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Alert for all travellers to North America: Abuse of Human Rights and Privacy Violations:

Racially intolerant white canadian cops and security and their henchmen claim to be

despots; following parasitically in the footsteps of their american counterparts, and

wilfully engage in their racial profiling of non-whites, in racial harassment of

non-whites, and in racially dehumanizing attempts to racially harass non-whites through

intimidating physically, mentally, and spiritually; portraying their racial hatred of

non-whites through causing wilfull and dehumanizing disturbance to non-whites through using

illegal wall-see-through technologies and audio-bugs on non-whites' homes; through

listening and watching through the walls of non-whites' rented and owned homes, and

through their internet and private telephones. The perpetuators of these evil deeds do this

from their cars using illegal equipment slyly given to them by the unworthy cops, and then
accelerating their cars loudly and intimidatingly near non-whites' homes and driving

intimidatingly in presence of non-whites on streets, making threatening u-turns, driving

intimidatingly right up and over sidewalks when a non-white is on the sidewalk, and

throwing their ugly bullying weight around, in their shameless acts of cowardice. It is all

done slyly, supposedly smartly, however, they cannot fool all the people all the time. The

cops also participate themselves to wail their sirens abusively everytime non-whites move

and talk inside their rented and owned homes in daily routine living, in addition to having

their henchmen, and often, using their non-white gutless henchmen in cars, transport,

shopping centers, neighborhoods, etc, to commit these ugly harassing racially profiling
deeds at all times day and night. Using non-whites to engage in racial harassment of other

non-whites is an obnoxiously evil sinister humanely disgraceful intelligent move of the

whites well-known for their ugly divide and rule tactics through their non-white henchmen.

It's a shameful disgrace when the so called protectors of law turn into abusers of law

themselves and throw the weight of their uniforms and law around as cowards. So, they and

their henchmen, appear to be very law respecting on the outside; however, they network

cowardly to commit sly acts of provocation to non-whites all the time, which is supposed to
be legally acceptable. Is watching through walls of non-whites homes, bugging their homes,

working in networking syndicates against them, committing human rights and privacy

violations against them, supposedly lawful for the whites? Who makes those laws that favor
only the whites? The law itself has racism in its clauses. The ugly inner dirt of the

perpetuators of these evil deeds of racism do not deserve to step into religious

institutions for their ugly deeds - such as, if you ain't white, you ain't right? Oh!

Really? Nicely dressed, beautiful people, magnificient concrete jungles, clean roads and

lawns, sweet polite talkers on the outside, full of ugly stench in their souls, that is the
cause of these racist policies that are outrightly biased against non-whites. What a shame!

Most of these ugly acts of dehumanizing racial profiling depict the cowardice of the doers

of these deeds in the real sense, and are done at the behind the scenes insistence of the

racially intolerant white cops through their frontline stooges. However, without physical

evidence, the white cops, security, societies, and their henchmen are laughing sinisterly
at their heinous deeds and the legal system seems to support this evil through its

inability to take action without physical evidence. Their racial profiling penetrates

public transport systems, shops and stores to do all they can to make the non-whites feel

unwelcome in their dehumanizing acts of racial profiling against non-whites and those who

don't conform to their nonsense. The white cops, security, and white communities use their
henchmen who do just as they are told and from behind the safety cushion of their

oil-guzzling, pollution creating, often dark-glassed vehicles to intimidate and harass

non-whites in obnoxious racial profiling that reflects the immoral, despotic, and cowardly

behaviour of racially intolerant white cops, security, communities and their dumb henchmen
who do just as they are told, fuelled as they are in their racial frenzy, thanks to the

racially manipulative corporate controlled media.

For more information, visit:

http://www.yourluckytoday.blogspot.com

Volunteers are welcome to circulate this information to all they know to put an end to this

abuse and violations of human rights committed by immorally misbehaved white cops,

security, white communities, public transports, shops, stores, etc, and their dumb henchmen

who do just as they are told in their racial frenzy.

Save this information on your computers before any cowards remove it from the websites.

Racism is immoral and dehumanizing behaviour that reflects the "incapable to perform

humanely" quality of those who are racist and are being watched from God's court above in

ways they cannot be expected to be capable to perceive yet.

It's a shame when obnoxious stench of racism comes from people in so called rich countries.

It's even more of a shame when words are twisted by media to influence young minds with

lies. It's even more of a shame when so called authorities perpetuate racism and behave

racistly and enforce racist policies and behaviour through intimidating means amidst outer

sweet and polite talks. Racism seems to be prominent among so called white people in rich

countries who cannot bear non-whites from other countries of origin. Planet Earth belongs

to people of Earth. Highly educated people of high intellectual calibres, rich bosses and

CEOs, etc, of rich countries are a blotch on humanity and their material levels when they
haven't yet evolved to basic human concepts of all humans have red blood irrespective of

race.

Racism stems from social attitudes that are perpetuated by racist societies, the media, the

authoritarians, and the peers. It's time to say, shame on all those who perpetuate racism

and racist attitudes.

Thank you.

Z -- that might work for works that are already out of print and to which the author has sole title. (I've asked someone who would know far better than I and will post if the response turns out to be interesting.)

If the works are in print or the copyright is jointly held (depending on a book's contract, rights may not automatically revert to the author once the book is out of print), this probably couldn't be binding.

Here's a question: to counteract the potential silencing effect of near-perpetual copyright, can an author bequeath his works to the public domain on his death?

Going out of print: as natural as death

And as scary, I would think.

Consider, then, the duration of copyrights. They've gone from 28 years renewable to 56, then 28 renewable to 95, to life of the author plus 70. Given the range of human lifespans and the extreme rarity of prepubescent authors, you can pretty much figure that by the time a 95-year copyright runs out, the author will be dead and gone, and any offspring will have reached their majority. You can't exactly draw a line, but somewhere in there, copyright stops being about directly rewarding an author for his work. What's left is an intangible time-travelling value: the hope of being read.

(From BoingBoing)


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Edited by author 01-27-2006 09:43 AM
I am creating a new discussion topic called "Literary Scandals"... please move the Oprah discussion there.

G

Now, now. Would we have as much bile if Oprah were a man? I would hope so. But in reality, she was duped too... the difference and fatal fact is, she has a team of people who are supposed to check these things out. And some of them did and warned her against it. And she went ahead with the book anyway because she knew the impact it would have. Tears. And money. My problem with Oprah isn't the power she wields. It's how she wields it. And that she passes her "brand" off as cultural goodness when it's really all bent on making more money.

G

What a whiney little bitch.

What happened to the dude who used fuck every other word and talked about how he was going to beat up Dave Eggars and steal the throne of Norman Mailer?

Hey, I just noticed something: Jim Frey --- Win Frey

Coincidence?

Awww...! Look at those hangdog expressions! Let's buy them some presents!

Or rather, Oprah hangs Jimmy out to dry (while not addressing any root issues behind either the gaping maw that is her following or her role as tosser of fish to these barking seals) in front of the same audience for which she scrubbed him up and sent him out to dance.


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My book sells quite well (for poetry, meaning one or two copies a month) at my mother's craft booth in the Charlottetown Farmers' Market. Unless there's a zealous handseller actively peddling your wares for you--or unless your name is Tupac or Jewel or Billy Collins--bookstores are where poetry collections go to die (or at least where they go to get as dusty as they can before they're unceremoniously returned). As far as sales of poetry go, the onus is on the authors, who really can't complain about neglect (or the publishing industry or booksellers or anything else) if they haven't worked hard to put their work in front of readers. In a perfect world, all the "dirty" work of promotion and sales would be handled by our eunuch servants leaving us free to be emotionally-fraught and misunderstood geniuses having poolside epiphanies--but the pleasant political climate isn't amenable to the involuntary castration of boys. It's a matter of shifting paradigms from "solitary romantic" to "troubadour." And for this paradigm to work, the publishing industry is really more of a convenience for authors than a necessity. Just look at the example of Stuart Ross for how much poetry can be bought and sold without the intervention of the whole burdensome and costly publisher/distributor/seller network.

/m448:

It's this part I don't really buy:

In the past, a young reader who discovered a writer whose work spoke to him or her could find a thorough selection of the writer’s books on the shelf of a good bookstore. The bookstore trained new readers by presenting the full arc of writers’ careers and the evolution of the reading experience.

The Internet works just as well, if not better. He's got a point in that it's harder for more fringe/experimental/less mainstream writers to get space in bookstores, but that may be a temporary thing only, as we're seeing increasing distribution and promotion over the Net.

Ultimately, it all comes down to marketing. If publishers/writers can find an effective way to market their books, people will read them no matter where they're sold, whether they're good or bad.

P

Generally, I find a decent public library a great place to find books past and present by specific authors, more so than bookstores. In fact, surprise, surprise, it was in a library where I discovered the thrills of browsing and dreamy reading.

I guess Henighan has a point to a point, although he shows signs of righteous (is that self?)catastrophic thinking. Does it follow that literary presses really publish the best literature? Is a writer middlebrow because he/she does not share Henighan's aesthetic? Or being published by Random House rather than Turnstone? These are puzzling questions.

Literary agents are business people who have to sell big to pay their rent. Why give them more credence than they deserve?

I think the argument's fairly sound myself. The decline of the independent bookseller is fairly well documented -- there are fewer and fewer of them, and I can tell you from personal experience that those that remain are less willing to take a chance on a new writer -- or press -- than there used to be. There are exceptions to this -- This Ain't the Rosedale, Pages, Bryan Prince, Munro's, Pages on Kensington, even Nicholas Hoare, among others -- but they are fewer and fewer. Booksellers also seem to becoming more regional in their selection of authors, especially if published by smaller, literary presses: I have had a bookseller, very prominent too, from Alberta tell me that she'll no longer order small press books by any writer east of Manitoba: they simply won't sell (she says) (Interestingly, she also told me it was the JoyRead campaign that confirmed her in this, which is also a shame, since the idea behind that programme, if perhaps not always its implementation, was a very good one, and should work). Buying habits seem to me part of this: the Oprahfication of taste means that people seem only to be looking for a few select titles. They're no longer willing to browse, give things time, see what strikes them. And the Walmart effect, the deep discounting of bestsellers as loss leaders means that booksellers can no longer count on the revenue generated from these to allow them to carry titles that are important, but may move more slowly.
The internet, as a marketplace, where all titles can be found and purchased, I suppose, may allow for some of the lost ground to be made up, but certainly not all of it. A knoweldgeable and committed book selling community is essential to the health of publishing in Canada, and it is no coincidence that both are now in decline. I've had one bookseller in the past few months get behind a couple of our titles, selling over 30 of one and 70 of another since October: this type of hand selling is getting more and more scarce, and is irreplacable. And it's certainly obvious by now that Chindigo won't be filling the void (even Heather's Picks are not favours freely bestowed.)

And just why don't you buy his argument?

The end of Canadian publishing?
Stephen Henighan wonders if bookstores are to blame. Can't say I buy his argument, but it's entertaining enough.

If the agent is right, we are currently living through the dismantlement of Canadian publishing. Evidence supporting this view is not in short supply. Publishers, to survive, need bookstores. The 2004 statement of Heather Reisman, whose Chapters–Indigo chain controls 70 percent of the Canadian bookselling market, that “our goal has always been to get as close to the Wal-Mart level of excellence as we could,” suffices to tell us where our bookstores are going. The dominance of Chapters–Indigo forces independents and smaller chains to reproduce the “Wal-Mart level of excellence” in order to compete. During three quick trips to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 2004 and 2005, I observed that the selection of books for sale in the once well-stocked and engaging stores of the McNally Robinson group was growing thinner and thinner, just like the selection in Chapters.

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A million little angles

How can they come at Frey next? That's how you know you've written a good book. It can be dissected on a number of levels.


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Fightened of the Ninjas, Jimmy-boy?

Frey cancels Toronto appearance. He's running scared. From the thought of a Conservative government. Liars can't stand each others' company.


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The year ahead in the book biz
Publishers are discovering this Internet thingy.

If 2005 showed one thing, it was that the web continues to explode in terms of importance to the book industry. Matthew Shear, senior vice president and publisher of St. Martin’s Press, summed it up: “We need to be [on the web] with our books, our ads, our blogs, our promotions and whatever it may be.”

In 2005, a website called TheNamelessNovel.com used interactive trivia, games and promotions to combine many of these aspects and promote the latest Lemony Snicket novel from HarperCollins. In 2006, HarperCollins plans to continue this trend to promote the 13th and final Snicket title, said Jim McKenzie, director of online marketing for HarperCollins Children’s Books. As long as Internet promotions “reach consumers and create community,” Jane Friedman said, “experimenting and being innovative will continue into 2006.”

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CSM jumps right on that Frey story

Ah, the CSM... the daily that reads like a weekly. But seriously, is there anything left to say? Yes. When the Christian papers are crucifying you, you're pretty much facked.


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Michiko on Frey

And everyone else, like a truth seeking hybrid of missile/wolverine.

We live in a relativistic culture where television "reality shows" are staged or stage-managed, where spin sessions and spin doctors are an accepted part of politics, where academics argue that history depends on who is writing the history, where an aide to President Bush, dismissing reporters who live in the "reality-based community," can assert that "we're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." Phrases like "virtual reality" and "creative nonfiction" have become part of our language. Hype and hyperbole are an accepted part of marketing and public relations.

There's no denying she's, as we call our son, a smartycakes. And in related news: glutton for punishment, or thumbing her nose? Oprah picks another memoir for her book club.


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Yeah...calling him a con man gives him too much cred.

You have only yourself to blame, Oprahtomotons

It's the readers done did it, see? You're off the hook again, Jimmy boy!

There is, however, a deeper issue worth considering buried in all this pop-cultural titillation: Why are people so easily victimized by this sort of emotional con man? For some years, book publishing, television and — more recently — a growing segment of the news media have been sinking deeper and deeper into a particularly fetid sinkhole carved by two social currents that now dominate our collective lives.

Why don't you celebrate with a wine spritzer and maybe a drive by insulting of some old lady. Gentlemen! To Evil!


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Joining the Frey

NYT comments:

The memoir is, indeed, a loose and slippery genre - as loose and slippery as memory itself. And there's a difference, even in publishing, between the lies we tell about ourselves and the lies we tell about others. It is a rare publisher that troubles to fact-check an author's claims, especially in times when proofreading can seem like too much trouble. But Doubleday's defense of Mr. Frey isn't about the author or the genre. It's about the audience's response.

Also, it looks as though future editions will carry a warning. Perhaps they should have a picture of a set of eviscerated black lungs over half the cover. This is all well and good, but I think we're losing sight of the real tragedy here: we're all too late to help Oprah.


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Random House's official statement on their wrongly attributed official statement reads: "Contrary to erroneous published reports, Random House is not offering a special refund on A Million Little Pieces. It has long been standard Random House Inc procedure to direct consumers who want a refund on any of the tens of thousands of books we publish back to their retail place of purchase, unless they purchased the book directly from us in which case we refund it. Yesterday we had 15 calls to our customer service line specific to A Million Little Pieces and fewer than that today."

The wires got that wrong. They're not doing anything for this book that they don't do for any other book customers may want to return. Random House released a statement to that effect about an hour after this hit the wires.

"Those who bought the book at a bookstore were told to try and return it to the store where it was bought."

At which time the bookseller will look the customer straight in the eye and say, "Why don't you ask the author to refund your money? Or try asking Oprah?"

Random House offers refunds on A Million Little Pieces
For customers who bought the book directly from the publisher anyway.

