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A Writer's Edge

English words, writing, and books--with a tech touch

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Name: Georganna Hancock
Location: San Diego, California, United States

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

New Media Reviews

When I saw Jason Kottke's post on new rules for reviewing, I thought FTC. No. He has noticed something I thought was my personal problem: reviewing based on the quality of the media product. If the TOC in an ebook isn't linked to the chapter titles, the book falls in my estimation.  If I find too many typos or outright errors in the printing--or any of a dozen other irritations--I may pan the product.

Kottke's point is that we are more often turning a blind eye and ear to the content. It's all about format. I disagree with him, though, that purchasers pay no attention to, say, the story and buy a format. If you have a Kindle, do you buy books just because they are in the Kindle Store?  It's not like climbing a mountain just because it's there.

If I focus on the quality of the product, it's because I didn't find glaring errors in the content or the story didn't disappoint.  I'm reading a hard cover of short stories right now.  The book is nice, the cover attractive.  The heft and feel of the product is pleasant. The stories suck.  I thought the same of this author's last novel.  She writes depressing tales of disillusionment and despair that simply peter out.  You're glad to reach the end, emotionally exhausted from waiting for something good to happen.

However, rather than waste my time and readers', I probably will skip reviewing this book I didn't want to receive in the first place.  Why give more free publicity to something just to tell you don't bother buying it?  I'd rather tell you to not bother buying this particular edition of a useful/pleasing book. Just because my reviews appear mostly in "new media" (in digital format) doesn't mean I'm not a "traditional" reviewer, either. I'd say or do the same if my reviews appeared in print.

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Friday, March 19, 2010

Books for Boys?

If you write kidlit or Y.A. books, consider boy protagonists. According to a study by Center on Education Policy and reported this week, boys are falling farther behind girls in reading. Girls have caught up in math (Yay Girls!) but boys' reading scores are going down the tubes.

Some say this results from a lack of literature in our schools that appeals to boys. Who knows what boys want, to mangle Freud. To those of you who do know what boys want, the topics that interest them:  if you can write Y.A. or material for children, please focus on the boys for a while. Am I saying jump on a fad? So be it.

No, I don't write much about children's literature--because I know little about it or writing it. I had my fave Golden Books. I had a few Nancy Drews, but mostly I grew up reading adult material. I do know enough about teaching to understand that you must catch students where they live, that is, with what interests them. Many children's writers are women, and it is so easy for us to write from the feminine perspective, plus we've all been girls.  Let's hear it more for the boys now.

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Monday, February 08, 2010

Basic Books for Writers

Reading is an integral part of becoming a writer.  I advocate constant alert reading--that is noticing new items, differences from similar products, and differences from previous versions.  And I do mean read everything, not just  your writing format or genre.  Also read cereal boxes, food can lables, the front matter in phone books, letters to the editor -- keep your powers of observation sharpened and your evaluative skills at the ready.

Speaking of books, though, the Online Universities website suggests that all writers should have a grounding in literature. The basics it recommends:

  • A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: Published posthumously, this book details the time Hemingway spent in Paris along with other literary greats, like Fitzgerald, as well as insights into the psyche of the artist himself. 
  • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: This fictional account of the life of Joyce is not only a good read but an interesting insight into the events that shaped the life of one of the world’s most acclaimed authors. 
  • Poetics by Aristotle: This ancient Greek text is all about constructing the perfect tragic drama, but offers invaluable insights into the essentials of any genre of writing. 
  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau: Check out this book to learn what it means to disconnect from society and focus on nature. Thoreau’s lessons on simplicity can be applied to the art of writing as well, where less can often say more.

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Friday, February 05, 2010

The Book Haven Blog

Cynthia Haven launched "The Book Haven" a blog all about the written word last November. She's a humanities writer at Stanford University.

Every year, books pour out of Stanford University by the scores, if not by the hundreds. From biography to poetry, science and public affairs, it is a river of the written word. Yet as newspapers cut back their pages, column inches devoted to books and the literary life are the first to go – in recent years, book sections have been the canary in the mainstream media's mine.

