This! Week! in! Publishing!
We had a contest, heather!anne! won, it nearly broke me, we’re back to normal now. Whew.
The San Francisco Writer’s Conference is fast approaching, and the keynote speakers include Daisy Maryles, Executive Editor of Publishers Weekly, and authors Clive Cussler, April Sinclair, and Tess Gerritsen. Oh, and I’ll be there! Maybe I won’t “uh” my name this year.
Jessica Faust from BookEnds has a seriously awesome post up about how to choose the best agent. Once you know an agent is reputable, how do you know they’re the right agent for you? This is a really difficult question to answer, and she does (I think) a great job of breaking it down.
Jeff Abbott pointed me to this GalleyCat article about how the Kindle is outpacing Amazon’s expectations! No word on what those expectations actually were to begin with, but interesting nonetheless.
Also via GalleyCat, now, I’d like to remind you that this isn’t a political blog so please don’t….. oh what the heck. Bush’s budget calls for the elimination of the Inexpensive Book Distribution program at Reading Is Fundamental, which distributes books to the youngest and most at-risk kids. GalleyCat would like to remind us that the First Lady was an ex-librarian. Hmmm…
And finally, remember last week how I told you about the book already up on Amazon about the Patriots going 19-0? Well…. that link doesn’t seem to be working anymore. So weird, right?? I wonder why.
Have a great weekend!
Nona says
It doesn’t surprise me that Dubbya voted down RIF. A guy who says “nucular” and “I’m the decider” probably wasn’t much of a bookworm as a child — or at any other time, for that matter.
David says
I was amused by the commenter who responded to that post on the Bookends blog by attacking Bookends for the way they rejected his submission.
It’s a good thing agents don’t have memories!
Ghost Girl says
LOL, nona! He wasn’t a bookworm, but his woman was…and still is. What is he thinking?! He really is as dumb as he looks…
Jessica says
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Jessica Faust’s thread on choosing an agent. A lot of great info in that thread!
booklady says
He’s slashing funding for RIF?!? I LOVE RIF. It was one of my first really good experiences with books. There’s just something about going into a room filled with beautiful, shiny paperbacks and being told that I could take any one of them for my very own.
moonrat says
i’m really burned up about bush. just when i thought that man couldn’t hurt the country anymore. clearly i underestimated.
David says
Bush deserves prison in this life for what he’s done to America and the eternal lake of fire in the next for what he’s done to Iraq, but neither will happen. (The first, because the Democrats are spineless, and the second, because it doesn’t exist.)
But this is a non-political blog, so I’ll stop now.
Anonymous says
First the Celtics, then the Patriots… What did Boston sports teams do to you, Nathan? 🙂
Other Lisa says
Please don’t get me started on the Decider. It’s bad for my blood pressure.
darylandrews says
***Blinks in suprise***
Since the wee hours of Sunday night I have sat here unmoving – except for hitting refresh on that Patriots link.
Uneven beard growth, nerve damaged mouse clicker finger, and six day old clothing…
And now you tell me it doesn’t work?
***Grumbles on the way to the shower***
Lupina says
Wah, I missed the contest! I had no Internet on my laptop for several weeks after downloading the latest version of Quicktime, and my Big Mac is too antiquated to display Blogger. So after a couple weeks of blizzards and deadlines, I finally got to my ISP to get the settings corrected today. And when the advanced help guy asked me to pull any web page up for a test, I immediately hit the Bransford bookmark and yelled “Crap!” right there in front of the red sign that says they burn people who ask stupid help questions. Moral of the story: I have now signed up for the email version so I never need miss a contest again. As the ISP help guy would say, live and burn. But I did love the winning entry.
Adaora A. says
You know you can’t help yourself Nathan. Politics are alluring.
Too bad most of these writer’s meets don’t gather in CANADA. Since I’m too broke as a joke to go anywhere, and it’s near the end of term. Yikes!
I’m heading to the BookEnds blog then.
They probably recieved pressure to pull the book. I have no doubt. Things appear and disappear quicker then lightening if people believe they need to.
Adaora A. says
Would like to add how unsuprised I am that he choose to cut funding for literacy before the war. How much debt are we drowing in now?
Kelly says
I wanted to read the top pages of the contest. Is there a link or would I have to sort through 675 entries?
Lynne says
Kelly, if you scroll down to Nathan’s Feb. 3rd posting, it has the six finalists’ entries there for you to read.
dernjg says
I noticed that the 19-0 book didn’t exist anymore. I wanted a copy, too. It was on the scale of Dewey Wins (well, from my perspective).
Cher Gorman says
Ah, the San Francisco Writers Conference. I remember it well. Actually, not really. Only the green flyer which I received in the mail twice from an agent.
This is how it went:
An agent who sat beside me at the EPICon awards ceremony in 2006 in which I was a nominee handed me her card and invited me to query her. Which I did. Her answer to my query was scribbled at the top of the San Francsico Writers Conference green flyer.
Her rejection was also scribled in the margins of the green flyer advertising the San Francisco Writers conference. Her response was so cheeky I have to share it with you. Drum roll…”Slow and talky and does not inspire page turning.”
I burst out laughing. Now its a kind of running joke especially when my husband and I are in a restaurant trying to decide what to order. I look at him, do a little drum roll on the table and say, “This menu is slow and talky and does not inspire page turning.”
Thanks for posting the link to Jessica Faust and her blog.
Cher
Adaora A. says
See Cher? In the end his(you could call it personal since you met him), rejection has given you and the hubby laughs for months to come. Brilliant.
Redzilla says
Sorry the contest was so brutal, but look at it this way: at least you’re not at Guantanamo. Yet.
Bush is just following the basic tenets of FOX News. The stupider people are, the easier it is to dupe them. It doesn’t exactly say a lot for America’s intelligence over all that we’ve been duped so much.
moonrat says
hi nathan,
unrelated to your post, sorry. there’s been a lot of thoughtful dialog on my blog about waiting for responses from editors, and nice, pc ways to bring this up with your agent and ask the to nudge.
if you have a moment, would you be kind enough to take a look at my post and see if i’m on track? i, of course, only know my end of the story.
thanks,
moonrat