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My Agent
On a rare day of high-wattage sunshine that momentarily denuded the stygian gloom that is London in late winter, I spent an interesting hour at my U.K. publishers—Random House—listening to the sales and marketing team strategizing for the imminent publication of my 11th novel, Five Days.
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Core Concerns
If the Common Core fails, what comes next?
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How Publishers Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Technology
Progress surrounds us. We land rovers on distant planets. Satellites and wires that we will never see or touch allow us to connect with anyone anywhere. And we can read great literature on our phones—or play with pigs in space.
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How Bookselling is Like Bartending
Reflections on a saloon-turned-bookstore's former life. Plus a cocktail recipe especially for booksellers.
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Stress-Testing a Hybrid Publishing Model
A few months ago, I set out to use the tools of self-publishing to release my new novel, The Thief of Auschwitz, as much as possible in the manner of a traditional publishing house.
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Tap-Dancing Authors
Where does one acquire the skills the successful author now needs: ragtime piano, snake handling, banjo picking, or Indian classical dance? This is a serious question for writers in an age when self-promotion has become all-important.
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How Do I Love Thee?
To say that my mother loved poetry does not do her justice.
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Waking the Dead
When novelists resurrect the dead for a work of fiction, research is critical, but it’s only a starting point. Breathing life into a historical figure requires an elusive second step.
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Reality Check: Does Market Research Work for Books?
It’s January 2011 and I’m in a school auditorium in Ardsley, N.Y., standing in the aisle in front of 60 seventh-graders, reading from I Represent Sean Rosen, my first attempt at writing a novel.
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All About the Book
Today marks one year since I quit my day job as a bookseller.
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Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy
I love music but I can’t play it.
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Discovery Begins on Authors’ Homepages
For most authors the worst fate is to be ignored, and they spend long hours promoting themselves and their books on social media to make sure that doesn’t happen.
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Overcoming Four Words That Can Chill
Mike Joachim is the book buyer at the Paper Store. He’s previously worked for Hudson Group airport stores, Learningsmith, Interstate Distributors, and BJ’s Wholesale Clubs.
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Double Duty
Trebor Healey is novelist whose previous books include Through It Came Bright Colors, a selection of the InsightOut Book Club and the winner of the Violet Quill Award and the Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction.
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Fewer Books: A Rescue Plan for Barnes & Noble
After administering the oath of office to Vice-President Joe Biden, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rushed to New York for an appearance at Barnes & Noble, because, Jon Stewart said, “She wasn’t sure it would be there later.”
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How I Broke My Chuck Klosterman Curse
Most writers seem to have self-doubt genetically encoded into their beings.
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Overcoming the YA Obsession
All of us face that moment... The moment when you’re asked to do something you don’t want to do, and you have to make a decision: move forward with their way, or build your own highway.
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A 2,000-Plus-Page Dictionary Teaches a Lesson
My dictionary has always been a springboard for inspiration, especially when I’m in the early, just-thinking stages of a project.
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To Tweak or Not to Tweak
Recently, I traveled back in time 30 years or so, where I met my younger self.
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Who Knows Best: Author or Publisher?
Some time last March, my brand-name publisher and I hit a major roadblock.

