It’s one thing to write a book, it’s an entirely different thing to write one that’s a saleable, viable, marketable product. Ensuring the success of a book is something even the biggest publishers have never been able to guarantee. Mitigating circumstances, flash trends, and world events will all affect buyer preferences. That said, there are [...]
Congratulations, you’re published! But what exactly does it mean to be “published”? Besides the fact that your work is finally in print and your college alumni has asked to interview you for their newsletter it also means fame and fortune, right? Well, ok, maybe not on the level of J. K. Rowling, but at the [...]
If you love books, there are two things you need to do. One, support your favorite authors by buying their books. Two, support your local bookstores, especially the independents. We have lovely bookstores in our town, and as an avid reader, I try to frequent most of them. There is [...]
I love stories where people are discouraged from publishing, then decide to publish themselves, and then become wildly successful. I’m always a sucker for the underdog.
Well Fabio Viviani, the charming contestant on last year’s Top Chef, has just self-published a cookbook.
Apparently he shopped the book all over the place, and no one was interested. [...]
Big changes at Barnes and Noble. Some of you may have noticed that B&N began offering ebooks now (great move!). Today I read that they will also provide free Wi-Fi in their stores as well. Many of the B&N stores around here also have Starbucks inside the store (and Starbucks + books [...]
In a precedent-setting ruling today, federal judge Deborah Batts ruled that J.D. Salinger’s most famous character, Holden Caulfield, is protected by copyright. She did not rule, however, on whether Swedish author Fredrik Colting’s use of Salinger’s iconic character in his book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye was allowable under fair use ~more
Amid a global recession, decreasing book sales and industry-wide layoffs, how was day one of BEA ’09? Well, it depends on who you ask. Publicists were typically upbeat (“busy” was their buzzword), while a few heads of houses wondered aloud—and off the record—how much business was actually getting done at the show. ~more
Well this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. On-demand titles topped those of traditional printing methods last year. If you think about the economy, the increased amount of authors who are self-publishing, and the fact that on-demand makes for a greener world, it seems like the only logical way to produce books. [...]
Remember the whole whoopla over James Fry lying about details in his book, A Million Little Pieces? He was on Oprah and Oprah basically held him to task for lying.
Well now Oprah has apologized to him. She said she was meditating one day and felt that she owed him an apology. I’m [...]
This kind of stuff really sticks in my craw. And it happened in my own backyard! Even more unsettling. Apparently library board members in West Bend, Wisconsin were fired last week for refusing to remove books that certain patrons had complained about. The patrons felt that the books, which featured “gay, [...]