Random House will offer a refund to readers who bought James Frey's drug and alcohol memoir "A Million Little Pieces" directly from the publisher, a move believed to be unprecedented, after the author was accused of exaggerating his story.

Readers calling Random House's customer service line to complain on Wednesday were told that if the book was bought directly from the publisher it could be returned for a full refund. Those who bought the book at a bookstore were told to try and return it to the store where it was bought.

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James Frey to appear on Larry King Live tonight.
Or so he claims.

Bridget Leininger of CNN said Tuesday that Frey would not be interviewed for the entire hour-long program, but otherwise did not discuss details. Alison Rich, a spokeswoman for publisher Doubleday, and Frey spokeswoman Lisa Kussell both declined comment.

Frey's book has sold millions of copies and made him a hero among recovering addicts, but an investigative Web site has alleged substantial inaccuracies, with inflated claims about his criminal record and about his involvement in an accident that killed two high school students.

Hmm, wonder if all this will affect the film, er, adaptation.

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I'm waiting for the DVC theme park. Can't wait to try the Conspiracy Coaster or the Moaning Lisa house.

Should be along any day now, eh?

High hopes for DVC PB

Random says it will print 5M paperbacks of The Da Vinci Code. One can only wonder whether this will bite them in the ass. Most people I know either refuse to read the book on grounds of artistic snobbery (me) or have borrowed a hard-cover copy that's been passed around more times than that girl in high school who always wore the Iron Maiden shirt. (Gotta love the part where they say Bertelsmann figures readers have been waiting for a less-expensive version... Um, yeah. How come you haven't given it to them yet, greedy guts?)


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22 cents a story
Bert Archer has a piece in the Toronto Star about the online subscription fiction of Bruce Holland Rogers. Quite appropriately, he turns to Bookninja for a quote. Really, we should be everybody's primary source.

So, since January 2002, Rogers — who's published several books the old-fashioned way, and won several prestigious prizes, including the small-press Pushcart Prize for short fiction, and two Nebula Awards for science fiction — has been sending out three stories a month to subscribers who send him $8 a year. That works out to 22 cents a story.

Is it worth the money?

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Second-novel syndrome
Everyone suffers from it. Except me. I've switched to writing porn scripts.

Peter Carey still fears it after two Booker Prizes and 20 years. Harper Lee feared it so badly she gave up. Zadie Smith had it, but crashed through. In March the world will discover whether DBC Pierre, the 2003 Booker winner with Vernon God Little, is suffering from it.

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I'm tired of books
Well, despite the rumours about the end of reading, Alex Good thinks things are looking up (sort of), although that may end with the publication of the last Harry Potter (last link from Quill).

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mysteriously significant? it's a game played to `prove' a general conspiracy against meritocracy in publishing thereby handily removing real rejection from your rejection.

re the publisher baiting story - could there be more to this? i don't know about anyone else, but this experiment and its results to me seem mysteriously significant...

The 200 bestselling books of 2005
Hey, it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

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but why? for what? why do this? why?

why though? why?

It would have been more interesting for them to have submitted something more recent, more in keeping with literary tastes today. Some novels are timeless, but most are of their time, and don't necessarily translate to the tastes of today's editors or even readers. Could you imagine someone writing in, say, a Dickensian style actually getting beyond the slush pile?

Yeah, this crap doesn't hold water. Crad Kildoney did the same thing with Canadian Form when the poetry editor was Sam Solecki. Handed in some D.H. Lawrence or something and was rejected.

And just like the Naipaul, for good reason. Someone writing like Naipaul did in 1974 in 2005 is not necessarily interesting. Literature professors can carp all they want about the immortality of art, but I don't want to see someone putting soup cans in a museum anymore, though I might have been thrilled by it in 1962.

So reject away. This is not showing anyone up but the people playing their pranks and the journalists who latch onto any goddamned thing they think they can milk 600 words out of.

Publishers reject Booker winners
Try us with your next novel, Mr. Naipaul.

Typed manuscripts of the opening chapters of Naipaul’s In a Free State and a second novel, Holiday, by Stanley Middleton, were sent to 20 publishers and agents.

None appears to have recognised them as Booker prizewinners from the 1970s that were lauded as British novel writing at its best. Of the 21 replies, all but one were rejections.

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Note the "understandably" in "understandably demanding and anxious and life enhancing."

“Editors are noticed by what they buy, not how they edit.”
The changing roles of book editors. Are they even necessary still? I say yes, but no one ever listens to me.

Though editors have slipped to the foot of the publishing scale of prestige, most editors I know are robust in their defence of their craft. Dan Franklin, the publisher of Jonathan Cape, blames the easy gibes of reviewers: “Whenever they say ‘If only the book had been properly edited’ some poor sod has usually spent two years cutting it from 300,000 to 100,000 words.” Modern publishing just doesn’t allow for the time needed to edit a book well. The brilliant and dedicated men and women who spent their lives transforming books and caring whether they were any good, whose work could add significantly to the sales of a book and who usually did it for peanuts, have come to be regarded as superfluous.

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Edited by author 12-22-2005 10:41 AM
Anna Porter interviewed

Porter is interviewed by a business news press about her authors, her writing, about Key Porter and about the book business. Finally, someone out there is optimistic.

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Is publishing going Hollywood?
An interesting piece on how publishers spend small fortunes on acquiring world rights to books (Little Brown acquiring The Historian for a couple mil, for instance) and use the buzz to make large fortunes in foreign sales.

The tipping point, such as it is, seems to be the big sale itself, which brings the foreign publishers to the table aggressively and leverages the risks involved. For LB, I know this was true: the book was essentially preordained to be a money-maker for LB at the time they spent the money -- what was not preordained was that the book would work as well as it has in our market (your point about it hooking readers is well taken on that one).
But I think, frankly, spending $2 million for world rights (knowing when you spend it that the foreign publishers are eager to give you a lot of money back) is a far better bet than spending, say, $400K or more for North American rights.

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Digital dreams

Publishers look to the internet as a saviour. I know I've bought some titles direct from publisher websites, and I've been pretty happy with the results. It's still cheaper to get books through online stores, esp when they're offering free shipping and whatnot, but when it's a smaller press, or a press I love, I try to buy direct from the website, if the structure is available.


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Ouch! The more publicity this production blunder receives (I first read about it on Q&Q), the worse I feel.

Edited by author 12-12-2005 02:54 PM
New Ondaatje poetry warped

So warped House of Anansi has sent it back.

Publisher Anansi Press has decided it can’t go on the shelves in that condition, despite the potential for sales during the holiday season. The publisher had printed 10,000 copies.

Ten thousand warped copies? Wow. Someone should make an art project out of those.

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The misery market
It's the next big thing!

The division redefined as "general commercial non-fiction" by Barnsley's team now publishes half as many books as it did in 2000, yet profits have doubled. This is partly because the redefinition went with a decision to include the genre known in the trade as the "misery market", alongside more esoteric self-help manuals.

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My perception is that people are doing a lot of their reading on the Internet; online time eats into book time.

People aren't interested in fiction because terrorists slammed planes into the NY towers? They're more interested in truth and prefer Jimmy Carter's latest book? Am I the only one who finds those reasons, putting it mildly, rather odd? Agreed: literary fiction is facing a crisis, a rather longish rather one at that(it's been going on for years), but is Al-Quaeda really to blame for this one?

If it's truth I want, I go to fiction, but I'm funny that way.

(Shrugs) Eyeah ya ya ya....

Bad news for 05 sales

The publishing industry took a(nother) beating this year. Why? Too much Martha Stewart and not enough poetry. It's the age old problem. When are you execs going to wake up to reality? People want the verse, man.


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How are those Amazon Shorts doing anyway?
Slate takes a look at the, uh, shortcomings of the Shorts program. I love the idea of Amazon Shorts, and I've had nice feedback on my own contribution to it, but I have to agree with the article that Amazon needs to do a little more with the program.

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A new model of publishing?
Berrett-Koehler, a San Francisco publisher, is shaking up the industry with a collaborative model that brings together writers, editors and other creative types as equal parts of the publishing process. Sounds like communism to me.

At a traditional house, once a book is edited and ready for press, authors often have little to do with the significant marketing decisions surrounding it, such as the title, cover design, book jacket, and promotional material. While a blood-red cover may make sense to the average marketing exec, it may not be what the author had in mind. BK addresses this problem by giving authors and designers a chance to work cooperatively through an interactive blog. For each new book, editors and designers will come up with several titles and cover options, posting them online. Authors love the result--a buffet of distinct type fonts, rejiggered subtitles, and contrasting color schemes that evolve as new comments are posted.

To help inform authors' marketing decisions, everyone at BK--from the senior editors to sales managers to, literally, Kathy in accounting--is invited to share his or her suggestions on the blog and elsewhere. Distributors, sales reps, and others from outside the company are invited to post comments as well. Dianne Platner, the production manager, sees the blog as a dramatic improvement over the traditional model. "Because we've seen the proposal, because we've met the author, because we've been there every step of the way, we know how the author wants the book to be positioned," she says.

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Conundrum profile
The Globe and Mail looks at Andy Brown's Conundrum Press, which is doing OK.

But 2005 saw Conundrum achieve more than just "some recognition." For starters, the year marks Conundrum's first decade of publishing, a remarkable enough feat for any Canadian small press, let alone one started out of a grotty Montreal apartment and funded by proceeds from tree-planting, construction and cab-driving jobs. This year the press also finally qualified for the Canada Council Block Publishing grant, which allowed Brown to expand his operation to six books a year. This expansion paid off: Books were reviewed in mainstream publications including Flare magazine and Toronto's Eye Weekly, plus Conundrum picked up two nominations from the ReLit Awards honouring the best in Canadian small press, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award for Chandra Mayor's novel Cherry. All that and a coincidental, somehow apropos, mention in last year's breakout movie Sideways.

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Penguin eds jump ship for the HMS Doubleday

Who the hell wouldn't be looking to get off a frozen iceberg? I heard that a heat lamp and bucket of fish were part of the deal.


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The latest in Amazon news
Tagging.

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Edited by author 11-15-2005 11:20 AM
50 cent publications

Rapper 50 cent is getting into publishing. Street fiction, naturally.

A spokesman for the company promises the 2007 project will focus on the gritty themes covered in 50 Cent's music.

He says, "These tales will tell the truth about The Life; the sex, guns and cash; the brutal highs and short lives of the players on the streets."

G-unit. I think it's a reference to money. Not, you know.

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Edited by author 11-14-2005 11:49 AM
The changing face of print

An interesting overview on digitalisation from The Economist.

Publishers admit that the entry of Google and other tech firms has galvanised them to pay attention to digitisation. “The fact is that Google's and Amazon's actions have stimulated the energy for this to take off,” says Ian Hudson, group managing director of Random House in London. “Otherwise we would have dragged on for ages working it out.” Now they are focused closely on the issue of when digitising books requires the permission of the copyright holders, along with a payment.

Most of the initiatives avoid the issue by digitising only works that can be freely reproduced. MSN is initially scanning only books from the British Library that are out of copyright. In other cases, firms are striking deals with publishers for the right to provide online access. This is how Amazon can offer its long-standing “search inside this book” feature, as well as its plan to sell access to pages for a fee. As for Random House, its content will be sold on a pay-per-page basis through third parties like search engines and booksellers (though pages cannot be saved, printed or copied).


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Green-peace

Settling the conflict between your inner conservationist and your inner dead tree-reader.


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How much?
Forbes looks at how much writers like J.M. Coetzee, Dave Eggers and Joan Didion made in terms of gross domestic sales last year. Oh yeah, there's also something about their writing styles. Or something. You probably shouldn't read this if you didn't win the Giller last night. Or even if you did.

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Edited by author 11-07-2005 10:11 AM
What are those fish that attach themselves to the underbellies of sharks?

Ramorays or something? This is the publishing equivalent.


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The new era of the e-book?
The recent news about Google Print and Amazon Pages has everyone wondering if it's actually time for digital books.

A FEW years ago, at the height of the dotcom boom, it was widely assumed that a publishing revolution, in which the printed word would be supplanted by the computer screen, was just around the corner. It wasn’t: for many, there is still little to match the joy of cracking the spine of a good book and settling down for an hour or two of reading. But a recent flurry of activity by big technology companies—including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo!—suggests that the dream of bringing books online is still very much alive.

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Amazon to sell content of books online
Amazon has just announced it will allow people to purchase online access to complete books or individual parts. Customers who buy physical books will also be able to upgrade to include online access to their books. I haven't heard anything about this before, although I guess it's a logical extension of their Amazon Shorts program. I'm wondering how they're working this out with publishers.

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S&S's Korda retires

Michael Korda moves over and makes room for...


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Tapping into pop culture

Publishing does well appealing to the pop culture set. I guess that's what makes it "pop". As the Swedish Chef said: "Her bookie, bookie, bookie, Ex-ploit! sploit! sploit! sploit!"


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Publishers still unsure about this Internet thing
After all, why make a profit when you don't have to?

"Readers have taken to the Internet far quicker than the people who publish books," said Marco Olavarria from the German management consultants Kirchner and Robrecht as the world's biggest book fair opened here.
 
"There is huge demand, but everybody seems to have left Internet book sales to Amazon and the rest. There is no creative strategy because they have not realised the new demand of the new market," he added.

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Frankfurt needs us, but do we need Frankfurt?
The NY Times says it's not the deal-making orgy it used to be, but it's still a good place to get drunk on the company's expense. Oh, and maybe get some discounts or something.

As a crossroads of Europe, this city has for centuries been a natural meeting place for people looking to buy and sell. Thus it is that the Frankfurt Book Fair has, for several decades, been the place for trading the rights to translate and publish books.
But in the age of e-mail, faxes, overnight mail and teleconferencing, does anyone really need to sit for five days in a smoke-filled complex of hangar-size buildings? The answer is no - except that it takes that long to fit in all the parties.

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Stop the manuscript drain
The Brits are concerned their cultural heritage is being bought up by the Yanks.

ANDREW MOTION, the poet laureate, and Lord Smith, the former culture secretary, have launched a campaign to stem the flow of famous writers’ archives being sold to universities in America.
They are leading a 15-strong group of eminent literary figures demanding tax breaks, government funding and lottery cash to help British institutions match the bids of their rich American rivals.
The campaign comes amid fears that the papers of Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day, may go abroad. All three are understood to have been approached recently by agents acting for institutions in America.

What I find really interesting about this is the fact that there are still physical archives floating around out there. All my correspondence, all my manuscripts are stored in digital form. My printer hasn't worked in years, and I haven't missed it. Wait, does that mean I don't get any money...?

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He looks much drunker in real life
The end of the author photo? A call to arms.

Author photos are always embarrassing, either for the author or the reader, not least because of the seduction they strive to achieve (which is by no means exclusively sexual). It is embarrassing for authors to choose or have chosen a flattering picture of themselves - which process often involves disregarding current age or agreed likeness - and embarrassing for readers to be confronted by such importunings. In this sense the author-photo differs from the mass marketed iconic images of writers such as Shakespeare or Beckett or Virginia Woolf, which offer not a personal invitation to intimacy but an official statement of fact: this is what a Great Writer looks like. Where the author-photo fails to seduce it tends to repel or at least to irritate the reader, and the reading of the book becomes a negotiation with the author's image; is he or she cleverer or less clever, as attractive or less attractive, more or less insufferably narcissistic, than he or she looks?

