Pssst.
Don't tell anyone, but the secret to running a successful bookstore is right here.
The Globe manages to say pretty much everything and nothing here.
Kind of like Margaret Wente.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Nice, and no surprise
Staying with the LA Times, my man Andrew O'Hagan snared the fiction prize at the paper this year.
Be Near Me is out in paperback and it's among the finest novels I've read in years.
Posted by Dave
Be Near Me is out in paperback and it's among the finest novels I've read in years.
Posted by Dave
Newest trick in the book(store)
Oh I love this.
Scam artist passing himself off as an author on the way to do a reading at local bookstore, needs staffer to wire money for sudden emergency.
"The call came from someone who said he was the Los Angeles blogger and first novelist Mark Sarvas, who was reading at the store in a few days and seemed to be in a pinch. His car had been impounded, he needed money to get it back and he needed it right away."I thought, 'Why isn't he calling his wife?' " recalled Slattery. "But maybe he can't reach anybody, maybe he had an extra drink. . . . It never occurred to me that it wasn't him."
Now I've read Mark's book (effing brilliant, by the way) so I could suss him out pretty quickly, but what bookseller wouldn't trust a hard up author?
Happily enough, a lot of authors local to Words Worth also shop there, so we kind of know their voices I suppose; but this could mean we have to quiz prospective scammers right from their own books.
"If you're really Cormac McCarthy then on page 14 of the Road, sir..."
Hey, it could happen.
Posted by Dave
Link via Sarah who looks like this by the way.
Scam artist passing himself off as an author on the way to do a reading at local bookstore, needs staffer to wire money for sudden emergency.
"The call came from someone who said he was the Los Angeles blogger and first novelist Mark Sarvas, who was reading at the store in a few days and seemed to be in a pinch. His car had been impounded, he needed money to get it back and he needed it right away."I thought, 'Why isn't he calling his wife?' " recalled Slattery. "But maybe he can't reach anybody, maybe he had an extra drink. . . . It never occurred to me that it wasn't him."
Now I've read Mark's book (effing brilliant, by the way) so I could suss him out pretty quickly, but what bookseller wouldn't trust a hard up author?
Happily enough, a lot of authors local to Words Worth also shop there, so we kind of know their voices I suppose; but this could mean we have to quiz prospective scammers right from their own books.
"If you're really Cormac McCarthy then on page 14 of the Road, sir..."
Hey, it could happen.
Posted by Dave
Link via Sarah who looks like this by the way.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Dr. James Orbinski at Words Worth
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Andrew Sean Greer - Story of A Marriage
After his breakout book Confessions of Max Tivoli, Andrew Sean Greer is about to enter the front of the pack with his forthcoming Story of a Marriage.
San Francisco of the early Fifties is a town both both on the cusp of great change and still under the shadow of WW 2.
The novels opening line, "We think we know the ones we love."
foretells a tale of secrets born in a time of war and kept in a more rigid time. Pearlie is a transplanted mid-Western girl who marries Holland Cook, her hometown sweetheart after they run into each other in San Francisco after he leaves military service. They are presented by Greer as a typical married couple at the outset, but quickly their race, Holland's mysterious sisters, and most importantly, the arrival of Mr. Charles "Buzz" Drumer, on the couples doorstep.
Buzz is an army buddy of Holland, now wealthy from his trade. He makes Pearlie an offer that sets in motion a painful and at the same time almost cleansing examination each characters hearts and the secrets exposed by Buzz's arrival.
Reviewers have noted, quite correctly that a lesser writer would have turned the book into a Brokeback Mountain offramp.
But Greer is a lyrical and declarative writer whose gifts around how to build and move a story are so finely honed that even tried and true devices come off as fresh and almost daring.
These characters being knocked off their shoes mirrors a time when the Rosenberg's face execution and the Red Scare and Joseph McCarthy hang over America like a choking fog.
Greer examines race during this explosive time with an obliqueness that befits the novel and stays consistent with the politics of the time around the topic.
Though Pearlie is the narrator, it's the character of Holland who carries most of the wounds around this emotionally complex novel. He has the most baggage and it's his relationship with Buzz that predates Pearlie that drives the novel.
"Pearlie says: “This is a war story. It was not meant to be. It started as a love story, the story of a marriage, but the war has stuck to it everywhere like shattered glass.”
