Oh where does the time go? Is it Thursday already?
This has been quite a busy week in my pay-the-rent job, which goes a long way toward explaining why the blog is a little slim this week — and shifted one day to the right, as they say in business speak. (At least in English, they say this. I wonder if Arab businessmen postpone events ilá yasár or “to the left” …)
Enough chitterchat. On to the publishing links!
Topping the list of this week’s publishing links is Kate Harding writing for Salon.com on the (perceived?) duality of women’s fiction: self-pitying “misery lit” vs. fashion-and-romance “chick lit.”
I would say that it’s a must read for anyone with a word processor and a pair of X chromosomes, but male writers could also benefit from it: the piece might help them look at their own writing to see how it fits or violates various ideas of what constitutes “dude lit.”
Consulting editor Alan Rinzler at The Book Deal reveals how one young adult author landed two multi-book deals, while Dennis at the Moby Lives blog reveals an alternative to all those Amazon associates links and discusses redactive poetry and the Fair Use doctrine.
(Also, there’s a really funny example of redactive poetry there: “How To Be Charitable, Glenn Beck”)
Moonrat at Editorial Ass answers reader questions about submissions that need more work, what books should be made into movies, and whether one even wants to be published at all!
Finally, Eric at Pimp My Novel dives into the factors affecting how many of your books an account will buy, and how the approaching “e-pocalypse” is unveiled* in the iTunes store.
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* You have no idea how much this trans-linguistic pun pleases me.
As my own contribution to this week’s writer talk, I have recently discovered a new species of the writer’s block bug against which I have no adequate literary immune response: I dislike one of the characters in The Crow and the Kinnebeck so badly that I can’t write conversation with him in it.
The prescription? I’m probably going to create a throw-away scene in which the guy is killed or otherwise gets what’s coming to him, and see if that makes it easier to listen to him talk.
In the meantime, I am anxiously awaiting some inspirational texts I recently ordered from The Devil Amazon.com: The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction and The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. Good old Vitamin P! Nothing like the classics to get your Write Blood Cells in fighting trim!
Now, on to the (other) writers’ links:
Jade Smith painfully digs out her first novel attempt (I know how that feels!) while ellanbethia at On Not Being Able To Write asks “Do You Encourage Other Writers?”
Juliette Wade discusses how to write about a culture from both an insider and outsider perspective., while Becky Levine dives into her Author Appreciation week. So far: Heidi R. Kling, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Terry Pratchett.
Finally, Dana Cameron talks a bit about novels and short stories, comparing them to sprints and marathons. But, the other way around. (I just thought the short-term-then-long-term rhythm sounded better in both cases.)
Enjoy!
In light of the revelation in the New York Times* today that “more than half of the ‘best-selling’ e-books on the Kindle … are available at no charge,” one has to ask whether the publishing profitability isn’t actually being sabotaged by the profit motive itself.
After all, the business concept behind free product is always to entice the free-taker to also be a pay-buyer; Amazon isn’t offering free books for the pleasure of giving. But, with book prices already being dragged down by slimly priced digital books, is free really a wise idea? Continue reading
