Over 1,000 heat records were set this week across the U.S. It can be kind of hot in Phoenix this time of year (112 degrees today), but this weather forecast for Baltimore takes the prize for hottest day EVER!
Steve
News You Can Use – June 26, 2012
What Successful People do Before Breakfast - Reading this made me want to take a nap.
Free Tools for the Frugal Writer - Bob Evenhouse provides some good advice.
The Noisier it is, the Better You Work? - An argument to head to a coffee shop to do your work.
Do You Own Your Kid's Domain Name? - Good advice in today's world. I am glad I had the foresight to grab my name as a domain in the …
News You Can Use – June 19, 2012
IVP Takes a Book Out-of-Print Because of Errors – This is an impressive (and expensive) response by a publisher. A review by Carl Trueman detailed numerous factual errors, typos, and mistakes for an academic volume on the Reformation. IVP correctly responded by removing the book from circulation and will fix the errors and re-release the book this Summer. And will replace, for free, any …
Inside a Publishing Company
by Steve Laube
I just returned from three days at the Write! Canada writers conference outside Toronto. During my time there I presented a six session lecture series on the Complete Publishing Process: From Idea to Print.
When the entire process is compressed into a short series like that it becomes evident how many people are involved in the publishing of a book at any given publishing …
News You Can Use – June 12, 2012
Content Abundance - What Do We Do About It? - A question every author, every marketer, and every publisher is asking. When there are one million titles on Amazon and you click a key word search, how do you find what you want?
11 Tumblr Tips for Power Users - Remember to type tumblr (without the "e") if you visit their site.
The History of Air Conditioning - I'm sorry I had to include this. …
News You Can Use – June 5, 2012
Six Tough Truths About Self-Publishing (That the Advocates Never Seem to Talk About) - Rob Hart writes an insightful and cautionary tale.
22 Rules of Story Telling According to Pixar - This is an excellent article for every novelist to read.
10 Great Science Fiction Novels for People Who Don't Read Sci-Fi - I have to say that I agree with only four of their choices. Such is the nature of …
News You Can Use – May 29, 2012
Self-Publishing: Under 10% Earn a Living - An article out of Australia makes a bold claim. I would claim, however, that only 10% of traditionally published writers earn a living too. Of course that depends on your definition of "a living."
100 Best First Lines from Novels - In honor of the last two weeks where we talked about "first lines" I found this article from the American Book Review that …
Goodbye to Traditional Publishing?
by Steve Laube
Recently Ann Voss Peterson wrote of her decision to never sign another contract with Harlequin. One major statistic from the article is that she sold 170,000 copies of a book but earned only $20,000.
Multiple clients sent me Peterson’s “Harlequin Fail” article and wanted my opinion. My first thought is that this was typical “the publisher is ripping me off” fodder. But …
Christy Award Finalists 2012
We are quite excited to announce that our agency has a number of finalists in this year's Christy Awards. (Click here for the list of this year's finalists.) Congratulations to all finalists. Below are our clients who have been honored and a link to their publisher's site for more information on the book.
Susan May Warren - My Foolish Heart (Tyndale) - Contemporary Romance
Ronie Kendig - …
Implications of the Department of Justice Lawsuit Against Five Major Publishers
by Steve Laube
As you have heard by now the Department of Justice (DOJ) has leveled a lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers accusing them of conspiring to fix prices. There has been a lot written on the topic with varying degrees of understanding and a wide disparity of conclusions.
Authors are asking what this all means to them. And many are confused about the math involved. A …