Even though most of the U.S. has a holiday today, we are still blogging at Dear Author because if you can’t blog and read and blog hop on a holiday, what good is it?
We’ll start off with a non book treat, but a visual feast for the eyes. Via my Twitter friend Teresa Kopec, romance reader and political aficianado, are the wedding pictures of Adam and Hallis. It looks mystical, like something you would read in a book but never have the opportunity to attend yourself.
In other fantastic news broken on Twitter, Kristen Painter, co owner of the Romance Divas, sold her first long form narrative book to Orbit. It’s part UF, part romance, and wholly interesting. (yes, I’ve had the good fortune to read it). You can get a taste of Painter’s work in September when her first book will be released from Samhain.
Jane Friedman, former CEO of HarperCollins, who oversaw 10 years of growth for that publishing company, asks the question about what kind of middlemen will exist in the future of publishing. Unfortunately she provides little guidance. For myself, I see many smaller publishers because of the lower barriers to entry in the digital publishing world and I also see authors who are their own profit centers, contracting out the work that is done by a publisher. I also see freelance editors being curators of work as well as agents. It’s a changing world out there and in 10 years, I believe the face of publishing will be very different than it is today. I hope Dear Author is still around then.
Mike Shatzkin, a verticality evangelist, wonders if you won’t see consolidations and reductions in the big six as they jockey to become the king of the niche markets. “Publishers will turn into sports teams, trading lists the way teams trade players.”
In blog news, Amazon is cutting off its affiliates in states that are starting to collect sales tax on Amazon purchases based on the affiliates existence in those states. Hawaii, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York affiliate programs have all ceased. Up next are California
Years ago a state tax study group I participated in talked about Amazon endlessly, along with the sales and use tax issue. (were there no other state tax issues of interest?!?!) So the only surprise here for me is that it hasn’t happened sooner.
Thanks for the love! It’s been a whirlwind of fun these last few days…
I’ve had a little preview of Kristen’s book, too, and I cannot wait to read the rest!!