This Sunday’s New York Times carried a story on the front page citing a letter sent on Friday by Random House to literary agents. The letter asserted that they (Random) hold any and all e-book rights to books they have under contract, regardless of the date of the original contract (many of which were signed […]
Writing
The 5-Million Word Typewriter and How to Stay Focused
Today’s New York Times carried an interesting story about the author Cormac McCarthy and his decision to sell his trusty typewriter, an Olivetti Lettera 32. Here’s how Wikipedia cited the Times story: Cormac McCarthy used an Olivetti Lettera 32 to write nearly all of his fiction, screenplays, and correspondence over a fifty year period from […]
The 9 Best Funny and Helpful Blogs About Grammar
I believe there is nothing that bothers writers as much as English grammar. Let’s face it, for most people writing a book is a pretty big project. It will take months, perhaps years to get to the end of a manuscript that is ready for publication. One of the biggest reasons we need editors—and all […]
Why Self-Publishers are Exhausted
Writing is mostly a solitary pursuit. You sit in a room with a computer or a pad of paper. You’ve set aside this time and use your isolation to write. And although it’s best to avoid generalizations, writers by and large do tend to be people who are fine spending time by themselves. This worked […]
Rebranding TheBookDesigner.com
November is the beginning of my third month blogging on publishing and self-publishing related topics. It’s been an interesting ride so far. I’ve met some great people and learned a lot about where our industry is (in flux) and read a lot of speculation about where it might be going. When I began blogging on […]
Self-Publishing Basics: Book Chapters and Subheads
The post continues the series called the Book Construction Blueprint, providing reliable guidance to anyone taking on the construction of a book that must conform to generally-accepted practice. Chapter Titles Most nonfiction books are at least divided into chapters. Chapter lengths vary widely, and the goal of trying to keep chapters the same length may […]
5 Good Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book
Amid all the discussion about self-publishing we can forget that each decision to publish is a specific, unique, and very personal calculation. Hey, there are as many “reasons” to publish a book as there are people to publish them, but some authors are ideally placed to make use of the self-publishing tools available these days. […]
