by Porter Anderson

Self-Publishing’s Parallel Disruptions

It comes as news to no one in the indus­try! the indus­try! that self-publishing is con­tro­ver­sial. We may tend, how­ever, to think of it as con­tro­ver­sial for that indus­try, while not look­ing at what it can mean for writ­ers and writ­ing. It is, in fact, a devel­op­ment full of argu­ment not only for pub­lish­ers but also for literature. Read More

by Porter Anderson

Leveling Up: In Praise of Writer Dads

I’m grateful to Gonzalez for spotlighting this subject so many are hesitant to touch, not with a 10-foot poll of how many among us think family men can have as viable and praiseworthy a challenge in writing as family women do. Try putting writer dad into the search field on Twitter. Stand well back from your computer. The hits you get will stretch from here to China. Or from Beijing to us.
So why would so many intelligent people, including Tuch—who is with The Review Review and Beyond the Margins and teaches in Boston’s pivotal Grub Street program)—see women and not men as well, when they hear or read or write the phrase “writer-parent?” Read More

by Porter Anderson

Is There an “Architecture of Collaboration” for Startups?

It’s hard to think that “you get around that” (problem of communication between publishers and startups) without developing an “architecture of collaboration,” an understood way of working together that allows for risk-and-regret absorption, for the distinctions of lingo, for decision-authority black holes, and for a better shared understanding of what each party counts valuable and needs to protect to move forward together. Read More

by Porter Anderson

Charleston’s PubSmart Joins Conference Row

Pub­S­mart may be cre­at­ing some­thing we’ve needed to see much more of: a con­fer­ence in which not only business-conscious authors but also smaller pub­lish­ing com­pa­nies can start doing the log­i­cal net­work­ing they’ve needed: with each other. Read More

by Porter Anderson

More Gatekeeping? Sisyphus Could Relate

What happens when self-pubishers, themselves, begin creating awards and accolades for each other’s (self-published) work? Have self-publishing authors at that point not begun to reflect some patterns of quality-delineation, selectivity…gatekeeping? Read More

by Porter Anderson

Can Co-Publishing Make 'You Crime' Pay?

This is a story about a clever way of bringing established, big-selling authors together with emerging writers, and about choosing those emerging writers not only for their literary chops but also for just how digitally savvy they might be in the marketing department. Read More

by Porter Anderson

The Haunting of NaNoWriMo

Put that copy of Eleanor Cat­ton back down. True, I’d be hon­ored to be crushed by a Man Booker Prize–win­ner. But heav­ing The Lumi­nar­ies at me is unfair. It’s an 848-page New Zealand boul­der. I deserve a fight­ing chance. Pelt me with Kin­dle Sin­gles instead. Read More

by Porter Anderson

Big Ideas from Books in Browsers IV: An "Architecture of Collaboration"

“New forms of writing and reading, new tools for creating and sharing and the growing dialogue between creators and consumers—most readily evident in fan fiction, but it won’t stop there—are all pushing us to develop an architecture of collaboration,” said publishing consultant Brian O’Leary. Read More