Letters of OpinionAuthors United / Books / bookselling / consumer goods / reading / value68 Comments
We’re all familiar with the assertion that books are “special,” and therefore deserving of different treatment than other commercial products. I used believe it myself. Until, that is, folks like Jon Sargent and Authors United started using it to justify crap like agency pricing and the shunning of Amazon. To ... more >
Letters of Opinionbook length / genre criticism / Reader Habits / value75 Comments
I was being equal parts careless and provocative, when, the other day on Twitter, I tweeted the following: 1088 pages is just too long a book no matter how skilled a writer you are. Agree or disagree? Quite honestly, I was bored and looking for something to liven up my ... more >
Introduction About a day after I posted part one of this two part series, news broke that Bruce Willis was planning to sue Apple over the right to bequeath his extensive iTunes library to his daughters. The news turned out to be a hoax but for a short while it ... more >
Publishing Newsbook prices / Fair Use / genre critique / Intellectual Property Issues / value / Young-Adult13 Comments
A prestige-free zone – Last week, I posted an article by Meghan Hewit at Atlantic about how YA literature has become dominated by women. Salon attempts to argue that the reason YA literature is not seeing the JD Salinger’s of old is because YA has lost its prestige. It’s being ... more >
Publishing NewsAmazon / book-sales / Facebook / value1 Comments
There really isn’t a lot of news to post about but I had to share this story I found over at slashdot. One of Italy’s 100 most wanted criminals is Mafia boss Pasquale Manfredi. Manfredi had a facebook addiction which led to his capture and arrest. Apparently his frequent updates ... more >
Features / Letters of Opinionbook prices / Reader Opinions / value17 Comments
Value, value, value. That seems to have become one of those buzzwords invoked in defense of corporate publishing's status quo. But what is value, exactly? Of the "agency model," Hatchette CEO David Young has said, "It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of ... more >