Indeed, most everything shatters in The Story of a Marriage, but it's what stays together that gives the novel an uncommon strength, and Andrew Sean Greer sets a high bar here, and clears it easily.
It's a novel to be read twice; both for a compelling narrative and the multitude of sharp observations and heartbreaking sentences.
Posted by Dave
San Francisco of the early Fifties is a town both both on the cusp of great change and still under the shadow of WW 2.
The novels opening line, "We think we know the ones we love."
foretells a tale of secrets born in a time of war and kept in a more rigid time. Pearlie is a transplanted mid-Western girl who marries Holland Cook, her hometown sweetheart after they run into each other in San Francisco after he leaves military service. They are presented by Greer as a typical married couple at the outset, but quickly their race, Holland's mysterious sisters, and most importantly, the arrival of Mr. Charles "Buzz" Drumer, on the couples doorstep.
Buzz is an army buddy of Holland, now wealthy from his trade. He makes Pearlie an offer that sets in motion a painful and at the same time almost cleansing examination each characters hearts and the secrets exposed by Buzz's arrival.
Reviewers have noted, quite correctly that a lesser writer would have turned the book into a Brokeback Mountain offramp.
But Greer is a lyrical and declarative writer whose gifts around how to build and move a story are so finely honed that even tried and true devices come off as fresh and almost daring.
These characters being knocked off their shoes mirrors a time when the Rosenberg's face execution and the Red Scare and Joseph McCarthy hang over America like a choking fog.
Greer examines race during this explosive time with an obliqueness that befits the novel and stays consistent with the politics of the time around the topic.
Though Pearlie is the narrator, it's the character of Holland who carries most of the wounds around this emotionally complex novel. He has the most baggage and it's his relationship with Buzz that predates Pearlie that drives the novel.
"Pearlie says: “This is a war story. It was not meant to be. It started as a love story, the story of a marriage, but the war has stuck to it everywhere like shattered glass.”
Indeed, most everything shatters in The Story of a Marriage, but it's what stays together that gives the novel an uncommon strength, and Andrew Sean Greer sets a high bar here, and clears it easily.
It's a novel to be read twice; both for a compelling narrative and the multitude of sharp observations and heartbreaking sentences.
Posted by Dave
Friday, April 25, 2008
Entrepreneurs, one and all
It's never much of a problem at our place, but apparently books in Japan are pretty easy to steal.
"The Japan Publishing Organization for Information Infrastructure Development conducted the survey in January and February by sending questionnaires to 1,161 stores operated by the 14 major bookstore chains including Kinokuniya Co., Sanseido Bookstore Ltd. and Yurindo Co. The JPO received replies from 643 bookstores run by the 14 companies.
The bookstores suffered about 5.5 billion yen in losses in 2007. The retailers are responsible for 1.5 billion yen of this loss, as a result of mistakes, including the mistyping of checks by salesclerks. The JPO estimates the remaining 4 billion yen, or about 1.4 percent of the 290.9 billion yen in combined annual bookstore sales, were losses incurred due to shoplifting."
What's being lifted?
"Manga comic books accounted for about 40 percent of the total value of books that shoplifters tried to steal but were caught by bookstore staff, followed by photo books at 30 percent and novels at 10 percent.
More than 70 percent of the shoplifters apprehended by the bookstores said they planned to sell the stolen books at used bookstores."
I think it's all just tacit admission that manga isn't worth paying for, new or used.
Posted by Dave
"The Japan Publishing Organization for Information Infrastructure Development conducted the survey in January and February by sending questionnaires to 1,161 stores operated by the 14 major bookstore chains including Kinokuniya Co., Sanseido Bookstore Ltd. and Yurindo Co. The JPO received replies from 643 bookstores run by the 14 companies.
The bookstores suffered about 5.5 billion yen in losses in 2007. The retailers are responsible for 1.5 billion yen of this loss, as a result of mistakes, including the mistyping of checks by salesclerks. The JPO estimates the remaining 4 billion yen, or about 1.4 percent of the 290.9 billion yen in combined annual bookstore sales, were losses incurred due to shoplifting."
What's being lifted?
"Manga comic books accounted for about 40 percent of the total value of books that shoplifters tried to steal but were caught by bookstore staff, followed by photo books at 30 percent and novels at 10 percent.
More than 70 percent of the shoplifters apprehended by the bookstores said they planned to sell the stolen books at used bookstores."
