‘Ghostly Chorus’ Childhood trauma is such alluring material for writers. It’s also fiendishly hard to render it with real impact. Kids’ frights tend to fall apart in the wry view of adult hindsight. As a friend once said to me with a shrug, everything is hell on wheels when you’re little. When it works, however,… Read More
Mega-Wattpad Stardom: The Before And After Of Anna Todd
‘I Got Impatient’ After all, Anna Todd was not yet an author. “Never thought about it.” She certainly is one now. But she arrived at Wattpad, as do the great majority of its users, as a reader. “I read for four months before I started writing anything.” And then one of the oldest bits of wisdom… Read More
Fair Contracts For Authors: Don’t Let Go Of Your Copyright
Novelists Inc. Plans Authors Guild Session There’s news this week from the roughly 900-member Novelists Inc. (NINC) organization that the Authors Guild will present a special session on rights reversion at NINC’s conference, 30th September to 4th October. Executive director Mary Rasenberger and staffer Ryan Fox will go to St. Pete Beach for talks with NINC members,… Read More
Scott Hawkins On Mount Char: Library Science And Angelology
‘The Closest Thing…To His Usual Loin Cloth’ When Julian Pavia at Random House/Crown tells me he’s got something I might look at, I pay attention. He’s Andy Weir’s editor and sent me Weir’s The Martian during the run-up to its release. I recommend you read it before the October release of the film. You’ll… Read More
#MusicForWriters: Matt Haimovitz’s Cello Solos Go Into ‘Orbit’
Four Hours: ‘A Small Part Of The Repertoire’ You could do worse than play a 1710 cello made by the Venetian luthier Matteo Goffriller, but what Matt Haimover now is doing on that instrument can come very close to explaining what we mean by an author’s “voice” in writing. He can stroll up on you… Read More
After The Hype And Drama: Balancing Trad And Indie
‘Under The Right Conditions’ Germany is recognized as the third self-publishing market in size and activity. The United States and the United Kingdom are the first and second, respectively. And when Matting’s study of 906 authors asked them, 80 percent said they’d be willing to consider traditional publishing “under the right conditions.” Those “right conditions” for German-language authors,… 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
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