“I want to affirm the work of writers that have the burden of feeling like a publisher doesn’t know how to market them, how to talk about them, how to ‘find their audience.’” @npr
This is important.
Librarian Jonathan Harris just took our #MakeAmericaReadAgain hat to a whole new level and we’re so proud to support him. He’s currently passing out free books to attendees at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (and we just sent Jonathan some #MakeAmericaReadAgain buttons to pass out too)! Be sure to find him if you are in town – or start passing out books where you are! It’s important to continually support literacy (especially the funding of libraries) and programs that encourage active readers. This is a movement that can benefits everyone, everywhere, so let’s #MakeAmericaReadAgain!
Thanks to @bustle and @buzzfeed for breaking the story.
When my author is about to do something very stupid and I have to be a little mean and severe to get them to not do it
When the only books that come up as comparative titles on an Amazon book search, are books that I’m positive I’m the only person searching for...
“Authors tend to look at publishers as having all of the answers and a lot of times they don’t. So as much input that can come from the author about, what is your vision for the cover, where do you see this book selling, what is your audience profile, as much information you can provide the publisher is awesome.” –Todd Hunter
During the “Realities of Publishing” panel at @bookcourtpodcasts-blog editor Todd Hunter mentioned the relationship between publishers and authors in terms of each having their own set of information that can prove to be mutually beneficial.
You have literally just described Los Angeles. When it rains no one leaves their houses. I’ve had people call in to work when it’s raining because they couldn’t possibly get here in the rain.
When my inbox is full of an author asking questions because he can’t make any decisions by himself
*I’m glad you’re excited, but I need to not have 15 emails from you by 10 am. Some things are things you can make decisions about.
When I ask an author to give me any awards they want to be submitted for and they send me a wikipedia page of book awards in the US
When I have to work all weekend because my editorial team did not assign anyone to read a manuscript I explicitly said I couldn’t get to myself, but one that we need in time for Book Expo
Oh, sorry I tried to have one fucking weekend where I wasn’t working, glad we fixed that error.
Newsflash, authors! It is not my fault that you can’t handle your life.
You lost the paperwork I sent you and couldn’t get your shit together enough to ask me to resend it? Not on me.
You thought my instructions were unclear but you didn’t bother to ask me to clarify? Not my fault.
You agreed to an unrealistic deadline and now you’re mad that we’re canceling your contract and giving the project to another author? Too freaking bad. Maybe if you hadn’t ignored my emails and dodged my phone calls for the past 6 weeks we could have worked it out.
When an author of mine contacts someone who reviewed their book negatively
*Don’t do this. Like ever.
literaryerror
When I worked at a uni press, one of our authors contacted her peer reviewer to pick a bone with her.
But peer review is supposed to be anonymous! you say.
Yes, you are correct. We did not disclose the names of the author’s peer reviewers during the peer review process. However, if a peer review is particularly quotable, we would sometimes pick out a good quote to use as a blurb and ask the reviewer for their permission to use the blurb, thereby effectively waiving their anonymity. The peer reviewer in this instance agreed, so I included the very nice blurb with the jacket copy I sent to the author for her approval.
So the author saw this very nice blurb from a very prominent scholar who had very nicely allowed her words to be used to promote the work of a first-time author, and the first-time author in question connected the blurb to the peer review and emailed the reviewer to complain about some revision suggestions in the report.
Don’t ever do this, either.
Yeah. Don’t do this either....this is the most insane story.
When an author of mine contacts someone who reviewed their book negatively
*Don’t do this. Like ever.
When someone emails me asking if an author is going to sign at an event...except the author died 25 years ago
I’m just sitting at my desk trying not to openly weep.
When an author we’re working with hires a social media person and then asks me to run their Goodreads
*Um, that’s social media.
Selfie. This is the shape that a stack of books takes on when I carry it close to my chest.
Book Selfie.
When my email gets out of control because I’ve been out of the office for numerous business events and people don’t understand that it’s going to take at least a week to get it all under control again
*I get way too much email.
When I don’t know how late I’m working because it’s getting dark later and I look up at what I think is 5 pm and what is actually 7:30 pm
I don’t know what to say about the verdict. I also don’t know if it’s really my place to say much of anything instead of spreading what others are saying, specifically women. I can’t stand the thought of not posting anything about it, although if I’ve accidentally said something stupid or harmful about it please let me know if you feel up to it, I would love in that case to take whatever it is down (now, in the past, or in the future).
I expected the verdict, but somehow didn’t expect the judge’s comments to be quite this bad. And the verdict being expected doesn’t make it any less disgusting (”reasonable doubt” does not mean “if you can’t recall over a decade later whether your attacker had his hand on your neck for a few seconds or for 10 seconds then you are lying”). This is a sad fucking day for Canada.
Between this and the anti-LGBT bullshit in North Carolina yesterday, I just am done with the world today.