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Publisher Wanted...
If the creator of The Whole Earth Catalog came up with the idea for it today, does anyone think his first call would be to a book publisher? Of course not. Stewart Brand would reach out to a Web designer. And as quickly as he could, he'd launch WholeEarth.com. This time around, though, in addition to short essays and bright ideas, there would be writeups of relevant products.
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And the Winner Is... Anonymous
Dear Harold Augenbraum, Heard you were rounding up new judges for the 2009 National Book Award and sending out guidelines. First, thank you for my '08 appointment: a signal honor, books galore and a host of new authors to worship. Sorry I didn't get to meet you at the gala. I was at Table 35, an excellent one (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt editors and brass).
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Reforming the Book Blurb Bull
In the same way that chain restaurants open test locations in Colorado Springs, Colo., because it is so average, I like to watch my mom interact with books in her native environment (Garcia Books in Santa Fe, N.Mex.,) to see what the enthusiastic but discerning reader is thinking. She’s part of a dying breed—people who actually enjoy and buy books that Oprah has never even mentioned.
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Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Two weekends ago I joined colleagues at Penguin on a panel at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. But somewhere during the 5—6 p.m. time slot of SXSW Day 3, we apparently went a little off-message. As one spectator Tweeted: “new think for old publishers = complete existential jackoff, zero meat.” So for those of you who plan to organize a panel of your own in Austin next year, I make some recommendations for what not to do.
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Pollyanna: Publishing Your First Book During the Recession
Everyone's talking about layoffs, downsizing and the credit crunch. As a writer, the economy is on my mind, too, since my first book—the one I've devoted years ushering into existence—is hitting bookshelves now, amid talk of the Great Depression 2.0. Lucky for me, I'm a Pollyanna. I don't deny certain realities, such as diminishing sales or the uncertainty in the marketplace.
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Love Among the Manuscripts
When I took a job as an editorial assistant at a publishing house after graduating from college, I didn't know I was signing on to the publishing equivalent of the Love Boat. But I quickly became aware of several in-house couples. And soon I was one of them—I just didn't know it yet. My future partner and I bonded over the slush pile.
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Swinging for the Fences
For several years in the 1990s, I served as the sports psychology coach for the Cleveland Indians. I was able to do this while working as a full-time editor, thanks to an unusual arrangement I had first with Macmillan and then later with Warner Books. From February through October, I would spend at least a week each month, either in Cleveland or in their minor league system, helping players cop...
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Hearing the Future
Although many say that the Kindle 2 offers little advance over its predecessor, one totally new component is igniting plenty of controversy. Kindle 2's text-to-speech function—which converts text to a computerized voice, making it possible to listen to the text of a downloaded book—drew the ire of Authors Guild president Roy Blount Jr.
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Lay Off: How It Feels When It's Your Turn
I got laid off yesterday. I wish I could remove the word “off” from that sentence—I'd end it with an exclamation point—but that's not the kind of news I'm here to report. Though if you did remove “off,” and replaced “laid” with a synonymous Anglo Saxon expletive, you'd have a pretty good idea how I felt when I got the news.
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What They Don't Know Won't Hurt Them
Overheard in a library: “This is a teen novel? I don't want it then. I just want regular James Patterson.” The patron was holding the copy of Maximum Ride that she had requested. Among a blog's comments: “I'm an adult who loves YA fiction, but I always feel so embarrassed by looking through the YA section of the local library.
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Print Fans Bid Kid Adieu
Much has been written in the two weeks since John Updike's death—about the wonderful precision of his prose and, as Charles McGrath put it, his “unswerving belief in the power of words to faithfully record experience.” But what has not been noted—and understandably, given all there is to note about a man who published 27 novels, 13 collections of stories, n...
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The Hot Cold Case
“Why can't you just leave it alone?” I was neck-deep in research for my first true crime book and had just arrived in the idyllic northern Michigan town where the deadly deed had occurred, some 40 years earlier. A family of six from Detroit had been murdered inside their summer cottage in 1968.
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hv i gt an idea 4 u
“The book business as we know it will not be living happily ever after.... Publishing might have to look for its future outside the corporate world.” —New York magazine, September 22, 2008 Dear Prospective Literary Agent, Given the dismal state of the publishing business, the dramatic reduction in national attention spans and the heightened level of competition from other form...
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No Option
The news as 2008 drew to a close that Borders has agreed to buy titles from HarperStudio on a nonreturnable basis might not strike those outside trade publishing as particularly noteworthy, especially against the backdrop of bailouts for the banking, real estate and auto sectors; a string of bankruptcy filings; and record job losses.
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Chasing Mr. Big
It started when the female fiction—centered site Trashionista posted a video clip of Meg Cabot discussing it. Then Allison Winn Scotch wrote a post about it on her blog. Next thing I knew, everyone was talking about it: the need for a high-concept idea for their book. Nothing scary about that, right? Then why was I so panicked about it? Well, that's because for my latest novel, I, um, you...
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Tattle Tales
I became a writer because talking isn't a profession, and there are only so many trades that reward you for being a gossip. Among them, literature, where you get to write the worst thing you know about a person, and suddenly, you're an artiste. Take Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary and Lolita. An enormous aspect of their appeal is that you get to read all about some heinous flesh romp without suffe...
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The Coming of the POD People
What Nostradamus could foresee The wonder known as POD? Could Gutenberg in his vainglory Imagine life sans inventory? Now that paper is de trop, Digital is comme il faut. Manuscripts and printed copy? Deader than the three-inch floppy. Editors eschew blue pencils. Obsolete as quills and stencils! To make our industry more green, They edit on a Sony screen.
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Glimmers of Hope
In 2004, I learned that a new independent bookstore was opening in lower Manhattan. I was eager to return to bookselling, so I submitted my résumé to the store's proprietor, Sarah McNally, who invited me for an interview. Over coffee, she seduced me with her impossible vision of creating an independent bookstore in a retail environment that had eaten independent booksellers for breakf...
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Second Shelf to the Right
The dinner party included guests from all over the globe. Our hosts had invited a clutch of exchange students and their American “parents” for a get-acquainted dinner. The older generation lingered at table, talking about places, travel and hometowns. One couple works in real estate, and they and our hosts could talk about their San Jose neighborhood in a kind of shorthand.
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It Takes Two
The publishing business is on the brink of making a catastrophic mistake. No, this isn't about e-books or returns or high advances. It's about data. I'll explain: until recently, publishers and distributors imagined that their sales were the books they shipped to their customers. This was never accurate, but it was the best we could do.
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