"Given the reduced coverage on books and book news nationwide, it's only logical that book lovers change the way we cover books and book events," Haven said. She is widely published on literary topics and has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review and others. She has a forthcoming book on Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czesław Miłosz.

The blog will continue to cover books, readings, lectures, book events, publishing news, library events, literacy studies – anything to do with the written word. Sort of like A Writer's Edge has done for the last 5+ years.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Kindle for PC

When I uploaded my first article to the Kindle Store, I noticed a little box in the far right column stating I could get a preview of the article with Kindle for PC. So I downloaded and installed the program, just to get another view of my material, and it was nice. Since then I've been telling people how they can get this program free and "rent" my material in their own accounts. Except blogs are not available yet. My bad. Sorry, you have to have the real Kindle device to subscribe to the blog, and you can't get it with Kindle for PC.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

BookTour Utility

In the course of setting up my Author Page at Amazon , I discovered the Events function which links to a fabulous free service, BookTour: Where Authors and Audiences Meet. There authors can list their itineraries; readers can find out when a favorite author is appearing in any area, their own area, or discover what authors are appearing near their homes; and the listings will sync with any standard calendar application, too.  Did I say it's all *FREE*? The wonders of the Internet never cease to amaze me!

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

DailyLit Now All Free


Easy reading: bites of books in your email or RSS. And now it is all free, according to the DailyLit Blog's DailyLit Announces Move to All Free:

With the support of our sponsors, we’ll do our best to continue to present series of the highest quality and will strive to continue to earn the reputation we’ve recently received as the #1 Book Website (as selected by The Sunday Times).
The service offers over 1000 classic and contemporary books that you can read in 5-minute installments on any device that receives email or RSS. DailyLit began in May 2007.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Summer Reading Report

I took Wendy Doniger's 780 page opus The Hindus: An Alternative History with me to the hospital. I had time to fill between an appointment to rearrange the rocks in my head and another for making muzzy photos of my boobs. When I signed in early at Radiology, I plunked the book down on the reception area.

"My that's a big book," the girl exclaimed, "but you're halfway through." She'd spotted my mother's tasseled bookmark sticking out from page 287. Halfway, indeed!

"Yes, and I've been reading it all summer." She just made big eyes at that, probably thinking I'm a really slow reader. What I didn't explain is that I get interrupted by surprise deliveries of little treats that divert me for a day or two. One such was Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist, which at first I mistook for one of those little Hallmark gift books. It's not that small in size, but does provoke the phrase "slim volume", pretty apt because it is a novel about a poet. Poets are always producing slim volumes. The only big books of poetry I've ever seen are, well, anthologies. More aptness.

The cover graphic is a ripe plum, and once I'd bit into the juicy treat that is The Anthologist, another cliché came to mind: I couldn't put it down. Fortunately the Baker book is just like a fresh, ripe plum--delicious but gone in a few bites. Leaves you wanting another. Doniger's book is more an Indian curry dinner with a table full of savories to sample. In the case of The Hindus, however, the extras are the meal, and it takes a long time to enjoy and finish the dish.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Writers Reading Writers

Continuing the crime writing theme from yesterday at The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers: in Kudos for the Pros by Michael Dymmoch, he muses on great windy city writers he's learned from (what, no Studs Terkel?) and reminds us of peers with a question:
Blogging seems to have taken over as the medium for getting ideas across, and those of us with a life or occupation now have too many talented writers to keep up with. But all of them, wherever their work appears, continue to remind us that we belong to a community of people who value ideas and appreciate those ideas skillfully presented.

With so many terrific writers to choose from, how do you decide with whom to spend your time?
I admit to being torn: if I spend time reading the paper(s) at Starbucks, or one I buy on Sunday, I feel guilty taking time away from the computer. If I spend all day at the keyboard, as I did yesterday, I wonder what I missed in the paper, pauper that it has become. An article ripped out, literally, from the news is so much better a reminder of an idea on which to riff, expand, follow up, than one held as a bookmark, social or otherwise, or as a draft in my Blogger account.

