Exploring Books, Life, and Writing
All writing is autobiography.
Fiction. Non-fiction. Quasifictional-semirealistic-self-congratualtory historical narrative. It’s all autobiography.
Obviously memoir, journals, travelogues and a lot of bad poetry are autobiographical.
But what about auto-repair manuals?
Continue reading “All Writing Is Autobiography”
Every few months we get together a whole bunch of us from editorial, marketing, sales, production and design–anyone substantively involved in making or selling a book–to evaluate the releases from a season in the previous year. Once we had a cover designer attending for the first time. In trying to explain to the designer what the meeting was all about, someone said with a wry smile and in a voice everyone could hear, “This is the meeting in which we do judge a book by its cover.”
Continue reading “Books Without Covers”
The best quote from a conference I was at this week came via Linda Cannell. She cites Mark Yudof, president of the University of California:
Continue reading “The Technical Term for No Change”
In my last post I exposed the awful truth that there’s a lot publishers don’t know. They just don’t have the ability to predict the future, unfortunately. But there’s a lot they do know too. Such as?
Continue reading “What Publishers DO Know”
Many people seem to have a notion that publishers somehow are (or should be) a superior form of human being. It’s nice to be so highly thought of–until you find out what they mean. Like the question many of us have heard. “I thought you guys were smart. Why don’t you just publish bestsellers?”
So, true confessions, we’re not omniscient. And I’m here to dish. What don’t publishers know?
Continue reading “What Publishers Don’t Know”
Since I’ve been an editor all these years, many people assume I have a degree in English or journalism. They are wrong, of course. I have a degree in mathematics.
That may seem an odd thing, but studying mathematics has helped me tremendously as an editor in at least two ways. First, it trained me to think logically and rigorously. Second, it means I’m not totally lost when it comes to thinking about the numbers side of publishing. And there are a lot of numbers to think about: profit, loss, expenses, budgets, sales rates and projections, price calculations, spread sheets, and more.
Continue reading “Not an Exact Science”
I encourage reading. I’ve tried to do it here and there and elsewhere, noting a variety of excellent reasons to do so. I tend to think that reading in general and thoughtful reading in particular need all the support they can get. My suspicion is that if people are reading, books will get their fair share of attention.
But some people just really love books. And who am I to stand in their way? It’s delightful when someone exposes such passion in unfettered terms. That’s what James Emery White has done on his Serious Times website.
He even makes an ardent case for not just reading books but for buying them, marking them and keeping them.
May his tribe increase.
It’s tempting to roll our collective eyes when someone recognizes the obvious. Now we learn that sociologists have got religion. They have made the absolutely amazing discovery that religion is actually important.
Continue reading “To Sociologists: Duh!”
“Meetings don’t get work done. Meetings create work.”
I’ve said that so many times I’ve almost convinced myself that I originated the aphorism. But probably it came from my predecessor, Jim Sire. (Unless he stole it from someone else.)
Continue reading “Meetings Don’t Get Work Done”
No, it’s not an invasion of killer bees that you hear. It’s the buzz around the Apple tablet, which could bridge laptops and hand-held devices while offering a great book-reading experience.
Barnes & Noble shares have bumped up on rumors that it will have a role in the new device.
The web is alive with fake sneak peaks.
How scared is Amazon? Will Apple dislodge the Kindle from its place of primacy?
International Business Times says the market is out there for the tablet, and it’s big.
Will Apple, the ultimate purveyor of cool devices, hit another home run with an iTablet? T-Day is Wednesday.