Writer Unboxed

This is heartwrenching: 
Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.
The […]

It’s something I joke about, but it’s true just the same: It’s a good thing I’m a freelance writer who receives regular assignments or I’d be playing Tetris all day. Query? Shop around? Try to charm a new editor? No, no, please no.
So you can imagine how I feel with regards to marketing my fiction, […]

I fell behind with the WU Google Notebook last week, but it’s updated now. Check the Notebook HERE for news. Here’s what amounts to probably the biggest industry bang: Amazon is making moves to elminate the middle man, publishing things onsite themselves instead of using on-print demand services. This has big implications for writers who […]

Uh, oh. It’s looking bleak for the second-largest book chain in the US. Check out the WU Google Notebook for books & business news, including the scandal over a British author not allowed to enter the US; a movie and a degree for author Sandra Brown; the latest on the Audible-Amazon love connection; the book […]

Via Dear Author, The Worst Agent in the World ™, Barbara Bauer, is suing Preditors & Editors and their sister sites for libel. Dave Kuzminski, editor of P&E, posts on Absolute Write:
P&E is being sued by Barbara Bauer and by Victor E. Cretella, III, Esq. in two separate courts.
Ms. Bauer is a literary agent […]

This picture pretty much captures how I feel today, which is why I can’t conjure up a thinking post. My cognitive abilities should return to normal after the Odyssey of the Mind competition is over. But I’m a coach. And the meetings are held in my house. And I’m surrounded by props and paint and […]

Continuing our examination of how the world of publishing is awakening to the power of the Intertubes (sorry, couldn’t resist), big daddy publishers have now come to terms with the fact that cyberspace is here to stay. Not only that, they are experimenting with ways to market and sell books online to harness the […]

From Publishers Weekly:
Sourcebooks’s first-ever preempt has paid off: I Love You More, a fall 2007 title from the Naperville, Ill., house’s new Jabberwocky imprint, will hit the New York Times bestseller list for Children’s Picture Books on February 24.
Check out more books and business news at the WU Google Notebook HERE.

The WGA strike, that is.  Via Nikki Finke:
SUNDAY 12:30 PM: At the WGA’s news conference today, union leaders declared the new contract is “a huge victory for us”. Trumpeted WGAW President Patric Verrone, “This is the first time we actually got a better deal in a new media than previously.” Verrone credited News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin […]

Last week I posted about the effectiveness of online publicity and how professional book publicists were turning to online resources to market their clients books rather than using ‘traditional’ outlets.
Coincidentally, Victoria Strauss over at Writer Beware blogs about the decline of social networks as marketing tools and makes a good point:
Unfortunately, even as older strategies […]

In the wake of the online community’s success with Patry Francis Day, Therese and I read with interest this article from Publishing Trends. In a nutshell, PR reps are heading to blogs and websites to help their clients maximize publicity for their books:
It’s unanimous. Publicists think online is the way to go for promoting […]

Like many of you, I’ve been hacking away at the world of publishing for a bunch of years now. I’ve written five novels, three of which I think truly are publishable, and one of which is on the desks of three agents as I write this.  And I’ve been doing my Flogging the Quill blog […]