‘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
When Authors Yell ‘Everybody Into The Pool!'
What Writers Say To Agents After The Party Many types of comments are generously added to articles, of course, here at Thought Catalog and in other places. It’s a form of sharing, after all, still relatively new in human correspondence. The closest thing in the past might have been those Letters to the Editor in… Read More
‘The Overselling Of Self-Publishing': New Perspective
‘A Serious Epidemic Of Impatience’ Here in New York City where BookExpo America (BEA) is holding the focus of many in the traditional publishing establishment, a friend and I were finishing lunch at Café Luxembourg when the waiter approached. “I overheard you guys talking about publishing,” he said. “I wondered if you could give me any advice about… Read More
In And Around London Book Fair: Authors, IndieReCon And ALLi’s Third Anniversary
And Spectacular Weather As if heeding a request from London Book Fair (LBF) director Jacks Thomas, the sun flooded Olympia London with bright springtime light all week. We weary stand-and-stairs brats now head back to planes, trains, and waiting families. Smaller by design — Olympia is a markedly more compressed space than Earls Court — the transfer went remarkably… Read More
Do Personality Traits Have Any Business in Business? Yes, Says One Agent — With Authority
When The Gatekeeper Works For You There are many agents who are absolutely lovely people but who don’t command authority naturally. Why should you, as a writer, care about this? Literary agent Kristin Nelson doesn’t make you wait long for the answer: It’s simple: Authors with strong contracts have more successful careers. And say what… Read More
#MSWL: Agents And Editors Calling Out Requests — To Authors
‘Play It Again, Sam’ For a long time, most author-agent communications on the front end have gone just that way — author to agent: the query letter. The query letter is so daunting for many writers that there are whole courses offered simply on how to write a good query letter, never mind the damned… Read More
'Are there too many literary agencies?'
The question with which I’ve headlined this post comes from literary agent Jonny Geller. More: I believe that the lack of changes in our industry will leave many authors exposed. I would say this, wouldn’t I? Well, I’m not actually criticising any one agent, or the notion of small agencies—but my industry as a whole.… Read More
An industry divided? In digital we trust — some of us
It’s not as if we haven’t seen opposing viewpoints — along with rising and falling fortunes — during publishing’s encounter with the digital dynamic. Some of the main divisions of variously rivalrous perspective include: eBooks vs. print, Online bookselling vs. bricks and mortar, Apps vs. ebooks, and immersive ebooks vs. enhanced, Traditional publishing vs. self-publishing for authors,… Read More
Author Publicists Who Don’t Tweet? And Under Their Own Names? Fire Them.
Two Things Prompted This Irritating Column A clearly lame bid for authors’ hard-earned money for so-called “reader engagement” and book sales. The arrival on Twitter of a brand-new user who is also one of the highest-visibility literary agents in the country. Old scams and new social mediators. I knew it was time to get at… Read More
'Print books are more like decorations': A #FutureChat recap
Could ebooks and print be friends instead of enemies? Having heralded The noise and fury— where he wrote, “Booksellers are back! The print book is on the rise! The ebook is dead!” — The Bookseller editor Philip Jones then returned Friday with classic irony in Surprise, surprise: Defying what we sometimes read in the wider… Read More