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Sigh. I'm sure you're right about the students wanting to get good marks in the course. But is superficial commercialism what Humber College should be teaching them? Cultural investment -- now there's a nifty concept!

I just spent several years flogging a manuscript, and I can't tell you how many agents and editors told me how beautiful it was and what a good writer I was, but that they would not make money on it. I repeatedly asked people to spare me the flattery and tell me what was wrong with my book. Consistently the main problem was that they didn't think it would sell.

This is a commmon enough story, and it does have a happy ending. But the question remains: If publishers are not in the business of producing books they think are good, what business exactly are they in?

It comes down to what criteria they were told they'd be judged on. Remember, the winning publishing program was the one that people would want to INVEST in. It's a key word. And I guarantee it had little to do with cultural investment. And, like all good students, they wanted to pass the course. Putting together a line-up of fiction and poetry that might only bring in a modest financial return wouldn't cut it.

In Schiffrin's Business of Books, he talks about how a 1 1/2 percent return used to be considered quite good in the publishing world. It was understood that some books would make quite a bit of money, and others -- even though they were likely much, much better -- would not. You published what you could sell to pay for what you believed in. But since the conglomeratization of publishing -- mainly through the 80's and 90's -- the expected rate of return increased to 10%, and even higher. Each book now also had to carry its own economic weight. Which means, of course, that those books that were seen as too risky, or completely financially unviable, no matter their cultural value, have had a harder and harder time getting published.

The real question this should lead us to ask is why we believe fiction will not sell. And if it doesn't sell ( a debatable point; even more so the argument that less fiction is read nowadays than in the past (Anthony Lane in the New Yorker put this to rest a few years ago in a series of essays)) why doesn't it? Even more to the point, why doesn't it sell in Canada?

A few points to consider:

1)the way books get promoted, reviewed and distributed in Canada
2) the regionalism of Canadian publishers, and even more harmfully, booksellers (I had one of the most prominent booksellers in Alberta tell me a couple weeks ago that he/she cannot sell any work of fiction in his/her shop by an author who lives east of Manitoba (outside of, of course, a few heavyweights)
3)how books are funded, and what effect this has on who, and what gets published.

So, for those of us who give a shit: what do we do about it?

I don't understand the motivation of the students, frankly. It's hard to believe that these are the kinds of books that have inspired them to want to work in publishing, or that they aspire to publish themselves.

A real test for those Humberites? Have them actually try to sell their damned books to the booksellers who receive their catalogues. A week of cold calls might be enough to cure them of their entreprenurial spirit.

And what's Humber teaching anyways? What business model are they using? It's very disappointing that not one of these groups even attempted to justify their vacuous publishing programs (at least what I've seen of them) by publishing a book or two they actually cared about. It's what the best publishers -- Andre Deutsch comes to mind -- have always done. Publish the cookbooks so that you can put out the Richlers, Moores, Rhys and Naipauls you actually care about, even if they don't make you much money. But then again, in the age of the conglomerate publisher -- what Humber is likely catering to -- passion and modest returns don't count for a hell of a lot. Not when you have stockholders, baby.

What the Hal?

What exactly was old Hal talking about in this Globe article from yesterday? Alex Good wants to know.

What place is Niedzviecki talking about? What urbs? Is it a spot on the map or just a domain name? Aren't all cities these days multi-ethnic? What could be less local, more rootless and ideologically universalist, than pop culture? What could be less local than the local Starbucks? And yet Niedzviecki wants Canadian publishers to start scouring Starbucks for "this country's equivalents to Jonathan Safran Foer, Zadie Smith, Michel Houellebecq and Haruki Murakami." Which of these writers explores the dynamics of a community "rooted in a specific time and place"? What is "stubbornly, opaquely local" about them? I have read some of each and I would have to say "Not much."


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We all should have taken that course.

Peter

Alas! Should have taken that course before I got into this mess.

The future of publishing in Canada?
Students at Humber come up with solid business plans for new publishing houses. Unfortunately, they don't involve publishing fiction or poetry.

Humber College's 2005 inaugural summer course in book publishing ended with an assignment: Develop a publishing business. Students were given a budget and asked to come up with a theoretical, yet viable publishing model, including a sample catalogue of titles, the covers of those titles, how the titles will be marketed and publicized, and a detailed budget showing expenditures and predicted income. Finally, the student groups were told to prepare a presentation to a panel of judges posing as potential investors. The judges, Scott Griffin of House of Anansi Press, Kim McArthur of McArthur & Co. Publishing, and myself, were told to respond to each proposed publishing venture and, finally, pick which house we'd most likely invest in...

not a single one of those five proposed publishing houses planned to publish fiction. No novels, short stories and definitely, as Scott Griffin, founder of the world's most lucrative poetry prize pointed out, no poetry.

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Disaster lit
Nothing like a good flood to make publishers happy.

Why are these dismal accounts so popular? Partly, it's because they reached a Gladwellian tipping point, so publishers plunged into the eye of the profit storm. "Publishers kind of chase what works," says Rick Simonson of Elliott Bay Book Co. In the late '90s, storms were working nicely, inundating the best-seller lists. The Perfect Storm roared out of the Eastern Seaboard and became an uncontrollable cliché, and Into Thin Air catapulted a Seattle freelancer into stratospheric tax brackets. "There were sea ones, mountain ones, flood ones, storm ones," Simonson recalls. Seattle's Erik Larson scored in 1999 with Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, about the 1900 destruction of Galveston, Texas, by a storm and tidal surge. Last December's tsunami was a boon to Dennis Powers' account of the 1964 Crescent City, Calif., tsunami, The Raging Sea: The Heroic Story of America's Worst Tidal Wave, which was abruptly resubtitled The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History, published far ahead of schedule, and distributed in torrents to bookstores.

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To galley or not to galley
The Literary Saloon discusses the pros and cons of publishers sending galleys for review -- especially now that some of them are showing up for sale on Amazon.

At the Words Without Borders blog Dalkey Archive Press' Chad Post takes on a (not freely accessible online) Publishers Weekly article by Lynne W. Scanlon in All Books (and Jeans) Are Not Created Equal. Scanlon was apparently particularly upset to find galleys of new publications on sale at Amazon.com -- cheap substitutes book-buyers might opt for, thus denying publishers revenue they'd otherwise get (if the book buyer had no choice but to pay the higher retail price (though the buyer always has the option of simply not buying)).

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/m377

I thought "the buyer" meant "the customer", and I thought, "right on, man! power to the people!"

But of course it was the reverse. A very scary article, and ererily familiar toward the end, where HMV goes and gobbles up all the little chains... how long before H.Reisman makes an offer for the fledgeling Page & Turners, do you think?

Thanks for posting that.

Edited by author 09-19-2005 11:06 AM
$1.8 million royalty advance on sales

A 25 year old British army private has secured a major book deal for his autobiography. His short life reads like a Monty Python skit. You were lucky to have a ditch, that sort of thing. Wish I'd been heroic, wish I'd been raised dirt poor in Grenada, wish I'd experienced a coma; some folks has all the luck...

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Who's the most important person in publishing?
The writer? The reader? The editor? The buyer.

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Let the necrophilia begin!

Once again the publishing industry shows its zombie side by pouncing on the corpse of New Orleans. If it bleeds, it leads.


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Come on everybody, do the Bloomsbury wiggle

Harry's publisher is trying to wiggle into the US market with a purse of £50M, but finding themselves priced out of the game.


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War and Peace now just War
Simple books for, uh, modern readers.

Some books achieve the status of cultural landmarks: Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past and, more recently, acclaimed blockbusting novels such as Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. The guilty truth is, though, that imposing volumes of this size and significance tend to sit pristine on the bookshelf and are never read.
The publishing industry now has an answer. It is bringing out new editions of some of the great, often unread, works with a fresh emphasis on 'accessibility'. Some may call it dumbing down. The books will be, well, simpler.

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Yea, verily, I say unto you that are true believers, fear not. For those that purchase the Book of Jordan are idolaters, and shall not be redeemed by the Word.

Edited by author 09-12-2005 10:28 AM
And I looked, and behold a tanned horse: and her name that sat on him was Jordan, and Hell followed with her. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the cliche, and with self-indulgence, and with stilted prose, and with ghastly mind-numbing pink books.

I don't know who Jordan is
But she just got a six-figure advance for two novels. And she's never even written fiction.

Better known for her appearance on the show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here and subsequent romance with her co-star, the former pop star Peter Andre, Jordan is adding fiction to her CV at the suggestion of the publisher.
Her first autobiography, Being Jordan, sold close to 500,000 copies and earned 4.7 million pounds when it was published by Blake last year.

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Edited by author 09-07-2005 04:17 AM
Writers expect unrealistic things of publishers
Like publicity.

We can expect this from the giant publishing corporations: Their bottom-line mandate is crystal-clear, and these days, only willfully naive authors are surprised by the heartlessness with which their creations are treated. It’s not at all uncommon to hear big-house employees complain about authors getting too involved in their books; some of the editors and publicists at houses like this admit straight-up that they prefer minimal interaction with their authors.

What bothers me more than barely concealed disdain toward authors on the part of conglomerate functionaries is watching a similar dynamic take hold among independents.

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What publisher will be the first to cash in on the hurricane?
Genuine charity efforts don't count.

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Look for Coetzee's new release next year

To be titled: You Gotta Know When to Holdem: How I Parlayed Social Reticence into a Multi-million Dollar Internet Gambling Empire!


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maybe writers should go on strike? Not go on book tours? Become Pynchonites?

http://arifkhan00.blogspot.com/

The end of publishing
(Part summer 2005.)

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Is publishing really an exclusive club?

Only for those few hours after you receive your latest rejection letter. Generally it's open to everyone but you.


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The future of publishing (part THX-1138)
Podcasting!

Scott Sigler first published his science-fiction novel EarthCore in 2001 with iPublish, an AOL/Time Warner imprint. When a promotional ebook version came out first, it hit No. 1 on Barnes & Noble’s website, and as plans to release the print version were going full steam ahead, Time Warner decided to scrap the whole imprint. After making sure he held the rights to the book, Sigler started looking for another way to get it an audience. In March, the author began podcasting a serialized version of his novel, which has now been downloaded more than 10,000 times. “When podcasting rolled around, I thought it would be a great way to release a novel,” he says. “I did a lot of research on it. There are 23 million Americans with an MP3 player, and the most popular form of radio is talk radio. So I thought, ‘This is just going to be huge.’ ”

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Don't judge a book by its covers
Oh, the nostalgia this one evokes.

Among the hundreds of books pressed into the hands of bookstore owners, reporters and other buzz-makers at the Book Expo America convention in New York in June was one with a garishly illustrated blaze-orange cover depicting a shirtless, Conan the Barbarian-type warrior standing atop a mountain peak, a shield in one hand and a forked branch lofted, spearlike, in the other.

It was an arresting image, all the more so because the book, "The Diviners," was not a Gothic adventure tale or a Wagnerian historical fantasy, but rather a novel by Rick Moody, the literary author known for his meditative, interior prose in books including "The Ice Storm."

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The Flowers of Evil -- Cool Ranch Flavour!!
The French put their own twist on global capitalism with book vending machines.

Readers craving Homer, Baudelaire or Lewis Carroll in the middle of the night can get a quick fix at one of the French capital's five newly installed book vending machines.
"We have customers who know exactly what they want and come at all hours to get it," said Xavier Chambon, president of Maxi-Livres, a low-cost publisher and book store chain that debuted the vending machines in June. "It's as if our stores were open 24 hours a day."

Well, I guess it's better than some countries' contributions to vending machines.

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Hand me m'glasses, youngun... I gots some Danielle Steel to gets thru afore m'stories come on the tely...

Books get bigger as the population gets older.

To make the new books easier to read, publishers increased their height by three-quarters of an inch, to 7½ inches, while keeping the same width, 4¼ inches. The longer page allows publishers to increase the type size by up to a half-point, to 10½ points, and to increase the leading - the space between lines - to 14½ points from about 12. As a result, a page of the new books has about 32 lines, compared with as many as 38 lines in their predecessors.

Fascina-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.


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What's the future of publishing? (Part 28)
Could it be wikipedia?

there are already 10,000 book "modules" being collaboratively written within the pages of Wikipedia. Soon, they will be published under the foundation's banner thanks to a deal with an "on demand" publisher. It could, says Wales, signal a whole new kind of book publishing.
He also urged his hardcore following - the various volunteer "chapter heads" who administer the wiki projects and police the site for copyright violations and mindless vandalism - to go forth and multiply. This is important to Wales because while Wikipedia is becoming a wider movement theoretically open to anyone, only an elite of users actually bother.

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iReads
Penguin takes a page out of Apple's... Wait, that analogy doesn't work at all....

Penguin’s new “Hot Shots” sampling program—aimed at stimulating backlist sales—will distinguish itself from similar competitive efforts by pricing, packaging and length, the company has announced. And the inspiration for the new offering? Apple’s ubiquitous iPod.

Hot Shots will debut in stores September 27, featuring six titles from Nora Roberts (as well as mystery pseudonym J.D. Robb); Jane Castle; Christine Feehan; Sherrilyn Kenyon; and Maggie Shayne. Each title will be a very manageable 92 to 128 pages of material (all of which will have been previously available, but only in anthologies) and will carry an easy-to-swallow $2.99 list price.

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Uncovering the world
While some people argue nonfiction best explains the madcap world of today (see link a few posts down), others are turning to detective fiction to learn about the world.

detective novels are usually easier to read, and now, to a greater extent than ever before, they're shedding light about the world outside the United States and Britain.

By far, the biggest successes on the international mystery front are the best-selling novels about a charming female sleuth in Botswana ("The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" and others) written by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith. But reviewers and readers are also raving about detective series set in Sweden, Canada, Spain, and Italy. Such unexpected locales as Bosnia, Algiers, and the Himalayas also serve as bases for fictional detectives. Some of their escapades are landing on American bookshelves, thanks to English translations.

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Editors: an endangered species?
Or already dead?

The years 1912 to 1925 seem to have been the golden age of editing. Most of the publishers I've talked to, both young and old, say it's impossible to do such editing today. However diligent you are, the sheer speed at which books have to be pushed through prevents it. These days you have to be an all-rounder, involved with promotion, publicity and sales - all of which are crucial but mean that when a writer is trapped in a wrong book you don't have the time to sit down together and find a way out. One editor spoke of a colleague who had managed to do brilliant work purely because, having small children, she was allowed to do most of her work at home; were she in the office all day, having to attend meetings and fend off phone-calls, she'd never manage it.

Meanwhile, most people say the real editing of books is now done by agents, since agents offer authors stability, whereas publishers' editors are nomadic, moving from house to house.

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What's the oldest dated book in existence?
Don't know? Well, how about the oldest comic? The first novel written on a typewriter? These and more brought to you by the good nerds at Metafilter, who also provide a handy link to another rare-manuscript online library.

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Going green

More and more authors are demanding that their publishers use forest-friendly paper. I, on the other hand, am just demanding that my publisher print the pages properly and glue the spines right because, two years in, my books are falling apart. (Um, doesn't forest-friendly paper make about as much sense as fighting for peace?)


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Edited by author 07-26-2005 10:41 AM
No shit. I can't stand those "changed the world" titles. I think it all started when we found out how the Irish saved the galaxy, or whatever. The trend is a shame, because there are plenty of good nonfiction books that are published under these titles, but I bet I'm not alone in ignoring them because the titles are just too freakin' stupid.

