Mar 27
I was very interested to read how bookstores are coping with the challenges of a coronavirus-hit economy. The BBC writes about “How bookshops are helping with isolation“. I’m going to quote from their article at some length, to illustrate how innovation and enthusiasm can compensate for other problems.
Several articles and reports caught my eye over the past couple of weeks. I thought you might find them interesting, too.
First, the BBC has a fascinating video report on ancient libraries in a town in the Sahara Desert.
The ancient African town of Chinguetti was once a stopover for trade caravans and pilgrims in the Sahara Desert.
As many of the people passing through were rich and educated, libraries started opening along the route to allow visitors to read and write.
Today the remaining libraries are fighting to preserve these ancient books in the hostile desert climate.
I can’t embed the video, but you’ll find it at the link. It makes interesting viewing.
Nov 24
I recently launched a book on the ‘Zon and checked off the applicable genre tags. And discovered that it also appears under a horror sub-genre. “But wait, this isn’t horror! Just because it has…” Um, OK, never mind. But it is still not horror. Or is it?
What separates urban fantasy (UF), paranormal fantasy, paranormal romance (PNR), dark fantasy, and horror? Besides “Does the guy on the cover have a bare chest? If so, PNR.” Although that might change next week, given how publishers keep re-doing genre conventions on covers. Read more
Aug 15
The group writing blog, Writers in the Storm, Melinda VanLone recently had a different take on covers. Some of the points underline what Sarah, Cedar, and others have said – covers are not first and foremost works of art. They are tools for selling.
The second point… I’m not entirely sure about, although based on the problem on the ‘Zon with “Just what is Urban Fantasy anyway?”
Jun 28
An illustration from a book by Maximilian II Habsburg. Author photo.
That’s the basis of Kris Rusch’s piece Rethinking the Writing Business: Part 1 over at Kris Writes. We authors are looking at ourselves as publishers, or working with publishers and trying to match their take.
Nope. Wrong. Too limited. Read more
My husband challenged me to compile the complete kitchen sink marketing checklist for launches – including everything I’m not managing right now. What else would you put in here? What do you do? What is your timeline for a release? Read more
Apr 14
Author photo of part of the column in question. From the March 30-31 Wall Street Journal.
According to the science fiction book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal, space opera is dead. In his defense, he was reviewing a book from Tor and generally only reviews books from the Big 5 imprints, and Pyr. The book had been listed as “space opera,” leading him to muse on Niven and Heinlein, Frank Herbert and Jerry Pournelle and James Schmitz. Did anyone write about Moties and ray-guns and wild adventure on strange new worlds anymore? What about galaxy-spanning empires and questions of galactic import? If the review book was an example, well… The book was not bad, but it was not space opera. The reviewer finishes by saying that the Dorsai and Kzinti are long-lost and gone. We don’t have the willing suspension of disbelief and the “macho sub-genre.”
As I said, in his defense, he reads Big 5 imprints and a very few small presses. Read more
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