Archive for the 'publishing' Category



18
Jan
08

Lazy Days and Fridays

Okay, not exactly lazy, just busy. instead of posting I’ve culled a few interesting posts for you to ponder.

The first comes from Editorrent, dealing with story reversals, Charles Dickens and a few other useful tidbits.

Angela Jefferson’s blog pointed me toward NY Times coverage of the Cassie Edwards brouhaha. Personally, I’ve never read any of Ms. Edwards work and have been offended myself by the use of the word savage in many of her bajillion titles (which is why I didn’t read her). I don’t know what she did or didn’t do, but it is an important discussion, since few folks seem to know what the P word is or even if they do, they don’t care. I was pleased the other day, though, when my daughter had a research paper to write for her English class (high school, you know) and her teacher told her that she had to be careful how she paraphrased or incorporated research material so as not to plagiarize. Send that teacher an apple!

Getting back to Angela for a minute. She claims herself to be a font of useless information. I was a font of useless information way before she came around. But I digress.

Don’t know much about the writer’s strike in Hollywood, but Booksquare posts some interesting information on the ramifications of all these indie deals on whatever the major settlement turns out to be. My message to the studios: pay the two dollars and get your houses back in order.

And finally–the Edgars are coming, the Edgars are coming. Or the nominations for the awards have been announced. You can find commentary on who’ll win at Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, or if you just want the list of nominees, go here.

04
Jan
08

What becomes a laureate most?

In the case of Jon Scieszka, it’s a string of crazy fairy tales and an eye for the absurd. I have been delighting classrooms of children with Mr. Scieszka’s work ever since I discovered the TRUE story those three rotten pigs didn’t want you to know. Who better to serve as an ambassador for kids than a man whose work kids actually want to read?

When discussing reading Mr. Scieszka (pronounced SHEH-ska) says:

Kids see it just as a school activity or something that just can’t compete with a Nintendo Wii or just hanging out and text messaging your friends. Parents and booksellers and teachers are dying for some help.

Can I say amen to that? For more info, go here. And while you’re at it, pick up a copy of the Stinky Cheese Man. You won’t be sorry.

03
Jan
08

What hump?


The hubby and I ventured into the city on this frigid, frigid night to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway. Frankly, I didn’t think they’d be able to pull off turning the movie into a musical, but I was wrong. I absolutely loved this show! A particular surprise was Megan Mullally whose pipes nearly blew down the house. I’d heard her sing on Will and Grace, but man!

Another grand surprise was the ending. I won’t give away what happens, only to say that it was a bit different, and I must say better. But at the same time it was so natural that I couldn’t remember the movie ending at all. It’s as if Mel Brooks rethought a few things before putting on the show.

This idea intrigued me, since I have the opportunity to have my first books reprinted. To be honest, I can’t remember anything egregiously wrong in any of my books that I would want to alter, but who knows. Maybe when I read them over again something will smack me in the head with the need for fixing. I hope not.

One thing I don’t want to do and hope other authors don’t do as their contemporary books get reprinted is to start updating them as far as technology goes. It seems now that half my character’s problems would have been solved by the presence of a working cell phone, but they were not as predominant when I wrote my first books as they are now. Then again, I don’t really want my books to feel all that dated either. What’s an author to do?

How about you, how do you feel about authors reprinting and revising their works? If you’re an author, how far would you go to revise/update/revamp your work for a reprint?

01
Jan
08

New Year, Old Me

If all the people I know could reach one consensus, 2007 was a pretty lousy year. So much going on in the world, not to mention the publishing industry, is bad, bad, bad. We couldn’t even close the 12 months without an assassination to tear the victim’s homeland apart.

It’s enough to make folks wonder, where do I belong in all this? At least it made me ask myself that. In the last year, I find this blog has ventured far afield of what I originally intended for it–commentary on the publishing industry interspersed with insights on other matters. I can’t remember the last time, apart from earlier this morning, that I wrote anything that would help young writers get published or help more advanced writers hone their craft.

So in this new year I am going back to that old me that had plenty of advice, inspiration and wisdom for writers (at least that’s what my aging brain remembers). I’ll leave the commentary on Todd Bridges and La Lohan to those who actually know what they are talking about.

Happy New Year to you. It’s good to be back!

23
Oct
07

La Nora (among others) wins La Quill


To quote author Nora Roberts, romance rocks–or it did at the Quill awards designed to bring red carpet elegance to the brown shoed halls of publishing. Roberts took home the really big shoe–the book of the year award for Angels Fall a romantic suspense novel. Big congrats for that.

Also honored were Al (Go Green!) Gore for The Assault on Reason; Cormac McCarthy for The Road and Laura Lippman for What the Dead Know. For a full recap, go here and here.