Bookninja: The Website that Irritated the World
Publishers, it's time to find a new subtitle for those nonfiction books.

But for several years, nonfiction titles containing the words ''changed the world" (or a variation thereon) have become a publishing standby...The appeal of ''changed the world" is obvious. The words are simple. They're dramatic. They're intriguing (so how did mauve change the world?).

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Something important involving people of importance in important places

Omigod! I scratch my eyes out with ecstasy! Publishing news like this is akin royal sightings for most of us. And about as important to our day.


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The publishing industry needs more Harry Potters
Or does it? Some bookstores wonder if it's all worth the trouble.

Independent bookstores and their suppliers have had to feature major discounts in order to compete – not just against each other or major book chains but also with non-traditional retailers like supermarkets and drug stores offering the latest Potter alongside produce or bath products.

"That's kind of hard when you support the publisher 12 months a year and here comes your gravy train and [it's] being diluted," Peter Waldock, president of independent bookstore supplier North 49 Books, told CBC News.

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Search Inside the Book increases sales
Amazon claims books in the program saw a nine-percent jump in sales in the days after the program began.

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Imagine you write a book about terrorists attacking London
Now imagine it comes out the same day terrorists attack London.

The book's author, Chris Cleave, 32, a first-time novelist, said the timing was "macabre and a horrible coincidence".

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When you're a Jet, you're a Jet for life!

Random and Smith's dance fight it out in the streets of London. Jazz hands are flying everywhere! Yeah!


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84kms of Penguins...

That's a whole lot of waddling.


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Book expo wrap up

In the Toronto Star.


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Drinking deep of the TPO Kool-Aid

The Hardcover vs. TPO debate begun here in the spring, now from the publisher's perspective.

What really changed my mind about TPOs, though, was learning more about just how much the rules of hardback publishing have evolved. As I see it, the hardback format is actually making it more difficult for many books to find traction in the marketplace. With so many new hardbacks sluicing into stores each week, there’s intense pressure to keep them moving across the new-release tables. Even books with good placement and strong advance-order presence in stores will get pushed off the tables fairly quickly if they don’t sell in significant numbers. And once they lose their place on the tables, where does that stack of your new-release copies go? If you’re lucky, they might end up face-out on the shelf, where they can continue to attract attention. But the majority tend to get packed up and sent back. Then what?


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Edited by author 06-10-2005 09:26 AM
Child prodigy

16 year old Sophie Codman is, at least, savvy enough to take a pen name. How many child writers are mortified by their early publications?

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Edited by author 06-09-2005 10:27 AM
US BookExpo

A very interesting overview article on the state of publishing. That is, not great.

Readers aren't just buying fewer books total, they're buying fewer different books. As conglomerates like WalMart come to dominate a larger and larger slice of the book market, the much smaller selection in stores like theirs has real consequences for the biodiversity of American thought. On Saturday, the audience at a C-SPAN2 panel laughed when I suggested that no bookstore should stock more than a single copy of any one book at a time. But is that any more absurd than the alternative we're fast approaching, when stores will finally stock thousands of copies of only one book?

How does the writer fit into this publishing template? Is there a place for art-making here?

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Cue the Imperial March

It's time to talk about... RETURNS...

There are two Time Warner Book Group warehouses on the outskirts of Indianapolis. Although separated by only an eighth of a mile, between them stretches a gulf of disappointment.

One building, dubbed the "happy warehouse" by one publishing executive, is filled with about 60 million hardcover books and paperbacks waiting to be distributed to stores across the U.S. The other is the "sad" warehouse. Piled high are some of the 20 million books returned every year by retailers. Many will be resold at cut-rate prices. Two million to four million will have their spines sliced off before being piled into a recycling machine the size of a Dumpster, chewed up and spat out as bales of paper.

I feel a cold shiver and see a light at the end of a long tunnel... but I'm going the other way. (From LitSaloon)


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Re: Short story collection vs. Novel
I like what my publisher (www.brindleandglass.com) came up with: "a collection of linked short stories". And there's always the term, "story cycle".
In the end, though, it's not the handle that matters so much as the contents of the suitcase that the handle is attached to. Okay, that's a really awkward metaphor, but you get my point.

More books

More books means more fun! And confusion! And economic woe! And dead trees!


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It's a novel! It's a short story!
Well, I don't know what it is, but at least it's not a poem.

In these circumstances, a cynic would say, any sensible writer of short stories will be tempted to maximise his chances by labelling a collection "a novel" and hoping for the best. That's a tempting argument, and no doubt there are books that could be described like this. But it doesn't stand up to much inspection. In reality, most of these books occupy a new sort of ground; "short story collection" feels more awkward, in many cases, than the description of "novel".

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That's one old, well-dressed bird

Who knew penguins lived to 70?


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Too many books, too few readers

It's the age old story that keeps me from being rich and famous. Oh, that and the no-one-reads-poetry thing. The real solution here is to drastically increase the world's population to match our publishing output. We can then pulp old books into a pablum-like paste, let's call it Soylent Read, to feed our rapidly growing masses. I've got it all worked out up here in me noggin, people. (Soylent Read would, of course, come in various flavours, including mild workmanlike prose, lovely luminous lyricism, spicy first novel, sophomoric attempt blues, and grape. Everyone like grape.)


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Fight over New Writing

Remember the New Writing scam from Macmillan? Some sensible words from Old Man McCrum:

From a distance, this initiative might have been mistaken for a blue chip publisher's courageous act of patronage, part of the noble quest for new authors etc.

On closer inspection, the New Writing scheme suggested that the days of taste and literary discrimination at Macmillan are over. Worse, this wheeze appears to have emanated not from the deepest counsels of the editorial department, but from marketing and distribution. Old Daniel Macmillan must be spinning like a top.


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A stylish, seductive Penguin
Whether or not you like the steps Penguin has taken recently, it still remains a strong cultural force.

Yet, for all its troubles at the top, the publisher can still boast a catalogue that does more than a dozen universities to widen our literary culture. After a wobble in the 1980s, when Penguin seemed to spurn its glorious past, the Classics and Modern Classics lists now look as stylish and seductive as ever. Kate Gibb's screenprint covers for H G Wells have just hauled a clutch of sci-fi masterpieces into the visual era of Spielberg rather than Korda. Meanwhile, two collections of short fiction by Donald Barthelme (Forty Stories and Sixty Stories) have done for this ex-teenage bookworm exactly what the Modern Classics list always used to accomplish.

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Face against the window

An older author highlights the lure of Macmillan's "Not-Self-Publishing" publishing program, citing ageism, sexism, and bad fictionism as impediments to getting published.

Hari Kunzru (who received a £1.25m advance for his first novel) has described the Macmillan list as "the Ryanair of publishing - it's like having to pay for your own uniforms". He advises: "I'd publish on the net or think about a writer-led cooperative before going down this road."

As someone who has had his nose against the window pane for a long time, I disagree.
...
so we renewed our efforts to woo an agent. Again, we were rejected. One however, did take the trouble to write back at length. The gist of the response was: "For a first attempt it is impressive, but it is okay rather than exceptional. Frankly you are a bit old [so much for Mary Wesley]. Publishers will only put money into a book if you are young, preferably female, write about magicians, and have five or six other books in front of you".


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BookScan Canada: turning reality into numbers

Canada is getting its own version of Neilson BookScan. This means we can be depressed by accurate data instead of mere appearances.

BookNet Canada, a not-for-profit organization, hopes to launch its BNC Sales Data service in June, in time for the annual publishing industry fair, Book Expo Canada. The new system will collect sales information from retailers across the country and produce weekly reports -- the ultimate bestseller list.

Tracking sales data for books is not a new idea -- Nielsen BookScan has operated in Britain since 1995 and in the United States since 2001. But despite having more book titles for sale than any other English-language market -- the result of being the confluence of books from Britain, the United States and the country's own healthy domestic market -- Canada is the only major English-language market that does not have a nationwide sales-tracking system for its books.


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Why not just self-publish?

Deal maker or breaker?

Is this "new" publishing idea good or bad for new writers?

The initiative is a departure for mainstream publishing. For this so-called Ryanair equivalent, Macmillan has developed what it calls a "streamlined, cost-effective model".

If it decides to accept a novel for the list, terms are unnegotiable; no advance will be paid, though writers will receive 20% of royalties from sales. Macmillan will copy edit books, but if manuscripts need more detailed work, it will suggest that writers employ freelance editors. According to notes sent to authors, such editors "will charge realistic fees and this will not in itself guarantee publication".

No advance?! What, are we poets or something? (Isn't this how McSweeney's is run?)


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Is the Web killing newspapers?
Or is it making them stronger?

Nowadays, news consumers have an almost unlimited choice. They don't sit down with a newspaper for an hour to read it cover to cover. Instead, they bounce from site to site, story to story, link to link, customizing their newsgathering experience, clicking on whatever stories from whatever publications appeal to them. They don't stick around long, but they do visit. It may be difficult for newspapers to figure out how to make money on them, but that doesn't mean that consumers don't find the product appealing. People haven't been abandoning newspapers (and magazines). They have been abandoning the print medium.

So it's just killing layout people like me.

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Barbra (Streisand), to do her part at defusing stereotyping, loves to start her self-fashioning with a list beginning with the factoid that she was "born in Madagascar...." (as contrasted with other assumed locales)

[Perhaps this is a rhetorical trope -- to begin in this way -- as that Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr., despite his other accomplishments, always opened with a serial description starting with: 'wounded in Antietam....' Who knows what Mark Twain, another Civil War vet, would say.]

Preamble aside, given Madagascar's association with the nazis so-called (thank G-d) Final Solution, perhaps one should rethink using that place as a toponym.

This isn't even to address possible exoticist connotations of any such colonial reference to the dark continent.

Do better Canlit -- you're sagging -- if this is possible for an endeavour which has not yet even reached a ripe state.

If we're going with Madagascar, you want to add "lemur" to your list.

B.C.: "the literary Madagascar"

Apparently B.C.'s relative isolation from centres of literary power have allowed it to develop a unique and independent publishing culture. How about "the literary kangaroo" or "the literary platypus"?


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The top 10 list of publishing history
What, nothing about blogs?

5. Did a typo launch Oxford University Press? The most notorious misprint ever produced was committed in 1631 by the King of England's official bible printer. The seventh commandment appeared in print without the word "not," becoming "Thou shalt commit adultery." In an age fearful of religious heresy and moral degeneracy, this so-called "wicked" bible was taken as bearing a seriously dangerous message, if not a deliberate one. So, the printer had to pay an appropriately serious fine. Pressing his advantage, the archbishop of Canterbury further compelled him to publish three texts in ancient Greek, to launch what he intended as an extensive publishing program in the classics. The program was to be associated with Oxford University, and would issue works of specialized learning that the commercial market could not support. The initiative was interrupted by the outbreak of civil war and the archbishop's own execution as a traitor, but revived in 1660 when the war ended. The relaunched project eventually became what is now Oxford University Press.

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Key loses key Porter

Anna Porter is stepping down.


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Amazon House to sell iStories!
Actually, I think this is a great idea. I've been saying for ages that the micropayment business model is the best one for the Web, and maybe this program will revitalize the short-story market. Hey, somebody has to be innovative in this business.

Sources say that over the last few months Amazon has quietly been making the rounds to agents, in search of authors to write short pieces Amazon could post for sale. According to one version of the plan, Amazon would charge $.49 per electronic download for short stories, journalism, essays and other work; the material would be exclusive to Amazon and would not appear in a book or any other form. Material would be in the 2,000-10,000 word range and could include such updates as alternative endings to novels. An audio component could also be in the works; the company is requesting audio rights.

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The award hoover FSG

Profiled.


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Is the age of erratum over?
Not judging from the books I've been reading lately. When did copy editing become an optional feature?

The fact is, publishers make as many mistakes as they ever did, but advances in printing technology have made first runs smaller and the mistakes tend to be corrected only in later editions. A recent exception is the first American edition of Cold Mountain, where an erratum slip points out that a reference to "man-woman" ought to read "mad-woman": there were no transvestites in the American Civil War, although their inclusion might have jollied up the Jude Law film.

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I agree with you whole heartedly. Though there are those who think 31.95 obscene for a paperback. If almost any other press had done Wisdom and Metaphor, it would have been a 15.00 book, and much less valuable for the depreciation.

Ah, Gaspereau. Beautiful books. I added Jan Zwicky's Wisdom & Metaphor to my collection recently. I don't understand how such a large and lovely book could cost so little.

Edited by author 04-10-2005 08:42 PM
It seems to me, as a writer, bookseller and publisher, that it is not so much a split between hardcover and softcovers as the perception that the hardcovers are intrinsically more valuable. Why? First, because we charge more for them, they are preceived as limited. They preceed the "mass market" version. There was a time when hardcovers were better in terms of production values: cloth casings, better paper, sewn signatures; more attention paid to design and layout. Hardcovers were more aesthetically pleasing, so we were more willing to pay more for them. It is, alas, no longer true. Hardcovers are often as poorly produced as softcovers. Even the price difference between hardcovers and softcovers is shrinking: it is nothing to pay more than 20.00 for a Penguin paperback, once the masthead of the paperback revolution. Which I take as further evidence that the paperback revolution is dead.

We have also devalued the books we produce by charging too little for them. We can do this because of grants, but it still is harmful to the industry. M&S puts out Camber by Don McKay as a horrid little production, and charges 24.99 for newsprint quality paper, poor typography and a glued binding. The Porcupine's Quill puts out Avison's Collected, a much larger book, printed on a laid paper, typographically elegant, with sewn signatures, and charges 19.99. Also a much more important one. In my opinion, they should have charged at least 30.00. Those few hundred who value Avison would have paid it regardless and appreciated the quality of the production, and the Porcupine's Quill perhaps would not be now thinking of closing down.
 
This is also why Presses like Gaspereau are so important. Thye have given to the softcover the quality attributes that have been traditionally associated with hardcovers. They charge more for them, often 25-30% more than other small presses, sometimes considerably more than that. And people still buy them, because they are worth the extra money. They are aesthetically pleasing. They appeal to those who appreciate books as beautiful objects, irrespective of the type of binding. What we need are more of the literary presses to follow their example, to spend time and money on design and production, and to charge more money for our time and effort.

Edited by author 04-07-2005 10:01 AM
The conglomerates do do big business

More reasons the big publishers stay big.

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Edited by author 03-28-2005 03:53 PM
My favourite author photo is one of Beryl Bainbridge in her library sitting on a couch, smoking a ciggie and wearing fishnet stockings. She looks like Patti Smith only worse.

K

Ray Robertson has a very funny piece about author photos in his book Mental Hygiene. I broke rule number one.

Am I hot or not?
Do you prefer books with or without author photographs?

on the whole, author photographs tend to be bland: the only creative decision is whether the chin should rest on the hand or not. Props, though popular, are always a mistake: the pets, the pipes, the hats and flowers. A photo of James Joyce appears to feature a game of pocket billiards -- a very bold statement.

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New York Review of Comics
The New York Review of Books is conflicted over comic books. On the one hand, there's this positive article about Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis:

there is more variety of architecture and decor, more of the drama of physical interaction, and as in the work of Felix Vallotton, clearly an influence, Satrapi is engaged in an intense exploration of pattern. Through the changing relationships of shapes, facial expressions, costumes, and dialogues of light and dark, she explores the patterns of human behavior, Eastern and Western culture, of history and incident.

On the other hand, there's this call for Jonathan Lethem to stop writing about comics.

