproof scenario I could imagine—monkshood in the soup: it grows almost everywhere and looks enough like parsley that one could claim it was a tragic accident.

The View: Is The Glass Half-Full Or Half-Empty?

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Resilience: Even Under Threat, Librarians Put Their Communities First

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I'm the new girl in library marketing. It took me a few years to get here. I stumbled out of college into Seattle's thriving Web 2.0 startup scene, until, after a brief stint at Google, I saw (cue choir of angels) a job posting that basically read: "talk to librarians about books." I had an apartment lined up before the publisher's HR department called with the offer. And so I landed in this intimate community of book stewards, in the midst of technological and financial upheaval. To quote my dad: "What an extraordinary time to get into books."

Check It Out! with Nancy Pearl: The Library Budget Crisis

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

It's Not All Academic

Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

"Any topic worth writing a book about has people who will be interested in it, if they know the book exists. The trick is to reach them."

Time Is 'Limitless': When Hollywood Options Your Novel, Get Ready to Wait

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A week is a long time in politics. In the movie business, not so much. In the movie business, 10 years isn’t necessarily a long time. When I sold the film rights to The Dark Fields, my PowerBook G3 had a two-gigabyte hard drive and I didn’t have any children. It was 2001 and I was warned not to expect anything to happen quickly. So I figured it might take, what, a year, two years? Tops? If someone had told me it’d be closer to 10, and that would be good going, I’d have laughed, or cried, or both.

Fill The Showroom, Sales Will Follow:The Bookstore As Filter

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A Book Fair on the Moon?

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I made it to all of my meetings, and we were all on time. And best of all: my feet didn't hurt.

Better Than Renting Out A Windowless Room: The Blessed Distraction Of Technology

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I am "doing BEA" this year for the first time in a while. Generally I prefer to lurk, maybe hit a party at the expo's margins, as I am a big fan of lukewarm white wine.

The Light At the End of The Publishing Tunnel? On Finding Fans, Not Formats

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

While the English-language edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 44 million copies over three years, the video game Bad Company 2 sold more than five million units in one month. Facebook, with its 116 million U.S. users, draws people in for an average of more than seven hours each month. And while watching videos on TV and the Internet accounted for only nine hours of Americans' time per month, they more than made up for it by watching TV 84 hours monthly.

Books Without Batteries:The Negative Impacts of Technology

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The recent onslaught of e-readers was announced with a veneer of the best of intentions. The book needed improving, said one maven, who also sells diapers and soup online. An MIT visionary predicted that in five years we will read almost no paper books—just digital devices. The book would become a relic, a collector's item, the e-experts agreed. And of course with the death of the book, our bookstores and libraries would wither and die.

The Misinformation Age: What Happens When A Headline Goes Viral

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

In our new world of social media, a world of speed and as-it's-happening immediacy, personal interconnectedness and global reach, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc., are tools of tremendous power, especially in the marketing of books and discovery of authors. Those tools also pose problems.

With a Little Help: Hitting My Stride

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

B&N Meets BEA—Sort of: In Abu Dhabi, book fairs are for selling

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Four graduate students from the Center for Publishing at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies volunteered at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair two weeks ago, thanks to generous support from literary agent Jane Dystel, who oversees the Oscar Dystel Research Fellowship Fund (set up by her father, the former chairman and president of Bantam Books).

Editor To Child: Want To Help?: Balancing Work And Motherhood Was Never So Fulfilling

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

My cellphone is pressed to my ear and my shoulder is hunched to support it. That same shoulder is also bearing at least 15 pounds, or 400 double-spaced manuscript pages. My right hand holds that of my seven-year-old son. I have gone straight from my office to his school to take him to the doctor—he's had a nagging cough that has kept us both up these past few nights.

The Happy Reader Equation: A Librarian on HarperCollins's E-Book Pricing Model

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

We're For You, Not Against You: A Librarian's Take On E-book Lending

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Filter or Be Flooded: Publisher As Curator

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I come from a family of book people. My mother was a writer, my father a printer, my uncle an author. As a child, I got used to the sound of an IBM electric typewriter clickity-clacking away long into the night. Back then, publishers were the gatekeepers.

Waiting for a Fair E-book Split - David to Goliath: Keep the Advance

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Since last August I've been in negotiations for a book deal with the editor-in-chief of a major publishing house. But I had to abruptly end all further discussions about the project just as we were nearing an agreement.