And another way to choose with whom to spend writerly time is in the real life community of writers I am blessed to have around, as I wrote the other day in Socializing for Success. sai4jtqpnr

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Monday, June 29, 2009

Serious Summer Reading

The vicious cycle of book reviewing brought serious summer reading this year. I'll spend the season dipping into the rich, dense Wendy Doniger compendium The Hindus: An Alternative History.

A much smaller, more painful one to read is Andrew Levy's A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary. I had suspected I'd had migraines until menopause, but reading about them seems to be bringing them back--at least while I'm vicariously experiencing Levy's rough ride. His search for a solution brings resolution of his relationship with a painful Other living within his head.

Not quite as dense as THE HINDUS, but equally fascinating, is a fictionalized view of the beginnings of Islam. Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam by Kamran Pasha, tells the story through the eyes of "Aisha, the youngest and most beloved wife of the Prophet." Although the author's first novel, it is the product of a successful Pakistani-American Hollywood screenwriter, contributing to lush descriptions and intense characterizations that make this one closer to a "beach read."

But wait, there's more! I'm running out of room to mention :

The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
Happy Trails to You: Stories by Julie Hecht
Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain by Lorie Tharps

The first two are rather dreary fiction, and the third--what can I say? A crazy, mixed-up black girl grows up in the vanilla Midwest, never happy with her self-imposed succession of identities until she finds out that slavery flourished in Spain. Huh?

These books were published by The Penguin Press, Simon & Schuster, Putnam and Washington Square Press.

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Saturday, June 13, 2009

CliffsNotes® Wired!

CramCasts covering the following works of literature:
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  • Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

News Release

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Friday, June 12, 2009

Cheaper Books at Scribd

I looked into Scribd.com for publishing Be a Successful Writer! The caliber of other documents offered in the "writing" section did not impress me. In short, I didn't want to be included. It looked like a whole lot of competition with no quality control and no immediate way for customers to know what links were worthwhile exploring. It was for these reasons that I never wrote about the new service.

Last month I mentioned that Linda Dawson had written about Scribd in her newsletter. She was interested in the new book publishing service that allows sales of single chapters. Also in its favor, "Authors can upload their titles and reap an 80% royalty (as opposed to Amazon's Kindle store, which forks over merely 30%)."

Now in an NYT article, Brad Stone reports that Simon & Schuster [disclaimer: I review for S&S] will sell thousands of its titles on Scribd for "20 percent off the list price of the most recent print edition." Today 5,000 titles were to be available. Scribd does not set prices and says it will use S&S's digital files to find and remove pirated copies. Nice. When will they do that for the little guys?

Back in March Scribd had announced partnerships also with Random House, Thomas Nelson, Manning, Berrett-Koehler, Workman and other leading publishers. This came only two years after the company was launched. There's still no way for viewers to estimate the value of an item from the initial listings, so a successful run on Scribd still depends on good marketing to drive buyers to the exact listing. I'm rethinking using Scribd.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Kindle 2 Lighted Folio

Isn't this Periscope Lighted Folio for the Kindle 2 just the cutest outfit?

Periscope Lighted Folio for the Amazon Kindle 2
Technical Details:

* Built-in Twin Super Bright LED Retractable Reading Light
* Deluxe Leatherette Cover with Secure Magnetic Strap
* 4 elastic straps allow access to all controls and jacks while safely holding your Kindle 2 inside
* Left side cover can be folded behind the Kindle and locked in place with magnetic snap to facilitate one-handed use
* Note Pad and Pen Holder
* Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 1.2 x 7.2 inches ; 13 ounces
* Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
* ASIN: B00279VK9W
* Item model number: 90856

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Friday, May 22, 2009

Reading for Writers

writer readingMost advice for writers says to read. Seldom does it say what or how. Yeah, reading everything that passes before your eyes is helpful, because you can learn from others' mistakes (if you notice them and can analyze what they've done wrong). For those with limited reading time, it is crucial to focus on reading items that will enhance a career and improve writing.

