Even in the Battle for the Showroom, odd alliances may already be springing up. Barnes and Noble has issued a powerful condemnation of Amazon, claiming the Internet retailer has “undermined the industry as a whole and prevented millions of customers from having access to content…as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest.” But in an unexpected turn, authors may be in the first wave B&N has to fight. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
There’s something about the stance of writers in the publishing community right now that isn’t quite what it should be. I don’t have to get too specific in describing this. It’s never more evident than at this time of year when two of our biggest conferences are choreographed to pass in the night. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
Your hot seat awaits at the Writer’s Digest Conference and Digital Book World Conference in New York. Not since Margaret Mitchell fanned those other flames has the industry gathered in so superheated a salon of controversies for the kickoff of its annual ConfabWorld season. Can’t be there? No problem. Keep these hashtags handy: #wdc12 and #dbw12. We’ll be sure some smoke gets in your eyes. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
Today, it wouldn’t hurt our congregation of publishing to catch a church-window reflection of how we look engaging in one industry-wide panic after the next. Our energetic knees-up exercises of feverish fellowship seem so frequent nowadays that we might as well schedule them. Plus: Why “The Joy of Books” is joyless cuteness. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
In chatting with some year-enders as we watched that ball ex machina descend in Times Square to haul us all out of the mess that was 2011, it became clear that many authors today see the digitization of things as just such a handy lift, a chariot swinging low to carry us home (where the readers are) — to deliver everyone from the gatekeeping Eumenides of old publishing and into the stage-center jig-fest of DIY abandon. Mickey Rooney, that ancient thespian, called this “let’s put on a show!” Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
Dan Blank of We Grow Media and I are planning a series of informational pre-confab pieces for you starting January 9, 2012. And I’ll be tweet-storming the dramatic recitations and balletic debates, barre the door, at the major publishing conferences of the season. DISCOUNT: Use code WDCTWEET to get $50 off your Writer’s Digest Conference full registration — and hurry. It starts on January 20 in New York City. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
By Porter Anderson | @Porter_Anderson From December 22, 2011 Part of my series of columns on publishing, Writing on the Ether, appearing Thursdays at JaneFriedman.com Flirting with foolishness I don’t make predictions. Especially at this time of year. It lies before us, the future does. ‘Tis the reason: I just don’t know. I think even… Read More
Book Review
Near the center line of his recently published football opera, Slotback Rhapsody, debut novelist Christopher Harris can make even the most skeptical guy in the stands believe his protagonist’s secret. You’re ready to buy into the idea that this author has memorized a playbook as rich as the one his likeable hero keeps executing. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
And there were in the same country traditional publishers abiding in the field, keeping watch over their hardbacks by night. Because Peter Meyers‘ new Breaking the Page had yet to be published. And, lo, the Archangel Android came upon them, and the glory of Seattle shone ’round about them. And they were sore afraid. Read More
Writing on the Ether | JaneFriedman.com
By Porter Anderson | @Porter_Anderson From December 8, 2011 Part of my series of columns on publishing, Writing on the Ether, appearing Thursdays at JaneFriedman.com A digital dogfight Propellers spinning, exhaust plumes curling, wings tipped at disastrous angles. Rat-a-tat-a-tat. Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum. Shut up, Bieber. I mean Bieba. (Did he just sing, “I am a… Read More