| |
Archive for the ‘publishing’ Category
Saturday, July 31st, 2010
This author thing is a new experience for me, of course, and people are naturally curious as to how it’s going. I’m not on the best seller list, but my status on Amazon varies from 100,000s to the 400,000s in rankings of books sold. That doesn’t count what I’m selling myself via the web site or in person. And I’m flattered by those who’ve posted favorable reviews on my Amazon page.
But, important as sales are, that’s not my sole criterion in assessing how After the Auction is “going.” I am intrigued by the reactions of readers and SHOCKED that many I’ve heard from like/love it. Why am I shocked? Let’s face it–this is a new venture for me–writing fiction. From the trials and tribulations I’ve had–for instance, not hooking up with any of the myriad of agents I queried–let’s say that I had considerable self-doubt.
(more…)
Tags: Beijing, Jonathan Ansfield, Judaism, London, New York Times, Religion and Spirituality, Secular Jewish culture, Tom Freudenheim, Wall Street Journal
Posted in general interest, publishing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Book Expo America 2010 was my first Book Expo, other than a pre-Expo writers’ conference last year, so I’ve nothing to compare it to, in terms of the volumes of volumes represented at this annual event, the largest book fair in the world. If it was bigger and more extensive in the past, I wouldn’t know. But, the place was packed; if you’ve ever been to a convention or other expo at the Javits Center in New York City, you know that it’s cavernous, seemingly miles, definitely many Manhattan blocks. There were more than 2000 exhibitors, reportedly 500 authors, conferences, speakers, and Barbra Streisand (yes, she has a new book coming out–on design) the opening act of Expo special events (we opted for Broadway that night).
The biggest exhibitors are the major publishers–the MacMillans, Random Houses, Knopf–of this world, despite their b…… and moaning about how tough the business is. These exhibit areas are lavish, with video, state-of-the-art signage, giant logo-ed carpeting. Not surprisingly, Google was there too, and Amazon and Barnes & Noble–as well as major distributors to independent bookstores, including Ingram and Baker & Taylor. There were whole aisles–several of them–of displays by university presses, as well as hundreds on lesser known small publishers. Plus, the e-book and audio book people. And printing companies, collective promotion companies, foreign publishers (from Belgium to Israel to Saudi Arabia), and the San Francisco Writers Conference, the only entity like it I saw with a booth. Attendee categories range from exhibitor to agents to booksellers to librarians author to book club member (how Eli registered: husband of published author was not a category!)
(more…)
Posted in general interest, publishing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
My book-related travels have taken me to New York City the week of the annual Book Expo event. Specifically, I came to present AFTER THE AUCTION to a Jewish Book Network (JBN) “Meet the Author” session. The audience, the members of the JBN, consists of Jewish community center, educational agencies, and synagogue programming staff members who “book” author speakers for their sites. The JBN schedules 4-5 of these sessions over a three-day period during its annual conference just ahead of the opening of the huge Book Expo exhibition at the Javits Center here.
I’d really targeted this year’s JBN meeting as my timing goal for getting my book published. And I was amazed at how many other authors apparently had, too. The sessions run like a well-oiled machine: Each author gets two minutes to speak, and the next speaker sits in an “on deck” seat. While the timekeeper doesn’t exactly use a hook or play Oscar night music, her bright red signs announcing 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds and her ultimate times-up rise from her seat are pretty effective in keeping the speakers in line. That is, except for a couple–including at least one prominent novelist, Cathleen Schine, whose latest book, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, only got a great front-page review in the NY Times Book Review (which she did mention, but who wouldn’t?). It surprised me that such a relatively well-known writer would appear for this try-out session; maybe it surprised her, too, but that was no reason for her to disregard the rules and ignore the timekeeper trying to be polite but firm.
(more…)
Tags: Author, Cathleen Schine, Judaism, New York City, New York Times, Religion and Spirituality, San Francisco Bay Area, The Three Weissmanns of Westport: A Novel
Posted in publishing | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
This is it! I’ve decided that, come what may, it’s the Year of the Book. I don’t know how yet. Pieces of it are still out to agents, and one editor is still reviewing the whole manuscript. I think so, anyway. Let’s just say there are long silences. And patience is not one of my stellar virtues.
An e-publisher is courting me. We had a long talk a few weeks ago during a week in which there was so much e-publishing buzz that I felt very cool and with-it in today’s world. William Styron’s family was making news about the fact that his longtime publisher, Random House, didn’t have rights to e-publish. E-publishing rights weren’t even thought of in Styron’s heyday. In December Media Bistro sponsored a New York City digital publishing summit in led by Jane Friedman, a publishing industry luminary formerly with Harper Collins, who’s made the leap to e-publishing (of old titles, such as Styron’s) in a start-up, Open Road Integrated Media.
(more…)
Posted in publishing | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
GENRE
Pronunciation: \ˈzhän-rə, ˈzhäⁿ-; ˈzhäⁿr; ˈjän-rə\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French, kind, gender — more at gender
Date: 1770
1 : a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
2 : kind, sort
3 : painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life, usually realistically
(more…)
Tags: genre, hen lit, historical fiction, mystery
Posted in Guest Bloggers from SECRETS OF THE AFIKOMEN, genre, publishing | 14 Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
You ask, What? That broken piece of matzah we hide in a napkin during the Seder to keep the kids awake long enough to go hunt for it? This is what the big mystery is about?
I’ve used this as my (latest) working title, because my protagonist, Lily, gives her quest for the looted Seder plate a code name. Lily is no Nancy Drew, VI Warshawski, or Aimée Leduc; she’s not a private investigator (either pro or amateur) or policewoman, just an ordinary Manhattan person who instigates a search over three continents when the missing object is something stolen from her family, Arguably, as a journalist she’s armed with skills applicable to this search. And no shrinking violet is our Lily. In fact, “Uncle,” Nachman Tanski, thinks codenaming it is way too cavalier for the seriousness of tracking old Nazis. “This is not child’s play, like hunting for the Afikomen,” he says.
(more…)
Tags: book, Dan Brown, DaVinci Code, Publications
Posted in publishing | 10 Comments »
|
|
 |
is “going.” I am intrigued by the reactions of readers and SHOCKED that many I’ve heard from like/love it. Why am I shocked? Let’s face it–this is a new venture for me–writing fiction. From the trials and tribulations I’ve had–for instance, not hooking up with any of the myriad of agents I queried–let’s say that I had considerable self-doubt.