I think it's all just tacit admission that manga isn't worth paying for, new or used.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Strange days indeed
and most peculiar. I've no idea who this Miley Cyrus person is other than the fact that she's everywhere lately.
Galleycat gets it right as they seem to a lot lately,
"Now, we can practically hear some of you haters and negative nabobs out there muttering, "What the (bleep) is a 15-year-old kid whose life is a hyper-choreographed entertainment machine going to write about?" But set aside your scorn and bitterness for just a moment, and you'll see the answer to this is quite simple: It doesn't freaking matter what the kid writes about, because 40 zillion other kids are going to lap it up like a dog does bacon grease."
Staying with Galleycat for a bit, they've noted that James (Million Little Mouth Breathers) Frey is going to venture forth and do a little reading from his forthcoming "novel" Bright Shiny Morning.
It's not worth bitching about state of play except to suggest that one of my favourites had some nice things said about his new book, The Story of A Marriage.
I'm about fifty pages in and Andrew Sean Greer is a joy and a saviour of late.
If you haven't picked up either Confessions of Max Tivoli or The Path of Minor Planets, do yourself a gargantuan favour today.
Full review is forthcoming shortly.
Posted by Dave
Galleycat gets it right as they seem to a lot lately,
"Now, we can practically hear some of you haters and negative nabobs out there muttering, "What the (bleep) is a 15-year-old kid whose life is a hyper-choreographed entertainment machine going to write about?" But set aside your scorn and bitterness for just a moment, and you'll see the answer to this is quite simple: It doesn't freaking matter what the kid writes about, because 40 zillion other kids are going to lap it up like a dog does bacon grease."
Staying with Galleycat for a bit, they've noted that James (Million Little Mouth Breathers) Frey is going to venture forth and do a little reading from his forthcoming "novel" Bright Shiny Morning.
It's not worth bitching about state of play except to suggest that one of my favourites had some nice things said about his new book, The Story of A Marriage.
I'm about fifty pages in and Andrew Sean Greer is a joy and a saviour of late.
If you haven't picked up either Confessions of Max Tivoli or The Path of Minor Planets, do yourself a gargantuan favour today.
Full review is forthcoming shortly.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Any major dude will tell you...
If Jhumpa Lahiri keeps writing short stories of the calibre in Unaccustomed Earth, I couldn't care less if they all explore the immigrant experience. Nobody seems bothered when David Adams Richards sticks close to the Mirimachi region in his novels. Maybe it's because the both write near perfect sentences.
Conversely, Douglas Coupland writes the same book every couple years, too.
The lack of even a single coherent sentence hasn't hurt him either.
Posted by Dave
Conversely, Douglas Coupland writes the same book every couple years, too.
The lack of even a single coherent sentence hasn't hurt him either.
Posted by Dave
Julian Barnes is getting older
but then so are we all.
One of my favourite reviewers has a go at Barnes' new book and at bottom does what a good book review ought to.
I'm curious enough to read it now, though I've read very little of Julian Barnes before.
Conversely, when Gartner cuts a book down, she's on the money and doesn't spare anyones feelings. She's not mean, but she's thorough. And usually spot on.
Years ago, she wrote a favourable review of an early George Saunders short story collection (unfamiliar to me at the time) in the form of a breakup letter to Tom Robbins.
Beautiful.
Posted by Dave
One of my favourite reviewers has a go at Barnes' new book and at bottom does what a good book review ought to.
I'm curious enough to read it now, though I've read very little of Julian Barnes before.
Conversely, when Gartner cuts a book down, she's on the money and doesn't spare anyones feelings. She's not mean, but she's thorough. And usually spot on.
Years ago, she wrote a favourable review of an early George Saunders short story collection (unfamiliar to me at the time) in the form of a breakup letter to Tom Robbins.
Beautiful.
Posted by Dave
Monday, April 21, 2008
Honestly, this is getting ridiculous
If it's Monday, there must be another memoir blown out of the water.
Enough already. Hey publishers, how about finding some novels published in Eritrea?
Posted by Dave
Enough already. Hey publishers, how about finding some novels published in Eritrea?
Posted by Dave
Sunday, April 20, 2008
One of Britain's finest exports
David Lodge is profiled in the Guardian.
I know he does well enough, but it seems like Lodge isn't as popular as he should be. He's akin to the handful of people who seem to get on with everyone, and I never tire of putting his books into peoples hands.
