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The Storm Of The Century

Well, okay, maybe not quite the storm of the century, but yesterday a pretty bad storm passed through our area, knocking electricity out in a number of places, one of which was our place. I was at work most of the day, but my wife was home when the power went out, and the power [...]

The Battle For E-Rights

In case you haven’t heard, literary agent Andrew Wylie, who hasn’t been happy with the terms publishers have been offering for e-rights, has decided to open up his own publishing venture and Random House (no doubt the biggest of the Big Six) isn’t too happy about the whole idea. What does this mean for us [...]

The Greatest Thing Since Unsliced Bread

The Greatest Thing Since Unsliced Bread

I heard about this from someone who heard about it on, I think, The Today Show, and yep, it is exactly what it sounds like: Candwich. I don’t know about anyone else, but I think this is pretty rad. I mean, it takes a genius to look at an every day staple and think, What [...]

Spamming Of The Day

So I get an e-mail this morning that goes something like this: Hi, I’m Jeff. I noticed that you’re on the Kindle boards too. Just thought I’d reach out to you. I’m buying my Kindle this week (Hope it works all the way down here in Costa Rica). So, you like it better than Nook, [...]

We Will Not Go Quietly Into The Night

We Will Not Go Quietly Into The Night

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. “Mankind.” That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be [...]

Judging A Book By Its Cover

Albums are sold across the world inside a universal sleeve, blockbuster films branded in a singular style. But novels, by a convention that nobody in the publishing industry seems fully able to explain, must be re-jacketed from territory to territory. It inspires all kinds of illustrative madness, and makes browsing foreign bookshelves a fascinating — [...]

How To Become A Bestseller

Well each list reports differently. For example the New York Times uses reporting bookstores, meaning certain stores (around 30) spread throughout the country. These stores report into the Times with their most successful titles for that week. USA Today is based on sales as is the Wall Street Journal. While no one knows the secret [...]

Et Tu, Steve Jobs?

This is old, but I just came across this recently and thought I’d share it. Because while the iPad is certainly neat, and Steve Jobs certainly spoke highly of the iBookstore (which is to be expected), here’s what he had to say about Amazon’s Kindle two years ago: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad [...]

A Little Piece Of The Beggar

Months back I showed the original artwork by Allen K for my novellette “Through the Guts of a Beggar,” a piece that was supposed to appear in the pulpy monster anthology Tooth & Claw, volume 2, but never did. Then last month I showed the new cover art. Now, as the novellette is only weeks away [...]

Someone Sure Hates David Brent

Someone Sure Hates David Brent

(Not me though; I absolutely love Ricky Gervais.) Ricky Gervais is involved, but for once it’s no laughing matter: a shipment of more than 12,000 copies of Flanimals Pop-Up by actor/comedian Gervais went missing last week en route to Candlewick’s warehouse in Indiana. Police are investigating the incident as grand theft (the books are valued [...]