Read, read, read, read (ad nauseum). Read about writing, small business, technology that helps your career, and especially read good examples of the kind of writing you want to do. Learn to read those examples with a critical eye so you can learn from them. Keep reading the markets you want to enter or remain in to keep up with their trends. Editors aren't going to email you with the changes they are making, unless you are a columnist or regular contributor. You might learn about some changes if your reading includes industry publications like Publishers Weekly or MediaBistro.

Creative writers need to read the best examples of writing in their fields. Consider reading every piece at least twice: once noting what gives you pleasure in the work, and the second time a critical read for analysis. I like to read pieces a third time, for pleasure but with the analysis in mind, so I can see how different techniques work.

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Saturday, May 09, 2009

Readers Experience

Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

Unshelved comic strip for Sunday, November 27, 2005
Unshelved is a daily comic strip about a library. At http://www.unshelved.com you can read the complete archive, buy stuff, or get Unshelved every day for free by Email, RSS feed, and LiveJournal. This is for my book club, which just read a Bryson book, and now we all feel like we've trekked Australia.

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Thursday, May 07, 2009

Amazon's Kindle DX Unleashed

Have you seen/read about Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7? Here's some details:

Thickness: Just over 1/3 of an inch

Holds up to 3,500 books, mags, docs

Display: 9.7" diagonal e-ink screen

Auto-Rotating: portrait to landscape

Built-In PDF Reader

Text-to-speech feature

3G Wireless: no monthly fees or contracts

Long Battery Life: Read for days without recharging

Available selections: Over 275,000 books

More Than Books: U.S. and international newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, magazines including The New Yorker and Time, plus popular blogs, all auto-delivered on built-in 3G wireless.

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Thursday, April 09, 2009

NY Times Eats National Press

Well why not? Most of the big stories in our local newspaper come from the New York Times News Service anyway. Smaller metropolitan papers are struggling, changing hands, folding, shrinking and in general deteriorating.

Last weekend, I bought a The New York Times instead of subjecting myself to the usual teeth-grinding ordeal of "reading" The San Diego Union-Tribune, recently sold to...someone whose name I didn't recognize. I'd almost forgotten how pleasurable it is to experience a good, nay, great newspaper. I haven't seen the L.A. paper for several years, probably since it closed its San Diego bureau.

Consider:

* the NY Times is international
* it is already distributed nationwide
* presses exist in all parts of the country
* markets for printed pubs still abide
* higher quality is in demand
* local reporters are in place
How difficult would it be for the Times to take over foundering metro medias' physical plants and human capital, leveraged by its existing news and advertising services, and plug in local "stuff"? We'd keep our area's coverage, vastly improve the quality of the product, and save some jobs. And just think of the Sunday books section!

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Free eBooks Week

Sorry, sorry, I'm a little tardy. This is Read an E-book Week. To celebrate, Lida E. Quillen, Publisher at Twilight Times Books, has been offering free downloads in .PDF or .HTML formats (not just for eBook readers). See TTB - Free eBooks.

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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Writer's Block Book: Organizing

Researching a proposed book is currently both easier and more complex, thanks to the Internet.

The last time I organized large-scale research was for my master's thesis published in 1993. Using the Internet for finding information was still pretty rudimentary. I could search indexes of journals for articles on subjects, then check the UCSD and SDSU library catalogs for book and periodical holdings, and finally visit the stacks and photocopy pertinent material. Holdings I wanted to read that were not local were ordered through an inter-library loan system. I ended up with a standard-size small moving box (book box) crammed with 11 X 17 sheets of photocopies in file folders.

Some people can manage to contain all their research electronically, but I still like to spread out pieces of paper to refresh memory and find connections. I do have documents in computer files, and a directory devoted to the book, and I have already begun using online resources like Google Scholar.

Still, stacks of paper are piling up. They're photocopies of the indexes and end notes and bibliographies of the basic academic books I've reviewed so far. This material will perhaps be scanned into my computer to compile lists of books, articles, and journal to gather further academic research--a job I may farm out to a university student.