New novel Deaf Sentence comes out in late June.
Posted by Dave
I know he does well enough, but it seems like Lodge isn't as popular as he should be. He's akin to the handful of people who seem to get on with everyone, and I never tire of putting his books into peoples hands.
New novel Deaf Sentence comes out in late June.
Posted by Dave
Oh, it's on
Nyla Matuk doesn't care for Eat Pray Love.
"This is one of the worst books I've read. While Gilbert does admit that her journey of self-discovery was paid for through an advance from her publisher, the book is less than honest when it refuses to acknowledge that travel to foreign destinations is at best a temporary escape from one's own neuroses. Gilbert only skims the surface in her travels, and her tourist-like observations of local traditions in Italy, India and Bali are combined with simultaneous indifference to local poverty and with slightly condescending observations of the physiognomy of local ethnic groups."
Screeds like this put me in mind of a writer in residence at an area university years ago. Our man would hold forth on student and amateur poetry and prose submitted to him and when talent was not evident; he'd give it the attention it deserved and after a few pleasantries the writer would feel good about themselves and keep scribbling. The writer in residence could then concentrate his energies on really engaging (ie: beating to a pulp) work that was worthy of a thorough review.
Eat Pray Love is perhaps the pinnacle of the current fascination with memoir. I've blathered about this before and there's no point rehashing much.
To dump on Eat Pray Love for being shallow, dishonest, manipulative etc. is beside the point entirely. It's a memoir. Readers looking for weight, emotional honesty (from the author) and truth look to fiction.
Matuk piles on to the point where one wonders if she has some personal problem with Elizabeth Gilbert. If there was a "backlash" against the book, it's certainly been quiet, and certainly not reflected at the cash register. Additionally, it's not as though Gilbert's fiction hasn't won multiple awards, particularly Last American Man.
It looks from here that Matuk has just make a bunch of enemies for no good reason.
Posted by Dave
"This is one of the worst books I've read. While Gilbert does admit that her journey of self-discovery was paid for through an advance from her publisher, the book is less than honest when it refuses to acknowledge that travel to foreign destinations is at best a temporary escape from one's own neuroses. Gilbert only skims the surface in her travels, and her tourist-like observations of local traditions in Italy, India and Bali are combined with simultaneous indifference to local poverty and with slightly condescending observations of the physiognomy of local ethnic groups."
Screeds like this put me in mind of a writer in residence at an area university years ago. Our man would hold forth on student and amateur poetry and prose submitted to him and when talent was not evident; he'd give it the attention it deserved and after a few pleasantries the writer would feel good about themselves and keep scribbling. The writer in residence could then concentrate his energies on really engaging (ie: beating to a pulp) work that was worthy of a thorough review.
Eat Pray Love is perhaps the pinnacle of the current fascination with memoir. I've blathered about this before and there's no point rehashing much.
To dump on Eat Pray Love for being shallow, dishonest, manipulative etc. is beside the point entirely. It's a memoir. Readers looking for weight, emotional honesty (from the author) and truth look to fiction.
Matuk piles on to the point where one wonders if she has some personal problem with Elizabeth Gilbert. If there was a "backlash" against the book, it's certainly been quiet, and certainly not reflected at the cash register. Additionally, it's not as though Gilbert's fiction hasn't won multiple awards, particularly Last American Man.
It looks from here that Matuk has just make a bunch of enemies for no good reason.
Posted by Dave
Kindling out?
It's early days, but some are starting to weigh in on the newfangled Kindle electronic book thingy.
"E-books are a growing niche for now," Smith says, "but I certainly don't see a time when everybody will be reading them. People just love what the traditional book represents to them."
(Michael Smith heads the International Publishing Data Forum, which stays on top of e-book sales.)
I'm still thinking that something else may come along on the electronic front, but for now, this is a good day. It reduces the matrix of bookseller uncertainty to relentless competition from chains (and bigger chains), the dominance of the best seller list, a shaky overall economy, the stubbornness of the misery memoir, and...no wait-still a good day.
Posted by Dave
"E-books are a growing niche for now," Smith says, "but I certainly don't see a time when everybody will be reading them. People just love what the traditional book represents to them."
(Michael Smith heads the International Publishing Data Forum, which stays on top of e-book sales.)
