Quartet Press closes. I know. I can hardly believe it either. I’m reeling from it all. On the one hand, it makes sense to close the doors before the Press takes on rights and opens itself up to the paying public. On the other hand, it’s like completely destroying my faith in digital publishing. For all the WTF comments forthcoming, know that I am repeating that a hundred fold in my head.
Hachette is so disturbed that the embargo on Ted Kennedy’s upcoming memoir was broken that they’ve hired a private detective to find out who leaked a copy to the New York Times. Apparently some publicity better than no publicity does not apply to book embargoes. Seriously, Hachette? Yen Cheong, publicist for Viking tries to make the case for embargoes, but I’m skeptical. Via Galley Cat.
Given the discussions we’ve had here on Dear Author about territorial rights, it’s interesting to see Random House Canada and McClelland & Stewart decide to close their subsidiary rights departments (like audiobooks) and outsource this to a newly created agency. In some cases, sub rights can help make an acquisition profitable.
Rachelle Gardner, agent, explains how an advance is paid out (either in halves or thirds) and why even an author getting a $30,000 advance per book might think twice about quitting her day job.
Advances are paid in two, three, or even four installments, over a period of time that could be a few months to two years or more. The agent’s 15% will come off the top. And you have to remember that no taxes are taken from advance checks like they are when you’re employed, so you’ll probably want to be setting aside another 20% or so from each advance check to pay the IRS when the time comes
Via Slashdot comes a link to an article in the Baltimore Sun focusing on unschooling because public school, private school and homeschooling just isn’t cutting it? Unschooling is the concept of learning from life, I guess:
A byproduct of home schooling, unschooling incorporates every facet of a child’s life into the education process, allowing a child to follow his passions and learn at his own pace, year-round. And it assumes that an outing at the park – or even hours spent playing a video game – can be just as valuable a teaching resource as Hooked on Phonics.
Meljean Brook is reposting a couple “Storytime with Missy” posts from her archive. (Post 1, Post 2). Missy is Meljean’s inner child and a lover of category romances. I keep begging for Missy to come review some of her old faves for Dear Author.
MELJEAN: Rogue changed her clothes?
MISSY: Don’t ask me. Ask Echo and Jessica. They took the damn pictures.
MELJEAN: Why is she humping Jean’s dead body?
MISSY: I’ll kill you someday.
Marketplace has a nice article on romance sales. Women buy a lot of books and this is news.
This is not likely to happen at a romance writing conference but Dragon Con is apparently a place for romance:
As Dragon*Con concludes this week, some single attendees are finding themselves coupled with someone who understands their passion for science fiction and fantasy.
…“I’ve never cared about football or any of the normal guy stuff,” said Olsen, a home health care director who enjoys obscure sci-fi television shows and elaborate costuming. “I met someone who shared my same geeky interests, and that’s hard to find.”
PaidContent and a number of other tech sites have posted drool worthy pictures of a two screen color ebook reader from Asus. Asus are leaders in the netbook technology, small, low priced laptops. Asus is now bringing its low pricing to the ereading world. A lower end device is slated for around $164 and the higher end, two screened device is also to have a low price point.
Po Bonson’s next parenting book is being crowd sourced, kind of. Chapters on various topics will be posted on Bonson’s site as well as the publisher’s site, Twelvebooks.com, and readers are invited to annotate and add their own content. Sharedbooks.com will gather the additional content and sell it for $2.95 as an ebook supplement to the print book. Interesting. I know I’ve used the Berkley Parents network hundreds of times as a new parent. Additionally, I always read the comments at Allrecipes.com because oftentimes there are tips and hints that make the original recipe better.
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