I've yet to even touch the sea of popular resources on Writer's Block, usually in the self-help arena. A glance at Amazon listings is overwhelming. And thank goodness for used book availability! The work plan is roughly to research enough to firm up an outline, write a proposal, find and query agents. If I were younger and had more energy, I might query/submit directly to publishers (not top tier ones, because they don't accept unsolicited material).

One of the documents in the BLOCK book directory is a rudimentary outline that I am using to guide the organization of this research material. I'm still vacillating between incorporating the "what to do" with "causes" or putting all the advice in a separate section of the book. Another notion is to develop a self-diagnosis instrument. It could take the form of a series of questions or a flow chart that would lead to potential solutions.

What do you think? If you were searching for understanding and help with Writer's Block, would you want to read about reasons with suggested solutions or look for the help in a different part of a book? Would you like some sort of chart to help decide the cause of your block, or prefer just to read about all the sources of the problem for a general understanding?

Previous articles in this series:

Writer's Block Book: The Commitment (June)
Writer's Block Book: The Saga Begins (September)

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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Writing for Reading

Because yesterday was International Literacy Day, I feel like dropping in a few ideas on the importance of being able to read. Yes, I know the post would have been more appropriate 24 hours ago, but I didn't discover the date soon enough. Either they're not doing a very good job of promoting ILD, or I'm not paying attention.

Why should people be able to read? Aside from reading for pleasure, to get through school, and to progress in employment, reading can be life-saving. Without that ability, you must memorize instructions given by a doctor or pharmacist to overcome an illness. How about using a map (I need directions written in words)? Finding any sort of information?

My grandfather could decipher a few words, and so he pretended to read the daily newspaper and menus in restaurants. He always ordered a hamburger. He could sign his name on a check, but he could not fill one out. He retired from "The Fridigidaire" plant after working 30 years in the same position as he entered, a millwright, the lowest job available. His life was painfully narrow and limited.

When I think about illiteracy, I know it surrounds me, even in urban America, but I usually think of indigenous peoples, living as their ancestors did. People like the Aborigines in Australia who choose to trek through the wild regions of that glorious landscape. And I think of the ones who don't want to live that way, who are drawn to the towns but may not be able to decipher the traffic and street signs. They have a tough row with no hoe.

Presumably everyone who reads this blog is a writer. Reading is paramount to our careers from both directions: our reading and our work being read. Literacy is vital for writers.

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Monday, September 08, 2008

International Literacy Day

Google It If You Can Read!

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Summer Reads Mini-Reviews

Time to catch up on my mentions of book readings this summer:

Oxygen, ISBN: 978-1416556107, by Carol Cassella. An anesthesiologist writing about an anesthesiologist. How droll! But the author's experience undoubtedly lead to the richness and depth of the book, a mystery with twisty subplots to captivate the most bored of minds. If I ever have surgery again, I'll regard the gas passer much more closely and with great respect. I wonder just how much soul-searching doctors really indulge in? Top read!

Disobedience, ISBN: 978-0743291569, by Naomi Alderman. Glimpses into very different lives always intrigue me, and none are more different than those of Orthodox Jews. More so, apparently, if the traditional community is set in staid Great Britain, that bastion of blancmange. The spicy religious sect hold secrets within secrets, gradually revealed as the main character, Ronit, visits the place from which she thought she had escaped her heritage. Sad and unsettling.

Promise of the Wolves, ISBN: 978-1416569985, by Dorothy Hearst. Talking animals are not my preference for historical or fantasy reading. The rabbits of Watership Down bored me silly. However, this first of a trilogy titled "The Wolf Chronicles" has a mystic element to it that caught my interest and eventually enchanted me. Especially the mystery-master talking raven. The wolves became believable characters, even with their silly names, and revealed just enough animal actions to keep a reader reminded of their true nature.

These are all, I believe, debut novels and an interesting mix. I give them an up, down and neutral in the Thumbs category.

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Parents Reading for Children

reading a bookNotice the title is not "parents reading TO children" for a change. On "Today", First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna discussed what the Bush parents did to encourage their children to read. Jenna mentioned that her parents read rather than watching TV. Then she advocated that all parents should read

for as much time as they want their children to read.

