This week’s issue is going out a day early because we figure most of you will be knee-deep in travel or family by this time tomorrow. Our big, fat turkey, which Ali bought on sale two weeks ago, had been thawing in the fridge for two days now.
This week:
Most of us think of a template as specific guides to where and how text will be laid out. It can also be anything that serves as a guide or pattern for any kind of materials. I went to dictionary.com to get this expanded definition. In this last experience it was strict adherence to a style sheet.
Just when I thought nothing would surprise me, I find that my book is available for rent on the Web. I use Google Alerts to search the Internet for anything relating to my book and this just popped up today. Chegg.com is offering it for rent. I’ll have to admit that it’s an interesting sales method.
Is it legal for a company to offer a book for rent instead of for sale? It seems to me that recycling my book cheats meout of any profit after the first book is printed. Please let me know your thoughts on this matter and what steps I should take.
New writers are often instructed to “write what you know.” That doesn’t always help, of course. Without research and interviews, I never would have been able to write about the making of Kentucky bourbon (unfortunately, no tasting allowed) or the value of metaphors in medical hypnosis. Yet, it has been priceless advice at other times. Especially with one major event in my life. Writing about something I sadly did know resulted in two books and a new tangent in my career.
Shakespeare Squared / ShakespeareSquared.com – Publisher (finally!) responds
Diggory Press – Three-year court battle finally over! Read what happened!
We have all completely recovered from H1N1 / Swine Flu – well, those of us who caught it, anyway. Richard, Ali and Frank never caught it but the rest of us did.
It’s a relief to not need to be paranoid about it anymore. “Go aheads, kids, touch all the doorknobs you want!” Ha ha ha.
At the risk of offending some authors, and after yet another uncomfortable and embarrassing email discussion with an author this week, I must bring this up.
Many authors choose to put their photo inside or on the cover of their book. This is usually a good idea because readers want to get to know the authors of the books they read. Sometimes, however, a photo can kill a book. How? Well, again, this is a bit uncomfortable but somebody needs to say it. So, here goes…
This Week:
There has been a great deal of commotion about Google’s controversial and potentially anti-competitive plans to digitalize millions of books, or the pricing war going on between Walmart, Target, and Amazon. It is surprising that only little attention has been paid to an even greater threat to authors and publishers by Scribd.com, a web site allowing the distribution of copyrighted documents, including digitalized versions of popular works such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
