oliver yeh

tagged with books

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You can end a story in almost any way, as long as the ending is inevitable, satisfying, and logical. Yet, keep in mind the reader’s expectations, expectations for stories in general and your story in particular. Never forget that real people will be reading your work. Yours is not likely the first novel they’ve read, nor the first of the genre. They don’t read in a vacuum. They bring experiences with them, both from life and from reading other books.

- Beth Hill, fiction editor, from “Bad Novel Endings: Deliver the Payoff.”

6th April 2011

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Famous Last Words: Our 20 Favorite Final Lines in Literature

http://flavorwire.com/167171/famous-last-words-our-20-favorite-final-lines-in-literature

What about yours?

4th April 2011

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writing last lines novels books

The Long and Writing Road

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2011/04/long-and-writing-road.html

Good read on traditional publishing process, what’s involved, what support there is, and what to expect. Janice Hardy boils down her first 3 years/books.

4th April 2011

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writing editing publishing books novels editors literary agents

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Maybe. You pick bits and pieces up along the way. But, you know, I would have been a bit that way myself. Picking up the voices now and again. I’ve experienced the odd hallucination of reality: out of nowhere comes the car that hits the bike. The feeling of: did that just happen? Or the bits of conversation that play in your head like a snatch of an old pop song that you can’t get rid off. Hangovers can give you that feeling of an altered reality. And, maybe life is one big hangover.

- Dermot Healy, when asked if he based Ollie Ewing (Sudden Times) on characters he encountered while working in London.

(Source: Guardian)

2nd April 2011

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Publishers Weekly: Facts & Figures 2010

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/46541-the-winning-game-2010-hardcovers-facts--figures-2011.html

Good to read the report to get an idea of the market. Stats and insights.

In hardcover fiction:

First novels that score are always an inspiration, and four others achieved sales of more than 100,000 last year—Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War; The Imperfectionists; Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand; and The Postmistress. Each enjoyed rave reviews, proving that there is still room for quality in this competitive game.

In paperback fiction:

The trade paperback list, as always, is much more eclectic than its mass market counterpart. And while popular commercial fiction is always strong, this is the list where literary fiction, including prize winners, get to shine.

In children’s books:

If you want to sell in the mega-numbers, write or publish a series. That’s the clear message from our compilation of last year’s bestselling titles. Eighteen books for children and teens sold more than a million copies last year: all of them were from authors of big franchises… And there’s still room on the lists for some one-offs…

And for the first time ever, PW started collecting stats on eBook sales:

We asked publishers (and only publishers that had print bestsellers with sales of more than 100,000 in 2010) to submit e-books with sales of more than 10,000 last year. The response from the houses was mixed. Many declined to share this information, others only submitted selected titles. Still, we collected statistics on about 275 books—enough to underscore that the publishing model has indeed changed and that what is available in e-book format is ubiquitous.

1st April 2011

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publishers weekly publishing books ebooks

31st March 2011

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kazuo ishiguro jamie keenan cover design books novels

29th March 2011

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david foster wallace the pale king books novels

I came across this article, “Read ‘em and keep: what are the books to pass on to the next generation?” in The Guardian and thought about what I’d pass on… a difficult decision — who is the target, what would I want to convey, could I narrow it down to one favorite?

Which book, “classic,” would you pass on? and why?

29th March 2011

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books classics novels

Cover design by Chip Kidd.

By using a semi-transparent vellum for the jacket, and printing the woman’s image in a positive/negative scheme with the title on the outside layer and the rest of her on the binding, once the jacket is wrapped around the book it ‘completes’ the picture of her face. But something odd is definitely going on, and before the reader even reads a word, he or she is forced to consider the idea of someone going from one plane of existence to another.

25th March 2011

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1q84 chip kidd cover design haruki murakami books novels

Self-Publisher Signs Four-Book Deal With St. Martin’s

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/self-publisher-signs-four-book-deal-with-macmillan/

re: Amanda Hocking

The bidding eventually rose beyond $2 million for world English rights, said one publishing executive familiar with the negotiations. (St. Martin’s declined to comment on how much it agreed to pay.) Ms. Hocking was represented by the literary agent Steven Axelrod.

Good for her. I haven’t read her books, but it’s very interesting to me that she’s moving against the current.

24th March 2011

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amanda hocking st. martin's press steven axelrod self-publishing books book deals

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2040: Authors Will Become Like Tamagotchi.

Having determined that what readers want is a “sense of connection,” publishers will organize adopt-an-author promotions, repackaging writers along the lines of Webkinz and other imaginary pets. “Feeding” your favorite authors by buying their books will make their online avatars grow less pale and grouchy. If they starve to death on your watch you will lose social networking points. Book clubs will cultivate with their favorite writers the warm, fuzzy, organic bond a trainer develops with his or her Pokémon, a process that will culminate in staged fights-to-the-death between your author and the author sponsored by another book club. These fights will occur offline, since there will be one or two bookstores left and something has to happen there.

from “The Future of Books,” by James Warner at mcsweeneys.net.

Click through to read about what to expect in 2080… vampires make a comeback.

24th March 2011

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james warner the future of books mcsweeneys books reading writers readers