Archive for category: Books

Agent: Undeliverable    (2010.02.09)

What happens when one tries every trick in the book to actually sign an agent’s contract

Mr. Quentin Crisp predicts the present    (2010.02.01)

In How to Have a Life<hyphen>Style, Mr. Crisp presaged phenomena that are now commonplace

‘[E]very book that is being published now depends on something that is in Twitter’    (2010.01.22)

Mike Shatzkin is the latest to opine on the future of the book. And guess what: Everything that works for O’Reilly naturally will not work for you

‘The problem section’    (2010.01.12)

A couple of things you can leave out: “The problem section” in magazine articles; historical digressions in books

What’s your publisher done for you lately?    (2010.01.12)

According to a tendentious, borderline dishonest Jonathan Galassi, tons. And now they own your book, essentially

‘Stale Roles and Tight Buns’    (2010.01.08)

“What’s almost as pointless as a bottom with nine inches uncut? A novelist with nine inches uncut”

Ben Hammersley’s useful precedent    (2010.01.07)

Ben Hammersley and I agree: Marked-up documents are rare to nonexistent in the book and magazine world

Anatomy of a literary agent’s contract    (2010.01.07)

What the first draft of one literary agent’s contract looks like

Update for Liz Spiers    (2009.12.29)

Elizabeth Spiers makes another mistake