Never being ‘out of print’ is not good news You can’t self-publish. Because you can’t get your rights back. And your book is nowhere to be seen. Kill the entire outmoded concept of “out of print.” Instead, the contract should define when book rights are being “inadequately exploited” and therefore available for reversion to the… Read More
#MusicForWriters: Philip Glass’ ‘Not-Ninth’ Symphony
‘An Uncommonly Crowd-Pleasing Piece Of Music’ So maybe the new weekly blog post coming to PhilipGlass.com on Mondays won’t be the first stop every author makes on his or her read-in for the day. But you could do worse. Richard Guerin has begun editing “Glass Notes” each week, and the very first thing we read there… Read More
Give Her Credit: Sarah McIntyre Torches For Book Illustrators
#PicturesMeanBusiness And So Does She Once you break yourself of tweeting to her as@Jabberwocks — she definitely is not Brown University’s dramatically lit all-male a cappella group — Sarah McIntyre is one of the most colorful forces of nature you’ll find in your Twitter stream. She is @Jabberworks. And yes, she’s talking to you. She’s attaching the hashtag#PicturesMeanBusiness.… Read More
Publishing’s Bad Infinity: Authors Guild Calls For Time-Limited Contracts
‘To Keep Pace With The Times’ We believe three basic changes are urgently needed: Time-limited contracts, A clause that provides for reversion of unexploited rights, and A specific new unchallengeable definition to replace historic “out of print” clauses that are not remotely relevant in the electronic age. As you’ll know if you’ve been following along… Read More
Can digital community support writing, really?
Not unlike climate change, it’s something that digital-age writers worry about, but can’t nail down. I’m not sure what effect the accepting warmth of digital communities has on our literature. I don’t think encouraging people can make bad writing suddenly appeal to the masses. Are the communities going to start getting the same blame that self-publishing… Read More
Enhanced ebooks and steel filing cabinets
Funny how #FutureChat can change your mind. Camille LaGuire, whose beret-ed avatar is familiar to many of us in our weekly discussion from The Bookseller and FutureChat, started Friday’s chat by announcing: Not sure I have much to contribute about the Future of Enhanced books discussion on #FutureChat today. By later in the day,… Read More
Why That Ebook May Cost More Than The Hardcover
It’s Not Over ‘Til The Big Dog Barks Indie publishing is still growing and it seems that established publishing is at a standstill. Mike Shatzkin’s column of August 5 may be the one in which we someday remember hearing a new sermon, the beginning of the endgame. But Shatzkin is not delivering a benediction yet: This… Read More
'Why Wasn't I Consulted?!' — Beware Online Dragons In St. George's Clothing
Are You Sick Of The Publishing Crusaders Yet? In my recent Writer Unboxed essay about online anger among books people, several readers assumed that I was talking about anonymous people and trolls. I wasn’t. iStockphoto / MR1805 In Our CyberVillage: So Much Anger is about people in the publishing community who seem to be personally, continually… Read More
Gray Areas: ‘The Elements’ Of Good Book Apps
‘Programmers Need To Be Treated As Top Talent, Just Like Authors’ A funny thing happened on the way to digital books and ebook enhancement: We forgot that we knew what we know. Theodore Gray At the end of last week, we published an articulate essay at The Bookseller’s The FutureBook by developer and designerTheodore Gray. In… Read More
Wischenbart, Jones, And McCabe: Sightings Of A ‘Second Disruptive Wave’
‘My Personal List Of Ebook Headaches’ Sorry to interrupt that fun-in-the-sun thing you’re doing, but some chilly winds are blowing in on a topic you may have thought you left safely tucked away and handled: ebooks and the digital disruption of publishing. Publishers, if they want to survive…better learn the tricks of ebooks quickly. Not… Read More