FutureBook: Orna Ross, the Pudding Would Like a Word

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson The FutureBook: Orna Ross, the Pudding Would Like a Word At The FutureBook: What’s important is for all of us to remember that our words, our expressions of opinion, can be hurtful, wrong, unfair, damaging. It’s incumbent upon us to be careful. A tip from the long-lost arts of journalism:… Read More

When Amazon Sat Down With the Lambs

In this week’s Writing on the Ether from Porter Anderson at JaneFriedman.com: A unique discussion between Amazon executives, entrepreneurial authors, and media people at BEA touched on self-publishing and reader expectations. Read More

How London Beat BEA's Pants Off

Authors at BEA seem welcome, but only in their place. They’re not expected to be doing business. BEA started in the era of publisher-controlled authors. Ether for Authors from Publishing Perspectives – with Porter Anderson. Read More

BEA: Malcolm Gladwell Takes Aim

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson Writing on the Ether: Casting Stones at BEA At IDPF’s Digital Book 2013 Conference at BEA, headliner Malcolm Gladwell, ahead of his forthcoming David and Goliath: “In 10 years, best-selling authors will [still] need marketers and editors…Good marketers and editors will find a way to be relevant…[And in reference to… Read More

Read about BEA: BoatExpo America

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson Ether for Authors: BoatExpo America You wouldn’t think BookExpo America (BEA) at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City had much to do with the huge boat shows that fill such trade-show arenas . But you’d be wrong. When the industry! the industry! barges into the city at the… Read More

From Writer Unboxed: Agreeable Disagreement

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson Writer Unboxed: Agreeable Disagreement We’re flagging these columns “Provocations in Publishing” because the industry! the industry! is one overwrought place these days. Have you noticed how many publishing people stage every disagreement as if it’s life and death? No Writer Unboxed reader would ever do this, of course. It’s the others we’re talking about.… Read More

Read: Indies at BEA & Amazon's Fan-Fic

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson Writing on the Ether: The Indies Are Coming! Not that Big Six. (Thank you, Roz Morris.) This big six is a sextet of the highest-rising stars of the entrepreneurial-author firmament. They’ve taken Booth 966 together at BookExpo America (BEA). They are Bella Andre, Stephanie Bond,  Tina Folsom, Barbara Freethy,  Hugh Howey, and CJ Lyons. And as they head for New… Read More

Read: Hitting a Rough Patchett

By Porter Ander­son | @Porter_Anderson Ether for Authors: Ann Patchett’s Fly­ing Leap On this side of the pond, there may be few authors as fondly regarded as Ann Patch­ett, she of the inde­pen­dent book­store Par­nas­sus in Nashville. But when she told The Book­seller in Lon­don that authors should become more involved in the indus­try and take greater respon­si­bil­ity as part of… Read More