Writer Unboxed

Tidbits on the publishing industry from around the ‘web.

Barnes and Noble is being put up for sale. What’s happening? This from The New York Times:

For years, Barnes & Noble has been battered by large shifts in the publishing industry and the retail environment. Book sales have moved toward big-box stores like Costco, Wal-Mart and Target, and away from mall-based stores like B. Dalton, which Barnes & Noble acquired in the late 1980s.

One of the chain’s main stock holders may be interested in purchasing the store outright, but there are still plenty of question marks in B&N’s future–including predictions of store closings in the range of 10-15%. More news later this month.

We received this note from WU community member and semi-finalist in our unpubbed contributor contest Barb Mountjoy:

I would not be qualified for your Unpubbed position any more–I got a novel contract!

The book is The Elf Queen, the first in the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot fantasy series set in the western Montana area. The book comes out in September from Dragonfly Publishing, an indie press. I’ve got Elf Queen merchandise available at CafePress, a Web page going up soon at www.lyndialexander.com (my pseudonym for this series), and I’m already working on Volume Two.

The Elf Queen is available at digital portals like Amazon and Qoop. Congratulations Barb! We’re thrilled for you!

And speaking of publishing opportunities, here’s one that is pretty incredible. Penguin Books — yes, that Penguin Books — is throwing the doors open to unsolicited manuscripts for a limited time. Click on question #11 on their About page, and this insane opportunity is buried there:

People frequently ask us how to go about getting published. Our company policy is to not accept unsolicited manuscripts or synopses and we cannot enter into correspondence about unpublished work. However, for a limited three-month period from the beginning of August until the end of October 2010, we will be inviting submissions to be sent in electronically to the following address: .

We ask that email submissions comprise a brief covering note and synopsis and not a full manuscripts. Please do not send attachments, please write out your cover note and synopsis in the body of the email. We remain unable to accept hard copy submissions and will not return or be responsible for the safety of any that we do receive, so please do not send any original or hard copy manuscripts to us. We will not contact you with feedback on your submission and will only enter into email correspondence with you if an editor within Penguin is keen to progress your idea.

Therese and I were talking about it, and we think this could be a test by publishers to cut out the middle man (e.g. agents) and recalibrate advances. We feel that authors should always have representation to avoid contract mistakes that are easy to make in the eagerness to be published. Still, this is a fantastic opportunity to get your work looked at by one of the best publishing houses in the industry. Good luck!

People (like me) who are still dithering about purchasing an e-book reader are receiving validation for our procrastination. Kindles are getting cheaper and cheaper. Via Slate:

Late last month, Amazon unveiled a new version of its Kindle e-book reader that, like every new Kindle, is thinner, lighter, and smaller than the previous one. It’s also the cheapest Kindle ever—the new Wi-Fi version sells for just $139. A year ago, Amazon was selling the 3G Kindle—a version that allows you to download a book even when you’re not connected to a Wi-Fi network—for $299. This June, Amazon lowered the price of that version from $259 to $189, a few hours after Barnes & Noble announced that it was lowering the price of its 3G e-reader, the Nook, from $259 to $199. The new Wi-Fi Kindle is a direct response to the pricing of Barnes & Noble’s Wi-Fi version, which sells for $149. You can think of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as the Crazy Eddie of the e-book business: Every time a rival gets close to the Kindle’s prices, Bezos goes even lower. He will not be undersold!

As the digital divide becomes less wide, more people will gravitate toward e-books. Let’s face it: $99 for an e-reader will mean that everyone will get one for the holidays — it’s a modestly cheap and totally classy gift to give and receive. This could be the tipping point.

Write on!

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter--both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President's teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins.

Kathleen Bolton

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