I'm still thinking that something else may come along on the electronic front, but for now, this is a good day. It reduces the matrix of bookseller uncertainty to relentless competition from chains (and bigger chains), the dominance of the best seller list, a shaky overall economy, the stubbornness of the misery memoir, and...no wait-still a good day.
Posted by Dave
Thursday, April 17, 2008
some men really are islands
Lots of self-published authors do the work and believe in their talent enough to do an end run around the publishing industry. Sometimes (rarely it must be said) it pays off.
Sometimes well..it doesn't.
Cliff Burns is a dark fantasy author whose blog is entertaining and smart. Perhaps he could be a published author if he kept trying to do it by the numbers.
Although entries like the bit below won't help.
"So when you hear me say what dumb motherfuckers editors are, know this isn't merely a bitter, frustrated writer lashing out; my views are based on nearly a quarter century of dealing with airheads, folks in position of power and influence who possess the I.Q.'s of lower order marsupials.
That's why I embrace the new technologies, the freedom they give creative artists. It means I never have to deal with such dumb cunts ever again."
Obviously, a career bookseller is going to defend the publishing industry to a point. I believe that industry veterans and newbies alike are sharp enough to spot quality most of the time. Writers don't write principally for money, and most in the industry are there for the right reasons as well.
Maybe a genre novel that the author describes as "the leanest, tightest 470-page novel you’re likely to come across" gave some editors pause.
Bunch of ingrates.
GalleyCat has the link in full.
Posted by Dave
Sometimes well..it doesn't.
Cliff Burns is a dark fantasy author whose blog is entertaining and smart. Perhaps he could be a published author if he kept trying to do it by the numbers.
Although entries like the bit below won't help.
"So when you hear me say what dumb motherfuckers editors are, know this isn't merely a bitter, frustrated writer lashing out; my views are based on nearly a quarter century of dealing with airheads, folks in position of power and influence who possess the I.Q.'s of lower order marsupials.
That's why I embrace the new technologies, the freedom they give creative artists. It means I never have to deal with such dumb cunts ever again."
Obviously, a career bookseller is going to defend the publishing industry to a point. I believe that industry veterans and newbies alike are sharp enough to spot quality most of the time. Writers don't write principally for money, and most in the industry are there for the right reasons as well.
Maybe a genre novel that the author describes as "the leanest, tightest 470-page novel you’re likely to come across" gave some editors pause.
Bunch of ingrates.
GalleyCat has the link in full.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
NyQuil Smoothie
Ugh. Too sick to pick up a book over the last few days, never mind anything else.
Only now starting to feel human again, back tomorrow.
Posted by Dave
Only now starting to feel human again, back tomorrow.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Ron Charles on Elizabeth Hay
Our man at the Post has figured it out, too.
"The plot of this novel is a faint signal, a series of short moments, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, often flecked with intimations of tragedy. Hay's writing is so alluring and her lost souls so endearing that you'll lean in to catch the story's delicate developments as these characters shuffle along through quiet desperation and yearning. You'll also begin to hear how Hay is deepening the range of this book."
Just me, but I really like the American cover, too.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
avert your gaze
A few hideous covers and one very classy cover.
Congratulations Nathan. I've got a couple to savour first, but I'll be all over A Week of This soonest.
Posted by Dave
Congratulations Nathan. I've got a couple to savour first, but I'll be all over A Week of This soonest.
Posted by Dave
Friday, April 11, 2008
We've all done it we just don't talk about it
It makes one recall a simpler time when you could actually use your library to pull.
Now I guess we just have Facebook profiles or some damn thing.
In a spin off from the NYT piece last week, Bookslut links to this beauty about the work some of the better among us will do to make women believe we males are pure and good; and extraordinarily literate.
"A fellow scribe, whose insightful views and well-crafted prose never fail to make me wish I could write half so well, tells me there's a poem that makes women go weak at the knees.
"I recite it from memory. Works every time. I won't divulge it, because to do so would be ungallant," he said, promising to tell me at some future date on the condition I keep the powerful secret to myself."
Now I stand on gallantry as well, but I'm pretty sure I know the poem discussed and I'm not sharing it either, except to suggest that it's by Richard Brautigan.
I also agree with Jessa that if all that sex isn't worth the lying, it's also negated by having to read Tom Robbins.
Posted by Dave
Now I guess we just have Facebook profiles or some damn thing.
In a spin off from the NYT piece last week, Bookslut links to this beauty about the work some of the better among us will do to make women believe we males are pure and good; and extraordinarily literate.