But it is time this gifted writer closed his comic books for good. Superpowers are not what magic realism was about in Bulgakov, Kobo Abe, Salman Rushdie, or the Latin American flying carpets. That Michael Chabon and Paul Auster have gone graphic, that one Jonathan, Lethem, writes on and on about John Ford, while another Jonathan, Franzen, writes on and on about "Peanuts," even as Rick Moody confides to the Times Book Review that "comics are currently better at the sociology of the intimate gesture than literary fiction is," may just mean that the slick magazines with the scratch and sniff ads for vodka and opium are willing to pay a bundle for bombast about ephemera.

Wonder how they feel about cellphone novels.

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Last chance to get yourself in a Neil Gaiman book
He's auctioning off naming rights to a cruise ship in Anansi Boys.

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Getting books to speak up

More on large print books killing the mass market paperback.



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Feh. What's the big deal about writing another Di book? I even have a cousin who's done that.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/031...002-4938958-4403242

Edited by author 03-12-2005 08:41 AM
Give me strength

Tina Brown, former New Yorker editor signs contract to write a book about Princess Di. The desperation is palpable.

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True enough. For the record, I didn't think it was funny. Just ironic.

G

That's some very poorly executed sarcasm, if so.

(And what's there to be sarcastic about? Whether the sentence directed at Griffin is meant to be a kudo or a dig, the fact remains that this decision was not his.)

Edited by author 03-10-2005 02:46 PM
I thought that message was meant to be [taken] as sarcastic... Otherwise it's indeed way off base.

G

Anonymous, I have no place to speculate on your identity, or question the reasons for your personal hostility towards Ms. Sharpe. And I'm a little skeptical about how many authors and translators inhabit this "trail" -- other than yourself -- but again I don't expect you to be able to name names (nor do I want you to, but it makes for a pretty easy claim on your part doesn't it?).
However, I do really object to your "Way to go Scott in protecting your investment" hogwash. Here you're seriously muddying the issue, and displaying a sleaziness that obliterates all sympathy and credibility in regards to the claim you make. Martha Sharpe RESIGNED. She was not fired. Scott Griffin has publicly stated that he tried hard to convince her to stay, and he undoubtedly doesn't appreciate your manipulative implication that the situation was anything different.

I don't have access to the web article either. Could someone give a 411 on what happened? Thanks~

She was incredibly hard to work with and leaves a trail of anguished authors and translators in her wake. Way to go Scott in protecting your investment.

A fine editor and person, Martha....Don't let your dreams end up between the crack of the bed and the wall.
MMJ 2004

I don't have a paid membership to Quill & Quire. Can anyone explain why she left?

Martha Sharpe is a class act with a great eye for people as well as writing. It'll be very interesting to see what she does next, and to see how Anansi recovers from losing her.

Martha Sharpe leaves Anansi

A press release from Friday made ripples over the weekend when House of Anansi announced the resignation of uber-editor Martha Sharpe. This is akin to your head getting up and deciding to leave your body. One of the best out there. Bookninja wishes her well in everything.



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The once and future publishing

Backspace brings us parts one, two, and three of an a look at publishing from now into the future. (From Salt and Ice, where JM conducts his own examination of his will to blog.)



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Volume 2 of the Trade Paperback Original saga
In which readers write in with their plot suggestions.

On the whole, I say more TPO's, please! They're more fun to sell because they play to an independent's handselling strength, and it's fun to get your shovel into the ground first, as it were. For what it's worth. lots of unreal crime stuff never sees cloth and sells just fine across the board. Why not try other books too?

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Actually, 'they' didn't get $4 out of you at all. The bookstore got $2 and the remainder warehouse got $2. The publisher got pennies per kilo. The author likely got nada. But I agree with your point entirely.

Edited by author 02-18-2005 06:59 PM
It's a bigger issue in Canada than in the U.S., I suspect. I just bought a discounted hardcover version of Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole for $4 Cdn. It was $41 Cdn when it first came out, so I borrowed it from the library. I can't afford $40+ books. Maybe if I were an occasional buyer, but I buy a couple of books a week. Had it been $25 Cdn I probably would have bought it. So by putting it out in hardcover, they got $4 out of me instead of $41 -- or $25. I don't mind paying for books, but the hardcovers are just getting too pricey up here.

Peter

Just read Lydia Millet's "Everybody's Pretty", a Soft Skull paperback. You're right, 15 bucks was much easier to swallow for a book that engaged me, but would have been irritated at 25 bucks- irrational, I know. I liked her "Omnivores" much more.

The renaissance of the trade paperback original
Fresh Eyes and Soft Skull's Richard Nash share some thoughts.

From a bookseller's perspective, it's a hell of a lot easier to build an audience for an unknown author by asking the customer to take a chance on a $15 book than it is a $25 one. And even though I can anticipate all the usual arguments against paperback originals, I don't think the learning curve would be that extreme if we committed to the process.

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This is why places like Soft Skull Books are so fantastic... They take risks on books like Derek McCormack's The Haunted Hillbilly, despite the controversial nature of the book and the editorial split on whether to publish it. And once the decision is made, unlike some other punk or punk-aesthetic presses, they actually then market the book to the best of their ability.

I think a lack of consensus, when the opinions are vastly polarized among editors who are all presumably smart people, should be a signal to a publishing house that they have a real find on their hands.

G

"Publishing had its head up its ass!"
So says one editor about the difficulties Sam Lipsyte faced in getting Home Land published. The question is, where's that head now?

One editor who tried to buy it, only to have his editor in chief kill the sale, argued that the decision-making by editorial committee at most major houses around the city "tends to flatten out the aesthetic," which hurt Home Land's chances. "When you have a really good satire, you're not going to get everyone in the room to agree it's fantastic. Some people aren't going to think its funny; some people are going to be offended. And if you need a complete consensus on a book like this, it'll never be published."

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Anansi Jr.?
In a clever, McDonald's-like move, Anansi acquires children's-lit publisher Groundwood Books. That's it -- get 'em started on picture books and soon they'll be gobbling avant-garde poetry and Massey Lectures in strip malls across the country! In all seriousness, glad to see the continued expansion of Anansi. Good things all around.

"We are still publishers of cutting edge poetry, fiction and of the Massey lectures -- but we felt we wanted to expand into markets we don't publish into," says Sarah MacLachlan, an industry veteran hired by Griffin as the firm's president in 2003.

"We had a strategic meeting about a year ago and one of the things we talked about was that so many bestsellers of recent years had been crossover books from children's literature, like Life of Pi, Harry Potter, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime -- we didn't have books like that on our list," she says. Shortly after, Aldana approached Griffin about the future of her company.

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Beware the mailman

So this guy gets a job at Random House in the mailroom, sends out a few funny emails, then ends up across from an editor at the Christmas party. She practically drags it out of him that he's a writer and...

Mr Carter showed her the first few chapters of Hand of the Devil. It was bold and bloody, and Ms Sheppard knew immediately the company had a genius in its midst. She took the manuscript to an acquisitions meeting and showed it to her colleagues, giving the new writer a pseudonym. "It's brilliant," they said. "We've got to have it." "When I told them who the author was they were amazed," she says. "They couldn't believe he hadn't approached anyone."

It's always the quiet guy in the mail room... And I'm not just talking about the perv who installed the video camera in the ladies loo.



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Raincoast: the good(er still) guys

Hey, hitching our trailer to Bloomsbury worked last time... No, seriously, they're real leaders in trying to do good things with what money there is.



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Boing Boing now a book publisher
Boingboing.net has released its first book -- an e-book for $2.50. It's written by "Anonymous," who apparently has put out a number of books and articles, and it's about Anonymous's road trip through a hurricane area in the U.S. Great idea. I'm going to order a copy as soon as I have $2.50!

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Chin above water

Bloomsbury clings to publishing flotsam while waiting for HMS Potter to come to the rescue.



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Attention, publishers!
I'm running a newish books page for the daily newspaper The Province, which is published in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia. I'm in desperate need of catalogs for the new season. Please send your promotional materials to:

Peter Darbyshire
Books Editor
The Province
200 Granville St.
Suite 1
Vancouver, BC
V6C 3N3

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Heart Mate is a double winner, taking worst title too.

G

/m280: Only the graphic designer really knows.

Peter

Oh my god! Is that person taking a shit on a plate?

Bad book covers
There are some pretty bad ones here, but this is my favourite.

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Edited by author 01-10-2005 11:00 PM
"A barely rational industry"

When it sucks so bad to be a publisher, why do people do it? Because it's important.

Most titles on a publisher's list lose money and sell at most a few thousand copies - editors are perpetually searching feverishly for the elusive bestseller to subsidise all the flops. It is a winner-takes-all business. Occasionally, there are windfalls from foreign or film rights, and backlists provide a degree of long-term income. But even giant trade publishers only make 5 per cent operating margins, despite spin-off benefits and global scale at multi-media conglomerates like Bertelsmann, News Corporation, Pearson and Time Warner.

Of course, that is one of the reasons book publishing is so tough: it is ferociously competitive because so many participants do it for uneconomic reasons. They understand that books are central to civilization.



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Tea leaves

The Boston Globe looks at what books are coming in 2005. I myself prefer to be surprised. Holy shit! A new Harry Potter! Score!



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At the flag pole, three o'clock...

More on the publishing turf war* between publishers and booksellers-who-want-to-be-publishers-to-make-more-money-which-seems-ridiculous-when-you-think-about-it...



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Mad Max

Gives us an editorial response to self-publishing. Then he opens his mailbag.

My vote for upstart blog of the year

Mad Max Perkins (notice I didn't say "start up"...) His coverage is actually clarifying some things for me.

Recently an unpublished writer--a businessman who is considering a second career as an author--offered some comments that provoked in me two somewhat contradictory reactions. In Part I we'll consider his plan to invest his own capital into the eventual publication of his book. In Part II (which will be posted in the next few days), we'll consider the ways in which an editor might respond upon receiving this manuscript.



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That's why I don't budget.

P

Edited by author 12-02-2004 10:43 PM
Posts like this end up killing my book budget.

Bad Dirt
Annie Proulx's Close Range is in my Top 3 book list, if not No. 1. It's one of the smartest, most inventive books I've ever read -- definitely a book for writers. Now she's followed it up with Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2. The dilemma: do I rush out and buy it immediately -- an unusual thing for me to do -- or do I wait to see if Press Gal reads this entry and puts it under the old Xmas fire hazard for me? Decisions, decisions....

Although none of the stories in Bad Dirt achieves the creepy malevolence of "The Mud Below", or, say, the tender beauty of "Brokeback Mountain" from Close Range, they come awfully close. Indeed, if that collection of stories had not preceded this book, Bad Dirt would be lined up for ecstatic acclaim. Like Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, the two American maestros of the short story she most resembles, Proulx has found a tone and style of delivery that allow her to be humorous and existentially black at the same time. No other writer in America gets away with this combination.

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The Atrocity Exhibition -- best title ever
Looks like Maud's finally finished lazing about and returned to posting. She mentions this book of quotes from the works of J.G. Ballard, which I'll add to my Xmas list right away.

Quotables crop up on every page, on the arts, media, religion, death, writing and writers. Sometimes they're wrong ("Politics is over. ... it doesn't touch the public imagination any longer," stated in 1996), and sometimes just glib ("Freedom has no barcode"). But often they compress the modern world with magnificent concision, as in definitions like "Modernism: The Gothic of the Information Age," and "Money: The original digital clock."

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20 pounds of my lead head against the desk is what it generally takes to generate one degenerate line...

If I lost 20 lbs., rock stars would start putting on benefit concerts for me.

I'd just like to lose 20 pounds, myself...

Gee, a 10,000 pound advance sounds pretty good to me. Hell, a ten pound advance would be swell.

What if we throw the money up in the air and shoot at it with mustard and ketchup bottles? Okay, what about this...

The publishing world is agog over the gall of little writers overstepping their bounds. And nary a penny to their names. Such cheek.

Consider the red faces at Penguin, which paid £600,000 for Revolution Day, by the BBC Iraq reporter Rageh Omaar. It has sold only 16,000 copies, recouping perhaps 5 per cent of the advance.

Or contemplate the blushes of HarperCollins, which forked out £600,000 for Jon Snow’s memoirs and £500,000 for the bitter complaints of the former BBC director-general, Greg Dyke. Snow’s book has sold about 9,000 and Dyke’s sales lag below 6,000 on the trusty Nielsen BookScan monitor. "The right man, the wrong book," is the internal excuse for the poor showing by Snow.

Now witness the grins at Profile Books, which has seen its turnover leap from £3 million to £5 million on the back of the phenomenal lift-off of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Profile, which employs just 15 people, paid not much more than £10,000 for the grammatical primer by Lynne Truss, a journalist. It became last year’s Christmas No 1, selling 824,085 copies in Britain.

Or think Jordan, aka Katie Price. The pneumatic model was paid in the low five figures for her memoirs by John Blake, a Fleet Street journalist-turned-publisher. The book has so far sold 270,000 copies, dwarfing the puny efforts of the high-brow media men Omaar, Snow and Dyke.

In the more fragile field of fiction, HarperCollins paid Ann-Marie MacDonald $1 million (£523,000) for her epic novel The Way the Crow Flies. The book, published in June, has sold 2,188 copies in hardback and 9,881 in paperback worldwide. MacDonald may be very old indeed before her publishers recoup the extravagant advance.

This whole things stinks of an upcoming lockout -- the publishers want the writers to take an advance roll-back, but the players don't want it. And it's us hockey fans who get left out. Wait... Sorry, transference issues...



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I know a few editors who would say that all publishing is faith-based...

The NYT gives some press to religious publishers.* Let's hope they can get a charity write off for it.

The success of religion titles is also due to an increasing sophistication on the part of Christian publishers, who during the 90's branched out from Christian retailers and forged closer relationships with stores like Wal-Mart and Costco; Wal-Mart carries 1,200 ''inspirational titles'' at any given time.

They keep them right next to the cammo'n'ammo.



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Happy Birthday Faber & Faber

You don't look a day over 74. A brief history of what it means to be unpopular, but good for the planet's soul.

My publisher, Faber & Faber, is 75 years old this week. Even to the non-commercially minded, one would have to admit that the company's early attempts at marketing its books lacked vigour, causing even T S Eliot (one of the first directors) to call for a change in attitudes. Not that it made much difference, mind you. The poet William Empson was described in the advertising blurb for one of his books as being "the most brilliantly obscure of modern poets". A book by Louis MacNeice was advertised in a way that no publisher could contemplate today: "His work," it said, "is intelligible but unpopular, and has the pride and modesty of things that endure." Philip Larkin was frightened of Faber & Faber's high standards, and wrote that he thought of the company as a "reproachful father figure".
...
Heaney's first volume sold several thousand copies. His talent was protected, all the way to the Nobel Prize. In a literary culture that allowed only bestsellers and coffee table books, Heaney would have been out of print before the end of the Seventies. And the others sitting alongside him at the Festival Hall - Alan Bennett, Hanif Kureishi, P D James, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Jan Morris - might not have had the careers they have had if not for the loyalty and far-seeingness, the commercial bravery, of a company not frightened to pursue its own standards and maintain its own values.



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Scream Talking
While I sing the praises of publishing fiction in digital formats, people such as Warren Ellis are busy publishing short pieces online on a regular basis.

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I've been thinking about post 259 -- the advice from the NYC editors -- and felt a need to say these are the same people who turned down LOLITA and only took it after its genius was recognized by a porn publisher in France. (Franzen also got some good shots in on NYC publishers in his recent NYTimes piece on Alice Munro.)