Adventures In Author Events: Tales from the 'Sacramento Bee' Book Club

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Michael Chabon had just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay when he spoke in front of the Sacramento Bee Book Club. The crowd of 700 (mostly women) seemed somewhat tense when the strikingly handsome writer strolled across the stage to the microphone—maybe they were a bit intimidated.

Lessons From Third Grade: The Cure For Writer's Block

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0400

"Excuse me, Mr. Michael. Excuse me." A tiny third grader with short, curly brown hair and a mouthful of braces, Anna B. waved her hand with the force of an outboard motor. Before calling on her, I looked around the room to see if any of my less talkative students had their hands up.

With A Little Help: The Early Returns

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Hit 'Print': How One Bookstore Uses Its Espresso Book Machine

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Promote This! Forget Facebook

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Books are hard to sell, publishers are terrified, authors are dismayed. Hear the whoosh of the e-drain sucking us all in, all the way to Google's huge vat of brain dust! Oh, my bottom line, it hurts! Marketing's been running the show for so long, we've even forgotten what should hurt. It's your head that should hurt; not your bottom.

Five Degrees Of Metadata: Small Changes Can Mean Big Sales

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Metadata has been a buzz topic in the publishing industry lately, and as a metadata evangelist, I think this is great. In practice, however, the pleas of people like me often fall on deaf ears.

Trouble on the Raft: Defending an 'Other' Huck Finn

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The idea of preparing an alternative edition of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn occurred to me last year during a lecture tour designed by librarians to remind younger readers that engrossing literature predated the Harry Potter series.

My E-Reading Strategy: Late Adopters Don't Always Finish Last

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Some of us late adopters take a stand rather than lag behind. Until recently I took a stand against reading a book on a digital device, remaining steadfast and true to my favorite independent bookstore, Laguna Beach Books.

When Reviewer Becomes Reviewee: On Experiencing Mild Schizophrenia

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The lot of a book reviewer isn't all roses. For one thing, you frequently have to commit to reading a lengthy, involved book—then, despite the investment of many precious hours, perhaps be willing to say that you despise the thing. I am a former reviewer and, for more than 15 years, an editor of others' reviews—one who saddled both myself and colleagues with this bookish burden.

Citizen Author: Determined, Motivated, Fed-Up Authors: Unite

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0400

America was founded by a scrappy bunch of determined, motivated, fed-up citizen soldiers who revolted against an unjust system that benefited the few at the expense of the many. Like them, a new 21st-century group of brave outsiders has decided to revolt against the often unfair elitism of modern publishing. We call them Citizen Authors.

Zen and the Art of Self-Publishing

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I write these words on a Friday having just recently finished and sent off my next YA novel, Pirate Cinema, to all the agents, editors, friends, first readers, and fact-checkers who've been awaiting it. I believe it is a good novel. In fact, I believe it is my best novel to date.

2010 (The App)

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Our annual end-of-year poem by Richard Curtis.

The Hand-Sell

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0400

After a writing career of 40-plus years that has included 20 novels and stints as a newspaper reporter and Associated Press news desk editor, I've tried just about every trick in the game to increase my book sales. But I'm still learning new ones.

The Snooki Of the U.K.: Preparing My Book for U.S. Publication

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I have an English friend who's always having her books published in the U.S. Myself a Brit, I tried to sound casual when I said that my own book, Fame: What the Classics Tell Us About the Cult of Celebrity, was to appear in America.

'Maximum Horror': On Violence in Novels

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I often find myself reading novels that are well written and psychologically astute, but devolve into violence that is out of scale, graphically described where it need not be, or both.

Why E-Textbooks Just Make Sense: An Academic and a Literary Agent Explain

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Students, textbook authors, and publishers have reason to look forward to a growing demand for electronic textbooks. Students, or at least their parents, will welcome the cheaper cost. Digital textbooks will eliminate the chronic complaints of students schlepping around multiple 900-page textbooks.

The New Girls' Network: How a debut author got a little help

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0400

When I signed a contract with Atria Books, I had a burning desire to make my debut novel a bestseller. I joined Facebook and Twitter, paid a designer to set up a sleek Web site, hired a freelance publicist, and filmed a trailer.

Making Money on Translations: Has Amazon Figured It Out?

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Last month, Amazon--retailer of books, makeup, vacuums, and the Kindle--launched its second publishing imprint, AmazonCrossing. The imprint, like its predecessor AmazonEncore, relies on crowd sourcing, or "customer feedback and other data," in developing books for the American public and expansion of the literary canon.

Tweets About the Future

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400