"A fellow scribe, whose insightful views and well-crafted prose never fail to make me wish I could write half so well, tells me there's a poem that makes women go weak at the knees.
"I recite it from memory. Works every time. I won't divulge it, because to do so would be ungallant," he said, promising to tell me at some future date on the condition I keep the powerful secret to myself."
Now I stand on gallantry as well, but I'm pretty sure I know the poem discussed and I'm not sharing it either, except to suggest that it's by Richard Brautigan.
I also agree with Jessa that if all that sex isn't worth the lying, it's also negated by having to read Tom Robbins.
Posted by Dave
Hey, me too!
This is something that's been bugging me for months now, and I think I blame the relentless march toward the dominance of a handful of novels, a couple memoirs and usually any media-generated tome that gathers whatever available wind is left.
The first paragraph says it all:
"I think I am over Ian McEwan. I am replete. I really couldn't care less if I never read another one. I had this epiphany last week, while reading Blackmoor, by Edward Hogan, a brilliant and sensitive first novel published by Simon & Schuster in May."
Now I like Ian McEwan just fine, even defended Chesil Beach against charges that it wasn't as good as Atonement, etc. But really, he doesn't need another advocate and I do kind of know what I'm going to get if I read another of his books. That's not to say that I won't keep up, because the job requires that you're at least familiar with most of the heavyweights.
But the post goes on to say that there's a whack of "sparkling prose" getting ignored in the face of a few juggernauts. This isn't a screed against aging consumers opting for safe entertainment in their literature; because they pay my mortgage. I love them all.
But if it continues to be such, the ramifications for the next crop of young writers are going to be even cloudier than they already are.
This is a pretty long lead in to put in a plug for the new Maggie Helwig novel. It's out from Coach House Press and I hope to get to it this weekend. She's typifies for me a Canadian writer who's as fine as any of the regular crowd, but doesn't get nearly the attention that she should.
Posted by Dave
The first paragraph says it all:
"I think I am over Ian McEwan. I am replete. I really couldn't care less if I never read another one. I had this epiphany last week, while reading Blackmoor, by Edward Hogan, a brilliant and sensitive first novel published by Simon & Schuster in May."
Now I like Ian McEwan just fine, even defended Chesil Beach against charges that it wasn't as good as Atonement, etc. But really, he doesn't need another advocate and I do kind of know what I'm going to get if I read another of his books. That's not to say that I won't keep up, because the job requires that you're at least familiar with most of the heavyweights.
But the post goes on to say that there's a whack of "sparkling prose" getting ignored in the face of a few juggernauts. This isn't a screed against aging consumers opting for safe entertainment in their literature; because they pay my mortgage. I love them all.
But if it continues to be such, the ramifications for the next crop of young writers are going to be even cloudier than they already are.
This is a pretty long lead in to put in a plug for the new Maggie Helwig novel. It's out from Coach House Press and I hope to get to it this weekend. She's typifies for me a Canadian writer who's as fine as any of the regular crowd, but doesn't get nearly the attention that she should.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
It's a different time
Nicholas Chee worries that the great publisher brands of yesteryear are vanishing into irrelevance.
"John Murray, publisher of Byron and Darwin, is now part of Hachette, and has a list including commercial women's fiction. The news that the firm was preparing this list provoked the publisher Christopher Hurst, who wrote about his feelings to the Bookseller, to "nausea combined with rage". Hurst went on: "Why keep the illustrious John Murray name if they only want to prostitute it?" You might ask the same question of the owners of Andre Deutsch, where the distinguished editor and author Diana Athill once worked on the manuscripts of V S Naipaul, John Updike, and Jean Rhys. Now part of Carlton, Deutsch specialises in popular non-fiction such as showbiz biographies.
Does any of this matter, except to a few book industry fogeys? Not to most book buyers, who pay little attention to the imprints on the books. Not to the past publishers at these firms. Six generations of publishing Murrays are dead, and the seventh John Murray, who sold the firm, is philosophical about the transaction. Andre Deutsch and Allen Lane - the founder of Penguin - were publishing businessmen first, and pursuers of excellence second."
The reality seems to be that this sort of thing doesn't matter much in the short term, but allowing decades of history to be slowly wiped out will make it that much easier to keep whacking away at the industry as a whole.
It's what makes some of the more gullible amongst writers consider print on demand.
