tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post9216491575964531796..comments2024-03-29T05:04:29.994+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: Miscellaneous accumulationsMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-60641017872953125442020-05-19T15:33:52.030+01:002020-05-19T15:33:52.030+01:00Great Experience the Best Assignment Writing Servi...Great Experience the Best Assignment Writing Services at<br /><a href="https://www.excellentassignmenthelp.com.au/" rel="nofollow">assignment writing</a>Assignment Helphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14764667231488131911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-47820116021379301862010-01-29T17:34:19.724+00:002010-01-29T17:34:19.724+00:00Оса 800 электрошокер в Москве.Оса 800 <a href="http://shocksale.ru" rel="nofollow">электрошокер</a> в Москве.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-24873782027562246322007-10-16T14:49:00.000+01:002007-10-16T14:49:00.000+01:00Dear Mr. Allen,I've enjoyed reading your blog sinc...Dear Mr. Allen,<BR/><BR/>I've enjoyed reading your blog since early summer and would like to comment on your post about "Publishing is a very friendly business" and Andrew Franklin's article on PFD.<BR/><BR/>It seems to me the real message or lesson is Jason Epstein's: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/ <BR/><BR/>Writers and publishers who still fail to get that message are living with their heads in the sand, ignoring what's already happened in the music industry and is beginning to happen in publishing.<BR/><BR/>You wrote: "As mentioned here once or twice recently, this agency has fallen into the hands of the money men, who simply do not understand the ethos of publishing. Consequently agents and clients are fleeing in all directions."<BR/><BR/>Many writers are fleeing to POD, while waiting for Jason Epstein to work out the bugs, physically just as good a product as anything else, only to improve, and regularly used by the mega-publishers themselves, through Ingram's Lightning Source and others.<BR/><BR/>"But where do books come from, whether chosen for literary merit and general worthiness, or for their ability to sell in large numbers? Answer, they come from writers and agents."<BR/><BR/>Any writer who doesn't begin to try to figure out a way to get rid of as many of the middlemen as possible is a damn fool as far as I'm concerned: 55%, returnable copies stocking other's shelves, 12% pittance, etc., all has to change. Either I make money on the book I've spent twenty years studying for and writing or NOBODY, including myself, makes money on it. Ultimately, it is the writer who has got the goods. The illiterates who have taken over for their stockholders need a very serious wake-up call, here in the USA as there, by the sound of it, I’d say, as has recently happened with music in the UK. <BR/><BR/>I invite you to consider what’s now possible:<BR/><BR/>Order Books, WORLDWIDE, at http://www.fglaysher.com/order%20books.htm<BR/><BR/>See also, the mission of Earthrise Press: http://www.fglaysher.com/Mission.htm<BR/><BR/>As a writer who had a crusty old grandfather from Headley, Hampshire, thank you for your instruction. <BR/><BR/>Frederick Glaysher<BR/><BR/>Earthrise Press<BR/>P. O. Box 81842<BR/>Rochester, MI 48308-1842 USA<BR/>SAN: 853-4985<BR/>earthrisepress06@Comcast.Net<BR/>www.fglaysher.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-44892639325773152542007-10-16T10:46:00.000+01:002007-10-16T10:46:00.000+01:00June, I wouldn't get too moist over Waterstone's e...June, I wouldn't get too moist over Waterstone's efforts if I were you.<BR/><BR/>I spent quite a time having my novel 'vetted' by Waterstone's’ 'main office'. (And anyone who works in a 'main office' must know their stuff, no?)<BR/><BR/>Then, after it was 'approved' by the 'main office' I was told all I had to do was contact the shops individually. I'm not shy about these things and I called a lot of them (an awful lot). I also sent a press pack to each one then called again after they had received said pack.<BR/><BR/>The branch of Waterstone's in the area of the town where I was born (Leith) and which has very few authors (Irvine Welsh pretends he's from Leith for some reason - street cred., I suspect, for Leith is a mighty shithole) told me that their budget could not stretch to a single copy on sale or return, even though I explained that a self-published novel with fourteen major reviews (including the TLS) wasn't all that shabby. The manager actually shouted at me. I was shouted at by three Waterstone's shop managers in all. (And ignored by however many managers they employ throughout the UK minus the four or five that purchased one or two books.)<BR/><BR/>These people are paid like they were on the dole and they are instructed to plant skiploads of shit at their front doors in order to achieve their 'targets' (set by the same 'main office' that, presumably, houses the 'independent author advisor').<BR/><BR/>All this talk about independent author advisors must have missed the actual system that exists and the people within it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-79559952032998043402007-10-15T18:29:00.000+01:002007-10-15T18:29:00.000+01:00Will be interesting to see if anything changes at ...Will be interesting to see if anything changes at Borders given those comments that Luke Johnson made. Persoanlly I won't be holding my breath. What he needs to do imo is take a leaf out of Waterstones book and get an independent author advisor to work with the small presses and self publishers and help them get stocked in his stores. At the moment finding information on how to do this is well nigh impossible, with nothing on their website and a buying team who refuse to call you back ....Junehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16586833802576378185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-7623872187552486522007-10-15T17:02:00.000+01:002007-10-15T17:02:00.000+01:00I'm sorry, but I have to gloat a bit over the fact...I'm sorry, but I have to gloat a bit over the fact that Lessing won the Nobel on the merits of a book written 45 years ago. <BR/><BR/>Damned bad news for today's breathless young writers who see their Nobel right around the corner.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-64517371589646438322007-10-15T14:58:00.000+01:002007-10-15T14:58:00.000+01:00To quote:"'Writing is not a job description,' she ...To quote:<BR/>"'Writing is not a job description,' she said. 'A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler.'"<BR/>Margaret Atwood is quite right. At least about the 'luck'. I am not a gambler but I know I am largely faced with a lottery factor If I try to get them published.<BR/>(GOB'S On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile, told me this ages ago.)<BR/>But it would seem the publisher has higher stakes to consider than I had imagined. To quote from Gob's today's post:<BR/><BR/>"'You ship finished volumes to booksellers who only accept them on a sale or return basis, and demand at least 55 per cent trade discount, and pay 120 days later.'"<BR/><BR/>No wonder booksellers are not interested in selling my lowly publications! ("Flick that fly away, Miss Smith.")<BR/><BR/>Hardly surprising that few unknowns get published. Thinking of my last two novels, If they reached the 'headlines' for whatever reason, or were expensively publicised, then they might be winners but otherwise? I doubt it.<BR/><BR/>Like Job, I repent in sackcloth and ashes!<BR/><BR/>I do not wish to achieve celebrity status by devious means, nor produce fodder for the masses, so I will do continue to do my own thing.<BR/><BR/>My own publishing backyard (Magpies Nest Publishing) suddenly has a charm of its own. I rest (and write) content!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-3964481455751307572007-10-15T11:39:00.000+01:002007-10-15T11:39:00.000+01:00Nice bit in y'days Observer by Carole Cadwalladr o...Nice bit in y'days Observer by Carole Cadwalladr on the agents and publishers at Frankfurt http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2190553,00.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com