Fast-growing Twitter may have found one of its best uses in publishing yesterday as agents, editors and writers found themselves curiously obsessed with a #queryfail thread started by agent Colleen Lindsay. As she described it on her blog, “a group of online agents, book editors and periodicals acquisition editors are posting about their queries in real time. The idea is to educate people about what exactly it is in a query that made us stop reading and say ‘Not for me.'” Or at least make people laugh. As a taste, we pulled a selection of our favorite lines and stitched […]
Archives for March 2009
April 2009 Indie Next List
A Reliable Wife: A Novel by Robert GoolrickThe Color of Lightning: A Novel by Paulette JilesThrough Black Spruce: A Novel by Joseph BoydenThe Long Fall by Walter MosleyThe Weight of Heaven: A Novel by Thrity UmrigarDarling Jim: A Novel by Christian MoerkA Fortunate Age: A Novel by Joanna Smith RakoffRevenge of the Spellmans: A Novel by Lisa LutzAll the Living: A Novel by C.E. MorganThe Little Sleep: A Novel by Paul TremblayPicking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton, with Erin TorneoDevil’s Garden by Ace AtkinsSeeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the […]
Barnes & Noble Buys Fictionwise
The ereading (and eretailing) landscape continues to get more interesting as BN has bolstered their quiet development efforts in digital content by purchasing Fictionwise for $15.7 million in cash. As part of this morning’s announcement the company acknowledges for the first time “the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year.” They say, “Barnes & Noble said it plans to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year.” Barnes & Noble says they will keep Fictionwise as a separate business unit and founders Steve and Scott Pendergrast will continue to […]
Just What Harper Needed–A New Imprint
When we created our cool linked tables of publishers’ imprints and divisions at PublishersMarketplace.com we were told Harper Entertainment didn’t exist anymore and now it’s clear why: the line is turning into a whole new imprint, It Books. The line is run by publisher Carrie Kania, with Mauro di Preta serving as associate publisher and Cal Morgan as editorial director. Kania and Morgan remain as publisher and editorial director of Harper Perennial, too. The line launches in September 2009 and is described as a “culture imprint dedicated to entertainment, music, fashion, design, and sports” (think SSE for Harper). The NYT […]
Weisbach Launches Management Company, and Much More
Rob Weisbach is starting a “new generation management company,” Rob Weisbach Creative Management, designed to “re-conceive the traditional literary agency as a cross-training development company–one that will work with new and established talent on all aspects of career building. Weisbach represented Norman Ollestad’s CRAZY FOR THE STORM last July. At the time he expressed little interest in serving as a full-time agent, but he explains that his new venture “is broader in scope and service, allowing me to take significant advantage of my range of experience as an editor, publisher, promoter, and entertainment executive. I’ll get to work with both […]
Amazon App Puts Kindle Books on iPhones
Amazon has launched their free app that makes all books available Kindle readable on the iPhone/iPod touch as well. Officially the company still sees mobile as suited to short reading on the go. VP in charge of Kindle Ian Freed calls it “a great companion device for customers who are caught without their Kindle” and echoes ceo Jeff Bezos’s line from Charlie Rose that iPod reading is ideally suited towards when you are “in line at the grocery store.” But they hope it’s such a mediocre companion that it persuades more people to spend $359 for a Kindle. To that […]