So, while I appreciate the supposed frankness of this advice-from-editors ... at base I'm deeply suspicious ... and sceptical that the increased professionalization (isn't this abstraction the only thing that describes what they're encouraging?) of the writer-editor relationship can only lead to more spam and less slam -- more mediocrity and less, Holy Shit! Ain't That Grand!

(In his Munro piece, Franzen says one short story collection he enjoyed recently was titled HEY YEAH RIGHT GET A LIFE in its UK debut, but NYC editors retitled it for the US release: GETTING A LIFE. Franzen: "Consider this dismal gerund the next time you hear an American publisher insisting that short story collections never sell.")

You better you better you bet.

Don't you see — she's a vampire!
Nancy Drew doesn't seem to age.... The New Yorker has an informative article about the history of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Vampires!

Next year, Nancy turns seventy-five, and, having sold more than two hundred million books, she has been rewarded with a twenty-first-century makeover. Nancy Drew Girl Detective is a new series launched last spring by Aladdin Paperbacks, a division of Simon & Schuster. The contemporary Nancy is more attuned to emotional issues than the old Nancy, as one can only expect in our therapeutic age. But her gaze remains unshadowed.

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BookAngst 101

A top NYC editor has started an anonymous new megablog revealing the publishing world's pasty underbelly. Maud links to a very frank interview said editor conducted with three other "top editors".

1. what can a writer do personally to increase his/her visibility--both in-house and out--before the book is published?

ED#1: As far as increasing visibility inside or outside a publishing house, the writer is presumably limited by finances. Hiring an outside publicity firm can be very effective but is a big expense. Having a professional to create and maintain a website is also an expense. The free or cheap thing you can do is treat your book as a career (i.e. a business) and assume more responsibility than just writing the book. Answer the author questionnaire in as complete a manner as possible and give the publicity department something to work with. Find effective ways to spend a small promotion budget ($500 for an announcement postcard if the house will assume the expense of mailing it). Do some on-line research to see if there are any specific websites that will give good exposure to the book and then use them in whatever way is possible. But these are the traditional answers and more and more it seems as though breaking through the clutter is getting impossible.

ED #2: One thing that is worthwhile, I think, is to plan to visit New York some point early to midway throught the publishing process so you can meet your editor personally. If it's appropriate, your editor may also then introduce you to some of the others within the house who will be working on your book. The economics of publishing prevent a house from being able to fly in every author they sign up in order to meet them, but it's just human nature that people tend to be even more invested in the work of someone they've spent some time with, and know a little bit better.

The other thing to do is simply to make sure that you or your agent ask questions about the promotional strategy--ie marketing and publicity--throughout the process. It's important that everyone be on the same page from the beginning about what the house's effort will entail. Even if it isn't as much as you'd hoped, knowledge is power, and you can make decisions about whether there is something you can do to supplement the efforts of the publisher. Also, though publishers genuinely want to do a good job for their authors (it's in their interest to sell books too!) things are less likely to slip through the cracks or get off course if you keep yourself in the loop.

The caveat is not to go too far and start driving the editor and the house crazy with questions and demands. Hopefully your agent can give you guidance here.

ED #3: Most important is getting over the mindset that just because you have a publisher, they will do everything for you. A publisher is a partner, not a savior. A midlist author really needs to fire on all cylinders, both in terms of honoring all the obligations he has with his publisher as well as aggressively pushing his interests. He (I'm just going to use "he" throughout, pardons to anyone who might be offended) needs to be in close contact with his editor, for starters: he can't just be satisfied with the one lunch at the time the deal is made and no contact until he drops the ms. off. Make the editor your partner, your ally. Call him once a week or so, not to noodge him, but with your thoughts, with a progress report, with what is exciting you about your book. And don't dodge his calls, either, even if you don't want to tell him you're behind schedule.

Also, be really attentive to what the editor asks of you. Author questionnaires are pains in the butt to fill out, but they can be incredibly useful in highighting contacts you might have. Don't have a meltdown over editing. If your editor wants changes, listen to why he's asking for them. Generally speaking, if it's not working for him, it's certainly not going to work for your readers.

A writer should build his base--other writers, media, booksellers. And he should remind/update the editor on his contacts. This requires organization on the writer's part, too: keep a list of contacts as you make them, with names, phone numbers, emails, etc. And if the writer has friends in other cities, get names and addresses out of them, so that you can send postcards announcing readings should you visit that town.

If possible, the writer should try to get published in magazines, newspapers, or journals--writing articles, reviews or essays. That can greatly add to a writer's exposure and name recognition. It also builds contacts.

In short, anything that builds an alliance with the editor and builds the writer's credentials (which means the editor can sell in- and out-of-house without appeals to subjective criteria, such as the editor's own taste or judgment) will be useful.

Very interesting stuff. I rub my hands gleefully.



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Distributed narratives
This concept is a new one to me, but I'm intrigued nevertheless. Implementation is a novel told in stickers that are affixed to things like envelopes, buses, airport terminals and signs. Seems to me you could hide a pretty neat story in instalments around the web too — kind of like the poems some people leave in Amazon comment boards.

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Hard Case Crime
Hard Case Crime sent us a little package of their new books and we've been passing them around. So far everyone thinks they lots of fun, in that guilty pleasure kind of way. And you know, I have a soft spot for books that fit into pant pockets.


Hard Case Crime is dedicated to reviving the vigor and excitement, the suspense and thrills — the sheer entertainment — of the golden age of paperback crime novels, both by bringing back into print the best work of the pulp era and by introducing readers to new work by some of today's most powerful writers and artists. Determined detectives and dangerous women...fortune hunters and vengeance seekers...ingenious criminals and men on the run for their lives...Hard Case Crime novels offer everything you want from a great story, all in handsome and affordable mass-market editions.

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Art Deco bookbindings
A small but nifty sampling from the New York Public Library. If book bondage is really your fetish, make sure you check out the Glossary of Binding Terms.

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The LRB turns ... yawn...

The LRB: 25 going on 75.

For the uninitiated, the best way of describing the London Review of Books, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this week, is that it is to words what Slow Food is to cooking. The LRB, which comes out fortnightly and is to be found nestling between the New Yorker and the Times Literary Supplement in more genteel newsagents, is a long time in the preparing and should not be ingested in a hurry. Yet, in a world so frantic, where information assails us from every quarter in user-friendly, bite-sized pieces, it is a quiet success. Its circulation stands at around 50,000. Not quite Heat, but impressive all the same.

But we love you just the same, LRB, and treasure our visits to see you in the home. Just quit asking for foot massages with that ointment that leaves us smelling of the tomb.



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Publisher lets Da Vinci Code sequel title slip

Apparently, it's going to be called, "Buy It Now Because You Know You Want It and It Won't Be Out in Paperback Until After You're Dead".*



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The Paperback Revolution
A light but fun site about the rise of paperbacks.


It is difficult to overestimate the influence of the paperback upon the twentieth century. While paper-bound books have numerous historical antecedents — from chapbooks, penny dreadfuls and dime novels to pulp magazines to European paper-bound books such as the Everyman series, Tauchnitz Editions and Albatross — it was the twenty-five cent paperback and the hundreds of millions of books produced during the Paperback Revolution which transformed the reading of all kinds of literature into an undeniably mass phenomenon in the twentieth century.

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The almost canon
Sure, everybody reads the canonical books. But you're not really a dedicated reader unless you read the almost-great books.


We are indebted to the almost great books. We need them. They deserve more respect. For one thing, they are indispensable to the process of literary judgment. There can be no canon without the less-than-canonical. Only by reading prolifically and promiscuously can we can decide which books deserve rereading—for that is the most tangible criterion for discriminating between the great and the merely good.

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Gutter in da gutter

Is Gutter Press no more? Our shadowy spies tell us Gutter editor Ed Sluga resigned last week, citing, as our spy put it, "financial problems". Our spy goes on, 'Gutter was originally formed by Sam Hiyate who left to become a so-called "literary agent". I'm letting you know because knowing Gutter's history it is most likely that they haven't told any of their writers about what happened.' So, can anyone out there confirm or deny? Also, If you see this story break elsewhere tomorrow, let us know. I'm keeping track of our unaccredited influence on the mainstream media....



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Edited by author 10-13-2004 01:47 PM
No one would accuse you of naivety, ZW and you could easily accuse of CHB of nimbyism but like every establishment it wants to stay like that. I've been to the press and found it interesting if a little chaotic and run down. I agree the argument for keeping the buildings is sentimental but I don't quite get how sentiment has no value whatsoever. The reason that Nova Scotia is so interesting is that people live there and the people who live there have valued history and whatever nostalgia goes with that. They've preserved the past and made it part of their ethos. Or at least it seems so to me. Emotion is important. It lends identity to people and the communities in which they live. Another lot of ugly buildings to serve a double cohort problem in a city with a (current) vast vacancy rate at a time when it is easy to borrow money (and cheap, don't forget) will not serve the community in the long run. And having all the petition signers chip in won't either now the decision's been made. The co-op stands to gain from their decision to lower the boom, else they would have presented the option to sell long ago. Your comment that the rest of the interested parties have simplistic notions regarding finances is, well, simplistic. You have no idea. And that is because you have no grey area, at least in your written discourse, and have chosen to argue for the sake of same. I expect that CH will be demolished and the students who pay coop fees to live in the boxes that will be erected will never know at what cost. But the fact remains that there are fewer and fewer little spots like the press where industry meets art and one can actually go and have a look around. With Toronto so into in-fill soon you will hardly be able to spot any historic buildings here. And in fifty years (or less) these smart new developments will start to fall apart, and the detritus? Plastic landfill. Onward, ho!!!

How 'bout I give you money not to hold one?

I wish you'd said that in the first place instead of Lower the boom... I agree that what you propose is a better solution, but I wonder how realistic, given what I know about people's commitment and the tangle web of real estate transactions. It might not be as simple as offering to buy.

The big thing here is whether or not people WOULD actually put their money where their mouth is. I'd be willing to donate. Maybe not $1000 of my own money, but if it were a charity that could be written off, I think I could get the money up.

Anyone for a Read-a-thon?

Edited by author 10-13-2004 09:22 AM
Let's not confuse income with profit. Do you have a job? Do you consider your income to be 'profit'? All non-profit and not-for-profit organizations aim to make money, in the same way and for the same reason that individuals like you and me aim to make money: for subsistence. In a non-profit organization, any income above and beyond expenditures gets invested back into the the organization. There are no individual shareholders deriving a profit on this money, unless something contrary to the rules of the organization is happening.

Now, whether this particular co-op has ready cash in the bank is moot, without actually seeing their books. And even if they do have a big wad of green, there's nothing to say that that sum is not cancelled by any debts they might have. What they definitely DO have is property. This is what banks call collateral. If you have sufficient collateral, you can get a big loan. If you can't pay back your loan, the bank takes your collateral. Also, there is the anticipated rental income from the new building, which is to have 70 beds if memory serves, to cover mortgage payments. I expect that the coop also received compensation for the loss of the building that the university is tearing down to build a daycare, and is looking to invest that capital, if it exists, in a way that will contribute to the co-op's long term survival and viability. This is no more opportunistic, materialistic or money-grubbing than a parent setting up an education fund for their children or paying into a pension for their own retirement.

I've been accused of naïveté in siding with the coop, but it seems to me that most of the supporters of CHB have very simplistic notions of finance. And I can't help but notice how people choose to focus on any glib remarks and irrelevant asides I've made (and my apologies for making them; I didn't want to sidetrack this discussion into stupid trivialities), while ignoring the substantial questions of a)HOW is CHB planning to stay? b)WHO will compensate the co-op for revenue lost if CHB does stay? c)WHAT are the Friends of CHB willing to do, beyond signing some dumb petition which takes neither time nor money, to make sure that it does stay? I understand the emotional/historical/sentimental arguments perfectly and believe it or not sympathize with them. However, they are not sufficient justification in and of themselves.

If you want to save CHB so badly, prove it. People have been talking math and dollars and I did a bit of simple number crunching myself. There are 3623 people listed on the petition as I write. If they managed to raise, on average, $1000 each (from canvassing and/or from their own pockets), they would have $3,623,000. I don't know what the land and building are worth, but if that doesn't buy them, it'll at least make a substantial downpayment. Now, I know, $1000 dollars is a lot of money to some people. I know it is to me. But given that some of the signatories are very wealthy individuals with very wealthy friends and connections, I don't think that an average of one grand is overly ambitious. This would be--and I kick myself for using the word--a proactive way to save CHB. Not to mention a tax deduction. At the end of the fund drive, the Friends of CHB could say, "Look what we've accomplished." As it is, reactions to the philistine brutes who "want to destroy Coach House" and the assumptions that CHB is so incredibly special (which I don't debate, but it is not terrifically useful) and that others should WANT to save CHB seem to be getting in the way of accomplishing anything concrete. Money is the source of the problem here and money is likely its only solution. If CH gets the boot, the Friends of CH will be far from blameless.

Yes, a rather large one. There must have been profit somewhere along the non-profit road to manage that, is my point.

It's called a mortgage.

Edited by author 10-13-2004 06:46 AM
You can't just knock up a building without a few dollars in your wallet already; I'd say your not-for-profit has a bank account or they wouldn't be able to manage this at all. Certainly, I can't prove what I say but I smell it, is all.

Well, while I was at work this discussion unfortunately descended into rather petty squabbling, and it's getting kind of boring now, but my last 2 cents:

I don't understand this: "the co-op is just trying to turn a buck in downtown Toronto. This has nothing to do with poor students; no one demolishes and rebuilds in this city without dollar signs in their eyes."

Can you prove this?

A cooperative housing association does not exist to "turn a buck" - it's non-profit, and, from the sounds of it, if the co-op doesn't get the money it needs (TO SURVIVE), it will fold. This would be a real shame since there is a lack of affordable housing in this country (especially Toronto) and I seriously doubt that if this co-op folds, another co-op will rush in to take its place. I would guess that some regular landlord - with an eye to profits - would take over and raise the rents and goodbye affordable housing! Yes, it's a shame that Couch House may have to move buildings, but unless there can be another solution that doesn't involve the potential/probable demise of a long-lasting cooperative, then I can't feel much pity for it.

As Zach pointed out, if people truly want to help solve this dilemma, why not help out the financially strapped co-op so it doesn't need to do this?

Lastly, it seems like part of the problem between the two factions is the airy-fairy oral agreement stuff. A written lease would've solved that problem...

Edited by author 10-12-2004 06:43 PM
Zach!

You could never hurt my feelings! But I do believe that the fact that you pounced on that aesthetic thread from bridesmaid (like Star Jones on a dinner roll) reveals something about your original call to lower the boom.
Again, no big deal. See you in MTL.

Boy, you're big on "The Truth," aintcha? What next, a defense of the master narrative? How quaintly old fashioned... No, Jon, my position would be the same regardless of what publisher occupied the space. And no, it started out as a defense of private proverty; my "waxing sentimental" about the "poor students" was tongue in cheek; I guess you missed that in a fit of pique. (That said, my position would be different if the proposed development was a minimall or a Walmart.) The question of aesthetics is a simple coincidence, a thread I picked up from bridesmaid. If I wanted to damn publishers to hell and destruction because of aesthetics, I'd start with a goodly number of more likely candidates than CHB, who have at least produced a couple of books in the last few years that are worth reading and at least HAVE aesthetic values, however at odds they might be with mine. I'm just not big into shrines and idols. Sorry to have hurt your feelings.

