This week in the industry that is publishing:
A couple of great new author websites: Bestselling author Torey Hayden has started a very fascinating blog, where she talks about her writing career as well as her work in child psychology. My wonderful and amazing client Rebecca Ramsey has started a myspace page as well as a website. Her debut memoir FRENCH BY HEART, about her Southern family’s hilarious and heartwarming four years living in France, will be published by Broadway Books in April. And lastly, another wonderful and amazing client, Jack Lopez, has a website here. The paperback edition of his magnificent (seriously, it’s amazing) young adult novel IN THE BREAK will be released on April 1st. IN THE BREAK was recently chosen as a 2007 pick of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age — congratulations to Jack!
This promotional part of the blog is brought to you by Dove’s campaign for real beauty.
Well, you know how fascinated I’ve been by the phenomenon that is THE SECRET, and apparently I’m not alone. Not only are there now somwhere between three million and four quadrillion copies in print, I just saw this little number in Publishers Marketplace: Thomas Dunne Books just acquired a book called THE SECRET OF “THE SECRET”, which looks at the phenomena behind THE SECRET, including the authors and its origins. Holy cow. The secret of THE SECRET??? Thomas Dunne Books, you just blew my mind.
Author and former editor Edward Tenner wrote a really fascinating article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, in which he discusses the effects of digital media on books. He does not, thank heavens, believe that reading online media will necessarily come at the expense of books. So hey, by my calculations that means that if you read this blog no poor author will go starving. Group hug!
And finally… uh, well, actually that’s about it. Slow week in publishing. Class dismissed. See you on Monday for the much-awaited Part 2 of Ex Publishing Insider’s post on what editors do, and of course, the final word on Herbert’s road to being a published author. Have a great weekend everyone!
Courtney says
My god, you crack me up. I’m laughing out loud at work, for pete’s sake.
KingM says
That “Secret” stuff just kills me. It is, to all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from “the Think Method” in the Music Man.
CC says
The Secret…Is a well presented philosophy that has been presented a multitude of times in the past. In my own 40 years I have been presented with ‘the secret’ dozens of times. I suppose this version will get perused and eventually refused by most of the viewers, however that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.This sort of thing is very personal, though, and therefore it doesn’t surprise me to find a huge amount of people irked by the financial success these people are having. In the end, though, I believe the real ‘secret’ will continue to circulate throughout history just as it always has… and those who need it will find it and those who refuse it will not. Other people have made money with the same philosophy through the years, just in a smaller (less noticable) way.
Alex Fayle says
I’ve been resisting THE SECRET because I really disliked the trailer for it. I found it smarmy and too full of obvious NLP tricks for me to trust it.
I’m sure I’d find interesting bits in it, but I’m much more of a “I’ll find my own path, thanks” type of guy.
And all the get rich now hype around it really turns me off.
And Kingm – I love your Music Man comparison! Awesome!
Anonymous says
Ah, the secret…is not exactly a secret. I’ve read this same philosophy presented in about forty different ways. A friend gave me the DVD. Every single time I see him, he asks if I’ve watched it yet. Really, I’m trying. I keep falling asleep. But I’m visualizing myself watching it. Soon the universe will give me a synopsis.
In further rambling… I hate My Space. I’m too old for all the flashing lights, music, and having to sign up just to say ‘hi’ to someone. Ms. Ramsey lives practically down the street. She went to the same university as my husband and my son is there now. Tiger paws. Everywhere. I went to the rival university where we didn’t drive tractors to school, but I’ve learned to appreciate orange. I just wanted to do the neighborly thing and speak. Perhaps it’s a Southern thing.
So, is it possible to circumvent the My Space sign-up?
Karen, the old coot
Btw, Nathan, child agent, I enjoy your blog. And I didn’t have to sign up.
original bran fan says
I, too, am too old for my space. Quite smart of you, Nathan, to have a presence in both places. If agenting is partly about seeing and being seen, then you almost have to be in my space as well as blogger to appeal to both the young ‘uns and us old folk. (Only in cyberia are you old when you’re still in your 30’s.)