Sramana Mitra writes in a recent article that an Amazon Monopoly that eliminates the editors, agents, distributors, and everyone else that stands between Amazon and the customer (other than the author) can actually improve publishing and increase the monetary benefit to the author. The suggestion is that by eliminating the middleman, it frees up [...]

I missed this story completely. Must have been the crazy Amazon thing that made me pass over this. Gawker Media, the owner of several blogs such as the science fiction/fantasy blog io9 and one of my favorite tech blogs: Gizmodo, decided to sell off Idolator to Buzzne; Gridskipper to Curbed, and Wonkette to its [...]

There was a Publishers Weekly alert about Robert S. Miller, former head of Hyperion, moving to HarperCollins to create a new “publishing studio.” I ignored it because it didn’t seem very interesting but three authors emailed me the story this morning so I thought I would post it.
I admit I don’t really understand all [...]

Publishers Weekly published a list of 15 trends to watch for in 2008 by “industry guru” Mike Shatzkin. I have something to say about all of these predictions, but no time to do so right now. Alot of the trends relate to ebooks, digital ventures, and web based advertising.

This Publishers’ Weekly article made my stomach churn. In my agent interview series, I’ve asked the agents whether they think it is a detriment to be a woman in the publishing industry. Most have answered no, but the glum fact is that if you are a woman, you are being paid 60 [...]

Dear Ms Strohmeyer,
I remember when I first fell in love with Chick Lit. It was fresh then, new, exciting, funny. Well, as the years passed the freshness wore off. I started to get tired of bumbling, clueless women who settled for Mr. Ghastly for most of the book before finally figuring things out. And as [...]

Although it is not in fiction books, yet, USA Today announced that it will work with 6 major publishers to release co branded books. These are mostly puzzle compilations. Examples of these are as follows:

NOLO business an legal guides co produced with USA Today to be released in February 2008.
Sports Publishing [...]

“A book's cover is absolutely the single most important thing about the
physical object that is a book.� —Betsy Groban, Little, Brown and
Company, Inc. (login required).
The cover of your book is the single most important promotional element. - Dick Claassen, Editor Awe-struck books.
I bought Dark Lover because of the cover, the title, and the [...]

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Kathleen O’Reilly first came to my attention in the anthology, Hell with the Ladies, but it wasn’t until my blogging partner wrote her review of O’Reilly’s Harlequin Blaze, Beyond Breathless, that had me moving O’Reilly from an author I should buy someday to an author I should buy now. [...]

Lisa Valdez shocked the romance community with her provocative tale Passion. The book was considered quite controversial for its subject matter. Long, passionate discussions were had on many an email loop and public message board. Readers anxiously awaited the release of Patience. In November, Valdez gave [...]

I was looking at the March slate of releases a couple months back when I realized that there were a whole slew of really exciting books due for a March release. There were so many that we could barely fit all the reviews in the last week of February and the first couple weeks [...]

A couple new books are in the works that demonize the heads of publishing houses from the view of publicity assistants. According to Jerome Weeks:
And it continues, in part, because publicity has little glamor or clout in publishing; most people don’t want to do it, even though, if publishers had any brains, they’d realize [...]

Forbes has a series of articles about the future of publishing. Forbes tells us that “People are reading more, not less. The Internet is fueling literacy.” The articles are entertaining and informative.

First James Patterson joins RWA and now Hiassen is selling a romance?

Regan was responsible for the Simpson book. Apparently, she had great discretion in what books would be published under her imprint using the HarperCollins money. She produced such bestsellers as How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson and Juiced by Jose Canseco. According to Newsweek, Regan’s future projects will [...]