Of course everyone hears about the few that make a living at it, no one mentions the many that die fast and quiet.
Posted by Dave
"John Murray, publisher of Byron and Darwin, is now part of Hachette, and has a list including commercial women's fiction. The news that the firm was preparing this list provoked the publisher Christopher Hurst, who wrote about his feelings to the Bookseller, to "nausea combined with rage". Hurst went on: "Why keep the illustrious John Murray name if they only want to prostitute it?" You might ask the same question of the owners of Andre Deutsch, where the distinguished editor and author Diana Athill once worked on the manuscripts of V S Naipaul, John Updike, and Jean Rhys. Now part of Carlton, Deutsch specialises in popular non-fiction such as showbiz biographies.
Does any of this matter, except to a few book industry fogeys? Not to most book buyers, who pay little attention to the imprints on the books. Not to the past publishers at these firms. Six generations of publishing Murrays are dead, and the seventh John Murray, who sold the firm, is philosophical about the transaction. Andre Deutsch and Allen Lane - the founder of Penguin - were publishing businessmen first, and pursuers of excellence second."
The reality seems to be that this sort of thing doesn't matter much in the short term, but allowing decades of history to be slowly wiped out will make it that much easier to keep whacking away at the industry as a whole.
It's what makes some of the more gullible amongst writers consider print on demand.
Of course everyone hears about the few that make a living at it, no one mentions the many that die fast and quiet.
Posted by Dave
All power of Oscar Wao
It was pretty much a gimme, but I still couldn't be happier for Junot Diaz.
He's running the table in much the same way as Cormac McCarthy did last year, it seems.
Posted by Dave
He's running the table in much the same way as Cormac McCarthy did last year, it seems.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Faves on Faves
Stop the bus
If this is the future, then it'll be over soon enough.
In short, tech bloggers compete for a few second advantage in a high stress/high payout ad revenue generated pay-for-post Thunderdome, as publishing moves online.
Unfortunately, bloggers are human and eventually their old technology hearts stop.
"Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.
The pressure even gets to those who work for themselves — and are being well-compensated for it.
“I haven’t died yet,” said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen.”
“This is not sustainable,” he said."
It's a good thing the poky old book trade can move juuussst a bit more slowly in this case.
It's this sort of stuff that illustrates what surely must be an unintended consequence of Web 2.whatever.
As the story notes, a few unhealthy or deceased bloggers does not a broad trend make, but when a blogger has to ask,
There’s no time ever — including when you’re sleeping — when you’re not worried about missing a story,” Mr. Arrington said.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we said no blogger or journalist could write a story between 8 p.m. Pacific time and dawn? Then we could all take a break,"
then something has gone very wrong.
Posted by Dave
In short, tech bloggers compete for a few second advantage in a high stress/high payout ad revenue generated pay-for-post Thunderdome, as publishing moves online.
Unfortunately, bloggers are human and eventually their old technology hearts stop.
"Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.
The pressure even gets to those who work for themselves — and are being well-compensated for it.
“I haven’t died yet,” said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen.”
“This is not sustainable,” he said."
It's a good thing the poky old book trade can move juuussst a bit more slowly in this case.
It's this sort of stuff that illustrates what surely must be an unintended consequence of Web 2.whatever.
As the story notes, a few unhealthy or deceased bloggers does not a broad trend make, but when a blogger has to ask,
There’s no time ever — including when you’re sleeping — when you’re not worried about missing a story,” Mr. Arrington said.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we said no blogger or journalist could write a story between 8 p.m. Pacific time and dawn? Then we could all take a break,"
then something has gone very wrong.
Posted by Dave
Friday, April 04, 2008
now why are publishers twitching so?
It's Amazon, baby.
And in Britain, anyway, publishers are dropping prices on their own.
Naturally, Amazon is pissed.
"Others accused Amazon of having become particularly aggressive lately. One source claimed that the online seller recently removed the “buy buttons” from a book on its website to prevent users from being able to purchase it. “They then went to the publisher and said, ‘Give us an extra 2 or 3 per cent or we won’t put the buy buttons back’,” the source said."
"Particularly aggressive lately?" What planet are some publishers living on?
Posted by Dave
And in Britain, anyway, publishers are dropping prices on their own.
Naturally, Amazon is pissed.
