Reviews and Coming Out in Hardcover

Can you imagine a review that started, “This author is the worst writer of his generation”? Such bad reviews do exist. I only mention it because I’ve been thinking a lot about reviews lately. Mine will start coming in soon.

Did you know that usually only hard cover books are reviewed? I didn’t until recently. Some people think that first-time authors should come out in trade paperback, the reasoning being that book buyers are more likely to risk $14 on a new author than $25.

But if you come out in trade paperback, you don’t get reviewed by Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal. My book is hardcover, but it’s an undersized hardcover title and will cost $18.

No Sale for Second Book

Sometimes your first book gets published, but you can’t sell your second. Author Pamela Ribbons, author of Why Girls Are Weird is having trouble selling her second novel and she shares that story here.

Novel Advice

Here’s some novel and funny advice for writers. (I particularly like the part about writers  working on their laptops in coffee shops.)

Will the Real Jane Doe Austen Stand Up?

There’s speculation that the mid-list writer in the Salon article is Amy Bloom. I don’t know Ms. Bloom but there are so many mid-listers out there, so it could be hundreds of people. Not Anne Lamott, though, as some have suggested. She’s sold far too many books to be considered mid-list.

Up and Coming Author

I’ve talked about Lolly Winston before. She’s written a novel called Good Grief.  As you might recall, she is a first-time novelist and is getting a tremendous buzz behind her book. Finally we can have a peek at her prose. I found this excerpt at Book Browse. I enjoyed it, by the way and will buy the book.