Enriched by Words

Saturday Morning (?) Post

Wow, three weeks’ worth of wonderful stuff.  This is rather intimidating, trying to select from so much.  Either this will be a very long post or it will be more than one post.  I’m laving the categories fluid for now, changing them here and there until we get some that stick.  Okay, diving right in…

The Industry

Three from Rachelle Gardner:  Giving Reasons for Rejections, Your Queries Say a Lot About You, and Manuscript Submission Services.  This last one has me scrambling to find an electronic trail I followed earlier this year from Christian publishers who said on their web site they only accepted MS through a service.  But I digress.  When I find the trail, I’ll post about it.

Publishing Renaissance has an article titled The Absurdity of DRM that, while long, is interesting.  This is one of those items that simply has to be resolved before I will buy a reader of any kind.

Three from Nathan Bransford:  Results from Agent for a Day, and some interesting perspective; an agent’s take on concepts and freshness, and the third is in the Method & Process section below.

We’ve all seen the parody of book publishing.  This video shows the real thing. I’m not surprised at the level of automation.  I was interested in the automation because PoD publishers can do such very small runs in a cost effective way.  It was fun to watch (which makes me either certifiably insane or a writer, no?)  Thanks to Janet Reid for the link.

Okay, a plug.  I can hear the gasps.  Yes, I will even link to “that site,” but also to Barnes & Noble, though they don’t have the nifty video trailer.  Have I read the book yet?  Nope.  Am I anxious to get my hands on it?  Oh you betcha!  How to Buy a Love of Reading, the debut novel of Tanya Egan Gibson, had me on the title.  The initial review at both sites is not a good one.  You’ll have to look below that paragraph to get other reviews and blurbs, which are favorable.  Amazon has a nifty trailer.  B&N has a better description of the book.  Incidentally, the author is opening a web site in which people can share stories and their love of stories, per Lyons Literary.  Also from LL:

All is not lost. Book sales rose 3.6% to $785 million in January, according to the Association of American Publishers (via Shelf Awareness).  Of particular note is the continued dramatic rise in e-book sales -  173.6%. Of course, this is still only $8.8 million, as compared to the $102 million pulled in by Adult paperback titles.

Writing

The Paradox of Becoming an Author, guest post by Brett Sandusky over at The Swivit, brings up a question I think about a lot.

I leave you with this one last thought: Writing is a profession of know-it-all-ism and toiling for your craft. Authorship is a profession of self-promotion. Think about this and ask yourself: “What is it that I love to do?”

Holt Uncensored published the list of ten writing mistakes that has circulated parts of the internet.  This list is not a bullet list or a quick read.  Each writing error is explained and examples are given.  My opinion:  good list and required reading.

Method & Process

All About the Visual:  From Photograph to Inspiration Board:  a guest blog post at the Knight Agency.  I found it the day after Friday’s post and  now I’m off to buy poster board.  What, you want this post finished first?  Oh.  Okay.

Nathan Bransford asks his readers where they write.  I always find it fascinating to look into another’s process, don’t you?  The post itself is just a question.  The comments are the peepholes.

Creativity and Life

It all comes down to that one quote toward the end of this post…a door being opened to a much larger discussion:

Creativity is not a luxury, it is a deep need in the human spirit.

Hmm…more on that last paragraph in the future.  For now, I’ve emptied just one small part of my reading and watching.  Household and literary chores beckon me, but I’ll be back.  You’ve been warned.

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