Edited by author 10-12-2004 05:20 PM
And some people just never learn.

It's amazing how quickly you show out. It started out as "Won't somebody please think of the poor students??!!" and now we get to the truth. It's a matter of aesthetics. Now that I look back at your "lower the boom, boys" post, your argument becomes so transparent. See you in Montreal.

Sometimes it's good for the teacher to learn from the pupil.

If by innovative, you mean facsimiles of yesterday's avant-garde, then I have no quarrel. In some ways, yes, the place is already a museum.

"I visited Coach Houe Press early on in my journey into printing & publishing, and Stan Bevington and the crew at Coach House had no small influence on Gaspereau Press. Coach House Press has made an important contribution to the evolution of the literatre & print culture in Canada. I would suggest that, as well as the people involved, the physical environment they work in has played a role. It would be folly to knock down a landmark like Coach House Press."

-Andrew Steeves, Gaspereau Press

Gaspereau is a fine publisher. This is, in no small part, a result of following Coach House's lead. As for the stale air comment, that's just stupid. Coach House has always been and will continue to be the press people turn to when they are looking for innovative work. Young writers make weekly pilgramages to bpNichol lane. It's a living museum with brilliant, energetic people working in it, setting the standard for the rest of Canada's literary presses. That's why there is such a strong collective voice right now -- to make sure no-one screws with its future.

Um, is the coop not non-profit? And is CHB not for-profit? I'm all for 'turning a buck,' but let's not call a spade a diamond here.

As interesting a slice of history as CHB is, I think that as far as in-house production goes, they'd do well to follow Gaspereau's lead. In 7 years they've gone from nothing to printing AND distributing their own titles and enticing some of the most interesting writers and thinkers in the country to publish books with them. Not to mention cleaning up at the Alcuins every year. They've relocated and expanded in the process and rumour has it that they at least break even on every title they publish. Now that is innovation and forward momentum. As bridesmaid suggests, there's a bit of stale air in the CH stables these days and turning the place into a frigging museum is not gonna make it any the fresher. Maybe a relocation, far from being 'unacceptable,' is just what the press needs to shake the webs out.

But if staying there's so gosh darned important, make the coop an offer they can't refuse. If they're just looking to make a buck, why would they object to selling the place? Surely 3600 people and their friends who care deeply for the fate and location of the press can raise enough coin to buy the building (which, if it's structurally sound, as Alana says, would be a good investment) outright. But that would take more time and commitment than signing a petition, now wouldn't it...

JPF, your math is still wrong. You forgot to factor in the 1/3 co-op members who voting against. Rachel and ZW, the co-op is just trying to turn a buck in downtown Toronto. This has nothing to do with poor students; no one demolishes and rebuilds in this city without dollar signs in their eyes. JPF, has Coach House done anything truly innovative in the last 5 years? I thought CH was all about development, the future, the new new and not ol' dead history? I think you should stay, of course, but I'm a sentimental fool.

Thanks, George. About the building falling down: we had two structural engineers scrutinize the building. Both reported, to their own surprise, that it was fine. There are some little things that could use fixing, but there is certainly no imminent danger, nor any danger at all, they say, for at least another decade, and decades beyond that when we fix what they recommend. Reports of the building toppling have been greatly overstated...

Edited by author 10-12-2004 02:28 PM
I think what's at stake here is the definition of "workable"... As I've said before, it's silly to think of Coach House as any different than something like the Edison Museum. The building and the placement of the items within it are integral to the entire experience of the place. I've visited and I can tell you it's nothing like the M&S head office downtown. And that's a GOOD thing. The grittiness is part of the charm, but it's also part of the art now too.

I could see the argument to get over it if this press was like virtually any other that contracts out it's print jobs and warehousing, but that isn't the case. Part of what makes it valuable is that no one else is doing it. It's a preserved piece of history. It's not "workable" to move the press. Not if what you're hoping to preserve is the sense of history, vitality and community it has engendered over the last decades of the 20thC. Call the damn thing a museum, if you must, but preserve it how it is. Turning it into M&S or (god forbid) Oberon isn't going to help anything. It will just homogenize the entire process. What's vital about everything CHB does is that it's different from everyone else. Simple as that.

Now, on the other hand, it's good to make sure the building doesn't fall down too. Something should be done to bring everything up to code. Not sure, Alana where you all are with that.

And also: Bevington's histrionics are, while distasteful to me personally, part of the battle the little guy faces when courting enough press to put your point forward. And remember that while Bevington may be the current public face of CHB, he's not the whole heart and soul. There are some good, zealous, intelligent people there with a sense of dignity and decorum who just want to continue to publish nice books the way they've always done it. It's these people you're insulting when you conflate them with SB's clownlike hyperbole and gesticulating. And that's truly not fair.

G

Ok, so they CAN evict, despite the 2/3 of students who voted against it. Scary.

Zach, I think the reason CH has gone public (and received such an amazing response) is that they want the Co-Op to commit to finding a workable solution. Moving those presses equals moving Coach House. That's unacceptable. Obviously, the Co-op's board reserves the right to act against the will of their student body, so, it's important to keep them honest and in the public eye.


Rachel, I suggested that 99.9% of people who care about CanLit want Coach House as it is, where it is (on bpNichol lane). That doesn't mean you don't care about CanLit. It simply means that you and Zach make up that small percentage. Of course, The 99.9% was completely made up and I felt terrible about that so I did the math. There are 3624 people who care about CanLit. 2 people (You and Zach) believe the Co-op's "new direction" is more important than keeping Coach House where it is. So actually, the numbers are:

99.94% pro Coach House
.06% pro Co-Op

Here are the 3622 who disagree with you guys: http://www.chbooks.com/savech/view.php

For the record, the board reserved the right to overturn the decision and evict us at any time. And the president of the board has said more than once, "Stan, you are always one second away from a 30-day eviction." The whole "CH is welcome to stay" is what they tell the media. Really, I'm not sure how many times I can say this: you can't believe what you read in the paper...

Edited by author 10-12-2004 11:16 AM
It seems pretty silly to assume/imply that those of us(apparently only .1%, though I'm not sure where that stat came from, Jon) who think that a housing cooperative for students should provide accomodations for students don't care about Canadian literature. First of all, as Zach has pointed out, this isn't an either/or situation (we CAN have both publisher and co-op!). But second of all, if we had to choose (which, I'd like to point out again, we DON'T) wouldn't it be best to choose affordable accommodation (in a city like Toronto no less) over art? My attitude here doesn't imply I don't care about lit; it implies that I care about people more.

"the Co-op DOES represent its membership so long as it does not proceed with the eviction of CHB."

Proceed? Hello? It's not planning to, so this is a non-argument. The situation, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that CHB is welcome to stay, but the Co-op has no space for the printing presses in their plans.

Something you should realize, Jon, is that the number of people who care deeply about Canadian Literature, for better or for worse, is not a great percentage of the overall population. All I'm hearing pro CH in this affair is emotional arguments. Caring, history, tradition, these are all lovely and wonderful things, but if you folks are seriously interested in preserving this press in this location, you'd do well to direct your significant energies and intellects towards finding a workable solution. This is not the responsibility of the landlords here, who, until or unless someone legislates otherwise, have the right to do what they want with the property--and what they want with the property DOES NOT EXCLUDE CHB. They've already demonstrated a willingness to meet CHB halfway. CHB would be wise to follow suit. I'm getting tired of hearing WHY CHB should stay where it is. Please tell me HOW. Be specific as possible.

"the coop is not actually trying to evict CHB"

Well, they CAN'T evict. The students defeated the motion to evict by voting around 2/3 against it. And you're right-- that is significant. You're also right in pointing out my imprecise language. I should have put it this way-- the Co-op DOES represent its membership so long as it does not proceed with the eviction of CHB. The students don't want an eviction and their recent vote confirms this.

I am having a very difficult time trying to understand your "lower the boom, boys" / "Bevington the big fat spoiled baby" stance on this. No matter. 99.9 % of those who care about Canadian Literature realize that Coach House should remain on bpNichol lane, as is.

Jon, I think there's a significant gap (perhaps one that can be bridged by a leap of faith?) between "not evicting" and "wanting to stay". I, for example, recently had tenants in the rental unit of my house that I didn't want to stay, but I wasn't prepared to evict them. For one thing, the coop is not actually trying to evict CHB, they just say they can't make room for the presses. For another, eviction procedures, especially for a tenant so long entrenched, can be extremely unpleasant and potentially expensive. So I'd say that it's fairly significant that over a third of the students who voted, voted to turf the press--i.e. going above and beyond the planned disaccommodation. At any rate, there's nothing at all 'obvious' about the will of the students in this instance. And the fact that the coop did not proceed with eviction is, in fact, evidence that it listens to its membership. I'd fire your spin doctor if I were you.

From the NOW article:

"The students are acutely aware of Coach House's literary significance but can no longer afford to subsidize it. Over a third of them actually supported a losing motion to evict."

So the majority of students are against the student Co-op's plans to evict? Somewhere in the two thirds range? Doesn't sound too persuasive to me. Obviously the will of the students is that the Coach House should stay, and the Co-op does not represent the will of the students.

Thanks, Alana, I'm aware of that. What I've indicated is that I find the bias of the Coop more persuasive than that of the press. My questions in /m221 and /m222 remain unanswered. But I assume there are no answers for them, so I'll leave it at that.

I will note only that the article in Now was written by a member of the Co-op and therefore may also be considered "massively biased," and I'll leave it at that.

Ok, BN, but if I may wax sentimental for a moment here: Who's gonna pay the poor students? If the city's going to declare it a historic site, then the city better be prepared to compensate that site's owners for the loss in freedom to determine the site's use. No?

Presumably they used to call it that because they later realized it was redundant. And I've never seen, smelled, or otherwise encountered a 'beholden,' so I fail to see how I could feel one, particular or otherwise.

I repeat, Alana: I fail to see how the destruction/reconstruction of the bricks and mortar building is necessarily correlated to the demise of the company known as Coach House Books. I know as much about this story as anyone else not intimately involved in it and therefore massively biased. There's nothing inherently wrong with "preserving a building that has some romance and history" etc. However, when the people who own that building, and therefore have proprietary rights, want to tear it down for perfectly comprehensible reasons, I have a hard time siding with romance and history. Whether it's possible or not to create a new structure without destroying the old seems infinitely debatable. One would have to see architects' plans and engineer's reports and various other cost/benefit analyses to determine whether or not it is practical. My hunch is that it would be a great deal more expensive and a great deal less feasible to leave the old house fully intact. Should a financially challenged student cooperative overextend themselves for the sake of history and romance? I can't see it, myself.

Edited by author 10-07-2004 06:36 PM
Perhaps a misunderstanding and poor choice of words. I'm sure Zach didn't mean "lower the boom" in a literal sense. He's flip and off hand in these posts, and should be read as such.

However, I, for one, am fully behind Coach House in this battle. Arguing that "it's sentimental claptrap to conflate the physical location of a publishing/printing house with its artistic existence" is akin to arguing that any historic site could be moved to any new location and retain its cultural value. Simply not true. You can't take the inventions out of the Edison Museum, put them in a new building, and still have the same impact. I suspect some might argue that Coach House doesn't constitute a historic site (again, I would say not true) but that's for the city to decide. It would be a shame if they decide against it.

Fact of the matter is, Coach House means a whole hell of a lot to the Toronto literary scene, and indeed to Canadian letters. This may not be common knowledge outside of Toronto, but that doesn't make it untrue.

G

Edited by author 10-07-2004 05:28 PM
zw says whatever he wants and feels no particular beholden to even his own previous statements. He's what they used to call a 'dumb annoying idiot'

"Lower the boom, boys" isn't asking for our demise?

Frankly, you have absolutely no idea what's going on. It's inordinately complicated. You are, of course, welcome to your opinion, but please be aware that you know only one tenth of the story.

And what's so bad about wanting to preserve a building that has some romance and history, that brings people (who call themselves pilgrims) from all over the world? We give countless tours every month, showing people how books are made and giving them a sense of mythology about literature. It's not just for selfish reasons that we want to maintain it. We want the students to have a new building -- and it is possible for that to happen without destroying our home.

I don't recall saying anything about wishing CH's demise, Alana; if you'll recall, I singled out a CH publication as the only worthy candiate on the last Griffin shortlist. However, I think it's sentimental claptrap to conflate the physical location of a publishing/printing house with its artistic existence, all Chicken Little hysterics aside. And it sounds to me like the needs of the Co-Op, and the extent to which they've attempted to accommodate CH, are more than reasonable, whereas Bevington comes across, even in the articles that champion his cause, as singularly unwilling to compromise--in a situation in which he has, for all intents and purposes, zero leverage! If one wants guaranteed tenure in a location, renting is generally not the way to go. I've read both sides of the issue. My apologies for finding one more credible than the other.

From Coach House: The "realities" of the situation? You can't believe everything you read, you know. Campus Co-op has claimed that Coach House didn't pay rent for thirty years, which is an outright lie -- rent has been paid every single month for the last 35 years. And rent is set by the landlord, not the tenant; if Co-op wanted us to pay more rent, they very well could have asked. We wouldn't have said no. We did willingly accept a 25% increase in rent over the last year. And it is low in the first place because Co-op has never spent a dime on maintenance. That was the deal: Stan put in plumbing, electricity, floors, doors, etc. and never asked for anything. Co-op could thefore collect money on a shell of a garage that would otherwise be unusable or in absolute disrepair. (The other garages that formally existed on bpNichol Lane have been, over the years, demolished to make way for parking lots.) We are not trying to stop Co-op's development at all -- we are simply asking not to be evicted or to have half our building taken away so that we can no longer function. We've never thought of the Co-op as "evil", and we have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship for decades. All we ask is that their rejuvenation plan take into account this relationship.

You're welcome to dislike our books -- even to disparage them. But I do find it a bit surprising that you would actively wish for our demise, Zach. In such a small community, it's awfully malicious. You're wishing away a poetry publisher? There aren't so many of us in Canada who care about poetry that there's room for such nastiness.

A passionate and intelligible article--which can't be said of many of the texts produced by CH. I still find the greatest irony of this whole situation to be the resistance of a proudly 'avant-garde' publisher to forward-looking change. Funny how the student coop seems to be the adult in this situation and Bevington the big fat spoiled baby. 1/4 rent and no lease and he can't even keep the place in decent repair?! Lower the boom, boys.

Thank god someone is speaking up about the realities of this issue. I wish writers would stop acting as if the co-op was some sort of evil corporate entity. Stop whining and get your priorities straight.

We have met the enemy and it is us
The struggle over Canada's historic Coach House buildings continues. In a recent Now article, a Campus Co-op representative says the student group is doing what it can.


Here we are: a tale of two histories, an ugly impasse pitting good guy against good guy, with no happy ending in sight. When public spending dries up, trickle-down economics dictates that the good guys are left fighting amongst themselves. Bevington is a passionate defender of the arts, a role enhanced by his tremendous charm and resourcefulness. But the primary mandate of the co-op is to provide students with affordable housing.


The Coach House side of things can be read here. Toronto sure does look cold....

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Late fees: when the overdue book is overdue from the writer

A brief history of procrastination and block,* and the bygone days of the extension.