Not reading to children, adults reading for themselves. Children emulate their parents' actions. Veg out before the TV, your kids will grow into couch potatoes. Read books, and your progeny will read books. O.K., maybe comics at first, but later graphic novels.

Now, go do as Miss Haueisen, our high school librarian taught: sit up straight, under good lighting, hold a book at a 45-degree angle to your eyes and about 18 inches away, and read. Read.

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Writing Free Books

Last month, did you snatch your copy of Suze Orman's Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny ($24.95 retail price for the hardcover)? I got mine, thanks to a Florida friend, Bonnie Boots. The book was available only for a day, but word-of-mouth spread across the 'net faster than fall flames in southern California. By day's end, more than a million electronic versions were downloaded.

According to the NY Times, HarperCollins is offering a limited selection of free downloadable books on its website, although I was unable to find such a listing to link.

Tara at ResearchBuzz offers tips on how to search for free books from university presses:

... try this search on Google or Yahoo along with your favorite keywords: “university press” free download site:edu .... You’ll get some irrelevant stuff, but you’ll also get pointers to small university presses which are making their books available online for free.

To get other general overviews of what’s available, try site:edu free book downloads “university press” oxford yale harvard.... try free books download “university press” inurl:2008 (The inurl: portion is because many blogs archive by date, and inurl:2008 is an easy way to find recent entries.)

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Books by the Month

booksThose interested in how books are marketed and sold, might like to read, well, OK, try to wade through, a scholarly initial look at the early history of the Book-of-the-Month Club by Daniel M.G. Raff, presented to the Columbia Economic History Seminar last May.

I have fond memories of Book-of-the-Month Club selections that populated my family-of-origin's meager library. I think those included Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Dinner at Antoine's, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. The latter encouraged me to become a writer, although not the fictionalist I had dreamed about. Other books I suspect arrived via the BOTMC included Zotz! and Cheaper by the Dozen. I also still have my father's copy of Dale Caniege's How to Make Friends and Influence People and remember an inspirational one by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, as well as something like, How to Make a Million Dollars in Real Estate.

If nothing else, my parents were eclectic readers.

According to Wikipedia, the BOMC is now just one of many book clubs operated under the Bookspan logo, owned by the giant German publishing conglomerate, Bertelsmann AG.

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

eBook Reader Review

ebook reading deviceMuch of the buzz about reading books revolves these days around "readers", the electronic devices that can store books available in an electronic format. Readers, of course, want to know about them (and argue). Writers want to know if: they should be considering releasing their books in an electronic format, what about the rights, how must should one cost? And publishers want to know if people will buy these products (reading devices and ebooks). Visionaries are all over the spectrum as to whether or not ebooks and readers will replace tree books. Some of us see a place for both in the future. The trick is to make both forms economically attractive. I've asked Sam Warren, owner of San Diego WriteWay to comment on his experiences with a reader:

I love my eBook Reader

This editor recently bought an eBookwise Reader on the Internet for $120 and fell in love with it. Previously, I was too busy to read for recreation. Now I read at the bus stop, coffeehouses, doctor's offices, etc. There are better ones such as a Palm Pilot PDF, Amazon Kindle, Sony & Borders, iPod, and various cell phones. But they cost a lot more, and I am perfectly happy with my simple eBookwise Reader. In addition to all the best sellers, there are the thousand of free out of copyright ebooks, ebooks of the classics.

Self-publishing guru Dan Poynter told me that he reads ebooks on his PDF while flying from one speaking engagement to another. Many Luddites knock them, saying that they prefer the feel of a real book; but then, they haven't tried the convenience of having multiple books and a dictionary at their finger tips, plus the easy-to-read backlight and the adjustable font size.
— Sam Warren
Read more on Sam's page about ebooks.

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

Owed to Readers

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Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Celebrate Granta Magazine of New Writing

Another innocuous-appearing brown mailer lay in my back yard. "What book have I agreed to review now?" I wondered. Out slid what looks like a trade paperback and a thick one at that. But wait, Granta is a magazine, bearing an ISSN, interesting advertising and all. But wait again! There's that new book fragrance ... what kind of ink do they use in the UK? Sniff, sniff ... mmm ...

