March 8, 2010
- I'm going to be out of the office this week, cats & kittens, so I've set Ye Olde Venerable PMN to post a few reruns for you. Laura will be back with a fresh round-up this Friday; until then, enjoy! — E
Episode: "On the Importance of Negative Reviews"
Originally aired: Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
A slight departure from sales today, mes auteurs. I've been discussing the virtues of negative book reviews with a few friends lately, and as...
March 5, 2010
- For your edification, Laura is here from Combreviations to round up the week:
Hello, reader types, and welcome to the week. Given Eric's post yesterday about the things you need to do to be a writer, I thought I would run you through my writerly process for putting together posts. It is very complicated. But first, stand up—...
March 4, 2010
- As I've mentioned before, I'm something of a writer myself. Due to this (and due to my habitually sharing my opinions regardless of whether they've been solicited), I occasionally pontificate on what I think it takes to succeed in this industry, or at the very least, what's necessary for setting oneself up for success. Luckily for you, I can only think of four things.
1. Discipline. You can be the most talented writer in the world and still utterly fail as a professional...
March 3, 2010
- This term probably isn't as dire to your success as authors as some others I've gone over, bros and she-bros, but I figure a little knowledge isn't a dangerous thing.
The ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a 13-digit (formerly 10-digit) number that is unique to every book published in the world. The breakdown for said number is as follows:
• The first three digits denote...
March 2, 2010
- In a follow-up to yesterday's post, I feel obligated to mention this snarky article in The Atlantic detailing what, exactly, the breakdown behind a book's overhead costs looks like. Suffice it to say, Michael Kinsley is incorrect; he has allocated far too...
March 1, 2010
- I was thinking a lot about the math behind the sales of e- versus p-books this weekend, mes auteurs, and it just so happens this very timely New York Times article does a much better job explaining the situation than I would.
In short: while it's true that it's less expensive to produce an e-book than a physical book, there's still substantial overhead on the publisher side (...
February 26, 2010
- Friday round up time, from Laura, who is visiting from Combreviations:
This week, reader-types, I would like to introduce you to the phenomenon of "I don't write, I help." Because hey, I don't write. I help. First, you should take this advice about the...
February 25, 2010
- You may, dear readers, in your wanderings through this blog and other industry-related Internet lands, come across the terms "frontlist" and "backlist" in reference to titles that have already gone on sale. The difference between the two is fairly simple, but their relationship and sales data are generally more complex and interesting.
Frontlist titles are titles that have gone on sale in the current year. This is a somewhat flexible definition, as I'd still consider titles...
February 24, 2010
- More news on the e-piracy front, meine Autoren: a German court has approved an injunction filed by six academic publishers against RapidShare AG, a company that provides download services for a whole host of different files via the magic of the Interwebs. This is interesting, at least to me, for the following reasons.
First, RapidShare offers free downloads for most (if not all) the files it...
February 23, 2010
- I was thinking the other night about what elements are absolutely necessary to a writer's on-line presence, and I have determined that it boils down to one thing: a website.
I must admit, as a reader, it's nice to have a Twitter account to follow should I want to read 140-character missives from my literary heroes at 3:00 AM, and I do like the idea of being pretend bros with my favorite authors on Facebook. When I've read a book I really enjoy, however, and I want to read more work...