30
Jul
07

What You Were Born to (ahem) Read

I did my blogging thing over at Blogging in Black in the wee hours of the morning since I thought today (Monday) was the 30th only to realize I’d slipped up on my calendar by a day.

Hope you enjoy the post!

25
Jul
07

Just What the Editor Ordered


For those interested in the craft (writing not witch), Scarletta Press is coming out with the New Writer’s Handbook 2007. The volume is edited by Phillip Martin with a preface by Erica Jong. I found this out by tooling over to Paperback Writer’s blog. As one of the contributors, she’s privy to promo for the new volume which reads like this:

The New Writer’s Handbook 2007 is the inaugural edition of a new annual collection of articles to refresh and upgrade any writer’s skills, with advice on craft and career development. It offers an eclectic mix of expert how-tos, short pieces on creativity, marketing, and professional issues, and other insights on being a successful writer today.

Sound like something you can use? To quote Billy Crystal, (read to yourself in a gruff voice) I knew that you could.

17
Jul
07

Please, not in front of the children


Tell me if this makes sense to you. My daily dose of PW (Publisher’s Weekly) tells me that U.S. Borders stores will be stocking the latest reissue of the children’s book series created by Belgian writer and illustrator Herge, featuring interepid reporter Tintin (and his dog Snowy). This time the globe-hopping Tintin has landed himself in the Congo, complete with imperialist stereotypes and natives resembling monkeys.

Wikipedia describes the book thusly:

in the Congo is the most controversial of the Tintin albums. It has often been criticized as having racist and colonialist views, as well as several scenes of violence against animals. Hergé has later claimed that he was only portraying the naïve views of the time.

Naturally, a few of Borders’ patrons have objected to this title. The store’s answer: to shelve this version of Tintin in the graphic books section (which has a more adult demographic) rather than the children’s aisles. Presumably Borders thinks customers are more upset that children might view racist material than that the racist material is available at all. Just another example of store shelving working in mysterious ways, I suppose.

13
Jul
07

Everbody Plays the Fool Sometimes . . .


The title refers not only to one of my favorite songs but the name of the proposal I’m currently working on. The operative word here is sometime, not every time. You’ve got to have a few wits in your head and a few brain cells on the ball.

Pity poor RWA then, that always seems to be putting it’s foot in its own mouth. This time–the new definition of what constitutes a vanity publisher. According to Booksquare:

. . .publishers whose primary means of offering books for sale is through a publisher-generated Web site;

Booksquare is quoting here and I’m not sure where from, but all I can say is Huh?

That automatically exes out all e-publishers who, shock of shocks, sell their books from their sites. Some authors from some of these houses earn more than houses publishing paper and ink books. Yet somehow e-publishers are vanity presses? Go figure.

Why can’t RWA get its head out of the e-sand and realize that the changes they are a comin’? It’s a new millennium with new media, new forms of delivery, perhaps new kinds of content. Anytime you can have reading material on your phone, it’s time to upgrade the level of technological and innovative savvy of an organization, not retreat to the Stone Age of intolerance.

Unfortunately for romance writers it seems that RWA leadership would rather see the organization remain a dinosaur rather than embrace the new days to come.

27
Jun
07

Now they tell me . . .

As if the great unwashed masses still seeking an agent or editor didn’t have enough to worry about, here comes news that there may yet be something else to worry about. Your website or blog may be killing you–or rather killing your chances of finding said agent or editor.

Over at The Midnight Hour, Chey MaCray posts comments from 11 editors and agents about how your online presence can piss them off.

We writers like to communicate. That’s why we’re in this business. But where do you draw the line between a little venting and full blown kvetching? Where do you draw the line between a little honest commentary and being an ass? Damned if I know.

I’ve always tried to let humor be my guide in what I print here. Often times people have taken me more seriously than I intended (damn internet!) but I admit I’ve done my share of ranting, too. When I first started blogging, I thought that was de rigeur. Even if it is, I don’t give a crap anymore. I’d rather try to brighten (he, he) folks’ day with my own brand of wit than follow the rant du jour. But that’s just me. YMMV (your mileage may vary).





Get into your most comfortable reading chair, take off your shoes, turn off the phone and let Ms. Savoy's incredible talent take you away. --Debra Ross, Romance in Color

A skewed sense of humor has kept me sane through 10+ years of teaching and almost as many writing. I invite you to come in and look around. Leave a comment if you like. My goal is to leave you with a smile on your face and a few new thoughts to mull over. If you like the blog, please tell your friends. If not, tell your enemies.

my current book

Spellbound Reprint out now!

So you never miss out again. . .

Subscribe in a reader

Or subscribe via email.

Add to Technorati Favorites
Books Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

That’s all folks!

website stat

What’s on my shelf


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.