The book, er, magazine is a special 100th anniversary issue. Special it is, from the DavidGranta Hockney front cover to all 152 pages crammed with new pieces by the likes of:

Julian Barnes
Salman Rushdie
Isabel Allende
Martin Amis
Ian McEwan
Harold Pinter
Zadie Smith

I'm going to be dipping into this box of literary chocolates for a long time. Granta subscriptions are available through Amazon.

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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Amazon's Best Books of 2007

Best Books of 2007At this time of year, traditional material for regular nonfiction writers are either "Top or Best ..." or "Resolutions". I try to live just one day at a time, instead of proclaiming annual resolutions . If I am in a change process, that's about as long as I can focus or handle. I do, however, believe in setting goals and offered a system for reaching them last month.

I wasn't going to give in to the "tops" tug until I ran across this page at Amazon: Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books. It is most handy because in addition to the editors' top picks (with no explanation of the selection process), Amazon lists Customer Favorites, the "100 topselling books on Amazon.com during 2007. (Ranked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2007 are eligible.)" At last, a measure with a metric rather than whimsical evanescent criteria. "Top selling" I can understand, even if Amazon has contracted the words into one. There's still time for you to vote on that page for your favorite from among the top 25 best sellers of the year.

Back on the main page of Best Books of 2007, bonuses are the breakdowns of Customer Favorites into 30 "top ten" categories, (find the list in the right column). That's enough sections to enable market research for anyone considering writing a book. What's more, you can also study similar rankings for the last sevan years! (See box at the bottom of the left column.)

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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Get Free Books


Here's a holiday season gift for the readers via the Frugal Panda: 17 resources of free reading! The Panda clause:

You can never have too many books, so we are delighted to share with you some ways to get them for free. From children’s books to technical books, there are numerous links to resources that offer literature for free. Some of the following sites offer actual printed books, while others feature electronic books (aka "ebooks").
Not only does the Frugal Panda list the sources, but also comments on the kinds of books available and tips on uses of the sites.

Among those mentioned: WOWIO, Memoware, and socialbib and others I'd never heard of.

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Friday, November 30, 2007

Kindle Some Reading

Amazon's Kindle ReaderWhat could be nicer on Christmas eve than cuddling up to a blazing Kindle? Amazon's new reader boasts that it "is a revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, newspapers, magazines and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight." Finally! ePaper for the masses. Well, maybe the rich masses, for the price tag is $399.

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

How to Read a Book

Bonnie Boots rooted out a perfect video for writers, especially authors, at YouTube. See Help Desk Matters | The Internet Wizards Blog for an hilarious lesson on "How to Read a Book".

Video on how to read a book

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Reading in Stores for Writer's Block

Reading for Writer's BlockWhen you have Writer's Block, especially the "no idea at all!" type, treat yourself with a dose of reading. Read anything and everything, not necessarily about writing. Reading something from which you learn is especially helpful, but whatever you choose, it should be an enjoyable experience. One method to accomplish this has a bonus: visit a big book store, the type that also has a newsstand. Read some of the books, but also look through a few magazines. Maybe buy a different newspaper and read all of it. Leads for articles or bookish thoughts will creep insidiously into your mind and wrap themselves around your creativity, waking it from slothful slumber.

And you can people-watch! See what others are reading. Maybe strike up a conversation with someone who looks like a fellow scribbler. Even if they aren't writers, chances are they'll have interesting stories to tell. One of them could become the nubbin of a story you'll tell. And all because you went to read when you couldn't write.

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Sunday, August 19, 2007

Readers Go Shelfari

Shelfari website for readers and book loversPhil Gerbyshak, ringleader, oops! I mean ringmaster over at 100 Bloggers invited me to join his Shelfari community. To do that, I'll have to join the website which advertises itself as "a free site that lets you share book ratings and reviews with friends and meet people who have similar tastes in books. It also lets you build an online bookshelf, join book clubs, and get good book recommendations from friends. You should check it out." I wonder if Phil is aware of my predilection for horror? When I visited, I discovered it is actually a social networking site for bibliophiles. How cool is that?

