March 2011
54 posts
1 tag
it's rough out there
At lunch, some dude tried to hand me a flier by saying, “Ma’am? Can I give you a flier?” Uh, no you can’t. Every time I see people trying to hand out fliers, I’m reminded of the Mitch Hedberg bit about them; really what they’re saying is, “Here, you throw this away.” This was maybe the most blatant example. He didn’t even say what the fliers...
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“80% of children in rural areas use their local libraries as their only access to...”
– SaveTheLibraries.com (via housingworksbookstore)
February 2011
33 posts
4 tags
on books
I love a book sale. I think that, in the last year, I’ve only bought paper books that were part of some crazy sale. I’m a slave to my Kindle, basically, but there’s something kind of magical about rooting through a big cardboard box and finding some really interesting-looking book for $1.
I felt a tiny twinge of guilt buying discounted books at a big box store, though. On...
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HarperCollins Seeks to Limit Digital Lending,... →
I don’t understand publisher antipathy towards libraries. I mean, I get that, on paper, if someone takes a book out of the library they aren’t buying a new copy, but let’s take a moment to consider the bottom line.
So it’s been shown on a number of occasions that offering an ebook for free actually increases sales. (Not just ebook sales. Print sales.) Giving out a book for...
Cat adore, manipulate women →
bellyrumblings:
“The bond between cats and their owners turns out to be far more intense than imagined, especially for cat aficionado women and their affection reciprocating felines, suggests a new study.
Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners, and it’s not just for the sake of obtaining food, according to the new research, which has been accepted for publication in...
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Authors, Readers, and Discoverability in the new... →
Now that we’ve welcomed our new digital overlords to the publishing industry and ebook sales are far outpacing projections, lots of expert types are boasting the oncoming revolution of self- and digital publishing. Plus, Borders filed for bankruptcy. So there’s lots of doom and gloom.
What I think is interesting is that I wonder if articles on these phenomena overestimate the impact...
oh, also
I think there’s value in critiquing work you don’t like, because you have to think critically about what the writer would have to do to redeem it. What, exactly, isn’t working for you? How can you avoid doing that same thing in your own writing? Why don’t you think it can work? How can you improve it? These are all useful things, too. I find talking about writing with...
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on writing groups (and finding the critique... →
I’d been wanting to start a writers group for three or four years before I was able to make one happen, and even then, it was mostly because someone else took the reins. I’m running that group now, although in truth, the group has been around long enough that it kind of runs itself; most of my job is just sending out meeting reminders and bugging people to submit their work on time.
...
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