Alison Kent's Blah Blog: Blah Blog

Archive for 'Books'

Thursday, September 17th, 2009
My Bookshelves. Let Me Show You Them.

I’m not really showing them, but I am talking about the number of books I own at Lee Hyat’s Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs site today. Pop over and visit. (And ignore the heinously bad grammar. I swear I fixed that sentence. Now I swear I sent the wrong file, gah.)

Sunday, January 11th, 2009
A new trend?

Now every couple of months will we get a book with with the word “talk” in the title, and a white cover featuring a woman wearing a man’s dress shirt and maybe stilettos? Was there a cover art conference, or (like on Ugly Betty with Elle and Mode leaking secrets) did someone from Pocket whisper to someone from Harlequin who whispered to someone at St. Martin’s, or in early 2008 was it just something in the air?

Talk of the Town, Nov 2008, Karen Hawkins  Talk Me Down, Jan 2009, Victoria Dahl  Smooth Talking Stranger, Mar 2009, Lisa Kleypas

Friday, November 7th, 2008
Buy a Book, Save the World (tm Heroes) *g*

Remember the book shredding video I posted? Along the same *dire straights the publishing industry is in* lines, I bring you the following from blogger Moonrat, an editor in the biz. I love this post so much, I’m copying part of it here:

For anyone who cares about the book publishing industry and wants to do their part, there’s one simple action step:

Buy a book this weekend.

Just buy one.

Buy your sister a book instead of a sweater for her birthday; buy your friend who can’t even make toast or boil water a beginner’s cookbook; buy your company’s receptionist a novel you liked because most people probably ignore him/her (it’s always a her, though, isn’t it?) and you’ll make his/her day.

Buy your holiday gifts now. Instead of a CD for your brother, buy him a book on his favorite recording artist.

Instead of going to the library this one week buy the book you were going to read–it might only be a difference of a couple of bucks in the end. One day this week, make a peanut butter sandwich, skip going out for lunch, and buy a paperback.

(…)

It doesn’t matter what. It doesn’t have to be a literary fiction hardcover. If could be a $5.99 mass market nutrition guide, a $4.99 young reader chapter book, a Harlequin romance. Your money will still prevent returns of other books (…) Even if it’s not by your favorite author or your favorite publishing house, your favorites will be indirectly affected.

It doesn’t matter where. Sure, buying at the chains will help against the returns, but you can help out the publisher with your purchase no matter how you get it, even on the internet.

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
The End?

I picked up the September 22 New York Magazine out of a pile of unread issues and found this article: Have We Reached the End of Book Publishing As We Know It?

The book business as we know it will not be living happily ever after. With sales stagnating, CEO heads rolling, big-name authors playing musical chairs, and Amazon looming as the new boogeyman, publishing might have to look for its future outside the corporate world.

The article is about HarperStudio and referenced a video on their blog, so I had to go find it. I’m not commenting on the article itself, because I’m not finished reading it, but I had to say how sad seeing these books come to an end made me. :(