Industry people agree that the endless extension has gone the way of the lavish book party, that it is now a luxury available only to the most bankable authors. Editors tend to blame literary agents for driving up advances to a level where publishers can no longer afford not to turn up the heat when projects drag on. Literary agents tend to blame the bottom-line-obsessed conglomerates that have been gobbling up once empathetic independent publishing houses. But while it may be endangered, the albatross book is by no means extinct.



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Newsflash: people not as cheap as they seem...

People willing to pay for the 9/11 report when it's free online. Why? I think we're underestimating the power of the souvenir. People want to touch this disaster in whatever way they can. Back in the day, I remember scumbags trying to sell bits of WTC metal on ebay (hell, on the streets for that matter). One piece of shit had stamped the recycled metal into commemorative disks with pictures of the towers and the whole eagle head crap. I'd much rather people own this thing, even if it is a pathetic smoke screen.



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Midlist novelists, fear not!

Your lack of cloth covers has just come into style...

In America, important new books are nearly always published in hardcover first; the paperback editions may not appear for another nine months to a year. (In Europe, first-time publication in paperback -- what's called a paperback original -- is more common than not.) Last month, however, Random House published David Mitchell's ''Cloud Atlas'' as a paperback original.

Now if only the crappy advance were a trend too...



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Want to join in on a Bookninja discussion but you're hesitant because you haven't read the book?
With the help of free Cliffs notes online, you don't have to. Now you can pretend to have read every book ever published -- just like the rest of us!

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Writers Under the Influence
Are there any other kind? A neat little feature from Amazon on books that inspired writers.

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Coach House profiled

At Maisy.

Since the beginning, Bevington, along with his editors and designers, has made books that transcend mere bookdom—they are events. Coach House volumes are special in the purest sense of the word, because the publisher often produces letterpress or limited editions with extra colour, object-oriented features and other special goodies.



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F&F at 75

Gosh, those books don't look a day over 74...

it is perhaps the concept of "continuous publishing" that marks Faber out from the literary crowd. The traditional view is that they publish you until you die. It was true of William Golding, Philip Larkin and, more recently, Ted Hughes. Seamus Heaney has been published by Faber since 1966, John McGahern since 1963.



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Imitation is the sincerest form of idiocy

McCrum on the literary knock-off.

In days gone by, sequel fever was only a mild affliction and usually involved commissioning some tame novelist to finish off Jane Austen's Sanditon or hammer out a follow-up to Gone With the Wind. But now the pressure is on for a quicker hit. If last year's succes fou was Eats, Shoots and Leaves, this year's oven-ready turkeys will be the E,S&L imitations.

One of the saddest truths about the book world is that though publishers must know that originality is inimitable, this never stops them from indulging in the sincerest form of flattery: imitation.



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File under: you were expecting maybe some honour?

Barnes and Noble's foray into publishing* is raising some eyebrows and middle fingers.

Unlike most publishing companies, which announce their coming titles with great fanfare months in advance, Barnes & Noble has kept most of its publishing plans a secret. It said little to nothing about its effort to repackage its line of classic novels, adding footnotes, study aids and lengthy explanatory sections, before the books appeared on the shelves last year. And although the company commented at length about robust sales of the Norton paperback "9/11 Commission Report'' this summer, it never mentioned that it was preparing its own hardcover version.

Undercutting the competition... clever. But wait, even when the competition wins you still make money? Oh, B&N you're devilishly cheeky! Will you marry me so I can divorce you in disgust?



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How not to sell your book
First you travel through a war zone, then you have to write the damn book about it. And then the hard part starts.


A few weeks later, waiting for a call from her editor, Sullivan got a package in the mail containing her 600-page ramble -- copyedited and with an attached index. She panicked. "I had turned in what I thought was a draft and I had gotten back this copyedited manuscript," Sullivan says. "They were just going to print that. And it was so rough. There was no way."

But the book was already on the conveyor belt. It was listed in the next season's catalogue and the sales representatives had begun pitching it to booksellers. Everyone, including her agent, told her there was really nothing to be done. But Sullivan insisted they pull the plug. "It wreaked such havoc," she says. "They had to take it off the production train, where it takes on a life of its own."

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Bad Dirt
Annie Proulx has a new book on the way. While you wait, why not entertain yourself with some essays.

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35 and has tattoos? Gee, that must mean he's a good writer and really sellable.

How embarassing.

Young, hip and ... M&S?
New M&S publisher Douglas Pepper wants to make books matter again. Can't argue with that.


Pepper says he wants to find and publish the most gifted writers of his own generation, as Jack McClelland once did. "Buying them pretty young is the name of the game, creating loyalty by publishing them well and exporting them abroad," he says. "I want writers we feel have many books in them, and we will be very aggressive about getting world rights. When I left New York, other publishers said, 'Call me with what you've got.'"

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Insert knife "a" into abdomen "b"

$5,000,000 advance for a romance book rewritten into a kiddie fantasy title. Why do I continue to live when it's becoming more and more apparent that I am merely a life support unit for a monstrous sense of indignity?



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not long ago i was at a publishing thing and met a recently-signed author who wrote in the "inspirational fiction" genre, which was described to me as a kind of "self-help fiction" - a narrative with reaffirming messages. i shit thee all not. needless to say, my next book will be pitched as "tom clancy meets dr. phil"... a very hopeful man with a keen insight into automatic weapons saves a woman imprisoned by both terrorists and the heartbreak of low self-esteem.

Fiction kicked to the curb

Oh yeah, baby! I can feeeeel it.

Although fiction still sells in great quantities and continues to produce stars, the attention of publishers and booksellers has moved elsewhere. Everyone in publishing agrees it is getting harder to sell a new novel, even by a distinguished name, in this country; book buyers seem interested only in non-fiction.

The heyday of poetry is JUST around the corner. Yesterday it was fiction, today non-fiction. Tomorrow? What's left? Me, yo. I knew I could wait you out. Come to papa.



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Roommate from Hell.com
Indie writer Jim Munroe is publishing his new book as a blog.


When Kate discovers that her roommate identifies as a demoness, she figures it's too sacrilicious a secret to keep to herself: she tells all on her blog, roommatefromhell.com.

This is the basic gist of my new book, An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil, a tale of the urban occult told entirely through Kate's entries. Starting today, I'll be posting one a day to the faux roommatefromhell.com blog until all 88 entries (the whole book) are up. After that I'll be writing a spinoff story based on how the poll on the site goes.


Check out the future of books, kiddies.

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Just finished reading Anne Simpson's Mayfly, a sizeable chapbook recently released by JackPine Press. The final section, Ocean, has a kind of tidal friction to it.
http://www.jackpinepress.com/xhtml/jjp.html

How many cha-chings in a kaboom?

Norton stands to make a pretty penny* from sales of the 9/11 Commission report.

Under the conditions of its contract with the commission, Norton had four days to print and bind the book and deliver it to retailers. The contract called for the book to be available in stores at the same time on Thursday morning that it was released to members of Congress and the news media.

Normally it would take a publisher 10 months to go from the receipt of a manuscript to the date of publication, Mr. McFeely said, with four to six weeks of that for shipping alone. That, of course, includes time spent editing the book.

Or, in the case of many books, not editing.



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"If we had a choice between doing dope and working, we'd do both"

Ah, Coach House's hippie roots. Some things never change. Except the dope part. And the work being about art. And the fact that my neck hurts pretty much everyday and occasionally I find white hairs in my beard. Oh, and my shirt is covered in grimy paw prints that could be banana or cream cheese, I'm not sure because I don't remember breakfast. And I don't have time to write or do anything but edit and post things here. Yeah, sometimes my wrist feels like it will just explode from the repetitive stress, but otherwise it's all art and pot.



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Ondaatje says Save Coach House

You know, it often doesn't FEEL as exciting as 30 years ago... (P.S. Has anyone ever seen Michael open his eyes this wide in person?)



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Thanks, Alana!

I encourage all ninjas to do whatever they can to support Coach House. It would be a shame to lose it.

From Coach House:

Well, we're not saved yet. The wrecking ball is stalled, but city hall has some pretty byzantine mechanics to it – approval from city council this week will mean we're on a list for designation. Designation itself requires reports and further votes, and doesn't kick in until it's triggered by a permit or something. So, the next step is likely provincial designation, though that's a double-edged sword. And, in the meantime, we hope we will be allowed to stay, and at a reasonable rent.

All very complicated, really, and all I mean to say is that it's really just begun. So, please sign our petition at www.chbooks.com/savech/view.php. That's about all we can do right now. Any thoughts? Want more info? Have a good understanding of the labyrinthine workings of any level of government? You can email me at savecoachhouse@chbooks.com. Thanks, all of you, for your excellent support.

Anyone from the press care to comment?

the toronto designation would only be the first step. here is the latest from the press itself:

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 11:26:31 -0700
From: Coach House MailBot <mailbot@>
To: khehir
Subject: Save the Coach House: A Petition

As many of you know, Coach House has been fighting to save its home. Our landlord, Campus Co-op Residence Inc., plans to expand its own property, and this development directly threatens the buildings that Coach House has occupied
for forty years.

However, we have just received word that we're on the list for recommendation for historical designation. They'll vote on it at city council next week. Now, this is only the first stage. After city designation (which is certainly not
guaranteed), we need provincial designation, and then we need to work with Co-op to make things work well for both of us. This is a great start, but we still need your support!

So we're asking you to please sign our petition, and to pass it along to anyone else you think might like to help. Check it out at:

www.chbooks.com/savech/view.php

For more information, check our website, www.chbooks.com/savech.

We also invite you to join us for an open house on Thursday, July 29, between 3 and 8 p.m. There will burgers, beer and, of course, books. As well as guided tours for new visitors and, at 5:30, some rabble-rousing.

Questions? Comments? Email savecoachhouse@chbooks.com.

Thanks so much for your support!

Coach House saved?

Shadowy minions report that the Globe carried a small piece today (unavailable as a link) announcing that Coach House Books has been designated a cultural heritage site by the Toronto Preservation Board. Can anyone confirm or deny? If it has: Yay! (PFW links to this petition, which you should sign, just in case.)



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Why ethically questionable?

Scolding Beach Holme and Ekstasis for plagiarizing each other is like assigning detention to two retarded kids for copying off one another: morally correct but ethically questionable.

kathrynk,

That's a good start. How about Heritage Toronto as well? http://www.heritagetoronto.org/

And on, and on. In fact, almost the entire writer's guideline page is plagiarized. See

http://www.beachholme.bc.ca/guidelines.htm http://www.ekstasiseditions.com/guidelines.html

Given Ekstasis' shoddy record in every other respect, I'm voting that they are the ones who deserve the big F.

And it goes on:

Beach Holme: Please keep in mind that when assessing material we consider the following: originality and quality of the prose; intriguing plot development; credible dialogue and consistent narrative voice; innovations in genre technique; thematic cohesion; topical and contemporary content; previous publishing history (not mandatory); market niche potential; appeal to a definable audience and compatibility with other titles on our list.

Ekstasis: When assessing material we consider the following: quality and originality of the poetry or prose; intriguing plot development; credible dialogue and consistent narrative voice; thematic cohesion; innovations in technique; topical and contemporary content; previous publishing history if any; market niche potential; appeal to a definable audience and compatibility with other titles on our list.

From Ekstasis Editions: "All publishers’ lists evolve over time so we invite you to follow our activity by reading popular publishing and literary magazines (Quill & Quire, BC Bookworld, Books in Canada) and by perusing our titles in your local bookstore. It is wise to research any press to which you are submitting to insure they publish in your genre and to your tastes."

From Beach Holme: "Publishers' lists evolve over time, so we would invite you to follow our activity by reading popular publishing and literary magazines (Quill & Quire, BC Bookworld) and by perusing our titles in your local bookstore. It is wise to well research any press to which you are submitting to ensure they publish in your genre and to your tastes."

Who is plagiarizing from whom?

Is this the right place to send concerns?

http://www.campus-coop.org/houses.html

Is there really an affordable student housing problem in Toronto anyway? The vacancy rate for rental apartments is at a high -- something around 4%. Granted last year saw a double cohort with the first group of similtaneously graduating grade 12 and OAC classes but that's a one year strain. Who is campus co-op?

We should rise up because of all this:

http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/200/301/n...use-ef/ecoachhs.htm

No one is suggesting that we protest affordable student housing. But the landlord surely has options other than demolishing one of our most historically and culturally important sites. What the hell are the criteria for Heritage designation? Why is the landlord so determined to evict?

Edited by author 07-05-2004 11:06 PM
Why the hell should we rise up with pitchforks and torches? Why the hell should we march on City Hall? A building may be demolished in order to provide affordable housing in Toronto. What will people be protesting next? A rise to minimum wage?

Edited by author 07-05-2004 10:30 PM
Meet me at the barricade...

More on the situation at Coach House.

To say that Coach House "publishes" books would diminish the magic of what really happens within the old brick walls of these interlinked buildings on bpNichol Lane, named for the late poet who is now its patron saint. It is an amazingly resilient little factory where some of the most famous writers in Canada first learned to read proofs and glue bindings. Paper and ink go in one door and art comes out another.

This is really a ridiculous state of affairs. How could anyone even question whether Coach House is a historical/cultural landmark? We should all be rising up with pitchforks and torches, people. In another time, and perhaps not so diffuse a country, we would. This is the kind of thing people should put differences aside for and march on City Hall. Is anyone organizing a program of protest or resistance? Can you post information to our boards about it? Thanks. (Thanks to JPF for the link.)



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The E-Slush Pile

Welcome to the vaguely futuristic world of ten years ago. The slush pile goes digital.

While it's long been part of the culture of the romance-novel business to accept unsolicited proposals, some publishers are making the process easier. News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, for instance, accepts e-mail pitches on its romance Web site -- and gets a mind-numbing 10,000 online queries annually. "We're starting to get them from other countries, sometimes in broken English," says Morrow/Avon Executive Editor Carrie Feron. E-queries have arrived from Italy, eastern Europe and Asia.

At least a few top editors are frankly irked. Diana Baroni, an executive editor at Time Warner's Warner Books imprint, says she deletes e-mail queries as soon as they arrive. "I don't know how they get my e-mail address, but I'm getting so many I don't respond."

I can't promise you we'll respond to everything you send here, but I can promise you we'll likely not read it. (From Publishers Lunch)



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Think Your Life Will Change When You Sell Your Novel?
It will, but probably not for the better.


"I want more than anything else in my life to be published -- to read my reviews and to see people buying my book. That would be a thrill on a par with losing my virginity, getting married and getting my first job." So said a student on a well-known creative writing course, but sadly the likelihood is that at the end of the process she will feel more like she has caught a nasty STD, discovered her partner in bed with her sister and seen her employer go bust on pay day. Signing that elusive publishing contract can often be the beginning of recurrent nightmares rather than of dreams coming true.

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Suicide Girls -- the Book!
Suicide Girls, an online mix of nude, tattooed, pierced girls; interviews with writers and other artists; and cultural news (I've heard it called a 21st-century version of Playboy, but that doesn't quite capture it), now has a book. Definitely not worksafe, unless you work for eye weekly. (I used to proofread for eye, and a large part of my job was checking porn sites to check up on our columnists' references. Nothing like sipping a latte at 10 a.m. and watching enema fetish videos online while shiny new interns watch you out of the corners of their eyes, wondering if you actually work there, and what exactly they've gotten themselves into.)

The link comes from Fleshbot, which also introduces us to bardcore -- hot Shakespeare porn videos. Even more comical is the wacky collection of article titles by this prof who specializes in Shakespeare smut.

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so... harliquin publishes historical fiction?

;-)