Jeff Bezos has a new vision: books that go on and on with continuing updates in the plot, characterization and world events. The founder and chairman of Amazon, in an on-stage conversation with Chris Anderson (The Long Tail) at the opening of the annual publishing industry’s BookExpo in Los Angeles today, suggested that digital technology [...]

W ho says print is dead? The book industry reported a colossal 514 percent surge last year in print-on-demand titles, giving a much needed boost to traditional publishing which was flat overall in numbers of books produced in 2007. Print on demand (POD) is a digital technology and business model in which new copies of [...]

Garth Stein’s new book The Art of Racing in the Rain posted extraordinary sales of 15,215 copies the first week out. Of these, 3,515 flew out the door of retail bookstores, 2,217 were ordered on Amazon, and a whopping 9,483 sold at Starbucks stores throughout the country. The relatively unknown writer’s book made a big [...]

Don’t miss this laugh-out-loud piece of brilliant parody. Author Dennis Cass has created exactly what every publisher dreams of: a self-produced video that’s approaching 20,000 hits on YouTube. Hope it kick-starts a long-lasting spike of flow-through cash register sales on Nielson’s BookScan for Cass’s book Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to [...]

Has there ever been a better time to read about Presidential politics or more to demand our attention every day? It’s a constant roller coaster, with minute-by-minute reports 24/7: “Hillary’s up; Obama’s down… Hillary’s down; Obama’s up… McCain is getting a free ride; McCain is putting his foot in his mouth.” Periodicals like The New [...]

Hunter S. Thompson The first time I met Hunter Thompson he handed me a quiver of four-foot roman candles and said “Hold this.” I did and he lit them. We were in Palm Springs, standing poolside at an ultra private estate, there for a Rolling Stone Magazine board meeting. Hunter had just secretly spiked the [...]

B efore you go off and waste months and even years on 400 pages that took a bad turn and went down the wrong path, first make an outline. That’s right, make an outline! I usually hear a lot of grumbling when I suggest this to aspiring writers. “Are you joking? What about inspiration, free [...]

N ot all writers conferences are created equal. As a faculty member, I’ve appeared at events where authors were treated respectfully and came away with valuable information. But I’ve also seen chaos, confusion, no-show speakers, and disgruntled attendees, to wit: “The speaker went on and on about how terrific she was and then autographed her [...]