12/08/2011 • 7:18 PM 3
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
(By the way, if you want self-publishing news and opinion, you should already be subscribed to The Taleist. ~ Chazz) Some of the most interesting voices in self-publishing give their predictions for ebooks and self-publishing in 2012, including Derek Haines, Joanna Penn, Joel Friedlander, and Catherine Ryan Howard.
Via blog.taleist.com
Filed under: publishing
12/06/2011 • 12:58 PM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
52 great blogs for self-publishers including book design, editing, marketing, and all phases of the publishing process.
Via www.thebookdesigner.com
Filed under: publishing
12/04/2011 • 10:51 PM 2
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Yet another artifact from the slow, painful death of Borders has emerged. A fascinating look inside a (justifiably) angry bookseller’s mind, this manifesto of sorts,…
Via shelf-life.ew.com
Filed under: publishing
12/04/2011 • 11:34 AM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
A handy app to record audio memos and interviews and automatically add them to your Dropbox account…
Via blogs.journalism.co.uk
Filed under: publishing
12/02/2011 • 9:38 PM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Many popular self-published authors are coming down hard on the self-publishing services that Penguin added to community writing site Book Country earlier this week, calling the initiative overpriced, royalty-grabbing and “truly awful.”…
Via paidcontent.org
Filed under: publishing
11/28/2011 • 1:00 PM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
A personalized newspaper built from articles, blog posts, videos and photos selected by Ezra Barany.
Via paper.li
Filed under: publishing
11/23/2011 • 10:33 AM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Guest Post by Stephen Leather Tomorrow (November 22) is a big day for me. After selling close to half a million eBooks over the past twelve months I’m now taking a step back from self-publishing. I’ve spent twelve months promoting, marketing, plugging, Facebooking and tweeting and I’m exhausted. It’s time for someone else to do the hard work so that I can do what I do best – write.
Via jakonrath.blogspot.com
Filed under: publishing
11/19/2011 • 12:54 PM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
What DO you write about on a blog when you write fiction? I think Arthur Slade: The YA Fantastical Fiction Guy has got it down. Write for your readers about the things that keep you occupied. Write about writing, about the business of writing, about passions and pet peeves. Share what’s on your mind. Arthur Slade’s blog posts are worth perusing, after all, his sales show he makes it all work, right? You tell me what you think. What you get out of his shared visions and musings. There’s space here to do that, share your thoughts!
Via arthurslade.blogspot.com
Filed under: publishing
11/17/2011 • 3:56 PM 0
Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Okay, I gotta interrupt my blogging hiatus to warn newbie authors against a new program from Penguin that made me throw up in my mouth when I read about it. Book Country, which debuted in April as a place for authors to post their work for critique, recently announced a program to turn manuscripts posted on their website into ebooks and paper books: “Our self-publishing process has been designed by a team of book industry professionals to make the experience as accessible, convenient, and affordable as possible.” For $549 they will format your ebook and print book, and then upload it to retailers. Or for $299 they will let you do your own formatting, and then upload the book to retailers. Huh?
Via jakonrath.blogspot.com
Filed under: publishing
11/15/2011 • 6:14 PM 8
This week, as I listened to some NPR folks talk about writing on a podcast called Culturetopia, I found myself getting agitated. They were coming down hard on Diablo Cody for her dialogue in Juno. The
Image via Wikipedia
complaints were variations on a theme: teens don’t talk like that. They grudgingly admitted that some of the dialogue was funny, but added it was the actors’ charm that sold dialogue that wasn’t “real.” (Whatever this reality thing is…but that’s another post in which I discuss quantum physics, multiple earths and Twinkies.)
How charming do these critics imagine actors can be if they’re mute? Do they really believe the charm oozes off the screen just because actors walk onscreen? (In my experience, that only happens in porn where dialogue is tertiary. Primary? Looks. Secondary? Action (and, equally, the presence of umbrellas open indoors…but that’s my fetish.) In so-called real life and on film, actors have to speak the lines in the script (and possibly throw in some improv) to sell a performance. JK Simmons is a great actor. But if he played the dad in Juno as a mime bereft of Cody’s dialogue, I would have to kill him. (As is my mission with all mimes.) What I’m saying is, Juno as a silent movie wouldn’t work nearly so well for me.
There are so many lines from that comedy I loved:
“It’s a pilates machine.”
“Great! What’s it make?”
And the teenage mother played by the wonderful Ellen Page tossing off the reaction of her peers to her advancing pregnancy:
“They call me the cautionary whale.”
Cody’s critics were even cheering her “failure” with her second movie, Jennifer’s Body, to teach her humility (presumably so she can write another, more banal movie that’s not so threatening to their self-image and worldview.)
There are three answers to this line of attack on Diablo Cody:
1. It was a comedy. Lighten the fuck up.
2. “Teens don’t talk that way”: Really? All teens? Everywhere? Ever? Every teen and every adult must conform to one sound, one point of view, one CLICHE?! Ellen Pages’ character was a smart, glib kid who spoke in one-liners. Sometimes I speak in one-liners and the only writer working for me is me. Maybe the critics don’t know any smart people who are funny at the same time. They need to meet more comics because that’s what some of them can sound like on and offstage. Maybe after giving up her baby to Jennifer Garner, Juno went off to work the Comedy Store. Or she took up particle physics. Funny and smart at the same time is possible, at least in the form of Juno.
3. Critics: Don’t be so damn churlish. I’m thinking of two words. The second word is “you.” The first word is not “thank.”
Filed under: publishing, Rant, Rejection, reviews, scriptwriting, Writers, writing tips, critics, Diablo Cody, dialogue, Ellen Page, Jennifer Garner, JK Simmons, Juno, Juno: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Scripts), reviews, unfair criticism
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