"Others accused Amazon of having become particularly aggressive lately. One source claimed that the online seller recently removed the “buy buttons” from a book on its website to prevent users from being able to purchase it. “They then went to the publisher and said, ‘Give us an extra 2 or 3 per cent or we won’t put the buy buttons back’,” the source said."
"Particularly aggressive lately?" What planet are some publishers living on?
Posted by Dave
call it in the air
In a much linked piece, Harper Collins is trying to radically reshape their business model by
making all of their new imprints titles available as online downloads, eliminating the returns option for bookstores and substituting profit sharing with authors rather than the classic cash advance.
This is all big stuff and at first glance?
Well, it's too soon to tell.
But getting rid of returns on their new imprint, so far limited to twenty five titles annually is a gutsy move and in a limited way, not a bad idea. It would remove an expensive and carbon heavy element of the trade, and it would remove a scenario not uncommon around our place, whereby a hot title is not in stock at the publisher because Chapters/Costco/Wal-Mart have all the copies. They'll get returned in massive quantities in a few months as the fever cools, but it means missed sales at independents.
I've no opinion on author royalties, but it is ridiculous for publishers to be in a position that makes them need to overpay a front rank author just to keep them; and then not make any money from the exercise.
Now most of that is their own fault, and the natural outgrowth of a feast or famine publishing model that starves everyone but the top three or four horses (most of whom can't write for beans anyway).
Now the other side if aptly stated here:
"Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, a literary agent, said: “I’m not cynical about it, and I’m open to ideas, but I think it’s too soon to say what the validity of it is. These words seem fine and interesting, but how does it benefit the author and how do we find our readers?”
That's not part of the equation here, and this is something we small shops have always been able to do. No one goes to Wal-Mart for books, and increasingly authors are going to end up needing some help to get that novel done.
Interesting times, and not an ideal time to be an author in this scenario.
Posted by Dave
making all of their new imprints titles available as online downloads, eliminating the returns option for bookstores and substituting profit sharing with authors rather than the classic cash advance.
This is all big stuff and at first glance?
Well, it's too soon to tell.
But getting rid of returns on their new imprint, so far limited to twenty five titles annually is a gutsy move and in a limited way, not a bad idea. It would remove an expensive and carbon heavy element of the trade, and it would remove a scenario not uncommon around our place, whereby a hot title is not in stock at the publisher because Chapters/Costco/Wal-Mart have all the copies. They'll get returned in massive quantities in a few months as the fever cools, but it means missed sales at independents.
I've no opinion on author royalties, but it is ridiculous for publishers to be in a position that makes them need to overpay a front rank author just to keep them; and then not make any money from the exercise.
Now most of that is their own fault, and the natural outgrowth of a feast or famine publishing model that starves everyone but the top three or four horses (most of whom can't write for beans anyway).
Now the other side if aptly stated here:
"Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, a literary agent, said: “I’m not cynical about it, and I’m open to ideas, but I think it’s too soon to say what the validity of it is. These words seem fine and interesting, but how does it benefit the author and how do we find our readers?”
That's not part of the equation here, and this is something we small shops have always been able to do. No one goes to Wal-Mart for books, and increasingly authors are going to end up needing some help to get that novel done.
Interesting times, and not an ideal time to be an author in this scenario.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Spreading the cheese
The Giller Prize, always the one to win in Canada if you wanted your unknown first novel to sell in double digits; is now worth an additional 10G's to the winner, and a bit more to the others on the shortlist.
The Globe also notes a pretty impressive jury made up of Bob Rae, Colm Toibin (fine writer, him) and Margaret Atwood.
I've always suspected that this guy was doing other things while Stephane Dion was talking about something or other during Question Period.
Now I know for sure.
Posted by Dave
The Globe also notes a pretty impressive jury made up of Bob Rae, Colm Toibin (fine writer, him) and Margaret Atwood.
I've always suspected that this guy was doing other things while Stephane Dion was talking about something or other during Question Period.
Now I know for sure.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
remembering easier times
Just because it's both opening day (sorry, that's Opening Day) and April Fools Day, it should be noted that this still holds up remarkably well. Ball Four is not just a great baseball book, but a great American classic, and in my all time top five.
In my former life, I was mad for baseball, a fan of first the Cincinnati Reds, then the Jays for a time.
I can take or leave the game now, but I do miss the easy innocence of being a young fan.
Now for April Fools Day, one of the best hoaxes ever, courtesy of George Plimpton.
Ah, youth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