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Friday, July 20, 2007

Poetic Rhetoric Discourages Readers

Poetic tastes and audiences differIn a forum recently someone asked, "How do you judge poetry?" I sensed an explosive topic immediately, probably posted by a frustrated poet . Frustrated at not getting work published, not winning a contest and most likely not appreciating someone else's poem that won a contest. I didn't step into the fray, feeling that critiquing poetry is even more intensely personal than writing a book review. As Nancy Breen points out in her post in Poetic Asides:

No wonder it's so hard to attract readers to poetry. Once they sense that one way or another they're going to get dragged into an intellectual throw-down ("Ewww, you read that guy?" "Oh, please--poetry that doesn't rhyme is just crap!"), they run for the hills.
You don't have to defend your work, style or taste if others don't appreciate it--you probably don't like theirs, either. Let's de-escalate the rhetoric that surrounds poetry and get on with the enjoyment!

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Friday, July 13, 2007

Based on the Book

Books are made into moviesMy real-life book club met yesterday to discuss Debra Ginsberg's Blind Submission. Several members remarked about striking similarities to The Devil Wears Prada, one irate lady declaring that the author had just taken the plot and changed the names and location. Eventually, in a discussion of just how bitchy a major character is, another member commented that the character in the movie was toned down quite a bit from the one in the book. It turned out that she was the only one who had read the Prada book and seen the movie. All the rest of the members were referring to the movie. This whole "book varies from movie" discussion reminded me that the Mid-Continent Public Library, based in Independence, Missouri, has a high-tech branch online with an applicable resource anyone can use: Based on the Book, a catalog of over 1,200 books, novels, short stories, and plays that have been made into motion pictures.

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Monday, June 04, 2007

Top Books

Top 25 fiction and nonfiction books?The USA Today folks have pulled together their list of 25 Books that leave a legacy. It's part of their 25th anniversary celebration with room for you to make an impact: a poll on which of their top five selections should be number one. What if you think another book--one that isn't Harry Potter, The Deep End of the Ocean, The Da Vinci Code, The 9/11 Commission Report (that's a book?), or Chicken Soup for the Soul--should be first? Well, then you can vote for "none of the above" but no write-ins allowed. No indication is given as to the criteria used by the USA Today editors and critics who chose the top 25. Frankly, some make me gag. The notion that The Da Vinci Code represents the best writing our country can offer is offensive, or that What to Expect When You're Expecting ranks in the same class with A Brief History of Time is ludicrous! Nonetheless, there they are. Take a look and vote for none of the above. Send them a message. Or send me a message if you disagree. Last time I looked The Bible was still the top best-seller.

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Crisis in Reading

Reading books is a must for fiction and nonfiction writersDavid Kipen, former San Francisco Chronicle book editor and critic, hopes the current campaigns to save newspaper book reviews will restore reading to the heart of American life. He claims, from his current lofty position of the NEA's director of literature:

Still, as important as the crisis in American book reviewing is, the underlying crisis in reading is practically sawing the country in half. Forget red states and blue states. The implications of a republic where half reads and the other doesn't -- not can't, just doesn't -- are simply horrifying.
Read Kipen's whole essay at Salon.com in Last exit to book land (may require subscription).While we know people here read, who are the people who don't read (besides adolescents with their ears plugged to I-Pods)? One of the rites of adulthood in the 60s was getting a subscription to the newspaper. At a certain point in the 80s, I read three papers daily. Now I go to Starbucks and scarf down a Hazelnut decaf with the freebie papers lying around. What's happened to us? Yes, I buy the Sunday paper only for the TV guide insert. Papers just don't seem relevant anymore.

But not reading books? Is it the short attention span everyone blames on TV and the Internet? Are we not human adults, capable of controlling our own bodies, changing habits to improve our lives? Just as we can learn to calm ourselves, we can also increase our patience with reading material and again find the joy and satisfaction books can bring. That's the campaign we need!

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