Calling First Time Writers

Hey Writers who Read this Blog! My book marketing teacher mentioned a publishing company called PUSH. I went on the site, and now I’m really intrigued. When I called self-publishing vanity publishing, someone commented that big publishers NEVER publish first time authors. But PUSH only publishes first time authors! Perhaps that’s exactly what we need: [...]

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Write to Publish – BE THERE

Hey All, I assume most of the people reading this blog are interested in things literary. Why else would you be reading this? All I talk about is books! So let’s talk about books. And publishing. And graphic novels. And acquisitions. And agents. And young adult writing. And…..everything else? I can’t talk about everything and [...]

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Distribution for Small Press/Journal – Good Enough?

The Grove Review is looking for a new distributor, and I’m having trouble finding one. I’ve sent out lots of emails to other literary journals and magazines in the Northwest, asking for recommendations, but many of the responses I’ve gotten are: Yes, we have a distributor; We use  _______; And NO, we can’t recommend them. [...]

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The Grove Review Volunteers/Interns Needed

As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I am now the Managing Editor of The Grove Review, a local literary journal, and I’m very excited about it. I started working with The Grove in October, as an intern, but it quickly became apparent to me that The Grove needed someone who was a little [...]

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Too Taboo? Not for Long

There was a popular book written about the heroine scene in Cairo called 1/4 Gram by Essam Youssef, and it prompted this article: “Are There Still Topics Too Taboo for Fiction?“ The end of the article asks a very interesting question – “In a world where there is increasing tolerance, even craving, for grim reality, [...]

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Book Sales Falling?

According to the AAP (the Association of American Publishers), book sales fell about 1.8% in 2009. Here’s the breakdown of the report: Sales went up in 2009 for the following: Adult hardbound books Paperbound books for children and juveniles E-books Higher education books Sales went down in 2009 for the following: Paperbound books Hardbound books [...]

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My Resistance to Twitter is Getting Weaker

While I’m still skeptical about Twitter’s ability to sell any books for publishers, I can’t really deny that Twitter is supporting the “cult of personality” type following that authors now enjoy. It seems like an author’s book doesn’t matter as much as their online presence and persona. If publishers could make money every time someone [...]

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Teen Reading: Getting More Depressing

I know it’s probably pretty naive, but I still love the books with happy endings. Robin McKinley, Diana Wynne Jones, and Brian Jacques all do happy endings. So what’s up with teen books getting more depressing? I just bought The Hunger Games, because it’s intriguing and the reviews are very good, but the truth is [...]

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